Denise Chávez
2014, I read paperback edition
309 pages, character study, psychological
Thank you to the University of Oklahoma Press for providing
a review copy of this book, part of the Chicana & Chicano Visions of the Américas series.
It is really important to me to include works by marginalized writers from the
United States on this blog. I think it sends the wrong impression to only feature novels
from “foreign” countries, whether in translation or in English; this blog is
about the global diversity of literature and film, including the native diversity in the US. That is why I have chosen to include this book by a major Chicana
writer.
In Comezón, a small town on the Mexico-New Mexico border,
everyone has some comezón – a
yearning for something that will never happen. In this series of interconnected
character studies, the author examines what each individual wants – and what,
exactly, is keeping them from getting it.
The main focus is on the dysfunctional Olivárez family.
Arnulfo, the aging father, is slowly (and quietly) dying of lung disease and
alcoholism but continues to take the stage as master of ceremonies at the local Mexican-American festivals of Cinco de Mayo and 16th September. His wife, Doña
Emilia, is disabled and cannot control Arnulfo, but she has the patience of an
angel even when he doesn’t deserve it. Their daughter, Juliana, though bound to
a wheelchair, has a rich inner life of reading and painting and a hidden love
for the local Spanish priest. Arnulfo’s daughter by an affair, Lucinda, knows
that she doesn’t quite fit into the family and wants to escape as soon as
possible, running away with the son of Comezón’s Chief of Police. And then
there is Isá, the
housekeeper, cook, and best friend of Doña Emilia who also helps take care of
Juliana.
With these and other characters from the town, the author
takes us on a journey into the trials and tribulations – and loves and passions
– of a small town on the Mexican border.
Machismo and Patriarchy
Beneath his rough exterior, Arnulfo is actually a sensitive
man, at least where it concerns Juliana’s well-being. The best part of this book
was seeing how patriarchal ideas of how a man should act prevented Arnulfo from
acting the way he wanted to. He is determined to keep up appearances of
manliness by, for example, wearing cowboy boots when they kill his feet rather
than the more appropriate Hush Puppy shoes that his wife bought for him.
One of the biggest ways this machismo appears is in his
alcoholism. Instead of allowing himself to be overtly loving to Juliana, or to
Emilia, he drags himself to the bar to get drunk. This is apparently a more
masculine activity. One of the saddest parts of this novel is when Arnulfo
admits that he sometimes pretends to be more drunk than he actually is when he
returns from the bar. Why? So that Emilia will take care of him and they can
have sex. He can’t bring himself to just ask his wife to care for him, so instead he
comes home “drunk.”
He is terribly worried about what will happen to Juliana
when he dies. For now, she is taken care of by Emilia and Isá, but Isá hates
taking care of her. As soon as Emilia dies (and she's not in the best of health), Isá will leave. So how can he
provide for her? Arnulfo knows that he is dying, but he hasn’t told anyone
about it, not even Emilia. And again, this is because of his stubborn adherence
to his masculine identity.
Juliana
What does Juliana want? To be quite honest, she wants sex.
She wants to be held by a man and made love to. But she thinks that this is
beyond her reach because of her disability. She is constantly told that no man
will ever want to marry her, or sleep wit her, because of her helplessness.
So she has a great attraction to the priest, possibly
because he is the only man around her age that she sees regularly. She pretends
not to know the doctrines so that he will continue coming for her private
scripture lessons. This leads to one of the most bizarre phone-sex scenes ever,
which left me highly amused and a bit shocked. I would recommend this book just
for this scene, actually.
Religion
Religion plays a big part throughout this novel, and not
just in Juliana’s erstwhile relationship with the priest. The catholic faith is
constantly invoked, and some sections of the novel contain debates about the merits of various
doctrines. At times this seems a bit tedious, but it meshed well with what little I know about Chicano culture.
One very interesting chapter describes Arnulfo’s personal
belief that God is actually an old, kind Indian woman, based on the mother of a
friend. This is most interesting because an old, patriarchal, alcoholic man
like Arnulfo is not the sort of person that one would necessarily expect to
have a well-thought-out understanding of religion that varies from the official
discourse. But again we find that Arnulfo is a much more complex person and
character than expected.
Language
Probably the most difficult part of this book is the
language. I would guess that around 1/10th of the novel is actually in Spanish.
This Spanish is not translated unless it is very important, so for non-Spanish
readers there is a lot of indecipherable text. I am fluent in Spanish (at least
for the purposes of reading!), so I didn’t have much trouble understanding it.
I liked the code-switching, which felt very authentic, but I wonder how much of
a problem this would be for people with no Spanish background.
Each chapter is told from a different person’s perspective
(even Arnulfo’s dog!), providing a multifaceted glimpse of life in Comezón.
There were a few cases where this became very confusing because the chapter
would begin with one person’s perspective and then shift to someone else’s
without warning. When this happened, I found myself going back to find where
the shift happened but was usually unable to locate it. I would have preferred
if these random shifts were taken out.
This tragicomic novel is an interesting character study of the inhabitants of a small border town. I would recommend it particularly for bilingual Spanish speakers, who will have less difficulty understanding the Spanglish.
This tragicomic novel is an interesting character study of the inhabitants of a small border town. I would recommend it particularly for bilingual Spanish speakers, who will have less difficulty understanding the Spanglish.
The King and Queen of Comezón can be purchased in the US from Amazon and indiebound, in the UK from Amazon, in India from Amazon and flipkart, and worldwide from the Book Depository.
Further Reading:
"Four Ways Sexist, Macho Culture Hurts Men" by Erika L. Sanchez (Everyday Feminism)"Why It's Important for Men to Feel Their Feelings" by Jason Gaddis (Everyday Feminism)
"The itch that riles Frontera author Denise Chavez" interview by Neil LaRubbio (2012, High Country News)
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