Novel
Aluvión de fuego
Not translated into English
Óscar Cerruto · 1935
Synopsis
Mauricio Santa Cruz, son of a white landowner of the altiplano, is still a student when his father dies; he then moves to the family estate, run by an authoritarian aunt, and sees a cholo foreman whipping the Indians, whose side he takes. When war breaks out with Paraguay, he enlists out of patriotism. His rank keeps him away from the front: he is posted to the high plateaus, from where he follows the fighting through the letters of a friend. There, the soldiers' abuses cause the Indian communities to rise up.
Context
The novel, written during the Chaco War, was published in Santiago de Chile in 1935, by Ercilla, before the end of the fighting. The war is seen only from the rear: most of the action takes place on the altiplano, where the Indians rise up, and then in a tin mine. Augusto Céspedes, who read it as early as 1936, sees in it a vibrant essay rather than an accomplished novel, but welcomes the first Bolivian attempt at a strong novel; in 1986, Leonardo García Pabón studied in it the place of the Indians and the miners in the idea of the nation. Nicole Priollaud translated it into French in 1987.
Who it is for
In Spanish, translated into French under the title Torrent de feu. The text spares nothing of the violence against the Indians, and the narrative is broken up by letters and digressions.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the most important Bolivian novel on the conflict with Paraguay, and counted among the country's great novels.
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