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The Whorehouse and the Whore in Spanish American Fiction of the 1960s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Kessel Schwartz
Kessel Schwartz*
Affiliation:
Department of Foreign Languages, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
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Extract

Spanish American fiction, from its earliest moments, has emphasized the whore as a reflection of society and the basic drives of human beings. José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi's protagonists associate with numerous prostitutes, and one of them, Don Catrín de la Fachenda, works in a whorehouse. Other nineteenth century whores include the sentimental one in Eugenio Cambaceres's Música Sentimental (1884) and the idealistic one in Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera's El Conspirador (1892).

Twentieth century Spanish American fiction is replete with man-eaters like Gallegos's Doña Bárbara, Rivera's Zoraida, Rojas González's Angustias, and with promiscuous types like the oddly named Pura, the sensual dancer of El Embrujo de Sevilla (1922). The prostitute as protagonist, however, enters the century through Augusto D'Halmar's Juana Lucero (1902) and Federico Gamboa's now classic Santa (1903). A poor, seduced, and abandoned country girl, Santa becomes first a high- and then a low-class prostitute in brothels and bordellos.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , November 1973 , pp. 472 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1973

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