Journal 2

Death of the Tiger by Rosario Castellanos was a story that, to put it bluntly is very
stereotypical of many Latin American artists. As I discussed in journal one, the national identity
of the oppressed is very prevalent throughout much Latin American literature; not without good
reason of course. In the story we follow the fall of the Bolometic tribe. The Bolometic are people
whom suffer a fate historically similar to that of many indigenous tribes that inhabited Central
America, particularly Mexico. However, this historical fiction makes a great effort to give the
reader insight to how, after the fact, the Indians feel about the conquest of their land. It is easy to
describe a fall from grace, but very difficult to put resentment and loathing into words.
Castellanos, in my opinion, captures this feeling well when describing the natives spectacle of
the cathedral in Ciudad Real. Castellanos writes, The Bolometic cross the first streets amid the
silent disapproval of the passerby whom with squeamish gestures avoided brushing that
offensive misery (19). This sentence is so potent with its use of diction of emotional distress
that it feels almost physical. The misery of the natives is so strong that it manifests as a corporeal
stain, that the city residents make a decided effort to avoid contacting as if the mere proximity of
it could make then somehow unclean. In the following line The Indians examined the spectacle
before their eyes with curiosity, insistence, and lack of understanding (20). As with the previous
line, the diction and syntax in this sentence struck me as monumentally important. How the
adjectives describing their view of the cathedral becomes progressively more negative in
connotation. Illustrating the progression of thinking process in the natives, whom start with a
desire to see, then marked by a desperate attempt to understand, finishing with a resigned
surrender of understanding. This is sorrowful to me. A primary impetus of much conquest of
native tribes from which much suffering was derived was to convert them religiously. However,
when the procession looks upon the physical statement of that faith that so many died for; they
simply cannot find any meaning in it. Castellanos really drives this point home in the next line,
which reads The massive walls of the Caxlanes temples weighed upon them almost as if they
were obliged to carry that weight on their shoulders (20). The weight, symbolizes the crushing
amount of native lives, and souls whom were claimed in the Caxlanes effort to force the religion
and temples upon them. The rest of paragraph 20 is very strong in this conviction of how the
Caxlanes religion affects the natives. (In an effort to summarize and keep this under a few
pages)
The next paragraph is extremely powerful as Castellanos describes who the natives view
the men of Ciudad Real, he writes, And people? How did the omnipotent Caxlan god (21).
The way in which the men are described paints them as almost less than human, such that the
Bolometic did not recognize such a being. Their pettiness and malediction of the natives
combine with their historical acumen to form what Castellanos describes as an ugly decadence
through all of this, the natives specifically see the visage of the Caxlane omnipotent god (21).
Further cementing the idea that the main focus of dissonance between the two peoples is spiritual
in nature. More evidence that supports this idea is the fiasco with the names that takes place in
paragraph 62 and the negative biblical reference in paragraph 53. To conclude, Castellanos
paints of grand picture of the corrupted spirit of the Caxlane and their religious fervor, to their
true god, the almighty dollar. There are many points in the story where greed is paired with
religious symbolism or spirituality. Castellanos writes The Caxlanes greed cannot be stifled
their childrens children (5). While the Natives spirit was that of their waigel, the tiger, the
white mans god was their greed which like some prehensile phantom limb they used to rape the
land and siphon all life from the natives. The comparatively noble spirit of the natives inspired
them to have greed by force of their action whereas the Caxlane god was inundated by the
insatiable hunger for material gain. In paragraph 23 and 24 Castellanos describes the market of
Ciudad Real through the eyes of the natives. The last sentence in paragraph 24 in particular sums
up the acumen of the Caxlanes and their god. Castellanos writes, This was what the Bolometic
saw, and they saw it with an amazement that was not touched with greed, that destroyed any
thoughts of greed. With religious amazement (24). This line cements beyond a shadow of a
doubt that in the city and heart of the Caxlane community that religion and greed are
synonymous. That they worship gain. Unlike the nobel waigel, the tiger that was murdered in the
hills by the god of greed and through the influence of the Caxlanes The tiger in the hills was
never heard from again (77)