Myth and Social Realism in Miguel Angel Asturias

Author(s): Luis Leal

Source: Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), pp. 237-247
Published by: Penn State University Press
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 Mythand SocialRealism
in MiguelAngelAsturias
LUIS LEAL

ABSTRACT

Miguel Angel Asturias,who received the Nobel Prize in Literaturefor

1967,reflectsin his poetryand fictionthe influenceof two main forces:
the political and the mythical.In Paris, during the 1920's and under the
directionof George Raynaud, Asturiastranslatedinto Spanish the Popol
Vuh, sacred book of the Quiche Indians of Guatemala, at the same time
that he began to write mythical,poematic legends (Leyendas de Guate-
mala, 1930). It was in Paris also where he began to write his best novel,
El senor presidente(1946), in whichhe skillfullyblends social and mythi-
cal elements.He does the same thing in other novels, such as Hombres
de mail (1949), El alhajadito (1961), Mulata de tal (1963), and El espejo
de Lida Sal (1967). His novels of social realism, in which he denounces
the exploitationof the banana-plantationworkersin Guatemala (Viento
fuerte,1950; El papa verde, 1954; Los ojos de los enterrados,1960), are
less successfulas worksof art, forhere Asturiasallows the social element
to predominatethe mythical.His best worksseem to be thosein whichhe
blends motifsof both the Indian and the criollo culturesof Guatemala
withoutgiving undue emphasis to either one, as in El senor presidente,
his mostsuccessfulnovel. [L. L.]

The year 1899 was a prodigal one forHispanic letters.It saw the
birthof threemen as differentfromeach otheras theirbirthplaces
werefarapart: Federico Garcia Lorca was born in Granada, Spain;
JorgeLuis Borgesin Buenos Aires; and Miguel Angel Asturiasin
Guatemala City. The three have made original contributionsto
237

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2S8 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

Hispanic letters,and the three,in different degrees,have had to face

the wrathof political forces.Lorca paid withhis life forhis opposi-
tion to the emergingregime;Borges was summarilydismissedfrom
his positionby the strongman Juan Perón; and Asturiashas had to
live in exile most of his life foropposing the ruling militaryjuntas
or strongmen in his country.In receivingtheNobel Prize in litera-
ture for 1967, Asturias representedthese three writers,each one
deservingof the prize in his own right.
With the fall of the dictatorManuel Estrada Cabrera in 1920,
a reign of fear came to an end. But not much time elapsed before
Guatemala was again in the hands of the military.In 1923,the year
Asturiasreceivedhis law degree,a group of universitystudentspub-
lished some inflammatory broadsides against the junta. As a con-
sequence,Asturias,who was involvedin the affair,had to leave the
country.In Paris,wherehe was to remaintenyears,he was fortunate
to come under the influenceof ProfessorGeorgeRaynaud, who was
at that time giving courses at the Sorbonne on ancient American
religionsand preparinga French translationof the Popol Vuh, the
sacred book of the Quiche Indians of Guatemala.1Asturiashelped
ProfessorRaynaud with the translation,which appeared in 1925,
the second one to be done in French.The manuscriptof the Popol
Vuh had been discoveredin Santo Tomás Chichicastenango,Guate-
mala, by Father Francisco Ximénez during the early part of the
eighteenthcentury.He copied the original Quiche text and trans-
lated it into Spanish. Unfortunately, Ximénez' manuscriptwas lost,
and it was not until 1854 that it was discoveredby Dr. Karl von
Scherzer.One year later, the AmericanistAbbé Charles Etienne
Brasseur de Bourbourg, visiting Guatemala, also discovered it.
De Bourbourg'sFrench translationwas published in Paris in 1861,
togetherwith the Quiche text,an introduction,and profusenotes.
His translation,however,sufferedfroma certainfantasyin which
the Abbé had indulged, attributingto the ancient Quiche people
many European ideas and concepts. It was to correctthese inac-
curacies that ProfessorRaynaud undertookhis translationdirectly
fromthe Quiche.
With thecollaborationofJoséMaria Gonzalez de Mendoza (1893-
1967), Asturias then undertooka new Spanish translationof the
Popol Vuh, basing it on ProfessorRaynaud's French translation.
This new Spanish versionwas necessarysince the two available were
defective.The one by FatherXiménez,publishedfirstin Vienna in

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 MYTH AND SOCIAL REALISM IN MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS 239

1857by Doctor Scherzer,containednumerouserratadue to copyists'

errorsand to the printer'signoranceof the Spanish language. The
second,publishedby JustoGavarretein the reviewEl cducacionista
(Guatemala City,1894-1896)and later edited by Santiago I. Barbe-
rena (San Salvador, 1905), was based on the French translationof
De Bourbourg and thereforeincorrect.Asturias9new translation,
Los dioses, los heroes y los hombresde Guatemala antigua, o el
librodel Consejo Popol-Vuh de los Indios quiche, withan Introduc-
tion and a Glossaryof the Sacred Names which appeared in the
workby ProfessorRaynaud, was a greatimprovementover the pre-
ceding ones. It was completed in 1926 and published in Paris in
1927, a year that marked a new period in the studies of pre-
Colombian cultures.2
As a result of his interestin the Popol Vuh, Asturiaswrote his
Leyendas de Guatemala (Madrid, 1930), which was translatedinto
Frenchby Francis de Miomandre and published in 1932 with Paul
Valéry'sPrologue, a letter to the translatorin which he calls the
stories"dream-poems."The book was awarded the Sylla Monsegur
Prize as thebestbook of the yearby a Latin-Americanauthor.With
his Leyendas,Asturias became one of the firstwriters - the other
was the Cuban Alejo Carpentier- to tap for inspirationthe cul-
tural elementsof native origin that the American continenthas to
offer,thePopol Vuh being one of the best sources.This givesLatin-
Americanliteraturea new dimension,as it impartsto realismo a
new elementderivedfromthe magic natureof the primitiveAmeri-
can mind. The resultis a new attitudetowardsreality- an attitude
whichcan be called "magicrealism."*
For instance,Asturias'cosmogonie"Leyenda del volcan/9inspired
by the Popol Vuh, opens with thesewords: "Three men inhabited
the forestsof the earth; the three that rame in the wind and the
threethatcame in the water,but only threecould be seen." 4 Simi-
larly,the transformation of man into animal or plant, that is, the
of
practice nagualism so common in the Popol Vuh, appears often
in the worksof Asturias.In the "Leyenda del cadejo" (the cadejo
being a fantasticanimal that runs throughthe streetsat night in
pursuitof straypersons),the theme is the transformation of man
into an opium poppy. And in the "Leyenda de la Tatuana," Astu-
rias uses a popular Spanish-Americanfolkloremotif.La Tatuana,
a womanto whom thepeople attributesupernaturalpowers,escapes
fromprisonon the boat she has painted on the wall of her cell. In

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240 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

theseand the collection'sotherlegends ("El sombrerón,""Leyenda

del lugar florido,""Los brujos de Ia tormentaprimaveral"),as well
as in the dramatizedpiece, Cuculcan, Asturiasis able to recreatea
primevalAmerican world, a world seen throughthe psychologyof
its aboriginal inhabitants.Here, as in his otherworksdealing with
similar themes, the use of the Spanish language instead of the
Quiche does not detract,forAsturiashas forgeda sentencestructure
resemblingthatof the originallanguage.This skillfuluse of stylistic
devicesto give expressionto native themesis one of Asturias'great
contributionsto Latin-Americanliteratureand a decisivefactorin
his latestsuccess.
It was not until 1933 that AsturiasreturnedfromParis to his
nativecountry,except fora shorttripin 1928when he gave a series
of lecturesat the National University.The political situation in
1933had not improved: Guatemala was ruled by the dictatorJorge
Ubico, less sanguinary,it is true,than Estrada Cabrera,but no less
a dictator.AfterUbico's fall in 1944, the new governmentnamed
Asturiascultural attachéin Mexico City,wherehe finallypublished,
in 1946,his firstnovel, El senor presidente,a workhe had written
in Paris between 1925 and 1932. In 1948 Asturiaswas transferred to
Buenos Aires, where he published his second novel, H ombres de
maiz (1949). These two firstnovelsrepresentAsturias*best contribu-
tion to Spanish-Americanfiction,as theyblend mythicaland social
elements,whereas his later workssufferfroma preoccupationwith
social realism.
Asturiasjustifiedhis novels of social concernby sayingthat the
Latin-Americannovel should reflectthe social, political, and eco-
nomicconditionsof thecontinent.Latin-American literature,he has
said,has alwaysbeen a literatureof protest.Bernai Diaz del Castillo,
in the sixteenth century,wrote his famous True History of the
Conquest of Mexico to complain to the King thatafterall his years
of serviceto the Crown he had been forgotten. And Sarmientodur-
ing the nineteenth centurywrote his Facundo to complain and
denounce the death of Quiroga at the instigationof the dictator
Rosas, the prototypeof all Latin-Americanstrongmen. Asturias'
own novel,El senor presidente,belongsto the traditionof Facundo;
it is a protestagainst one of the greatestevils that plague Latin
America,that is, the presenceof the dictators.
El senorpresidentehad its originin a shortstory,"Los mendigos
políticos" ("Political Beggars"),whichAsturiashad writtenin 1922

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 MYTH AND SOCIAL REALISM IN MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS 241

and whichhe later expanded into the full-length novel. The suffer-
ing his family had undergone at the hands of the dictatorManual
EstradaCabrera had leftan indelibleimpressionon Asturias'mind.
Asturiasthen met Estrada Cabrera while the dictator,fallen from
power,was being triedfor the many crimeshe had committed.At
that time,Asturiaswas servingas Secretaryof the Tribunal, saw
Estrada Cabrera everyday, and was able to prove,he has told us,
that men of Estrada Cabrera's typehave a special power over the
commonpeople: " 'No', theywould say,'thatis not EstradaCabrera.
The real Estrada Cabrera has escaped.This mustbe a poor old man
" 5 And this is the
theyhave imprisonedto fool us.' way in which
AsturiaspresentsEstrada Cabrera in his novel: as a man who has
become a myth.His dictatoris unlike thatof don Ramon del Valle
Inclán, whose novel Tirano banderas (1926) presentsa grotesque
tyrant, a trueesperpento.Nor is his dictatorlike thatpainted by the
Guatemalan Rafael Arévalo Martinez, the firstto make Estrada
Cabrera a characterin a work of fiction.In Arévalo's short story
Las fierasdel trópico,a workcompletedin Januaryof 1915 but for
obvious reasons not published until 1922, the dictator José de
Vargas is a ferocioustigermore than a human being. The social
impactof the storyis furtherdiluted by makingdon José governor
of an imaginarycountry,Orolandia. This, of course,was necessary
forpolitical reasons,but it destroysthe emotional appeal which is
so effective in El senor presidente.It is true that in Asturias9novel
the name Guatemala is never mentioned,but thereis no question
that the novel takesplace in thatcountry,a fact that can be deter-
mined by a studyof the realisticmotifs,as well as by the speech of
the characters.
To strengthen the mythof El senorpresidente,Asturiasassociates
the figureof the dictatorwith that of the god Tohil,· the principal
divinityof the Quiche and other tribes of Middle America. In
Asturias'translationof the Popol Vuh (pp. 84-86),Tohil had given
fireto his people. But that firstsacred firewent out as a resultof a
great rain, and once more Tohil had to provide it, this time by
rubbing his sandals together.As payment,he demanded human
sacrifices.In Asturias' novel there is a chapter called "Tohil's
Dance" in which Mr. President,at a receptionin his palace, asks
Cara de Angel,the protagonist,to go to Washingtonas his personal
representative.Cara de Angel accepts (he has to accept; no one
would dare contradictthe President),but beforehe leaves the dance

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242 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

he has a vision: "Near and far the plaintivevoicesof the tribesmen

abandoned in the forestwere heard . . . requestingfromTohil,
theFire Giver,that he returnto them the burningfirewood....
Tohil demanded human sacrifices.The tribesmenbroughtto him
the best hunters,those with the ready blowguns,those with the
loaded slingshots.'And these men, what will theyhunt? Will they
hunt men?' asked Tohil .... 'Anythingyou request/answeredthe
tribesmen, 'providedyou returnthe fireto us, you,theFire Giver,so
"
thatour fleshmay not growcold/ 7 This propheticvision symbol-
izes Cara de Angel's sacrifice.Beforehe arrivesat the portto take the
ship to Washington,he is assassinatedby ordersof Mr. President.
Thus, the Indian mythologicalmotifsare veryskillfullyintegrated
in the novel,by means of dreamsand visions; theyare, at the same
time,subordinatedto an overall archetypalstructure, thatof the fall
of Lucifer fromParadise. Cara de Angel, "beautifuland evil like
Satan," revolts against the President and is thereforepunished.
Asturias'purpose,verywell attained,is to paint the degradingcon-
ditions which people living in Latin-Americancountriesruled by
dictatorshave to endure.
AlthoughEl senorpresidenteis a novel of social protest,Austurias
is able to giveits messagean artisticform.The book is read not only
as the best example of life under a dictatorshipbut also for its
aestheticvalue. In a recent article about the novel as a literary
genre,FranciscoAyala had this to say about Asturias'book: "That
a novelwitha strong,aggressivethrust,as is in its own rightMiguel
Angel Asturias' El senor presidente,should, besides being a pas-
sionate allegation against dictatorshipsand theirdegradingeffects,
be a workhaving a high poetic quality whose intensitygivesit per-
manentvalue, seems to us to be an exceptionalcase. We findour-
selvesin the presenceof an artistwho is able to triumphover the
mostadverseconditions/'* What permanentvalues was Ayala able
to findin this novel? Doubtless he had in mind its structure,its
style,and its psychologicalimpact.The novel has an originalstruc-
ture;it is divided into threeparts,the firstof which takes place in
threedays,the second in four days,and the last in weeks,months,
years,or an eternity.The Epilogue is a scenewhichsuggeststhat the
whole frightful storyis to be repeated again and again. The theme
of treason (the treason of Cara de Angel) is very well expressed
throughimagesthatgive a sensationof coldness.Dante placed Satan
in the last circle of Hell, frozenin ice. Asturiasmakes use of that

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 MYTH AND SOCIAL REALISM IN MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS 243

imageryof European origin but blends it with that found in the

New World. In the Popol Vuh, Tohil made the tribesmenconsent
to offerhim human sacrificesby allowing the fireto go out and
lettingthe tribefreezeto death; in his novel,Asturiasrecreatesthis
mythicalscene by the use of images of coldness to expressCara de
Angel'spunishmentFear, thesecond importantthemein the novel,
is given expressionthroughthe use of onomatopoeiclanguage. By
thistechnique,Asturiasbringsto life charactersthat,throughtheir
fearof the dictator,act as if theywere walkingin theirsleep. The
constantrepetitionof onomatopoeic phrases,words,and syllables
reflectsa worldin whichpeople move and behave mechanically.But
thisartisticaspect of El senorpresidenteshould not be overempha-
sized at thecostof diminishingthe value of its message.The author
himselfhas not done so. "For me," he wrotein 1950,"the value of
thisnovel,if it has any,is to be found in the lesson it containsfor
the countriesof Latin America,by portrayingwhat happens to the
people that place on a pedestal a man who controls all social
forces."·
It could be said that Asturiaswill be rememberedas the author
of El senorpresidente.This, perhaps,is an injustice.No less impor-
tantis Hombresde maiz ("Men of Corn"),whichbelongsto thesame
period, the years the author spent in Paris. It representsa great
stylisticefforton the part of Asturias,for here he is able to create
a mode of expressionthat can be called trulyLatin American.He
is not satisfied,as are the manyso-calledcriollistawriters,with the
use of a vocabularypeculiar to the Spanish of the New World. On
the contrary,he triesto forgea literarystyleby using the language
of the common people and giving it a poetic tone. "In Hombres
de maiz/9Asturiashas said, "the spoken word has a religious sig-
nificance.The charactersin the work are never alone, but always
surroundedby the great voices of nature,the voices of the rivers,
of the mountains."10And thusAsturiascreatesa magicworld:
The wordfromtheearth,turnedintoa solarflame,was on thevergeof
burningthegopherears of the yellowrabbitsin the sky,of the yellow
rabbitsin thebrush,of theyellowrabbitsin thewater.But Gasparbegan
to turnintoearththatfallsfromwheretheearthfalls,thatis to say,into
a dreamthatfindsno shadowto dreamaboutin thelandof lion,and the
solarflamecoulddo nothingto thevoiceeludedbytheyellowrabbitswho
beganto suckfroma groveof papayas,turnedintowildpapayashanging
fromthesky,changedintostars,and disappearedin thewaterlikereflec-
tionswithear».11

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244 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

Although the quotation may sound abstruse,Asturiashas said: "I

have tried,littleby little,to widen mylanguage in order to place it
withinreach of the greatestnumberof people. The play on words
techniqueused in books like El senorpresidente,El alhajadito, and
Leyendas de Guatemala was an initial attempt,preparatoryto the
taskthat I have imposed on myselfin Hombres de maiz, where the
narrativeacquires the characterof an epic poem. In Hombres de
maiz I explore the hidden dimensionsof words: their resonance,
theirshades of meaning,theirfragrance."12 Asturias,of course,is
thinkingnot only about his own novels but also of the problems
confrontedby Latin-Americanwritersin general. "For our prob-
lem," he said, "consistsin the creationof a literaturethat may not
talk about asphalt, or glass,or cement.It must talk about the cool-
nessof the earth,about theseed, about the tree.Our literaturemust
1S
give a new perfume,a new color,and a new vibration."
Hombres de maiz is a book thatreflectsthemythicalworld found
in the Popol Vuh. A novel withoutrhetoricalinterlockingdevices
and without a well-definedplot, it gives expressionto the magic
world of the Guatemalan Indian who has to fightto defendhis tra-
ditions,his beliefs,his way of life. Gaspar Ilón is symbolicof the
Indian who is sacrificedby the gods because he has not been able
to fightthe mestizowho uses corn as a businesscommodityand not
to sustain life. For the Quiche, corn is sacred; the earth produces
corn,and when it is exploited by thosewho want to make a profit
fromit, the earth suffersand transmitsthat suffering to men. The
novel opens with thesewords by the wizards: "Gaspar Ilón allows
the land to be despoiled of its dream fromits eyes. Gaspar Ilón
allows the land of lion's eyelids to be hatched away .... Gaspar
Ilón allows the land of Ilón to have its eyelashesscorchedwith the
firesthat paint the moon the color of an old ant." 14Accordingto
Maya-Quichémythology,the gods firstmade man out of clay and
failed; then out of wood and failed; but finallytheymade him out
of corn and were successful.In the novel,an old wizard,a man with
hands as black as black corn,says: "The corn cost the eartha great
sacrifice,the earth which is also human; would that I could load
you with a corn fieldon yourback, like poor earth.And even more
barbaricis what theydo: theyplant the corn to sell it .... That's
whytheyare punished."1S
In oppositionto thistelluricworld,thereis theother,thecivilized
world,representedby SergeantChalo Godoy, in the serviceof the

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 MYTH AND SOCIAL REALISM IN MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS 245

government forceswhichfinallydestroythe Indian community.And

by the Spanish FatherValentin Urdánez, not too farremovedfrom
the missionarieswho came to the New World with the firstcon-
quistadors.And by the German Deféric,stubbornlydefendinghis
theorythatthe Indians sacrificethemselvesto feed theirown legend.
And, finally,by the Nordic O'Neill, in love with a girl of the com-
munity,whose grave is now a touristattraction.But it is Gaspar
Ilón, the Indian chief,who is the real hero, although he appears
only at the beginningof the novel. Althoughhe dies at the end of
the firstchapter,he lives on in the mythicalmind of the people,
much as Estrada Cabrera did. It is by this technique that Asturias
is able to maintain a mythicair throughoutthe novel.
Asturiasremained in Buenos Aires until 1950, but in December
of 1949, while visitingGuatemala, he wrote the firstnovel of a
trilogydealing with the problemsof the banana companiesin Cen-
tralAmerica.Vientofuerte("StrongWind") appeared in 1950; the
secondpart,El papa verde,appeared fouryearslater,and the third,
Los ojos de los enterrados("The Eyes of the Buried"), in 1960.
Asturiashad visitedthe townsof Tiquisate and Bananera and had
seen at firsthand the conditionsunderwhich the banana-plantation
workershad to labor. At the same time,he had read a newspaper
reportof these conditions by two North American journalists,a
documentthat appears in Vientofuerte.Asturiasshowssome origi-
nalityby not followingthe archetypeof the anti-imperialistic novel,
in which the charactersare drawn in black and white. Indeed, in
both Viento fuerteand El papa verde the protagonistis a North
Americanwho wants the banana companies to treat theirworkers
more humanely. From the aestheticpoint of view, however, the
trilogyis weakenedby its mixtureof scenesof terrorand sober logi-
cal documentation.The reader is unable to react with heart and
mind at the same time.These novels,anti-imperialistic in tone, as
well as thecollectionof shortstories,Week-enden Guatemala (1956),
do not reach the artisticperfectionof Asturias'earlierworks.When
Asturiasabandons mythand gives emphasis to social realism,his
artsuffers.
A companion book to Leyendas de Guatemala is the volume El
alhajadito, which was writtenin Paris during the Sorbonne years
but not published until 1961 in Buenos Aires, having been taken
out of the manuscript,as the colophon reads, in 1960. This book,
more than a novel, is a seriesof legends,a seriesdivided into three

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246 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

partsbut unifiedby the presenceof the centralnarrator,the air of

magicrealism,the folklorecharacters,and the popular style.Shortly
thereafter,the same characteristics reappear in Mulata de tal (1963),
although here the elements are better integratedinto an organic
structure,a structure that has as its basis the popular Guatemalan
legend of the poor man who sells his wife to the Devil- in thiscase
to Tazol, the name given to the corn husk- in order to become
wealthy.On anotherlevel, the novel recreatesthe Quiche mythof
the sun and the moon. Asturiasveryskillfullyintegratesthese two
elements,the mythicaland the picaresque. No less importantthan
the fable is the style,which is characterizedby a simplicitywell
adapted to the nature of the characters."I believe," Asturiashas
said, "that in Mulata de tal my linguisticexpressionhas a new
dimension.In Hombres de maiz it is still overloadedwith mythical
and religiousterminology. Mulata, on the otherhand, is writtenin
a popular style,in a kind of verbal picaresque,with the character-
isticingenuityand fantasythatfolkshave to threadphrasesand play
with ideas." 1β
The influenceof the Popol Vuh can be detectedin the styleof
Mulata, althoughnot so much in theuse of religiouswordsas in the
parallelismin the tellingof the story.This stylisticparallelismcan
also be detectedin Asturias'poetry.17 In his last collection,Clarivi-
gilia primaveral,published in Paris in a bilingual edition by Galli-
mardin 1966, thisinfluenceis noticeablein some of the ten cantos:
Earthfeedson pathsofcornthatgiveslight
a singlecornand all theradiantsun;
fromquetzalwingsthatchangethecolorofthesky,
a singlequetzalandall theskygreen;
fromstreams of rain,fromstreams ofblood
theearthfeedson blood....
In his last book, El espejo de Lida Sal ("lida Sal's Mirror";
Mexico City, 1967), Asturiasreturnsto the legend as the formbest
suited to give expression to the mythologicalIndian elementshe
used with such excellentresultsin El senor presidente.It seems to
be the formbest suited to his temperamentas a prose writer.His
best worksare those in which he blends motifsand elementsthat
comefromthe twoworldshe knowsbest,the Indian and the criollo;
fromthetwominds,themythicaland theFaustian,thatfor400 years
have struggledagainst each otherin Guatemala and may verywell
be consideredthe distinguishingcharacteristics of Latin-American

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 MYTH AND SOCIAL REALISM IN MIGUEL ANGEL ASTURIAS 247

literature.The interestthatAsturiashas demonstratedin thatother

world,in that magical mind of the Indian, is what gives his works
a distinctivecharacter,not to be overlooked in consideringthe
reasons why he was honored last year with the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
Luis Leal · UniversityofIllinois

NOTES

1. The originalmanuscriptof the Popol Vuh is now at Newberry library,

Chicago.For moredetailsabout its discovery, see my article,"The Popol Vuh,
SacredBookof theQuiche,"The EmoryUniversity Quarterly,XIV (1958),48-55.
2. Asturias'translationhas been followedby others,among them that by
AdrianRecinos,publishedin Mexicoby the Fondo de CulturaEconómicain
1947.An Englishtranslationappearedin 1950.Popol Vuh means"libro del
Consejo" ("The Book of the Council").
3. See my article,"El realismomágico en la literaturahispanoamericana,"
Cuadernos americanos,XXVI (1967),230-235.
4. MiguelAngelAsturias, Leyendosde Guatemala,in Obrasescogidas(Madrid:
as are thosethatfollow.
Aguilar,1955),I, 29. My translation,
5. As quotedby Luis Harssin Los nuestros(BuenosAires:EditorialSudameri-
cana, 1966),p. 92.
6. Translated"Pluvioso"by Raynaud.
7. Astunas,El senorpresidente(BuenosAires:EditorialLosada, SA., 1959),
pp. 271-272.
8. FranciscoAyala,"Nueva divagaciónsobrela novela,"Revistade Occidente
(Madrid),V (septiembre1967),303.
9. As reportedby Salvador Cafias,"Homenaje a Miguel Angel Asturias/'
Repertório americano(San José,CostaRica),XXX (marzo1950),83.
10. Quotedby Harss,Los nuestros,p. 104.
11. Astunas,nombresde maiz (BuenosAires:Losada, 1953),p. 10.
12. Quotedby Harss,Los nuestros,p. 107.
13. Quotedby Harss,Los nuestros, p. 107.
nombresde maiz,m Obras escogidas,I, 535.
14. Asturias,
Hombresde maiz,in Obras escogidas,I, 775.
15. Asturias,
16. Quotedby Harss,Los nuestros,p. 123.
17. Otherbooksof poetryby Asturiasare: Rayitode estreita(1925),Sonetos
(1936),Sien de alondra (1949),Ejerciciospoéticosde sonetossobre temasde
Horacio (1951),and Bolivar (1955).There are also two dramaticworks:Soluna
(1955)and La audiênciade los confines(1957).

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