Devries Novela de La Selva

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Swallowed: Political Ecology and Environmentalism in the Spanish American "Novela de laSelva"Author(s): Scott DeVriesSource: Hispania, Vol. 93, No. 4 (December 2010), pp. 535-546Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and PortugueseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25758232 .Accessed: 20/06/2013 17:16

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Swallowed: Political Ecology and Environmentalistin the Spanish American Novela de la Selva

Scott DeVriesBethel College, USA

Abstract: In this paper, I begin with the identification f amoment of intertextuality etween Un viejoque leia novelas de amor (1989)by Chilean Luis Sepulveda and La vordgine 1924) by Colombian Jose

Eustasio Rivera as an analyticalmotif for reevaluation f the nvironmentalist] nd political ecologiesin the SpanishAmerican novela de la selva tradition. find thatmany of thewell-established titles romthe genre utilize a discourse of political ecology that an be characterized y its appeals to agents of thestate. However, I propose a countertradition in the novela de la selva genre that expresses aspects of

environmentalism such as the principles of "deep ecology," the role of emotion in nature protectionism,conservationism, the rights of nonhuman nature, etc. These works are precursors to the literary environ

mentalism of Sepulveda's novel and deserve a place in the canon of the novela de la selva. Furthermore,

they nticipate and inform he environmentalism f SpanishAmerican literature nparticular nd, assuch, ought to be considered an essential element of environmentalist discourse in general, especially if

thatmovement wishes to include localperspectives on such a globally important cological asset as theAmazonian selva.

Keywords: ecocriticism, environmentalism, Jose Eustasio Rivera, La voragine, Luis Sepulveda, novela de

la selva,political ecology,Un viejo que leia novelas de amor

In Chilean Luis Sepulveda's Un viejo que leia novelas de amor (1989), the narrator describes how in Ecuador, buscadores de oro waited for the end of the rainy season before

setting off to look for more gold. Every year several would set out early and some would

disappear, "quien sabe si tragados por la corriente o por la voracidad de la selva" (78). This

"devouring" image of the selva is reminiscent of the closing line of Colombian Jose Eustasio

Rivera's La vordgine (1924). InRivera's text, rturo Cova and his companions disappear intothe dangerous jungle; the cable from the consul declares, "Los devoro la selva" (250). The

intertextuality f the image invites a consideration of the similarities between the two texts.

First, La vordgine, one of the earlier examples of the novela de la selva genre,1 and Un viejoque leia novelas de amor, one of the most recent, feature the familiar Romantic representationof the educated man or urban dweller who goes to the selva with ideas of developing, civilizing,and industrializing; this figure engages inwhat scholar Jorge Marcone has characterized as a"return to nature" ("Retorno"). Yet, despite these similarities, the two novels differ markedly ineach one's representation of the ecological ideas of their time. InLa vordgine, opposition to thehuman injustice of rubber extraction isprimary, with concern about deforestation an insignificant element of the text's political ecology; in Sepulveda's novel, however, environmentalismfunctions as an explicit discourse. This difference informs the central question of this article:

what precedent existed in previous novelas de la selva for the environmentalist discourse that

emerges in Sepulveda's novel?Ibegin with an assumption that there re certain "usual suspects" within the "canon" of the

novela de la selva: the short stories ofUruguayan Horacio Quiroga, La vordgine and Canaima

(1935) by Venezuelan Romulo Gallegos, La serpiente de oro (1935) by Peruvian Ciro Alegria,

AATSPCopyright 2010. Hispania 93.4 (2010): 535-546

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536 Hispania 93 December 2010

Los pasosperdidos (1953) by Cuban Alejo Carpentier, and La casa verde (1966) by PeruvianMario Vargas Llosa. These are themost often cited works in scholarly analyses of the genreand typically contain expressions of political ecology specific to their temporal and political

context. However, several other texts, contemporaryto

the"usual

suspects"but

neglectedin

the "canon," take political ecology in different directions and even prefigure aspects of thecurrent environmentalist discourse: deep ecology, conservationism, sustainable development,and notions about the rights of nonhuman animals. Among these are Tod (1933) by ColombianCesar Uribe Piedrahita; Una mujer en la selva (1936) by Nicaraguan Hernan Robleto; the

trilogy comprising Sangama (1942), Selva trdgica (1956), and Bubinzana (1960) by PeruvianArturo D. Hernandez; El mensu que triunfo n la selva (1951) by Argentine Valentin Barrios;and Llanura, soledady viento (1960) by Colombian Manuel Gonzalez Martinez. The aim ofthis article is to call attention to these "unusual suspects," not simply to expand the canon but todemonstrate that they express many of the aspects of environmentalism eventually articulated

in Sepulveda's novel.

The Literary Environmentalism of Luis Sepulveda's Un viejo que leia novelas de amor

Several moments in Sepulveda's novel articulate an environmentalist discourse from the

perspective of the Spanish American novela de la selva. Even before the novel opens, Sepulvedaexplicitly frames the environmentalism of the narrative. In theTusquets edition of Un viejo queleia novelas de amor (1993), for example, he notes that hico Mendes was killed only a coupleof days before the novel was awarded the Tigre Juan prize, but that the prize would belong to

his memory and to "todos los que continuaran tu camino, nuestro camino colectivoen

defensade este, el unico mundo que tenemos" (9). In the novel proper, the narrator characterizes the interaction in the jungle between nature and its nonindigenous inhabitants as a series of errors:

Tanto los colonos como los buscadores de oro cometian toda clase de errores estupidos en

la selva. La depredaban sin consideration, y esto conseguia que algunas bestias se volvieranferoces.... Y estaban tambien los gringos venidos desde las instalaciones petroleras.

Llegaban en grupos bulliciosos portando armas suficientes para equipar a un batallon, y se

lanzaban monte adentro dispuestos a acabar con todo lo que se moviera. Se ensanaban con los

tigrillos sin diferenciar crias o hembras prenadas, y, mas tarde, antes de largarse, se fotografiabanjunto a las docenas de pieles estacadas. (59-60)

These errors are contrasted with thewisdom that the protagonist JoseAntonio Proano acquiresliving among the Shuar in Amazonian Ecuador. He learns their customs concerning hunt

ing: not killing "un cachorro, ni de tigrillo ni de otra especie. Solo ejemplares adultos, comoindica la ley shuar" (122). In general, Un viejo que leia novelas de amor advocates an ethicsof human-nature interaction after this "ley shuar" that rejects excessive use of resources anddeforestation in favor of a lifestyle of conservation and sustainable consumption: "Los shuarno cazan tigrillos. La carne no es comestible y lapiel de uno solo alcanza para hacer cientos deadornos que duran generaciones" (123). The natural setting of the selva iswritten as a limitless

supplier of nutrition anda

restorer of vitality: "Comiaen

cuanto sentia hambre. Seleccionabalos frutos mas sabrosos, rechazaba ciertos peces por parecerle lentos" (45). Its healthful effecton Proano is described in the following terms: "La vida en la selva templo cada detalle de sucuerpo. Adquirio musculos felinos que con el paso de los anos se volvieron correosos" (50). Thisidealized vision of the selva as a nourishing and invigorating place complements the critique ofdevelopment in the narrative, as many moments in Sepulveda's novel describe several of the

most central tenets of environmentalism: conservation, sustainability, critiques of deforestation,the idealization of nature, and the wisdom of indigenous groups.

For the purposes of this paper, I understand environmentalism as a multifaceted socialphenomenon composed of various tendencies, foci, and emphases. Anthropologist Kay Milton



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DeVries / olitical Ecology and Environmentalism 537

defines it s the expression of "concern that the environment should be protected, particularlyfrom the harmful effects of human activities [expressed] through government policies, [or]through demands for changes in land use"; it can also involve "protest against a commercial

ethos" {Environmentalism 27, 28) or the emulation of nonindustrial societies, perceived as"models for a sustainable or conserver society" (28) thatmaintain "spiritual ties" (29) to theirland. In Un viejo que leia novelas de amor, harmful human activities include those of gringohunters and colono gold seekers, whereas the Shuar community's knowledge of the land isheldup as the preferred noncommercial model. According to Jonathan Bate, the Romantics (and,subsequently, the environmentalists) idealized such societies because their members "live in

rhythm ith nature" (542).Milton's anthropological analysis of nature protectionists identifiesa similar spiritual or emotional commitment, most succinctly characterized as a love of nature.This has led environmentalists toward "deep ecology," a radical environmentalist lifestyle irstarticulated

byArne Naess in the 1970s based

uponthe

assumptionthat individuals

ought"to

feel inclined to act benevolently towards nature" and that identification with nature and natural

things is the process through which this inclination towards benevolent action is thought to

develop. . . .Anyone who identifies with natural things, who sees them as part of themselves,is therefore likely to feel inclined to protect them" (Milton, Loving 74-75). Proano's identification with nature in the novel follows his transformation from a character who first wants to

destroy the natural world?"queria vengarse de aquella region maldita, de ese infierno erde.... Sonaba con un gran fiiego convirtiendo la amazonia entera en una pira" (44)?to one whoidentifies with it to such an extent that he curses "todos los que emputecian lavirginidad de suamazonia" (137). The use of the possessive effectively communicates Proano's total identification with the selva; he thinks of it s "su amazonia."

Finally, and in light of the fact that this is an analysis of a genre of Spanish Americanliterature, should define what Imean by literary nvironmentalism. In general, Iwill rely ontwo concepts: political ecology and the ecosublime. In the introduction toLiberation Ecology,

Richard Peet andMichael Watts, citing social scientists, geographers, anthropologists, and historians like Eric Wolf, Alex Cockburn, James Ridgeway, Raymond Bryant, Piers Blaikie, and

Harold Brookfield, offer a summary of the various characteristics, tendencies, and possibilitiesof political ecology. For the purposes of this paper, I have distilled their conclusions to thisdefinition: the concept can be defined as analysis (approaching advocacy) of the way inwhich

certain communities negotiate access to natural resources and interactions with the environment.Peet and Watts suggest several directions for political ecology that include making "the causalconnections between the logics and dynamics of capitalist growth and specific environmentaloutcomes rigorous and explicit" (9); exploring how agents of a statemediate conflicts concerning"nature, labor power, and communal conditions of production" (9); considering the influenceof "the institutions f civil society," such as environmental movements and local practices; and

tackling issues concerning "the plurality of perceptions and definitions of environmental andresource problems" (11).

The idea of the transcendent ecosublime comes from ideas by Jonathan Bate and LeeRozelle. Bate views the way inwhich "old woodlanders" inhabit nature as entailing a sense of

belonging as opposed to the experience of "modern men":

For the old woodlanders, there isno division between human intercourse and local environment.

The presence ofmemory means that hecountryside s inhabited ather han iewed aesthetically.The condition f themodern man, with his mobility and his displaced knowledge, isnever tobe able to share this enseof belonging.He will always be an outsider; his return onaturewillalways be partial, touristic, and semi-detached. (554)

Although Bate's characterization of the ecological condition of modern individuals seems to

preclude anythingbut a

"partial, touristic,and semi-detached"

experienceof nature, Rozelle's



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538 Hispania 93December 2010

conception of the "ecosublime" redeems the value of such mediated experiences: "There is noaffective difference between the natural sublime and the rhetorical ecosublime; both have thepower tobring theviewer, reader, or player toheightened awareness of real natural environments.

Both can promote advocacy" (3). The approach here will be analysis of not only the way inwhich texts can articulate and/or criticize political ecologies, but also of the means bywhich the"ecosublime" arouses environmentalist reactions in readers. That is, transcendent experiences ofnature mediated by literature?in this case, the Spanish American novela de la selva?suggestattitudes toward the natural world that correspond to the discourse of environmentalism.

The First Suspects: The Legacy ofRomanticism in theNovela de laSelva fromJorge Isaacs's Maria and Juan Leon Mera's Cumandd

Lydia de Leon Hazera, in a novela de la selva hispanoamericana, begins her survey withwhat are considered two antecedents of the tradition: Maria (1867) by Colombian Jorge Isaacsand Cumandd (1879) by Ecuadoran Juan eon Mera. In these novels, the representation of naturefollows the Romantic tendency to idealize and anthropomorphize nature such that in aria theland ambivalently embodies the protagonists' attitudes and emotions, whereas in Cumandd theselva is idealized as helpful friend ormother. In Isaacs's novel, as the narrator falls in lovewith

Maria, the forests, plains, and rivers aremetaphors for her beauty, but in the closing chapters ofthe book, when they are apart andMaria isdying, nature is transformed into cruel obstacle. In

Mera's text, the unfailingly idealized selva facilitates the protagonist Cumanda's escape fromher pursuers: "Toda la naturaleza convida a acompanarla en susmagnificas armomas matina

les.Hay gratisima frescura en el ambiente, dulces susurros en lashojas, suave fragancia en lasflores" (116). Cumanda and her indigenous kin are called "hijos de las selvas" (39) and "hijosdel desierto" (68). These manifestations of the Romantic idealization of nature ledHazera todescribe Maria as "la manifestation mas lograda del romanticismo hispanoamericano" (25),while, regarding Cumandd, she comments that "en los parrafos dedicados a la description dela selva,Mera persiste en su interpretation romantico-catolica" characterized by "una actitudidealizante hacia la naturaleza a lo largo de lanovela" (48). The protoenvironmentalist ideas of

Romantic writers arewell documented inThe Green Studies Reader, edited by Laurence Coupe,who subtitles the anthology From Romanticism to cocriticism. Eventually, the twentieth-centurynovela de la selva that evolved from these early Spanish American Romantic representationsof nature similarly develops an environmentalist discourse, but one that comprises a literaryprocess inwhich the genre alternately diverges from, but also readily returns to, its origins inEuropean Romanticism.

This divergence can be traced to the fact that, as Hazera observes, "Lo que modifica elaparato romantico es la naturaleza americana, de cuyas voces autoctonas y de cuyo realismonunca se han despegado del todo los autores hispanoamericanos" (23-24). The immediacy ofnature for Spanish American authors conditioned their narratives rather than the idea of natureas an escape from the overwhelming industrialization thatwas common to thewritings of European Romantics; for the latter, heirwork was a reaction to the highly urbanized landscapes

of theOld World, whereas, for the former, thiswas more the product of literary mulation and,consequently, itwas more susceptible to the ecological "facts on the ground." Thus, the novelade la selva both maintains but often subsequently rejects or modifies canonical elements ofRomanticism: itsmetaphors of nature, its representation of the awe of human interactions withsublime nature, and especially, as Raymond Williams put it in The Country and the City, "afeeling for unaltered nature, forwild land" (qtd. in "Green" 51). The influence of the European

Romantics on the nineteenth-century writers of the newly independent nations of theAmericaswas considerable, but the discourse of the novela de la selva that merges in the twentieth century rticulates uniquely Spanish American political ecologies and even protoenvironmentalist



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ideas: radical adaptation to nature as in deep ecology, the value of both human and nonhumannature, the emulation of nonindustrial societies, etc.

Canonical examples of the novela de la selva represent something quite different rom their

Romantic forebears in that they confound the representation of nature as a place of refuge forcivilized individuals from the madding crowd of overindustrialized cities and contain politicalecologies that turn n neocolonial political economics. But, as Iwill argue in the second part ofthis paper, theRomantic yearning for "unaltered nature, forwild land"matures in the novela dela selva to become an ever more explicit environmentalist discourse, particularly as containedin several novels that fit heprofile of the genre but, for one reason or another, no longer are ornever have been considered canonical. Ipropose that this environmentalist countertradition musthenceforth be included in the "canon" given the importance of discourses of environmentalismand political ecology for current literary nd cultural studies.

The Usual Suspects: Political Ecologies of Control and Consumption inQuiroga,La vordgine^ Canaima, and La serpiente de oro

Uruguayan Horacio Quiroga's short stories feature a kind of neocolonial political ecologywhere the selva, for the first time, is represented not as a place of refuge but as a resource.Jennifer rench has carefully documented how the forces of British neocolonialism inLatin

America were a primary cause for the problematization of people's relationship to the land.She indicates that "nature is represented in itsproductive capacity, specifically as the locus ofa political contest among localworkers, the national elite, and foreign capitalists" (36). These

economic factors and a consequent political ecology of control and consumption of the elva arecharacteristic of many of the novels in the "canon" and represent a significant departure fromthe Romantic literary models of European writers after Chateaubriand via Spanish Americannovels likeMaria and Cumandd. French finds that Quiroga's ecologism "oscillates betweencareful attention to the natural world and the crucial fact that ontrol of nature is almost alwaysa question of social, political, and economic power" (63-64). An analysis of stories like "Lasfieras complices" (1908) and "Los mensu" (1914) from that perspective bears this out, andseveral other scholars have focused on this tension between nature and "social, political, andeconomic power" inQuiroga's work.2

I return to Rivera's La vordgine, which was published just after most of Quiroga's storiesfirst appeared and features a political ecology critical of the laxity of state bureaucracies con

cerning the exploitation of rubber tappers. French finds that Rivera's novel proceeds largely"in terms of the relationship between the law and the land, arguing that the government's faultyadministration was visible in the landscape itself (130). Other critics identify ocial injustice,political economy, and authority and land use as central elements of the novel's political ecol

ogy.3Although the plight of the workers is the issue with which the novel most explicitly concerns itself, he environmental damage of the rubber extraction industry snot always ignored.In one scene from the novel, the cauchero Clemente Silva expresses regret about the effectsof the industry n a certain species of tree: "Los caucheros que hay en Colombia destruyen

anualmente millones de arboles. En los territorios e Venezuela el balatd desaparecio. De estasuerte ejercen el fraude contra las generaciones del porvenir" (177). French notices that this

sentiment?something approaching an advocacy of sustainable development?represents asubtle but important nomaly: "La vordgine begins to articulate?tentatively, intermittently?a relationship to nature that is based on the desire to understand rather than to dominate andsubdue" (147). These exceptions to those political ecologies associated almost exclusively withstatist ideologies that haracterize the novela de la selva are precisely the anomalies that justifya reexamination of both canonical and noncanonical works in conversation with the principlesof environmentalism found inUn viejo que leia novelas de amor.



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Romulo Gallegos's Canaima is the coming-of-age story of protagonist Marcos Vargaswho embarks upon what Marcone has described as a "return to nature" in search of a lifemoreinharmony with nature. Such returns ultimately end in failure for many of the protagonists of

the novela de la selva\ "The alternative modern life or the alternative path formodernization isdefeated by natural forces and local factors or by the contradictions ofmodernity" ("CulturalCriticism" 288).Marcone has commented on this failure in a serpiente de oro, a novel about thebalseros of the Peruvian Upper Maranon, a tributary f theAmazon. However, Vargas's returnfeatures several episodes where the protagonist proves his "manhood" by gambling, dueling,

working, and, most significantly, surviving the dangers of the selva during a hurricane. Thisis referenced several times in the concluding chapters of the novel as the definitive moment inthe development of Vargas from boyish youth to fully realized man: "[L]o queMarcos Vargastraia de la selva no era para narrarlo. Sus experiencias de alia se habian fundido todas en laemotion de la tormenta, lamas intensa y plena emotion de simismo que jamas habia sentido yesto ni cabia en lamemoria ni podia serle comunicado a otro" (Gallegos 201). Here the imageof the selva is construed as a destination for proving one's full worth in a one-on-one encounterwith nature; thus,we inevitably return to theRomantic ideal of the escape to nature. However,Marcone argues that the "return to nature" in the novela de la selva invariably represents afailure of some kind and constitutes a criticism of political ecologies associated with presentdiscourses of sustainable development.

Still, the novels do contain brief moments that express something other than political ecology, something more akin to theRomantic ideal of nature as destination: sublime moments like

Marcos Vargas's experience in the hurricane, or that pang of regret for the disappearance ofthe balata in La

vordgine,or when

the protagonists ofa

few of Quiroga's stories retreat to theselva to escape the bewildering excesses of modernization. "La miel silvestre," for example,features a certain Gabriel Benincasa who in lieu of a bachelor party goes to spend a few days inthe jungle "con su libertad como fuente de dicha y sus peligros como encanto" (105).Althoughthings do not turn ut very well for Benincasa (he eats some fermented wild honey, passes out,and is devoured by a horde of ants), the liberating oy of jungle danger functions as a powerful

magnet for human desire, even if the consequences of poorly planned environmental stewardship ultimately result in suffering r even death. Moments such as these are a central motif inseveral other "noncanonical" novelas de la selva; some even feature returns to nature that donot end in failure. It is to their consideration that I now turn.

The Unusual Suspects: Alternatives to Political Ecology inNeglected and Forgotten Novelas de la Selva

Up until the contemporary literary istory of the novela de la selva, scholars have largelyconcurred with regard to the "canon": Quiroga, La vordgine, Canaima, La serpiente de oro,and the leap forward toLos pasos perdidos and La casa verde. However, several other novels,

written contemporaneously with or in gaps between these "usual suspects" contain alternatives to the political ecologies of the "canonical" texts, something more akin to the literary

environmentalism of Sepulveda's Un viejo que leia novelas de amor. The first of these authors,Cesar Uribe Piedrahita, was a Colombian contemporary of Jose Eustasio Rivera, but the 1933publication of Tod has fallen by the canonical wayside. This may be due to the fact that despitethe presence of many of the same themes of cauchero abuse as inLa vordgine, Tod does notfeature a narrator anywhere near as intriguing s Rivera's Cova. Instead, the emphasis in Todis on the indigenous rubber workers and on the love between a doctor from Bogota and anindigenized mestiza girl. The integration of these two stories allows for an exploration of the

way inwhich the rubber industry ffects indigenous Colombians. Also, as inLa vordgine, Todfeatures a political ecology that appeals to the state for mediation of conflicts concerning the



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natural world: "Ese informe .. . tiene que decidir al gobierno ... o si no, nos llevan todos losdiablos, y al fin se acaban las tribus, se agota el caucho y esto se vuelve un desierto" (74). Thedifference is that in Piedrahita's novel there is an awareness, often implicit, but occasionally

explicit (asin the above

passage), thatthe

baleful effects of rubber extraction maynot

simplybe a question of reforming an industry for its human trafficking, ts abuse of workers, and its

manipulation of prices, but that these elements have to do with nature itself, ith its iolation, itsdesertification, itsdestruction. These last categories have become targets f the ethical ideologyof current conservationism, "the concern that the environment should be protected, particularlyfrom the harmful effects of human activities" (Milton, Environmentalism 27).What surprisesis the expression of this clearly environmentalist concern in a literary moment from the early1930s, particularly when a novel {La vordgine) written by an author from the same country,about the same jungle, less than ten years before has almost nothing like that.

If Tod has faded from the scholarly spotlight, Una mujer en la selva (1936) by NicaraguanHernan Robleto can be characterized by its absolute nonstatus, entirely neglected by scholarsin general. The novel recounts the tale of awoman, Emilia Rivera, kidnapped to the selva bya gorilla that she then grows to love. Finally, when the gorilla dies, she is given the chance toreturn to "civilization" but does not return. he visits a nearby village only long enough to steala pad of paper that becomes her diary, the literary frame for the novel. Apparently, the story

was inspired by legends told inRobleto's hometown of Camoapa, Nicaragua "sobre monos

que robaban mujeres que se descuidaban en los lavaderos" (Urbina, "Estilo y estructura") and

likely also by the simian-human love story from the first ilm version of King Kong released in1933, just three years before Robleto's novel. Also, the female protagonist's surname and the

novel structured s a foundmanuscript

are clear references toLavordgine. Now,

like the criticism of the rubber industry nRivera's novel, the text is not without its own political ecologyof the kind described by Peet andWatts that seeks tomake "the causal connections betweenthe logics and dynamics of capitalist growth and specific environmental outcomes rigorous and

explicit" (9). In the closing chapter, Emilia hears the approach of loggers who are clearing theforest for farming, and what follows is an unequivocal condemnation of development: loggingis "un mordisco a lamontana" that results in "la muerte del bosque" by loggers "destruyendopara la civilization" (158). But, there is another side to it inRobleto's novel.

As she spends more time among the trees, milia grows to love them: "Al principio corrianescalofrios de incomprension por mi espinazo; pero ahora veo como la cosa mas natural quelos arboles tengan alma" (111). This expression of love for the selva iswhat makes Robleto'snovel a counterexample to the failure of the "return to nature" that Marcone identifies as socharacteristic of the texts considered in the first part of this paper. Unlike the protagonists fromthose novels, here is a nonindigenous visitor who finds the Romantic ideal of nature?peacefulrefuge, even love. In her journal, Emilia describes the favors of nature: "perfumes de copel,del liquidambar y del balsamo; frutas deliciosas y lamusica . . . semejante a un concierto

maravilloso" (153) and receives embraces from "los arboles amigos" (138). She has literallybecome a tree hugger and nature lover,which, asMilton argues inher anthropological study of

environmentalists, comprises "a perfectly respectable credential for nature protectionists andismore or less taken for

grantedinmany contexts" {Loving 24). In the novel, Emilia falls in

lovewith the gorilla that has kidnapped her (likeAnn Darrow from King Kong), names him,shares a nest with him, grooms him, receives food from him, finds water for him, and eventuallygrieves his death as ifhe were truly her mate. The representation of a literal love for nature inthe human-gorilla couple and in the amorous language with which Emilia describes the treescommunicates the credential for nature protectionism described by Milton. It is also notablethat this novel prefigures the intelligent entience of animals that is central to Sepulveda's work.InUn viejo que leia novelas de amor, the ocelot cunningly hunts and sets traps for humans butalso grievously mourns the loss of her mate at the hands of the gringo hunter. When Proano is



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forced to kill her, it represents something akin to killing a part of himself, so intimately doeshe experience an identification with nature. This fictionalization of the principle of identification from Naess's deep ecology in Sepulveda clearly has precedent inRobleto's novel with its

representation of human-animal companionship and the unwillingness of Emilia to abandonher natural home and return to civilization.Like Una mujer en la selva and Tod, a trilogy f selva novels by Peruvian Arturo D. Hernan

dez has also not received its scholarly due. The author himself was from among a generationof writers that included Ciro Alegria and JoseMaria Arguedas, with the former a "canonical"author in the novela de la selva tradition and the latter ne of the most well-known indigenista

writers. Although perhaps eclipsed by his compatriots in literary reputation, the Utopian anddystopian jungle scenarios of Hernandez's trilogy merit reconsideration for the way inwhichthey prefigure the ideals of deep ecology. In the first, angama, the titular character foreseesan apocalyptical future jungle civilization, but when he fails to bring this about, he commitsritual suicide. Selva trdgica narrates the bitter experience of a nonindigenous cautiva amongtheCapanahua of Peru. Finally, Bubinzana features aRoman Catholic priest who tries and failsto create an idealized community of former rubber tappers. The ecologically Utopian aspect ofthe selva that is so characteristic of Sepulveda's novel and the Romantic idealization of natureare central aspects of the Hernandez trilogy. In Sangama, the selva is contrasted favorably

with the city: "[AJquellos que arroja como desperdicios la ciudad, aqui se regeneran" (52-53)and is seen as the center from which a new society can emerge: "^,Por que no adaptarse a losdictados de la selva y crear en ella un nuevo tipo de civilization? . . . [E]l verdadero hombrelibre esta aqui; solo que se trata del hombre adaptado almedio" (95). In the other two novels,

a similar Utopian discourse permeates the narrative. In Selva trdgica, an anthropologist takenprisoner by theCapanhua believes that within the selva "radica, a no dudarlo, la esperanza de lahumanidad angustiada" (227). The priest inBubinzana asserts a similar ideal: "No era cuestionde rehuir a la civilization para formar una comunidad utopica, extrahumana; sino de venir conella para conquistar la selva y descubrir sus secretos en bien de la humanidad" (137). Each ofthe protagonists represents an example of the failure of the "return to nature" like those of the"usual suspects" considered in the first art of this article: their Utopian ideals are never realized.However, in these three novels, the idea of Utopian nature "expressed in specific locations outsideindustrial society" (Milton, Environmentalism 28) isarticulated as the only authentic possibilityfor hope, freedom, and the future well-being of humanity. The requirement that humans must

be "adaptados almedio" in order to enjoy these benefits expresses a central principle of "deepecology" instead of a political ecology.

Hernandez's trilogy does not feature the negotiation of access to resources, but advocatesan adaptation to the natural world, such that the question of access to resources becomes moot.In the trilogy, he representation of such radically ecological adaptation through characters whoseek a form f transcendent belonging to the selva?spiritual, indigenist, egenerative?comprisesan example of Rozelle's rhetorical ecosublime. In each novel, the reader is fully immersed instories that produce "heightened awareness of real natural environments" (3) and is challengedto adapt to the natural world just as the characters in the Hernandez trilogy do. Despite theobvious

inspirationaldeficiencies of

suicide, disillusionment, and captivity, the discourse ofHernandez's novels?the regenerative powers of nature, the requirement for adapting human lifeto the natural world, a belief in the power of nature for the benefit of humankind?effectivelyarticulates principles that anchor current environmentalist thought.

At the beginning of this article, I offered a working definition of environmentalism thatincluded political ecologies whose emphases were almost entirely upon entities of the state:appeals for governmental reform of land management, the expectation that properly informedrepresentatives will halt certain abuses, the role of neocolonialism in resource extraction, etc.

However, political ecology may also highlight "the plurality of perceptions and definitions ofenvironmental and resource problems" (Peet andWatts 11). InEl mensu que triunfo n la selva



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by Valentin Barrios, a tale of trials and triumphs of the campesino Tristan in the yerba mate

groves of the upper Parana region of Paraguay, both manifestations of political ecology are present: an articulation of the ambivalence of perceptions of the selva and an examination of local

practices. In the first case, the novel contains several passages that ttest to its sublime qualitiesbut that are tempered by context. Statements like "El machete . . . parecia entonar canticos ala sordina en honor de la sublimidad de la naturaleza" (205) and "El muchacho . . . bebia su

inspiration en la sublime fuente de laNaturaleza" (241) are often followed by an expressed needto abandon these sublime places. The vacillation between a transcendent experience of natureand the ever-present desire to get away from it represents an ambivalence in the novela de laselva with roots inEuropean Romanticism in conflict with the realities of the natural world oftheAmerican continent. From the stories of Quiroga to themisadventures of Cova, and eventhe initial experiences of Proano within the jungle, the genre is filled with protagonists whoare attracted by the allure of the selva but suffer gravely once they actually get there.What isremarkable about El mensu que triunfo n la selva is that these equivocations occur so closetogether and from the perspective of the same character. In fact, this iswhat constitutes the

uniqueness of the novel's political ecology: Tristan's plurality of perception with regard to theselva is illustrative of the challenges of its definitive representation which, in turn, sallegoricalof the very real conflicts that rise when negotiations of access to resources rest upon definitionsand perceptions of value, sacredness, rights, uthority, nd ownership of the natural world.

Finally, Manuel Gonzalez Martinez's Llanura, soledady viento represents an unfortunate

example of theway inwhich more well-known works can blunt an awareness of alternate tendencies within certain traditions?in this case, the literary nvironmentalism of Spanish American

literature. Gonzalez Martinez's novel was eclipsed by literary evelopments inColombia andelsewhere in atin America, most notably, by the publication ofGabriel Garcia Marquez's Cienanos de soledad (1967). Readers' fascination with magical realism and, before that, with the

originality of Alejo Carpentier's extensive use of ideology, intertextuality, nd culture in the

representation of the jungle inLos pasos perdidos explains why Gonzalez Martinez's novel,published exactly seven years before and after these other two, has had much less of an impacton the Spanish American literary cene. Llanura, soledady viento features the same humanization of animals asQuiroga's short stories, but the dominant discourse of statist political ecologyinaugurated in the call for development inArgentine Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's Facundo

(1845) comes in for sharp criticism here. The effects of development on the natural world are

dramatized in the book as the animals gradually lose their habitat to the dynamite blastingused by petroleum prospecting engineers employed by foreign corporations and validated bythe Colombian state. In one exchange between a vulture and a reptile, the bird reports from its

privileged aerial perspective how the land has been poisoned: "Si vieras ahora esas tierras comolas he visto yo. Hasta el color les han cambiado. Aquel no es un color de tierra, es un color

negro, mas funebre que el color demi plumaje; y parece que a aquellas tierras les caemuy bienese color de lutoporque estan muertas, no producen nada, ni siquiera hierbas venenosas" (217).This makes amarked departure from animal discourse inQuiroga in that the conflict betweenhumans and animals isnot a struggle for survival that takes the form of the hunting and killing

ofone

species byanother but of one

(the humans) poisoningthe habitat of another

(the animals).Yet, it lso continues the trend f representing the sentience of the natural world and its nimalsseen inQuiroga's Una mujer en la selva and eventually in Sepulveda's novel.

Not all humans in the Llanura, soledady viento are as obtuse as the careless oil prospectors.In fact, the novel features an exchange between the llanero Victor Ramon and his representativesin the house of deputies inBogota. Ramon proposes severalmethods of sustainable agriculture that

will ensure the land's fecundity for generations to come but realizes that he will get nowhere withthedeputies who are concerned with votes and not sustainability: [Y] sus tierras, ue son lasreservasdel fiituro...; esas tierras?pensaba?, continuan siendo quemadas, destruidas y deforestadas" (85).Victor Ramon's "demand for changes in land use" (Milton, Environmentalism 27) expresses an



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ecological protest as strong nd unique as had yet been seen in atin American letters. owever,the evolution of nature representation in Spanish American literature from the prevalence ofa statist political ecology to a more diverse kind of environmental writing was not to be ex

plored in the following years. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortazar, MarioVargas Llosa, and others were about to embark on a revolution of the more formal aspects of

literature?structure, narrative voice, language, etc.?in what was to be called the "boom" ofLatin American literature.

The Current Suspects: The Usurpation of Political Ecology inNovelas de la Selvafrom the Boom and Beyond

As this "boom" of Spanish American literature drew to a close, Vargas Llosa's uniqueliterary tyle evolved from a decidedly implicit to a somewhat unreservedly explicit emphasison ecological ideas. La casa verde and Pantaleony las visitadoras (1974) represent typical ex

amples ofVargas Llosas's totalizing texts,which attempt to represent all facets of a given realitythrough the use of various literary echniques: nonchronological narration, interiormonologues,uninflected dialogue in an indirect style, multiple narrators, and the creation of myth. Thesemetanarrative techniques have the effect of removing any kind of message, from the locus ofnarrator to the dialogue of character. This peculiar narrative stylemay allow for the occasional

expression of ecological ideas, but only as reactions, recognitions, expressions, or platitudes.Because the narrative exists almost exclusively to frame character dialogue, the only access to

"message" occurs in the context of what the characters say. It is difficult, therefore, to come

away from a reading of some of Vargas Llosa's earlier works with the feeling that an ethicalmessage is being communicated, much less one as specific as environmentalist discourse.

InVargas Llosa's later novels, however, things are quite different. nEl hablador (1987),published roughly contemporaneously with Sepulveda's El viejo que leia novelas de amor, thesesame literary echniques?multiple narrators, nonchronological narration, and the incorporationofmyth?are widely used, but the dialogues among the characters and the values expressed bythe indigenous Machiguengan storyteller convey environmentalist ideasmore explicitly. Thefirst arrator mentions that the Machiguengua tribe was able to "preservar aquella naturaleza,aparentemente tan exuberante, y, en realidad tan fragil y perecedera, de la que dependia parasubsistir" (29). Later in the text, Vargas Llosa has the hablador describe the land in terms of

injury and mistreatment: "Si un dano ocurre en la tierra, es porque la gente ya no le prestaatencion, porque no la cuida como hay que cuidarla. ^Puede la tierra hablar como nosotros?. . .No se olviden de mi, diciendo. Yo tambien vivo, diciendo. No quiero que me maltraten. . . .

Tal vez los Padres Blancos . . . querian hacerle dano a la tierra" (217). Both of these statements communicate ideas familiar to the environmentalist discourse concerning consumption,conservation, the fragility of the natural world, and alternatives to development. With scholarslikeMarcone who observe that Vargas Llosa has the hablador impose an "environmentalist

agenda onto the storyteller's function" ("Jungle Fever" 165), and considering the late date ofthe novel's publication in 1987 (two years before Sepuleveda's text), it isnot surprising that n

environmentalist discourse emerges now more explicitly from the text, even if the narrative isnot by an author usually associated with environmentalism.Most of theworks that I have surveyed above, some well known, others not somuch, are

among themost promising as evidence to support my argument that Sepulveda's novel was

preceded by a corpus of texts that implicitly express many of the same environmentalist ideasthat are so explicit inUn viejo que leia novelas de amor Furthermore, this survey of some ofthe "unusual suspects" considers a countertradition to the canonical works of the novela de laselva tradition, one that communicates alternative perspectives on principles of conservation,deforestation, alternatives to development, sustainability, and deep ecology. Tod, Una mujer enla selva,mdLlanura, soledady viento, inparticular, merit careful scholarly reconsideration. The



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primacy of La vordgine in the novela de la selva tradition has overshadowed the contributionof Tod as the novelty of the "boom" left lanura, soledady viento out of the critical spotlight;likewise, the literary bscurity of Hernan Robleto has condemned Una mujer en la selva to a

similar fate. Only recently has scholarship on animals been formalized with the founding ofthe Institute for Critical Animal Studies in 2007, yet animal characters have been mainstays ofthe novela de la selva since Quiroga, and with an implicitly environmentalist emphasis since

Robleto and Gonzalez Martinez. In thenovels by these two authors, aswell as inTod, the literaryrepresentation of biodiversity, conservation, deforestation, and environmental justice compriseaspects of deep ecology and represent conservationist political ecologies well before these termsbecame conventions of the current nvironmentalist discourse. These works are precursors to the

literary nvironmentalism of Sepulveda's novel and deserve a place in the canon of the novelade la selva. But more than that, they anticipate and inform the environmentalism of SpanishAmerican literature n particular and, as such, ought to be considered an essential element ofenvironmentalist discourse in general, especially if that movement wishes to include localperspectives on such a globally important ecological asset as theAmazonian selva.

NOTES

lrrhe works in this tradition are known by various names. Jorge Marcone and Jennifer French use

the terminology regional novel" todescribe texts ith a particular ffinity o geographic region. arlosJ. Alonso, in The Spanish American Regional Novel: Modernity and Autochthony, uses that term in the

title ut in the ook itself mploys the Spanish novela de la tierra ith the samemeaning. Marcone uses"novela de la selva " to refer ofictionwith settings eographically specific r similar o the mazonianjungle. I follow that usage here.

2See articles by Jorge Marcone as well as the work of Bridgette W. Gunnels and Beatriz Rivera

Barnes.

3French's ibliography ontains several of these types f studies, ncluding hecollection of essaysinMontserrat Ordonez's La vordgine: Textos criticos, Ordonez's introduction to the Catedra edition of

the novel, and Carlos J. Alonso's monograph.

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Alonso, Carlos J. TheSpanish

American Regional Novel:Modernity

andAutochthony.

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Cambridge P, 1990. Print.Barrios, Valentin. El mensu que triunfo en la selva. Buenos Aires: Perlado, 1951. Print.

Bate, Jonathan. "Culture and Environment: From Austen to Hardy." New Literary History 30.3 (1999):541-60. Project Muse. Web. 28 Jan. 2010.

Carpentier, Alejo. Los pasos perdidos. Madrid: Catedra, 1985. Print.

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Manuel. Llanura,soledady

viento. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1965. Print.

Gunnels, Bridgette W. "An Ecocritical Approach to Horacio Quiroga's 'Anaconda' and 'Regreso de

Anaconda.'" Mosaic 39.4 (2006): 93-110. Print.

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Isaacs, Jorge. Maria. Madrid: Edaf, 2003. Print.

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?. "Del retomo a lo natural: La serpiente de oro, la 'novela de la selva' y la critica ecologica." Hispania81.2 (1998): 299-308. Print.

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Mera, Juan Leon. Cumandd. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1932. Print.

Milton, Kay. Environmentalism and Cultural Theory: Exploring the Role of Anthropology in nvironmental

Discourse. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.?. Loving Nature: New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Ordonez, Montserrat, ed. La vordgine: Texto criticos. Bogota: Alianza, 1987. Print.

?, ed. and intro. La vordgine. By Jose Eustasio Rivera. Madrid: Catedra, 1990. 11-61. Print.

Peet,Richard, andMichael Watts. "Liberation cology: Development, Sustainability, ndEnvironment nan Age of Market Triumphalism." Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. Ed. Richard Peet and Michael Watts. London: Routledge, 1996. 1-45. Print.

Quiroga, Horacio. Nuevos cuentos de la selva. 3 vols. Buenos Aires: Solaris, 1997. Print.Rivera, Jose Eustasio. La vordgine. Buenos Aires: Losada, 1952. Print.

Rivera-Barnes, Beatriz. "Yuyos Are Not Weeds: An Ecocritical Approach to Horacio Quiroga." Isle 16.1

(2009): 35-52. Print.Robleto, Hernan. Una mujer en la selva. Santiago, Chile: Ercilla, 1936. Print.

Rozelle, Lee. Ecosublime: Environmental Awe and Terror from New World to Oddworld. Tuscaloosa: U

of Alabama P, 2006. Print.

Sepulveda, Luis. Un viejo que leia novelas de amor. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1993. Print.

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Sept. 2001.Web. 12May 2010.Uribe Piedrahita, Cesar. Tod. Manizales: Arturo Zapata, 1933. Print.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. La casa verde. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1983. Print.?. El hablador. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1987. Print.?. Pantaleon y las visitadoras. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1999. Print.

Williams, Raymond. "The Green Language." The Green Studies Reader. Ed. Laurence Coupe. New York:

Routledge, 2000. 50-58. Print.

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