Transcript Foul Dust Floating in the Wake of Dreams: Why The Great

Beginning at the End:
Another (Incredibly Detailed)
Look at
…And the Earth Did Not
Devour Him
Feraco
SFHP
3 June 2009
Today’s Business
 My
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Last lecture: Finals Day!
 I’m
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last academic lecture
attempting to inform you about:
Who Rivera was
Why he wrote what he wrote
Why each story is important
 Study
Session Online: 6:15-8:00pm
 We’re going to be sprinting today, unlike
my usually relaxed pace
 Watching attentively and keeping up will
be extremely helpful – and much
appreciated by the lecturer!
What Should I Know?
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Don’t miss out on Rivera’s background – know
what the Bracero Program was and why it’s
important
Know who Rivera is writing about and what his
ultimate goals were
El Movimiento and El Teatro Campesino are
both important influences
Know what fragmentation is, and understand
how Evangelina Vigil-Pinon – our translator –
helps bring out the best in Rivera
Finally, you should familiarize yourself with
thematic concerns, “philosophical baseline”
business…and the stories themselves, as usual
Who Are We Reading About?
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The term “Chicano” – as in “Chicano literature” –
refers to Americans of Mexican descent
Rivera was born in Crystal City, TX; his parents
were migrant workers
“Many Mexicans and Chicanos provide labor for
farmers throughout the United States, particularly
in the West and Midwest. The work is seasonal,
exhausting, and pays very low wages…Many
migrant workers still toil under oppressive
conditions similar to those experienced by the
[characters] in Rivera's novel.”
-paraphrased from Annenberg
What Are We Reading About?
…And the Earth Did Not
Devour Him is a response to
certain realities of Chicano life
– and the result of them as
well
 Rivera focuses particularly
closely on the lives of Chicanos
serving as migrant
agricultural workers during
World War II and up through
the 1960s

Bracero Program
To understand why he does this, you have to
understand his background
 The Bracero program took place in 1942 –
shortly before the action in Rivera’s novel
begins, and long before the current battles
over immigration erupted on the national scale
 The U.S. and Mexican governments instituted
a set of labor laws intended to provide fair
treatment for Mexican nationals recruited to
work in the U.S.
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These laborers were, in part, taking the place of U.S.
workers lost to World Wars I and II
The program didn’t protect the workers fully, and
they were often exploited.
- paraphrased from Annenberg
Some Background
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Rivera’s parents immigrated to Texas around
this time
Traveled between Texas and the Midwest,
always looking for work
Prioritized education despite the constant
instability
Rivera ended up serving as Chancellor of UC
Riverside
The text is undeniably based on people Rivera
met, stories he heard, and his own experiences
I saw a lot of suffering and much isolation of
the people. Yet they lived through the whole
thing, perhaps because they had no choice. I
saw a lot of heroic people and I wanted to
capture their feelings.
The Beginning of a Tradition
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It was one of only a few novels in print about
Chicanos in this country at the time (late ‘60s/early
’70s)
His work was published during a time of unofficiallyenforced silence (think the boy and the barbershop)
Rivera wasn’t even aware of a tradition of Chicano
extended fictional writing, so he had to make his own
As Rivera wrote …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him
(1967–1968), other Chicano writers and artists were
finding expression for their ideas and opinions
Production of art and literature exploded into a fullfledged movement (which, one could argue, means
that Rivera’s book accomplished its task)
He’s responsible for breaking new ground, helping to
kick-start a movement that would revolutionize many
things (including our literature!)

He does this most obviously with his choices of subjects and
style
Wordplay
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One of the aspects of Rivera’s work that
people struggle with at first is the narrative
style, which – as I mentioned earlier – is a
way for him to make a distinctive mark on
the literary landscape
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The narrative isn’t expository (based on detailed
linear and realistic explanations)
It’s based more on sensory impressions and
subjective descriptions
Within this narrative framework, conventions
that we’ve grown accustomed to – linear
chronological development of a plot, for
example – fall away
This means you get snapshots of dialogue and
thoughts / perceptions rather than a traditional
“story”
Snapshots
This narrative style, similar to stream-ofconsciousness writing, is called
fragmentation.
 Everything’s fragmented – time, voice,
perspective

It’s a good thing he has Evangelina Vigil-Pinon
translating – she’s far better at capturing
female voices, and therefore helps present a
truly universal picture of the Chicanos
 However, this isn’t to say that Rivera abandons
plot and convention entirely; every story with a
title has a definite plot and narrative style
(with the exception of “When We Arrive” on
the plot count)
 Why does he fragment everything?

Kanellos
“Tomás Rivera had been writing before the
official Chicano movement got underway
(which historians and scholars place around
1965), when Cesar Chavez organized farm
workers in California, and tried to unionize
them. Along with that unionizing came the
birth of the El Teatro Campesino (the Farm
Workers’ Theatre), with Luis Valdez, who very
much developed a farm worker theater and
took it around the country and popularized
this new kind of literature that used the
language of the people. It also had a political
message along with the civil rights movement
and protests against Vietnam.”
Studying Politics
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Rivera wrote about the people – la gente
The book is clearly influenced by the oral tradition –
the practice of passing along knowledge and
entertainment through direct human interaction,
face to face that El Teatro Campesino used
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Poetry and theatre, where staging is immediate and
dialogue contains layer after layer of meaning
This concentration on multiple voices helps to connect the
novel to those oral traditions – the sounds of people talking
to people, with different people hearing different stories in
different places every day
It also emphasizes that the book is about a community (and
communal experience) rather than a traditional
protagonist / antagonist pairing
The novel was written during the organization of the
United Farm Movement in California and the
Chicano Civil Rights Movement

Allegorical reference to the farm workers’ movement,
coming out of the fields and shadows as invisible labor,
demanding their place in the sun
Understanding Influence
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Not only was Rivera influenced by El Teatro
Campesino, but by the Chicano renaissance – El
Movimiento
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It questioned accepted truths and focused on civil rights, labor
struggles, and the Vietnam War
All of these things – with the possible exception of the Vietnam
War, which is something of a sidebar here – are central to
Rivera’s text
One of the accepted truths Rivera chooses to question
– or at least examine – is the role of religion in the
migrant experience
Rivera posits that heritage and unity can free you – but
will faith simply convince you to accept your bondage?
This is one of the controversial aspects of the novel, as
the characters experience a great deal of religious
turmoil
This is also one of the reasons that the “innocence”
theme is so important – Rivera shows the crumbling of
faith in the young as a response to a cruel and unjust
world
Inspecting Our Bonds
While faith is not placed in the best light over the
course of the book, Rivera seems less interested in
criticizing faith than in studying the ramifications of
its loss – and what causes it to disappear
 What he does seem to criticize – in keeping with El
Movemiento’s philosophies – is blind acceptance or
blind faith
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After all, the movement is predicated on questioning the
things (and injustices) that we have taken for granted, even
unconsciously
The faith that’s on display here isn’t faith at all – it’s fear by a
different name, and the only reason its branded as such is –
yep – blind acceptance
If you understand the larger themes Rivera is
grappling with – as well as his larger ideological
concerns – it’s easier to understand why religion plays
the role it does early in this novel
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Does the search for the truth set you free?
In how many ways has society trapped us – and what can set
us free?
Deep Concerns
The novel is deeply concerned with
exploitation, injustice, and oppression –
whether it be economic, social, or spiritual in
nature – because they each give us easy access
to the larger questions about what it means to
be human, and what the Chicanos have lost by
accepting a system that forces them to live
inferior lives
 In many ways, the collection of stories in this
book are about gaining, re-gaining, or losing
something – whether it’s identity, faith, or
hope
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Remember, the child must go from being lost to
being found
The community must connect with itself
An Emerging Awareness
 Specifically,
the boy represents a
developing Chicano/migrant community
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One that lacks self-awareness and struggles
to understand itself, therefore remaining
unaware of its power
This is a community in search of its identity;
it needs an idea of what that is
If the boy can begin to remember what he
has forgotten, perhaps the community can
come together in solidarity
Protect one another in a world that abuses
them
Return to living like human beings instead of
like helpless beasts of burden
Community-Building Exercises
 What’s
fascinating about this community
is the real way in which solidarity can
help protect people – can help them
survive – in a world that refuses to care
for or help them
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Again, compare this to The Awakening
 This
community is forming because the
people need it to form
 They’re in a position where they’ve
already lost just about everything, and
every day is simply a struggle to avoid
losing the rest
Losing Battle
So much is lost over the course of …And the
Earth Did Not Devour Him – lives, innocence,
faith – that the book can feel almost oppressive
at times
 That’s somewhat the point – there isn’t really
an escape for the migrant workers and
families, at least not one provided by the
outside world
 If they want to change their lives, change their
fates, they need to come together and agitate
for change
 Only through the help of others can we help to
save ourselves – and only through our
connections to others, to the world, can we
become truly self-aware
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Another Reason for the Structure
 In
short, the book is about life, and what
it means to be alive
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Failure and sadness
Beauty and happiness
Hatred and love
Isolation and unity
 This
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is why the book is structured as it is
Long story, short story – long, short, long,
short…
How does a heartbeat sound?
The book is literally pulsing – pulsing in
time with the lives it’s describing
“The Lost Year” in a Nutshell
 Now
that we understand Rivera’s
intentions, the story doesn’t seem so
confusing
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Boy = Chicano migrant community
Year = Sense of shared experiences and
heritage
Call/Name = Community searching for its
identity and purpose; first steps towards
self-awareness
 Heritage
and unity will free us
 We will no longer be “alone…together”
 We can reclaim our human nature by
making society recognize us as people
I.
II.
Can human nature be changed in
such a way that man will forget his
longing for freedom, for dignity, for
integrity, for love – that is to say, can
man forget that he is human? Or
does human nature have [a
component] which will react to the
violation of these basic human needs
by attempting to change an inhuman
society into a human one?
…Man has an intense [need] for love,
for justice, for truth, [and] for
solidarity…
These Words Were Written
 …in
Erich Fromm’s afterword to
George Orwell’s 1984
 Fromm wrote this in 1961
 Amazing, no?
Breaking Down the Question
 Can
we be forced to forget our
longing for freedom?
 Sure – see “The Matrix,” read 1984,
or take a look at some of Rivera’s
characters
 Look for the tipping point
Breaking Down the Question
 Can
we forget our longing for
dignity?
 We must differentiate between the
(willing) sacrifice of dignity and the
absence of desire for it
 Plenty of people trade their dignity
for success; is this the same as
forgetting to want that self-respect?
 Have the people in “When We
Arrive” lost their dignity?
Breaking Down the Question
 Can
we forget our sense of integrity?
 In other words, can external forces
rob one of one’s moral compass?
 “Hand in His Pocket”
 “The Portrait”
 What can cause integrity to
collapse?
Breaking Down the Question
 Can
we forget that we need love?
 How did you feel about Edna in “The
Awakening”…not after class
discussions, but when you first
finished the story?
 Edna searched for love,
independence, and identity
 Rivera’s characters do as well
Love?
 “The
Night the Lights Went Out” –
romantic love
 Any number of stories featuring
familial love (did Edna enjoy such a
sensation?)
 Love in faith – strangely absent,
replaced by fear
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Indicative of the uncertainty that rules
the Chicanos’ lives
Independence?
 Independence
from orthodoxy
 Independence with respect to
control
 Throw a dart at a list of stories –
you’ll probably hit one where this is
a concern
Identity
 Personal
identity as one experiences
dramatic change (“A Prayer,” “Hand
in His Pocket,” “First Communion”)
 Communal identity with respect to a
common heritage – history,
traditions, desires, obstacles, etc.
Man Has An Intense Need:
For love
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The Night the
Lights Went Out
It’s That It Hurts
The Night Before
Christmas
For justice
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“There were sixteen
dead…”
The Children
Couldn’t Wait
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For truth
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Vignette #1
A Silvery Night
…And the Earth Did
Not Devour Him
For solidarity
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The Lost Year
Under the House
Any story where a
person is weakened by
their isolation
There’s Something Within Us
 One
of the central questions in 1984 –
can we forget what makes us human?
– is given a different spin here
 Instead of asking if we can forget,
Rivera asks how we can remember
what makes us human
 After all, the migrants are willing to
continue living their lives – lives of
constant degradation and oppression
 If they can remember, they can return
to human existence
There’s Something Within Us
 Fromm
– or Orwell – wants to know if
we’ll stand up for ourselves
 Rivera demands that we do, argues
that we must – and gives us two figures
who follow through
 The man in “When We Arrive”
couldn’t be any more different from
the boy in “Under the House” if he
tried…but they’re sides of the same
coin, unique but unified, different but
inseparable
I.
II.
I would like to see all of the people
together. And then, if I had great big
arms, I could embrace them all.
He had made a discovery. To discover
and rediscover and piece things
together. This to this, that to that, all
to all. That was it. That was
everything. He was thrilled.
Enlightenment.
Enlightenment
Knowledge and understanding can unlock
a world of infinite possibilities; if our
freedoms, security, dreams, and
identities are locked away, enlightenment
provides us with a set of keys.
 The star diagram for each migrant looks
pretty stretched…
 Rivera’s trying to help people realize that
there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with
them, and that they deserve better lives
than the ones they’re leading
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At the End of the Day…
 The
last scene of the book is a
significant moment of self-recognition
 The boy is no longer lost
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The community hasn’t come together yet –
but the process has started
 After
all of the pain, longing, and
frustration of the earlier stories, the
novel ends on a beautiful,
transcendent moment of hope
And Beyond the End…
I love that moment – the moment where you
realize that there’s a purpose to
remembering the migrants’ suffering – and
a hundred others like it
 Rivera has an incredible gift for emotional
writing
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He makes you genuinely sad, or genuinely upset,
over the affairs of nameless people
He also has an incredible gift for subtlety –
for writing words that contain multitudes of
meanings
 Finally, his thematic concerns are real and
important, and resonate long after the
initial publication date
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So, to Summarize
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First Communion:
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Fear and confusion intermingled with faith
Removal from human existence – the body as a
source of evil
The loss of innocence
Accidents and consequences
Hints of unity
Vignette #8
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Sacrifice at the heart of love
The need to belong
Do you get what you give?
Living life intensely – burning out bright – because
misfortune always lies around the corner
“Everything ends badly; otherwise, it wouldn’t end.”
So, to Summarize
 The
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Little Burnt Victims
Unable to handle responsibility while young
The world is cruel and arbitrary
Parents out of home
Hopes crushed once again
The next generation can’t live like this one
 Vignette
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#9
Moment of beauty
Happiness within ourselves
Unity and health
Contrast of birth and death
Can anything last?
So, to Summarize
 The
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Night the Lights Went Out
Hopes crushed – nothing left to live for
Live hard and burn out bright
Wants stability in an uncertain world
Not ready to transition into adulthood
Wants what V9 has; meets same fate as LBV
 Vignette
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#10
The universe is cruel and arbitrary
Trapped – literally – by their circumstances
Taking whatever opportunities they can
Injustice and hate
So, to Summarize
 The
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Night Before Christmas
Outside world crushing in (agoraphobia)
Fear and the unknown
Defeated/limited by expectations
Risking everything for love
Everyone’s been displaced
 Vignette
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#11
We deserve better than what we’re getting
Disconnect between church and the people
Leaving a mark – we were here, and we
matter
So, to Summarize
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The Portrait
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More abuse from mercenary forces
Hope is weakness
Taking back control
Settling for something less than you deserve
Believe in what you want
When We Arrive
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Constant displacement – never arrives at a plot!
We deserve better
Surrendering to/enduring the circumstances vs.
rebelling against exploitation
Hope vs. cynicism
Widest range of emotion
Seeds of love in the darkness
So, to Summarize
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Vignette #13
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Marching out of the darkness
The spoken word – literature and connection
Love has the power to hold us together
Interested in the things we recognize
Under the House
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Mission statement for the book – true selfrecognition
Remembrance of heritage and awareness of one’s
rightful place in the universe
Peace through connection – “That was it. That was
everything. He was thrilled.”
The end and the beginning
He chooses his direction – no more “biting flies” to
displace him now that he’s taking control of his life
The Philosophical Baseline
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We all need something to believe in, and a
reason to believe in it.
I can do virtually any job - anything - as long
as I don't hate it, but I can't do something I
hate for a living.
Hope is worth preserving, even if it requires
ignoring the truth, if one needs it in order to
endure hardship.
Isolation is a terrible thing.
Family is convenient, but ultimately
unnecessary.
The Philosophical Baseline II
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I deserve a better life than the one I’m living
now.
If a secret will hurt someone, it shouldn’t be
shared.
Members of a society have a responsibility
to provide for and protect one another; we
need each other in order to survive.
I would sacrifice everything, big or small,
for my loved ones.
Injustice often goes unpunished.
The Philosophical Baseline III
I
don’t like hearing bad news, and I
don’t like seeing negative aspects of
myself.
 I am afraid of what the future holds.
 I’ll back down in situations where I
clearly can’t win.
 I test the beliefs I form, and routinely
re-examine my principles and ways of
thinking.
The Philosophical Baseline IV
I
cannot forgive betrayal.
 Literature is unimportant.
 My family is counting on me to
succeed; their hopes and dreams lie
with me.