"I tell you, Lazarus, who came over to you than your father because your father once gave you life but the wine you gave a thousand times." So the blind man instructs Primero after the episode of the sausage, while wine NUEYS debacle pariah face of the Earth. But the phrase in another sense, it could be applied to themselves the protagonists of Tortilla Flat, so rogues and as poor as Lazarus and equally fond tipple.
Sunbathing, not to blow, to defraud their neighbors and decant bully massive amounts of wine are the usual activities of Danny and Pilon and Pablo and Jesus Maria Corcoran. But also, as ragged knights, do good, protect the homeless and help everyone, but his philanthropy has often dyes filibusters. If morality of the peasants, like Lazarus, is more than doubtful, their intentions can not be questioned: they are always noble.
This ambivalence is present in all the actions of Danny: saved from misery to the family of Teresina Cortez, but then let her pregnant ("tried in vain to remember which one was responsible), unleashing a phenomenal beat Big Joe the Portuguese for having stolen the treasure of the pirate but after his wounds heal with loving care and forgiveness will be awarded with a glass of wine Torrelli cheat, lie down with his wife, throw him home kicking and while provide, they conclude (and the wish is sincere), "We should do something good for Torrelli."
And in Tortilla Flat echoes of the best European picaresque literature, the Lazarillo de Tormes aforementioned SimplicĂsimus adventurer-in comic mixing with the legends of chivalry. The peasants, modern rogues who swear to defend the weak, are compared with the Knights of the Round Table, with Roland and Robin Hood, rather than the virtues classic hero look here transmuted into vagrancy, drunkenness, lust and bravado. Danny's friends are some gulfs with a heart of gold. Which
cause quite a few humorous scenes. It is hard not to laugh along the line of reasoning to strip Pilon earnings Pirate "for his own good." Or to hear how Jesus Maria censorship virtuously to Torrelli cheated: "At this hour of the morning and drunk ...". The juicy conversations on the porch of the house of Danny parodically link with erotic stories of the Decameron, the hilarious affairs of friends, with the novelty of courtly love and sentimental part of the Renaissance to the present days. Tricky and naive, honest and cynical, the peasants always end up making peace with the world if possible, with a glass in hand.
Tortilla Flat Is it then a comedy, a humorous novel? No doubt. But also and above all, a history deeply lyrical, full of tenderness and good intentions: an ode to friendship, camaraderie and the simple pleasures, with touches of mysticism and a final bittersweet and melancholy.
Recently, someone who has not yet read Tortilla Flat (and I hope to do in this new version) I was wondering if the novel has any connection with which it can considered the masterpiece of John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. Thing in common, "I said and is: Steinbeck always sides with the poor.
openly liberal, even leftist, California writer in all his work showed a deep sympathy for the workers, immigrants and excluded from the system, a sympathy molded into the knowledge of their harsh living conditions when, early in his career , had to make a living with many different jobs. Their ideas and criticisms of the more sinister side of capitalism often earned him attacks and censorship. The Grapes of Wrath was banned in California for several years and the FBI maintained open a large file on him. Steinbeck was not, however, a party man and was also accused by the official left and the Communist Party's "ideological warmth." Its cause, far from any dogmatism, was none other than the common man, their joys, their pain and struggle.
Now if The Grapes of Wrath is a harsh indictment of social injustice, Tortilla Flat has the back and kind of the idealized world of dispossessed people "respectable" seen as a threat to their lifestyle. Tortilla Flat Steinbeck published in 1935 (it was his first critical and commercial success), only two years before mice and men and four The Grapes of Wrath. But despite the temporal proximity, Danny and his friends are still far from the painful adventures of George and Lennie and the Joad family. Certainly, all of Steinbeck's work is imbued with lyricism, but in different veins: sweet and smiling on the red pony, and Tortilla Flat, bitter in Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath or The Pearl. Poetry, in any event, born of compassion and sympathy for the weak. OUR EDITING
For this new translation of Tortilla Flat (which recovers the original title of the novel and tries to correct the mistakes of previous versions) we have relied on the text of the English edition of Penguin, 1950. Translate and is a repeat topic involves somewhat betray the style and the author's intentions. We tried to respect each other where possible, leaving out, however, some features that might be important. I will address only one: the archaic turns (mixture of dialectal and formal involvement) that the characters used occasionally in conversation: "You are, you you have" ... Castilian records to which it purports (a voseo like Argentina or speak a language close to the Golden Age) were not natural and could represent an obstacle to the reader. Finally, beat ignore such nuances, however, are implicit in tone and content of the dialogues.
have been observed, however, many expressions Chicano own frontier framework that develops the work and how well they knew John Steinbeck, a native of nearby Salinas, "a beautiful city," as Jesus says Mary Corcoran, " this paragon of humanism. "
But perhaps not as pretty as the very Tortilla Flat.
José Luis Piquero
Islantilla, December 2007
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