Posted by Miguel Angel Balsa on March 09, 192003 at 22:00:43:
NOTES ON “LOS COMANCHES”
In my view, one of the most interesting things to think about in “Los comanches” is the witty manner in which its unknown author gives his or her readers (or audiences) the keys to access the meanings that he or she wants to get across. In other words, one of the aspects that makes this play interesting is not so much the actual plot, but rather the specific way in which the plot unfolds, or what I might--a little pedantically-- call the “architecture of its contents.”
The key to decipher the author’s intention lies, so to speak, latent, concealed, all through the text; it is, somehow, like one of those thriller movies in which the very last scene adds a completely different meaning to all the events and conversations that the spectator has been watching thus far and that fully reshape its message.The source of the brand new light that is cast on the play emanates from Barriga Dulce’s words. Barriga Dulce’s outright selfishness, lack of scruples, and obscenity emerge as an ironic counterpoint to all the dramatic, serious, somewhat pompous speeches that precede it:
“Let them fill themselves with glory,
While I eat with joy and mirth.
With their arms they prove their valor,
My glory is measured by my girth...”
While reading Barriga Dulce’s words, one cannot help but feel that the author was craftily echoing Góngora’s seemingly humorous bitterness in his “Ande yo caliente y ríase la gente,” written over a century prior to the composition of “Los comanches:”
“Traten otros del gobierno
Del mundo y sus monarquías.
Mientras gobiernan mis días
Mantequillas y pan tierno
Y las mañanas de invierno
Naranjada y aguardiente
Y ríase la gente...”
(Which roughly traslates as: “Let others tend to the government/ Of the world and its monarchies/While butter and fresh bread/ Are the rulers of my days/And punch and liquor/Rule my mornings in the Winter/And let anyone laugh at me.”)
In my mind, Cervantes’ poignant remarks voiced by Sancho Panza, or the crude portrayal of 16th-century Spanish society by the (also unknown) author of “El lazarillo de Tormes” also resonate with the final stanzas in “Los comanches.” All these authors and their works share one trait: they all hide their profoundly critical voices behind their characters, under their at-first-sight humorous discourses. Moreover, the dramatic contrast of a homorous discourse over an extremely tragic situation, considerably amplifies the bitterness and the depth of their critique. They knew that they must encrypt their meanings if they really wanted them to be delivered.
From this perspective, and not unlike Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in her time, the author of “Los comanches” managed to design the play in such a way that it had various different interpretations. The audiences might look at it, as it were, as an epic account in which religious zeal, valor, and loyalty to authorities apparently guide the heroes’ actions. It could even be read as a means to convince the native populations that they should refrain from resisting Spanish occupation. On a different leval, however, Barriga Dulce’s words show the reader/audience the dark side of that supposedly honorable, noble war; it presents a war in which high principles are instrumentalized, turned into mere excuses to carry out other not so noble, much more shameful ends arrived at through sinister means. In the last instance, one of the aspects that makes “Los comanches” an interesting play is that it turns to theater as a space, both physical and symbolic, for dissent and subversion. On the stage, when a play like “Los comanches” was performed, multiple battles were being fought...