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The Feast of the Goat

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The Feast of the Goat
The cover of a recent translation.
AuthorMario Vargas Llosa
Original titleLa fiesta del chivo
TranslatorEdith Grossman
LanguageSpanish
GenreHistorical novel
Dictator novel
PublisherAlfaguara (Spanish)
 ??? (English)
Publication date
2000
Publication placePeru
Published in English
2001
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN[[Special:BookSources/ISBN+978-9505115846+%28Spanish%29%3Cbr+%2F%3E+ISBN+%3F%3F%3F%3F+%28English%29 |ISBN 978-9505115846 (Spanish)
ISBN ???? (English)]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

The Feast of the Goat (Spanish: La fiesta del chivo, 2000) is a novel by the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa. The book is set in the Dominican Republic, at two distinct time periods: during and immediately after the regime of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo; and in the present day.

The novel follows three interwoven story lines. The first is a modern day retrospective look at the regime through the eyes of a fictional character named Urania Cabral. The second is from the perspective of the regime's inner circle, including the dictator himself. The third storyline is from the perspective of his assassins. These three strands reveal the political and social environment in the Dominican Republic, past and present. Through these different perspectives, the reader is able to see the downward spiral of the regime, the assassination of Trujillo, and what followed in the Dominican Republic through the eyes of insiders, conspirators, and a young woman looking back. The modern day thread allows a retrospective look at the nature of a powerful regime.

Background

The novel's title—The Feast of the Goat—is taken from the popular Dominican merengue Mataron al Chivo ("They Killed the Goat") which refers to the assassination of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, the Dictator of the Dominican Republic, on May 30 1961. Merengue is a style of music created by Ñico Lora in the 1920s. Rafael Trujillo promoted it during his era, and due to the influence of Merengue in the Dominican Republic, it soon became the country’s national music. Vargas Llosa quotes the lyrics at the beginning of the novel:

El pueblo celebra

con gran entusiasmo
la Fiesta del Chivo
el treinta de mayo

The people celebrate
With great enthusiasm
the feast of the Goat

the thirtieth of May

Plot summary

The novel's plot centres around three distinctive strands following various characters: Urania Cabral, the conspirators involved in Trujillo's assassination, and Trujillo himself. The novel alternates between these strands and between 1961 and the present day, with frequent flashbacks to periods earlier during Trujillo's regime.

The novel begins with the return of Urania to her hometown of Santo Domingo, a city which had been renamed Ciudad Trujillo during Rafael Trujillo's Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina time in power. This storyline is largely introspective and deals with Urania's memories and her inner turmoil over the events preceding her departure from the Dominican Republic as a young woman. Urania escapes the crumbling Trujillo regime in 1961, allegedly to study under the tutelage of nuns in Michigan. In the following decades, Urania achieves success as a prominent New York lawyer. When she finally returns to the Dominican Republic in 1996, she does so on a whim, and finds herself compelled to confront her father and elements of her past she has long ignored. As Urania speaks to her ailing father, Augustin Cabral, she recalls more and more of the anger and disgust that galvanized her thirty-five years of silence. Urania retells her father's descent into political disgrace and the betrayal that forms the crux of both Urania's storyline and that of Trujillo himself.

The second and third storylines are set in 1961, in the weeks prior to and following Trujillo's assassination on the 30th of May. One storyline tells the background stories of each of Trujillo's assassins and consequently the driving motivators for his elimination. Each of these characters has been wronged by Trujillo and his regime, be it through their pride, their religious faith, their morality, their loved ones, or they themselves. Vargas Llosa weaves the tale of each man as memories recalled on the night of Trujillo's death, as the conspirators lie in wait for The Goat (Trujillo). Interconnected with these stories are the actions of other famous Trujillistas of the time; Joaquín Balaguer, the puppet president, Johnny Abbes García, the merciless head of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), and various other characters, some real figures, some composites of historical figures, and some purely fictional.

The third storyline is concerned with the thoughts and motives of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina himself. The chapters concerning The Goat recall the major events of his time, including the slaughter of thousands of Dominican Haitians in 1937. They also deal with the Dominican Republic's tense international relationships during the Cold War, especially with the United States under the governance John F. Kennedy, and Cuba under Castro. Vargas Llosa also speculates upon Trujillo's innermost thoughts and paints a picture of a man whose physical body is failing him. Trujillo is unable to control his bladder or his penis, and this incontinence and impotence torment him. This storyline joins Urania's recollections in the revelation that Urania was sexually assaulted by Trujillo. Trujillo is unable to achieve an erection with Urania, and in frustration and anger he rapes her with his hands. This event is the core of Urania's shame, and her hatred towards her father. In addition, it is the cause of Trujillo's repeated anger over the "skinny little thing" that witnessed his impotence and emotion, and the reason he is on route to sleep with another girl on the night of his assassination.

The final chapters of the novel twist the three storylines together with increasing frequency. In addition, the tone of these chapters is especially dark as they deal primarily with the horrific torture and death of the assassins at the hands of the SIM, the failure of the coup, the almost unpalatable concessions made to the most vicious Trujillistas, and the rape of Urania at the hands of the Generalissimo himself.

Characters

Modern day

Urania Cabral and her father Agustín Cabral appear in both the modern day and historical portions of the novel. In the year 1996, Urania returns to the Dominican Republic for the first time since her departure at the age of 14. She is a successful New York lawyer who has spent most of the past 35 years trying to overcome the traumas of her childhood, a goal she pursues through an academic fascination with Trujillo and Dominican history. Urania is deeply troubled by the events of her past, and is compelled to confront her father Agustín about his role in those events. Urania visits her father, finding him weakened by age and a severe stroke, so much so that he is barely able to respond physically to her presence, let alone speak. Agustín listens helplessly as Urania recounts his past as "Egghead Cabral", a high ranking member of Trujillo's inner circle, and his drastic fall from grace. Urania details Agustín's role in the events that led to her rape by the Dominican leader, and to her subsequent lifetime of celibacy and emotional trauma. [1] Agustín's character in the modern day portion of the novel serves primarily as a sounding board for Urania's recollections of the Trujillo era and the events that surrounded both Agustín Cabral's disgrace and Urania's escape from the country. His responses are minimal and non-vocal, despite the ardency of Urania's accusations and the enormity of his own actions during Trujillo's reign.

The Trujillo regime

File:Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.jpg
The Dominican Republic's dictator, and the central figure of The Feast of the Goat, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo

Rafael Trujillo, known also as The Goat, The Chief, and The Benefactor, is a fictionalized character based on the real dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961 and the official President of the Republic from 1930 to 1938 and 1943 to 1952. [2] In The Feast of the Goat, Vargas Llosa imagines the innermost thoughts of the dictator, and retells The Goat's last hours from his own perspective. [3] Trujillo's character struggles with aging and the physical problems of incontinence and impotence. [4] Through fictional events and first person narrative, the reader is given insight into the man who, during his "thirty-one years of horrendous political crimes", modernized the country's infrastructure and military, but whose regime's attacks against its enemies overseas (particularly the attempted assassination of Rómulo Betancourt, president of Venezuela) led to the imposition of economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic by the Organization of American States in the 1950's. [5] The resultant economic downturn, in conjunction with other factors, leads to the CIA supported assassination plot that ends Trujillo's life on May 30th, 1961. [6]

Trujillo's regime is supported by the head of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), one Johnny Abbes García, a brutal man to whom many "disappearances, ... executions, .. sudden falls into disgrace" are attributed. García and his intelligence officers are notorious for their cruelty, particularly their habit of killing dissidents by throwing them into shark-infested waters. [7] Colonel García "may be the devil, but he's useful to the Chief; everything bad is attributed to him and only the good to Trujillo". [8] Trujillo's son, Ramfis Trujillo, is a loyal supported of the Chief. After unsuccessful attempts at schooling in the United States, Ramfis returns to the Dominican Republic to serve in his father's military. He is a well-known womanizer. Upon Trujillo's death, Ramfis seeks revenge, even going so far as to torture and kill his uncle by marriage, General Jose Roman for his part in the assassination conspiracy. Finally, the puppet president of Trujillo's regime, Joaquín Balaguer, is a seemingly innocuous character who holds no real power. However, following Trujillo's death, the calm and serenity of Balaguer bring about real change in his character. In fact, General Román comments that "this insignificant man whom everyone had always considered a mere clerk, a purely decorative figure in the regime, began to acquire surprising authority". [9] It is Balaguer who guides much of the action in the last sections of the book.

Conspirators

The storyline concerning the assassination primarily follows the four conspirators who directly participate in Trujillo's death. Antonio Imbert Barrera is one of the few conspirators who survives the violent reprisals that follow Trujillo's assassination. Imbert is a politician who becomes disillusioned with the deception and cruelty of the Trujillo regime. His first conspiracy to kill Trujillo was foiled one day early by the unsuccessful attempted overthrow of the regime by Cuban paramilitary forces. More convinced of the difficulty of his task, Imbert joins the other conspirators in plotting Trujillo's death. Among the others is Antonio de la Maza, one of Trujillo's personal guards. Antonio's brother is killed as part of a government cover-up and Antonio swears revenge upon Trujillo. In the aftermath of the assassination, Antonio and Amadito choose to fight the members of SIM who come to arrest them, opting to die in battle rather than be captured and tortured. Salvador Estrelle Sadhalá, known as "Turk" is a devout Catholic who, in indignation of the regime's many crimes against God, swears an oath against Trujillo. Turk eventually turns himself in for fear that the regime was torturing his family. Both Turk and his innocent brother are then tortured for months. His father remains loyal to Trujillo and disowns him to his face. Despite all of this, Turk refuses to commit suicide and does not lose faith in God. He is later executed by Ramfis and other high level government men. Turk's close friend, Amado García Guerrero, known as Amadito, is a Lieutenant in the army who gave up his beloved as proof of his loyalty to Trujillo, and then later was forced to kill her brother to prove himself to Trujillo. Amadito's disgust with himself and disillusionment with the regime lead to his decision to help to kill Trujillo. Following the assassination he hides out with de la Maza and dies fighting.

Major themes

The Feast of the Goat's major themes include political corruption, machismo, memory, and writing and power. Olga Lorenzo argues that the major themes can help us understand some irrational forces of Latin tradition that give rise to despotism. [10]

Political corruption

The structure of the South American Society was very hierarchal and gendered. It was ruled by a cruel dictator, Rafael Trujillo, who haunts the people of Santo Domingo even 35 years after his death. He is truely a caudillo who ruled with brutality and corruption. He encourages personality cult in his capitalist society and causes decadence to the regime.[11] Prior to promotion to a position of greatest responsibility, an officer is subjugated to pass “The test of loyalty to Trujillo”.[12] His people are to remain loyal to him at no cost, and they were periodically tested by public humiliation and censure even though they were usually not at fault for anything. Some lieutenants who's wife or children were violated still remained blindly loyal to him, as he validates the violation of women as an expression of political and sexual power.[13] Even the church and military institutions were employed to give women to the tyrant for pleasure.

Many of the assassins had belonged to the Trujillo regime or had at one point been staunch supporters of him, only to find their support eroded away by the crimes of the state against its people.[14] Imbert, one of the assassins, sums up this realization, "They kill our fathers, our brothers, our friends. And now they're killing our women. And here we sit, resigned, waiting our turn."[15] This was in response to the infamous murder of the Mirabal sisters. The corruption and brutality of Trujillo's regime is described by Mario Vargas Llosa in one interview; "He had more or less all the common traits of a Latin American dictator, but pushed to the extreme. In cruelty, I think he went far far away from the rest—and in corruption, too."[16]

Machismo

According to Niessa, the two important components of machismo are aggressive behaviour and hyper-sexuality.[17] The aggressive behaviour aspect is exhibited by displays of power and strength, while hyper-sexuality is revealed through sexual activity with as many partners as possible.[18] These two components shape the portrayal of Trujillo and his regime in The Feast of the Goat. As Olga Lorenzo observes, Vargas Llosa "reveals traditions of machismo, of abusive fathers, and of child-rearing practices that repeat the shaming of children, so that each generation bequeaths a withering of the soul to the subsequent one."[19]

In a display of both aspects of machismo, Trujillo demanded of his aides and cabinet that they provide him with sexual access to their wives and daughters. Mario Vargas Llosa said of Trujillo's machismo and treatment of women, "[h]e went to bed with his ministers' wives, not only because he liked these ladies but because it was a way to test his ministers. He wanted to know if they were ready to accept this extreme humiliation. Mainly the ministers were prepared to play this grotesque role -- and they remained loyal to Trujillo even after his death."[16] Trujillo's sexual conquests and public humiliations of his enemies also served to affirm his political power and machismo. "The implication is that maximum virility equals political dominance."[20]

Trujillo's attempted sexual conquest of Urania is an example of both political manipulation of Agustín Cabral and sexual power over young women. Unfortunately for Trujillo, his penis remains flaccid throughout the encounter and he is humiliated in front of the young girl, thus failing to satisfy his requirements for machismo. "[21]

Memory

All three threads of the novel deal with the issue of memory in some sense or another. The most apparent confrontation of memory is on the part of Urania Cabral, who has returned to the Dominican Republic for the first time in 30 years, and is forced to confront her father and the traumas that led her to leave the country at 14. She was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the dictator himself, a sacrifice her father made to try to gain favor with the dictator again, a fact that she alludes to through the whole book. The book ends with her recounting the memory of that night to her aunt and cousins, who never knew the true reason she left the country. When her aunt is surprised that she remembers all these details, she responds that while she forgets many things, "I remember everything about that night."[22] For Urania, forgetting the atrocities committed by the regime is unacceptable.[23] Her father, on the other hand, is not capable of joining her in this process of remembering, since he has suffered a stroke and is not capable of speaking; however, Urania is angry that he chose to forget these things while he was still capable of acknowledging them.[23]

Memory is also important in the sections about the assassins. Each recalls the actions that led him to take place in the assassination of Trujillo. These real historical events included the 1956 Galinez kidnapping and murder, the 1960 murder of the Mirabal sisters, and the 1961 split with the Catholic Church. "Vargas Llosa systematically links each conspirator with a specific historical event that typified the violence of the dictatorship."[24]

Mario Vargas Llosa also uses the fictionalized Urania to facilitate the novel's attempt at remembering the regime. The story opens and closes with Urania's story, effectively framing the narrative in the terms of remembering the past and the process of understanding the past and its legacy in the present.[25] In addition, because of her academic study of the history of the Trujillo regime, she is also confronting the memory of the regime for the country as a whole.[26] This is in keeping with one purpose of the book, which is to ensure that the atrocities of the dictatorship and the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation of people.[27]

Writing and power

Power can be seen as a discourse of prohibition which can be reflected in history. History reflects on both what is and what is not told.[28] The government's discourse in The Feast of the Goat shows prohibition discourse: foreign newspapers and magazines were prohibited from entering Trujillo's country as they were seen as a threat to the government's ideas. Mario Vargas Llosa takes part in this discourse by recounting what was prohibited. [29]

Writing also has the power to transform reality. It brings us back to the past which allows us to comprehend myths or distorted stories told by historians. Knowing the past is crucial to our understanding of the present that takes us to postmodernism. This novel, thus, can be seen as a postmodern discourse that gives power to history recreation.[30]

The construction of fictions surrounding the events of Trujillo's regime allow a degree of freedom from the horrors that took places. In fact, these events can "only finally be understood by fiction, only finally be redeemed by the imagination". [31] Through use of narrative structure Vargas Llosa "reconfigures, and to a large degree demythologizes" Trujillo and his brutal reign. [32] Vargas Llosa's writing acts as a cathartic force for this period in history.

Fact and fiction

The novel is a combination of fact and fiction. Blending together these two elements is important in any historical novel, but especially in The Feast of the Goat because Vargas Llosa chose to narrate an actual event through the minds of both real and fictional characters.[33] Some characters are fictional, and those that are non-fictional still have fictionalized aspects in the book. The general details of the assassination are true, and the assassins are all real people.[34] While they lie in wait for the Dictator to arrive, they recount actual crimes of the regime, such as the murder of the Mirabal sisters.[14] However, other details are invented by Llosa, such as Amadito's murder of the brother of the woman he loved.[14] In this way, Vargas Llosa weaves fact and fiction together to create a narrative of the events of the assassination.

Those within the regime are also a mix of fictional characters and real people. Cabral is a fictional person, but the current President Balaguer is not. The Cabral family is completely fictional. According to Vargas Llosa "uses history as a starting point in constructing a fictionalized account of Trujillo's "spiritual colonization" of the Dominican Republic as experienced by one Dominican family.[35] The fictional family allows Vargas Llosa to show two sides of the Trujillo regime: one, through Augustin, of the ultimate dedication and sacrifice to the leader of the nation; the other, through Urania, of the violence of the regime and the legacy of pain it left behind.

Vargas Llosa also fictionalized the internal thoughts of the characters who were non-fictional, especially those of the Goat himself, "Vargas Llosa's expands all the way into the very "dark area" of Trujillo's consciousness (as the storyteller dares to conceive it)."[36] Vargas Llosa also built an image of the regime with the troubled historical events.

Mario Vargas Llosa said about the historical accuracy of his book, "It's a novel, not a history book, so I took many, many liberties. The only limitation I imposed on myself was that I was not going to invent anything that couldn't have happened within the framework of life in the Dominican Republic. I have respected the basic facts, but I have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive -- and I have not exaggerated."[16]

Critical reception

The realist style of The Feast of the Goat is recognized by some reviewers as being a break from a more allegorical approach to the dictator novel.[37] The novel received largely positive reviews, most of which were willing to accept sacrifices of historical accuracy in favour of good storytelling.[38]

A common comment on the novel is the graphic nature of the many acts of torture and murder which are depicted in the novel. Vargas lets the reader see the realities of an oppressive regime with a degree of detail not often used by his compatriots in Latin American literature, as Michael Wood suggests in the London Review of Books: "Vargas Llosa ... tells us far more about the details of day-to-day intrigue, and the sordid, sadistic minutiae of torture and murder."[39] Walter Kirn of the New York Times suggests that the "grisly scenes of dungeon interrogations and torture sessions" cast other aspects of the novel in a pale light, draining them of their significance and impact.[11] Similarly, Kirn implies that the "narrative machinery" mentioned by Wood as being somewhat unwieldy also produces a largely superfluous storyline.[11] The plot line centered on Urania Cabral is described by Sturrock as being an emotional centre that focuses the novel, and Wood agrees that her confrontations with past demons holds the readers attention.[37] In contrast, Kirn's review states that Urania's segments are "talky and atmospheric ... [and] seem to be on loan from another sort of book."[11]

Most reviews of The Feast of the Goat make either indirect of direct reference to the relationship between sexuality and power. Miller, Heawood, Kirn, and Wood detail the connection between Trujillo's gradual loss of ultimate control, both over his body and his followers. The means by which Trujillo reinforces political power through sexual acts and begins to lose personal conviction as his body fails him are topics of frequent discussion among reviewers.

Adaptations

Film

A motion picture adaptation was made in 2005 in English. It stars Isabella Rossellini as Urania Cabral, Paul Freeman as her father Agustin, and Tomas Milian as Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. This was directed by Luis Llosa, Mario Vargas Llosa's cousin. It was filmed in both the Dominican Republic and in Spain.[40]

Theater

A theater adaptation of the novel was written by Jorge Alí Triana and his daughter Veronica Triana in 2003, and directed by Jorge Triana.[41]

Notes

  1. ^ Llosa 2001, p. 388
  2. ^ Delpar 1974, p. 597
  3. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 11
  4. ^ Llosa 2001, p. 232
  5. ^ Delpar 1996, p. 274
  6. ^ Delpar 1974, p. 597
  7. ^ Llosa 2001, p. 24
  8. ^ Llosa 2001, p. 37
  9. ^ Llosa 2001, p. 322
  10. ^ Lorenzo 2002
  11. ^ a b c d Kirn 2001
  12. ^ Vargas Llosa 2001, p. 35
  13. ^ Neissa 2004, pp. 120–129
  14. ^ a b c Patterson 2006, p. 232
  15. ^ Vargas Llosa 2001, p. 137
  16. ^ a b c Gussow 2002
  17. ^ Niessa 2004, p. 114
  18. ^ Niessa 2004, p. 115
  19. ^ Lorenzo 2002
  20. ^ Niessa 2004, p. 129
  21. ^ Wolff 2007, p. 287
  22. ^ Vargas Llosa 2001, p. 385
  23. ^ a b Wolff 2007, p. 268
  24. ^ Wolff 2007, p. 275
  25. ^ Niessa 2004, p. 124
  26. ^ Wolff 2007, p. 267
  27. ^ Wolff 2007, p. 263
  28. ^ Ruiz 2005, p. 22
  29. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 234
  30. ^ Ruiz 2005, p. 31
  31. ^ Alvarez 1995, p. 324
  32. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 224
  33. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 222
  34. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 224
  35. ^ Wolff 2007, p. ??
  36. ^ Patterson 2006, p. 225
  37. ^ a b Sturrock 2002
  38. ^ Cheuse 2001
  39. ^ Wood 2002
  40. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428532/
  41. ^ Weber 2003

References

  • Alvarez, Julia (1995), In the Time of Butterflies, New York: Penguin/Plume, ISBN 0452274427.
  • Vargas Llosa, Mario (2001), The Feast of the Goat, New York: Picador, ISBN 0-312-42027-7. Trans. Edith Grossman.
  • Gonzalez, Mike; Balderston, Daniel; López, Ana M. (2000), Encyclopedia of contemporary Latin American and Caribbean cultures, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415229715{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Delpar, Helen (1974), Encyclopedia of Latin America, New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0070162638
  • Dorn, Georgette M.; Tenenbaum, Barbara A. (1996), Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0684192535{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)



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