Caballero: A Historical Novel
Encyclopedia
Caballero: A Historical Novel, often known only as Caballero, is a historical romance
coauthored by Jovita González
and Margaret Eimer (under the pseudonym
Eve Raleigh). Written in the 1930s and early 1940s, but not published until 1996, the novel is sometimes called Texas
's Gone with the Wind
.
The book is set in the vicinity of Matamoros
at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, in which Mexico ceded its lands north of the Rio Grande River to the United States. Its principal character is Don Santiago Mendoza y Soría, a landowner and descendent of the Spanish
explorers who first colonized the region, and his family and servants, whose destinies are rewritten by the treaty, the occupation of the region by the American military, and the influx of English-speaking Americans.
Since its rediscovery and publication, Caballero has been branded an important Tejano
achievement of national and international relevance and has received much scholarly attention. It is also recognized as an important early piece of Mexican-American literature
, in particular for its awareness of the ethnic, gender and class struggles that have characterized Texas
history.
, would have been made controversial in the "racial-political climate" in the 1930s and 1940s—had Caballero actually been published at that time.
(LULAC) and other organizations that promoted the cultural assimilation
of peoples of Latin American heritage into mainstream United States culture.. Within LULAC, however, there was disagreement about the forms and the extent of this assimilation
. Male "Lulackers" typically promoted assimilation in public but sought to maintain patriarchal
structures in private. Many females, however, countered this public/private assimilation
and advocated for the modernization of gender roles, especially within Mexican-American homes. González was one of the more vocal of these women, and Caballero, which holds at its center a doomed patriarch who refuses to part ways with traditions that subordinate women, can be read as her "warning of what would happen to the ethnic Mexican
community if it resisted the democratization
of gender roles and ignored the modernization of Mexican American
female subjectivity
".
in 1936. The so-called "centennial discourse" ballyhooed by the media in the 1930s largely extolled the accomplishments of the state's Anglo-American
population and, in the words of literary historian John Morán González, depicted Mexicans "as the main obstacle to Anglo-Texan freedom in the past and as a persistent social problem for the state in the present". The "racialized" reconstruction of Texas
history prompted the Tejano
community to critique their state's marginalization of the Mexican and Mexican-American's contributions. These critiques often took the form of literature written by Mexican-Americans in which they envision "a prominent and honored place in their community within the Lone Star State". Jovita González contested the dominant centennial discourse in her "Catholic Heroines of Texas" poster exhibit at the Texas Centennial Exposition
's Catholic Exhibit, an abbreviated version of which she simultaneously published in the Southern Messenger, at about the same time she was beginning work on Caballero.
as for the troubled circumstances surrounding its publication.
, where she knew and was encouraged to write about her Mexican-American heritage by folklorist J. Frank Dobie
. After her graduation, González moved to San Antonio, Texas
to teach Spanish. However, in 1934, under Dobie's supervision, she received a one-year fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation
that commissioned her to research and write a book on South Texas
history. Caballero and another novel (Dew on the Thorn) seem to have been the result of that fellowship.
González invited Eimer to coauthor the novel around the year 1937. The details of their collaboration are murky, but correspondence exchanged between the two women, and the fact that Eimer's name is listed first on the novel's manuscript, indicate equal involvement. Completed sometime in the early 1940s, the novel was submitted to MacMillan
, Houghton-Mifflin and Bobbs-Merrill but was unanimously rejected. Exasperated, Eimer wrote a letter to an acquaintance, saying "[a]ll of these publishers have admitted that the background is interesting, the plot stirring, the characters alive and yet they reject it". The disillusioned coauthors eventually abandoned the project and parted company.
, the first female, and Raleigh (Sir Walter Raleigh) the English explorer of the Americas. Eimer was a "frustrated but talented writer whose short stories had been rejected by numerous magazines". She had moved to Del Rio, Texas
along with her husband "Pop" Eimer from Joplin, Missouri
in concurrence with the flow of Anglo settlers moving to Texas during the agricultural boom. In Del Rio, Eimer "developed a warm, even intimate, friendship with Jovita González, a Texas local with Mexican-descent, with whom she shared both a passion for writing and a skeptical stance toward received wisdom about politics, religion, and gender norms". Letters written to González from Eimer expressed her East Coast intellectuality, organized religion, and her opinions regarding societal gender norms, for example, how she persistently refused to marry. González and Eimer collaboratively and interethnically wrote Caballero: A Historical Novel. Although Eimer eventually moved back to Missouri, through the use of the U.S. mail system they continued to work and edit Caballero manuscripts and finish the novel. Common for many other female writers during that time, publishers steadfastly refused to publish the novel and Eimer unfortunately never lived to see the novel published. Eimer died on 27 Oct 1986, however, contrary to previous belief, she died with relatives to claim her belongings, including the original copy of Caballero titled All This is Mine.
González lived in Corpus Christi, Texas
, with her husband Edmundo E. Mireles, also a schoolteacher, until her death in 1983. In her lifetime, she never earned acclaim for her novels, but she was nevertheless a prominent Corpus Christi
citizen, and she published a couple pieces in the Southwest Review
and Publications of the Texas Folklore Society. In the 1970s, González and her husband were interviewed by historian and archivist Martha Cotera for the University of Texas at Austin
's Mexican American Library Project Cotera asked about González's 1934 Rockefeller
grant and the novel that had resulted. Mireles said then that the Caballero manuscript had been destroyed; however, González indicated with a brief wave of her hand that her husband's statement was untrue.
The Caballero manuscript remained unrecovered until after Mireles's death in 1986. In 1992, the Jovita González and Edmundo E. Mireles papers were archived at the Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi library. Amongst these papers was the manuscript, more than five-hundred yellowed pages in length, bound with twine. A year after its archival, it was identified by University of Texas at Austin
Professor José E. Limón who, with María Eugenia Cotera (daughter of the Martha Cotera who interviewed González three decades earlier), edited the novel for publication.
In 1996, Caballero was published for the first time, by the Texas A&M University Press
.
The forward establishes the history of the Mendoza family's presence in Texas
. This commences in 1748, when Don José Ramón de Mendoza y Robles, a Spanish explorer
, receives permission from the viceroy
in Mexico City
to lead an expedition of wealthy landowners to the land between the Rio Grande
and Nueces
rivers. The land he claims for himself he names the Rancho La Palma de Cristo. Soon after, he marries the blonde and green-eyed Susanita Ulloa, who is his junior by many years, and they have one son who survives childhood, named Francisco. Francisco marries Amalia Soría, who bears him three children—Santiago, Dolores and Ramón—before she dies. Santiago, Dolores and Ramón are raised by their grandmother, Susanita, who instills in them their grandfather's greatness and the importance of upholding one's Catholic faith. Susanita, Francisco and Ramón have all died before the novel's proper beginning, leaving the Rancho La Palma completely under Don Santiago's care.
Chapter One introduces us to Don Santiago, the uncontested patriarch of Rancho La Palma, and his family. He, like his father and grandfather before him, has also married a pureblooded Spanish woman, Doña María Petronilla, who is characterized by her simple and unprepossessing dresses. They have four children, all of whom are in their teenage years. Two of these are sons—Alvaro and Luis Gonzaga—and two are daughters—María de los Ángeles and Susanita. Susanita, like the grandmother whose name she shares, is blonde and green-eyed. She is described as Don Santiago's "dearest" child and as he watches her join the family for dinner, he glumly acknowledges that time has come to find her a husband.
Dinner is interrupted by Don Gabriel del Lago, a friend of Don Santiago's and a neighboring Spanish-Mexican landowner, who brings news that Texas
has been taken from Mexico by the Americans
, and that American
soldiers under the leadership of Zachary Taylor
have infiltrated the territory and are busy establishing defensive outposts. Each of the characters responds differently to this turn of events: Don Santiago scoffs, refusing to consider Americans
any threat to his way of life; Alvaro wants to know what military action can be undertaken to stave off the American
forces; Luis Gonzaga contemplates whether or not Americans
really are the uncultured hoodlums he has heard them to be; María de los Ángeles, under the assumption that Americans
are not Catholic, assumes the invasion is punishment from God
for Mexico's sins; and Susanita wonders what it would be like to dance with a tall white-skinned man.
The narrative that unfolds tracks these characters, and others, as their suspicions about the invading forces are explored—sometimes confirmed, but more often reformed. A partial text version of Caballero is available at Google Books.
title for a coauthored text. The title Caballero (which in English can be translated as "gentleman") refers to more than just the aristocratic Don Santiago who stands at the novel's center. It emphasizes masculinity
and makes apparent the authors' "gendered critique of the possessive individuality of the autonomous (male) subject in resistance". María Eugenia Cotera moreover reads the title as containing an "ironic
reversal", for although "its gendered singularity gestures to the conventions of heroic narratives, the novel itself denies readers the heroic figure that would normally stand at the center of such narratives". Other critics have read Caballero as an ironic
take on the genre of historical romance
, and their elucidations often hinge upon the novel's title.
that included the modernization of gender roles in the Mexican-American community, and because Caballero is a thinly-veiled critique of traditional patriarchal
home organizations, the novel has since its rediscovery been analyzed as a feminist text. Editors José E. Limón and María Cotera decided for this reason to dedicate the book to "the mexicanas of Texas
". They defend their dedication in the "Editor's Acknowledgements": "Caballero deals centrally with the historical experience of Mexican
women in Texas
, so we think it wholly appropriate to dedicate this book to this often-neglected sector of Texas
society". Cotera considers the novel a precursor to the later-century work done by chicana feminists
like Ana Castillo
, Cherríe Moraga
and Gloria Anzaldúa.
Accordingly, many scholars have sought to elucidate the methods and limits of Caballero 's critique of patriarchal power structures. For example, in his 2009 book Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican American Literature, John Morán González places Caballero within the context of the ongoing debate over the modernization of gender roles in Mexican-American families. The novel, which he calls the "capstone to literary works by women Lulackers during the 1930s", summarizes the feminist concerns about the "gendered Mexican American
subject" -- within the scope of an entertaining and ambitious historical novel
.
versus cultural separatism
that split Mexican-American thinkers in the 1930s and 1940s continues to surface today in discussions about Caballero. Particular attention has been paid to the fact of the novel's coauthorship between women of distinct ethnic backgrounds, making it "a product of at least two separate and possibly conflictual historical consciousnesses". Critics have indicted the novel's attitude of assimilation; the book does, after all, feature three interethnic couplings between Don Santiago's surviving children and invading American soldiers. María Eugenia Cotera also isolates "what might be a too-celebratory representation of Anglo American
values".
The significance of the co-authorship of this novel has often been ignored, under analyzed, and wrongly criticized. The novel has been criticized and rejected by both Chicana/o scholars and historically white publishers because of the unique collaboration between González and Eimer. This played a significant role in the failure of getting Caballero published during their lifetimes . González was extremely frustrated by this during her life . There has, however, been a strong counterargument to these rejections that considers the power of these two women from such different backgrounds speaking out together against "the singularity of patriarchal thinking and its bankrupt formulations of identity
and authority". Another fascinating component of this collaboration is that it simultaneously tells the Mexican side of the war and reflects a partnership between a Mexican-American and Anglo-American author . In fact it has been argued that it is only natural for these women to work together as "the notion of a singular author is a construct of modernity that is inextricably linked ‘to the development of modern capitalism
and of intellectual property, to Western rationalism
, and to patriarchy’". Caballero works to undo this discourse through collaboration as when you write together "you have to desire the collaborative world under formation more than the unextended ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ of the old power structures".
This collaboration is not however, to be confused with assimilation
or "selling out". The romance plots in the novel have been perceived as assimilationist as if the Anglo men are conquering the Mexican women. However, "such criticisms are founded, of course, on the exigencies of race and nation, forcing what is essentially a critique of patriarchal ideology into service as a critique of imperialism
, a service that the novel only imperfectly satisfies". Instead of viewing the collaboration as a "sell out" or a problem, it can be viewed as a nepantla, a term the highly acclaimed and respected Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa uses based on a Nahuatl
word that refers to "a space between or a middle ground" . This concept favors the recognition of the humanity in others and ourselves in order to create bridges and overcome borders. This works on multiple levels, "collapsing ‘the binaries of colored/white, female/male, mind/body," all of which are relevant to Caballero and the historical context of the novel. Eimer and Gonzalez took a leap of faith in one another in both their friendship and their work, as "Caballero's collaborations across difference take place against a historical and geographical backdrop that highlights the risks that such a crossing entail a U.S.-Mexico borderlands still in formation in 1846-1848…" . It cannot be stressed enough that beyond the Mexican/Anglo leap of faith taken, the text works with many layers of collaboration on the "path of conocimiento". Caballero's structure of genres is "part history, part tragedy, part romance, part feminist tract," and "its multivalent strategies of description reflect the very complexity of the historical transformations that it seeks to document .
In conclusion, in direct contrast to the common critiques and ignorance of the co-authorship of Caballero, the novel itself is "a collaborative text about collaboration, a text that self-consciously enacts the politics of its production within its pages. But it is also a utopian project, a bid to craft a world that was scarcely imaginable in the Texas of the 1930s".
as a site of both negotiation and resistance to U.S. imperialism
and colonialism
"; and Pablo Ramirez's 2009 essay, "Resignifying Preservation: A Borderlands Response to American Eugenics
in Jovita González and Eve Raleigh's Caballero", which analyzes the authors' romantic plots as a response to eugenic claims that "Americanness" was a matter of strong blood lines and deliberate breeding.
on a level beyond a white/other dichotomy
. Race relations in the novel are complicated by the favoring of Spanish blood within the ethnic category of "Mexican." This is demonstrated in the multiple references to Spanish features as the beauty ideals within the Mexican communities. Another demonstration of this favoring is evident in the marriage relations and rules, as Mexicans of indigenous blood or features were not allowed into the marriage structures of those with more direct Spanish lineage and were bound to roles as "peons." While this racist structure existed within the hacienda
community, there was simultaneously a land conflict between Native American
Indians, Mexicans, and Anglo Americans, as referenced in historical context. This caused a lot of bitter feelings, as witnessed in the derogatory use of the word "gringo
" and the fear of Indian Americans. The historical context of the U.S./Mexican Wa] is a continuous theme throughout the entire novel, and is represented often through the gender expressions of the characters. The women come to represent peace and life while the heterosexual men represent fighting and war. This speaks volumes to the strict gender roles of this culture and time period, in which femininity
and masculinity
are defined in these classic terms. Don Santiago is also seen as the ultimate patriarch, an identity that ultimately does not serve him well.
Mexican-American literary texts
. Like Caballero, many of these had just recently been "recovered" and made available for wide consumption for the first time. In their introduction to the book, co-editors José E. Limón and María (Eugenia) Cotera anticipate the role Caballero would play in this enlargement of the canon, calling it "a work that speaks centrally to the Texas experience" that deals centrally with the "oft-neglected" experience of Mexican-American women. Accordingly, González and Raleigh's critique of patriarchal traditions won the book its supporters, who celebrated Caballero as the formerly "lost jewel in Chicana literature".
However, the praise, and in particular the labeling of the book as a Chicana/o text
, has not been uncontested. Problematic especially to literary scholars who identify as Chicano
s has been the fact that Caballero is coauthored—by a Mexican-American woman in partnership with an Anglo-American woman—thus calling into question the text's authenticity. Critics have also been troubled by González's own aristocratic heritage and her association with J. Frank Dobie
, whose "paternalist attitude" toward heritage Mexicans is much maligned. In her defense of the novel, Cotera acknowledges that the "politics of its production" complicate our ability to classify it as either a "Chicana/o
" or "feminist" text, but that it nevertheless warrants study. In similar fashion, literary historian Andrea R. Purdy writes: "Regardless of her motives, [González's] choices provide an interesting forum for further discussion and analysis". That discussion is carried out today in classrooms and literary journals.
Historical romance
Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...
coauthored by Jovita González
Jovita González
Jovita González was a Mexican American folklorist, educator, and writer, most notably known for her novel Caballero: A Historical Novel...
and Margaret Eimer (under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Eve Raleigh). Written in the 1930s and early 1940s, but not published until 1996, the novel is sometimes called Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
's Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
.
The book is set in the vicinity of Matamoros
Matamoros, Tamaulipas
Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern part of Tamaulipas, in the country of Mexico. It is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in the United States. Matamoros is the second largest and second...
at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
, in which Mexico ceded its lands north of the Rio Grande River to the United States. Its principal character is Don Santiago Mendoza y Soría, a landowner and descendent of the Spanish
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
explorers who first colonized the region, and his family and servants, whose destinies are rewritten by the treaty, the occupation of the region by the American military, and the influx of English-speaking Americans.
Since its rediscovery and publication, Caballero has been branded an important Tejano
Tejano
Tejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...
achievement of national and international relevance and has received much scholarly attention. It is also recognized as an important early piece of Mexican-American literature
Chicano literature
Chicano literature is the literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after 1848, when the USA annexed large parts of what had been Mexico in the wake of the...
, in particular for its awareness of the ethnic, gender and class struggles that have characterized Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
history.
Background
When interviewed in the 1970s, Jovita González's husband, E.E. Mireles, acknowledged that their lives and careers in Corpus Christi, TexasCorpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, would have been made controversial in the "racial-political climate" in the 1930s and 1940s—had Caballero actually been published at that time.
League of Latin American Citizens
Caballero was written in a decade marked by heated debate about the Mexican-American's place in United States society. The 1930s saw the birth of the League of United Latin American CitizensLeague of United Latin American Citizens
The League of United Latin American Citizens was created to combat the discrimination that Hispanics face in the United States. Established February 17, 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas, LULAC was a consolidation of smaller, like-minded civil rights groups already in existence...
(LULAC) and other organizations that promoted the cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
of peoples of Latin American heritage into mainstream United States culture.. Within LULAC, however, there was disagreement about the forms and the extent of this assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
. Male "Lulackers" typically promoted assimilation in public but sought to maintain patriarchal
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
structures in private. Many females, however, countered this public/private assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
and advocated for the modernization of gender roles, especially within Mexican-American homes. González was one of the more vocal of these women, and Caballero, which holds at its center a doomed patriarch who refuses to part ways with traditions that subordinate women, can be read as her "warning of what would happen to the ethnic Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
community if it resisted the democratization
Democratization
Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic...
of gender roles and ignored the modernization of Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
female subjectivity
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
".
Texas Centennial (1936)
Also contemporaneous with the writing of Caballero was the celebration of the Texas CentennialTexas Centennial Exposition
The Texas Centennial Exposition was a World's Fair held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836. More than 50 buildings, for which "George Dahl was director general of a group of architects who designed the buildings ", were...
in 1936. The so-called "centennial discourse" ballyhooed by the media in the 1930s largely extolled the accomplishments of the state's Anglo-American
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
population and, in the words of literary historian John Morán González, depicted Mexicans "as the main obstacle to Anglo-Texan freedom in the past and as a persistent social problem for the state in the present". The "racialized" reconstruction of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
history prompted the Tejano
Tejano
Tejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...
community to critique their state's marginalization of the Mexican and Mexican-American's contributions. These critiques often took the form of literature written by Mexican-Americans in which they envision "a prominent and honored place in their community within the Lone Star State". Jovita González contested the dominant centennial discourse in her "Catholic Heroines of Texas" poster exhibit at the Texas Centennial Exposition
Texas Centennial Exposition
The Texas Centennial Exposition was a World's Fair held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836. More than 50 buildings, for which "George Dahl was director general of a group of architects who designed the buildings ", were...
's Catholic Exhibit, an abbreviated version of which she simultaneously published in the Southern Messenger, at about the same time she was beginning work on Caballero.
Publication
The book is famed as much for its place in Mexican-American literary historyChicano literature
Chicano literature is the literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after 1848, when the USA annexed large parts of what had been Mexico in the wake of the...
as for the troubled circumstances surrounding its publication.
Failed Early Attempts
Although González and Eimer are both credited as authors, literary historians typically consider González the novel's primary creative force. In 1930, she earned her M.A. in history from the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, where she knew and was encouraged to write about her Mexican-American heritage by folklorist J. Frank Dobie
J. Frank Dobie
James Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range...
. After her graduation, González moved to San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
to teach Spanish. However, in 1934, under Dobie's supervision, she received a one-year fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
that commissioned her to research and write a book on South Texas
South Texas
South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of and including San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande River, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 3.7 million. The southern portion of this region is...
history. Caballero and another novel (Dew on the Thorn) seem to have been the result of that fellowship.
González invited Eimer to coauthor the novel around the year 1937. The details of their collaboration are murky, but correspondence exchanged between the two women, and the fact that Eimer's name is listed first on the novel's manuscript, indicate equal involvement. Completed sometime in the early 1940s, the novel was submitted to MacMillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, Houghton-Mifflin and Bobbs-Merrill but was unanimously rejected. Exasperated, Eimer wrote a letter to an acquaintance, saying "[a]ll of these publishers have admitted that the background is interesting, the plot stirring, the characters alive and yet they reject it". The disillusioned coauthors eventually abandoned the project and parted company.
Posthumous Recovery
Margaret Eimer was the co-author for Caballero: A Historical Novel and a close friend to Jovita González. She used the pseudonym Eve Raleigh in her writing, possibly referencing to EveEve
Eve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...
, the first female, and Raleigh (Sir Walter Raleigh) the English explorer of the Americas. Eimer was a "frustrated but talented writer whose short stories had been rejected by numerous magazines". She had moved to Del Rio, Texas
Del Rio, Texas
Del Rio is a border city in and the county seat of Val Verde County, Texas, United States.. Del Rio is connected with Ciudad Acuña via the Lake Amistad Dam International Crossing and Del Río-Ciudad Acuña International Bridge...
along with her husband "Pop" Eimer from Joplin, Missouri
Joplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...
in concurrence with the flow of Anglo settlers moving to Texas during the agricultural boom. In Del Rio, Eimer "developed a warm, even intimate, friendship with Jovita González, a Texas local with Mexican-descent, with whom she shared both a passion for writing and a skeptical stance toward received wisdom about politics, religion, and gender norms". Letters written to González from Eimer expressed her East Coast intellectuality, organized religion, and her opinions regarding societal gender norms, for example, how she persistently refused to marry. González and Eimer collaboratively and interethnically wrote Caballero: A Historical Novel. Although Eimer eventually moved back to Missouri, through the use of the U.S. mail system they continued to work and edit Caballero manuscripts and finish the novel. Common for many other female writers during that time, publishers steadfastly refused to publish the novel and Eimer unfortunately never lived to see the novel published. Eimer died on 27 Oct 1986, however, contrary to previous belief, she died with relatives to claim her belongings, including the original copy of Caballero titled All This is Mine.
González lived in Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, with her husband Edmundo E. Mireles, also a schoolteacher, until her death in 1983. In her lifetime, she never earned acclaim for her novels, but she was nevertheless a prominent Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
citizen, and she published a couple pieces in the Southwest Review
Southwest Review
The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
and Publications of the Texas Folklore Society. In the 1970s, González and her husband were interviewed by historian and archivist Martha Cotera for the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
's Mexican American Library Project Cotera asked about González's 1934 Rockefeller
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
grant and the novel that had resulted. Mireles said then that the Caballero manuscript had been destroyed; however, González indicated with a brief wave of her hand that her husband's statement was untrue.
The Caballero manuscript remained unrecovered until after Mireles's death in 1986. In 1992, the Jovita González and Edmundo E. Mireles papers were archived at the Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi library. Amongst these papers was the manuscript, more than five-hundred yellowed pages in length, bound with twine. A year after its archival, it was identified by University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
Professor José E. Limón who, with María Eugenia Cotera (daughter of the Martha Cotera who interviewed González three decades earlier), edited the novel for publication.
In 1996, Caballero was published for the first time, by the Texas A&M University Press
Texas A&M University Press
Texas A&M University Press is a scholarly publishing house associated with Texas A&M University. It was founded in 1974 and is located in College Station, Texas, in the United States.-Overview:...
.
Plot Summary
The novel consists of a forward and thirty-six chapters. In chronological sequence, it interweaves both historical and fictional events that occurred near or in other ways impacted the Mexico-United States border in the late 1840s.The forward establishes the history of the Mendoza family's presence in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. This commences in 1748, when Don José Ramón de Mendoza y Robles, a Spanish explorer
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
, receives permission from the viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
to lead an expedition of wealthy landowners to the land between the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
and Nueces
Nueces River
The Nueces River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, approximately long. It drains a region in central and southern Texas southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande...
rivers. The land he claims for himself he names the Rancho La Palma de Cristo. Soon after, he marries the blonde and green-eyed Susanita Ulloa, who is his junior by many years, and they have one son who survives childhood, named Francisco. Francisco marries Amalia Soría, who bears him three children—Santiago, Dolores and Ramón—before she dies. Santiago, Dolores and Ramón are raised by their grandmother, Susanita, who instills in them their grandfather's greatness and the importance of upholding one's Catholic faith. Susanita, Francisco and Ramón have all died before the novel's proper beginning, leaving the Rancho La Palma completely under Don Santiago's care.
Chapter One introduces us to Don Santiago, the uncontested patriarch of Rancho La Palma, and his family. He, like his father and grandfather before him, has also married a pureblooded Spanish woman, Doña María Petronilla, who is characterized by her simple and unprepossessing dresses. They have four children, all of whom are in their teenage years. Two of these are sons—Alvaro and Luis Gonzaga—and two are daughters—María de los Ángeles and Susanita. Susanita, like the grandmother whose name she shares, is blonde and green-eyed. She is described as Don Santiago's "dearest" child and as he watches her join the family for dinner, he glumly acknowledges that time has come to find her a husband.
Dinner is interrupted by Don Gabriel del Lago, a friend of Don Santiago's and a neighboring Spanish-Mexican landowner, who brings news that Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
has been taken from Mexico by the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and that American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soldiers under the leadership of Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
have infiltrated the territory and are busy establishing defensive outposts. Each of the characters responds differently to this turn of events: Don Santiago scoffs, refusing to consider Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
any threat to his way of life; Alvaro wants to know what military action can be undertaken to stave off the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
forces; Luis Gonzaga contemplates whether or not Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
really are the uncultured hoodlums he has heard them to be; María de los Ángeles, under the assumption that Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
are not Catholic, assumes the invasion is punishment from God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
for Mexico's sins; and Susanita wonders what it would be like to dance with a tall white-skinned man.
The narrative that unfolds tracks these characters, and others, as their suspicions about the invading forces are explored—sometimes confirmed, but more often reformed. A partial text version of Caballero is available at Google Books.
Significance of Title
Initially González and Raleigh planned to name their manuscript All This Is Mine--certainly an ironicIrony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
title for a coauthored text. The title Caballero (which in English can be translated as "gentleman") refers to more than just the aristocratic Don Santiago who stands at the novel's center. It emphasizes masculinity
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...
and makes apparent the authors' "gendered critique of the possessive individuality of the autonomous (male) subject in resistance". María Eugenia Cotera moreover reads the title as containing an "ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
reversal", for although "its gendered singularity gestures to the conventions of heroic narratives, the novel itself denies readers the heroic figure that would normally stand at the center of such narratives". Other critics have read Caballero as an ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
take on the genre of historical romance
Historical romance
Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...
, and their elucidations often hinge upon the novel's title.
Mendoza Family
- Don Santiago - the titular caballero ; grandson of Don José Ramón de Mendoza y Robles; patriarch over Rancho La Palma; characterized by his short temper, his insistence that Spanish customs remain upheld, and his hatred for the incoming Anglo-Americans.
- Doña María Petronilla - Don Santiago's wife; perceived as obedient to a fault; gradually begins to resist her husband's domination.
- Alvaro - the elder son; Don Santiago's favored boy; like his father, characterized as haughty and extremely masculine.
- Luis Gonzaga - the younger son; favored by his mother; a talented and aspiring artist; perceived as unmanly by Don Santiago.
- María de los Angeles (Angela) - the elder daughter; extremely penitent Catholic; would like to join a convent but is forbidden by Don Santiago.
- Susanita - the youngest child; obedient; known for her beauty, her blonde hair and green eyes; one-half of the novel's primary romance.
- Doña Dolores - Don Santiago's widowed sister; has a wart on her face that changes colors to match her mood; characterized by her love for beautiful dresses and social functions; quarrels regularly with Don Santiago.
Mendoza Household (Peons, etc.)
- Paz - housekeeper, cook and nurse; has worked for the Mendoza family since Don Santiago's youth; uneducated.
- Manuel - Paz's great-grandson; trouble-maker; befriends the American soldiers stationed near Matamoros.
- Tomás - overseer of Rancho La Palma; has worked for the Mendoza family for many years; is lashed by Don Santiago for insubordination.
- José & Tecla - peons in charge of the sheep headquarters; befriend "Red" McLane after he delivers their baby, Alfredo.
Other Characters
- Robert Davis Warrener - suitor to Susanita; American soldier stationed near Matamoros; enlisted to avoid the marriage his southern aristocratic parents had arranged for him; is an excellent singer; woos Susanita with late-night serenades and love letters.
- Alfred ("Red") McLane - suitor to María de los Ángeles; distinguished by his imposing frame and red hair; speaks perfect Spanish; an opportunist who believes helping Spanish-Mexicans adjust to the new American citizenship will prove politically lucrative to him.
- Captain Devlin - army doctor; widower; makes waves by being the first Anglo-American to regularly attend Catholic mass in Matamoros; befriends Luis Gonzaga, with whom he shares an interest in artwork.
- Padre Pierre - Catholic priest; French; facilitates the peaceful relationships between Luis Gonzaga and Devlin, and Susanita and Warrener.
- Gabriel del Lago - another Spanish-Mexican landowner of Don Santiago's generation; suitor to Susanita and (later) to Doña Dolores.
- Inez Sánchez - red-haired and feisty; friend to Susanita; courted unsuccessfully by Alvaro; intermarries with an Anglo-American soldier.
- General Antonio CanalesAntonio Canales RosilloAntonio Canales Rosillo was a 19th century politician, surveyor, and military officer.- Career:...
- leader of the Republic of the Rio GrandeRepublic of the Rio GrandeThe Republic of the Rio Grande was an independent nation that insurgents against the Central Mexican Government sought to establish in northern Mexico. The rebellion lasted from January 17 to November 6, 1840 and the Republic of the Rio Grande was never officially recognized.- Background :After a...
rebellion; recruits Alvaro and other youths for his guerrillas.
Female Subjectivity
Because of Jovita González's established advocacy for a cultural assimilationCultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
that included the modernization of gender roles in the Mexican-American community, and because Caballero is a thinly-veiled critique of traditional patriarchal
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
home organizations, the novel has since its rediscovery been analyzed as a feminist text. Editors José E. Limón and María Cotera decided for this reason to dedicate the book to "the mexicanas of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
". They defend their dedication in the "Editor's Acknowledgements": "Caballero deals centrally with the historical experience of Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
women in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, so we think it wholly appropriate to dedicate this book to this often-neglected sector of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
society". Cotera considers the novel a precursor to the later-century work done by chicana feminists
Chicana feminism
Chicana feminism, also called Xicanisma, is a group of social theories that analyze the historical, social, political, and economic roles of Mexican American, Chicana, and Hispanic women in the United States.- Overview :...
like Ana Castillo
Ana Castillo
Ana Castillo is a Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist.- Life and career :Castillo was born and raised in an inner city barrio of Chicago, Illinois. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses...
, Cherríe Moraga
Cherríe Moraga
Cherríe L. Moraga is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright.-Biography:Moraga was born in Whittier, California. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California and her Master's from San Francisco State University in 1980...
and Gloria Anzaldúa.
Accordingly, many scholars have sought to elucidate the methods and limits of Caballero 's critique of patriarchal power structures. For example, in his 2009 book Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican American Literature, John Morán González places Caballero within the context of the ongoing debate over the modernization of gender roles in Mexican-American families. The novel, which he calls the "capstone to literary works by women Lulackers during the 1930s", summarizes the feminist concerns about the "gendered Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
subject" -- within the scope of an entertaining and ambitious historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
.
Interethnic Collaboration
The debate over cultural assimilationCultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
versus cultural separatism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
that split Mexican-American thinkers in the 1930s and 1940s continues to surface today in discussions about Caballero. Particular attention has been paid to the fact of the novel's coauthorship between women of distinct ethnic backgrounds, making it "a product of at least two separate and possibly conflictual historical consciousnesses". Critics have indicted the novel's attitude of assimilation; the book does, after all, feature three interethnic couplings between Don Santiago's surviving children and invading American soldiers. María Eugenia Cotera also isolates "what might be a too-celebratory representation of Anglo American
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
values".
The significance of the co-authorship of this novel has often been ignored, under analyzed, and wrongly criticized. The novel has been criticized and rejected by both Chicana/o scholars and historically white publishers because of the unique collaboration between González and Eimer. This played a significant role in the failure of getting Caballero published during their lifetimes . González was extremely frustrated by this during her life . There has, however, been a strong counterargument to these rejections that considers the power of these two women from such different backgrounds speaking out together against "the singularity of patriarchal thinking and its bankrupt formulations of identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
and authority". Another fascinating component of this collaboration is that it simultaneously tells the Mexican side of the war and reflects a partnership between a Mexican-American and Anglo-American author . In fact it has been argued that it is only natural for these women to work together as "the notion of a singular author is a construct of modernity that is inextricably linked ‘to the development of modern capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and of intellectual property, to Western rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
, and to patriarchy’". Caballero works to undo this discourse through collaboration as when you write together "you have to desire the collaborative world under formation more than the unextended ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ of the old power structures".
This collaboration is not however, to be confused with assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
or "selling out". The romance plots in the novel have been perceived as assimilationist as if the Anglo men are conquering the Mexican women. However, "such criticisms are founded, of course, on the exigencies of race and nation, forcing what is essentially a critique of patriarchal ideology into service as a critique of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, a service that the novel only imperfectly satisfies". Instead of viewing the collaboration as a "sell out" or a problem, it can be viewed as a nepantla, a term the highly acclaimed and respected Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa uses based on a Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
word that refers to "a space between or a middle ground" . This concept favors the recognition of the humanity in others and ourselves in order to create bridges and overcome borders. This works on multiple levels, "collapsing ‘the binaries of colored/white, female/male, mind/body," all of which are relevant to Caballero and the historical context of the novel. Eimer and Gonzalez took a leap of faith in one another in both their friendship and their work, as "Caballero's collaborations across difference take place against a historical and geographical backdrop that highlights the risks that such a crossing entail a U.S.-Mexico borderlands still in formation in 1846-1848…" . It cannot be stressed enough that beyond the Mexican/Anglo leap of faith taken, the text works with many layers of collaboration on the "path of conocimiento". Caballero's structure of genres is "part history, part tragedy, part romance, part feminist tract," and "its multivalent strategies of description reflect the very complexity of the historical transformations that it seeks to document .
In conclusion, in direct contrast to the common critiques and ignorance of the co-authorship of Caballero, the novel itself is "a collaborative text about collaboration, a text that self-consciously enacts the politics of its production within its pages. But it is also a utopian project, a bid to craft a world that was scarcely imaginable in the Texas of the 1930s".
Other Themes
In just over a decade since its publication, Caballero has been analyzed under a number of other critical lenses. Two recent examples include Marci R. McMahon's 2007 essay, "Politicizing Spanish-Mexican Domesticity, Redefining Fronteras", which interprets González and Raleigh's invocation of "the domestic spherePrivate sphere
The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by interventions from governmental or other institutions. Examples of the private sphere are family and home...
as a site of both negotiation and resistance to U.S. imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
"; and Pablo Ramirez's 2009 essay, "Resignifying Preservation: A Borderlands Response to American Eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
in Jovita González and Eve Raleigh's Caballero", which analyzes the authors' romantic plots as a response to eugenic claims that "Americanness" was a matter of strong blood lines and deliberate breeding.
Race and Gender
This novel deals with the issue of racismRacism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
on a level beyond a white/other dichotomy
Dichotomy
A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts...
. Race relations in the novel are complicated by the favoring of Spanish blood within the ethnic category of "Mexican." This is demonstrated in the multiple references to Spanish features as the beauty ideals within the Mexican communities. Another demonstration of this favoring is evident in the marriage relations and rules, as Mexicans of indigenous blood or features were not allowed into the marriage structures of those with more direct Spanish lineage and were bound to roles as "peons." While this racist structure existed within the hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
community, there was simultaneously a land conflict between Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Indians, Mexicans, and Anglo Americans, as referenced in historical context. This caused a lot of bitter feelings, as witnessed in the derogatory use of the word "gringo
Gringo
Gringo is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into...
" and the fear of Indian Americans. The historical context of the U.S./Mexican Wa] is a continuous theme throughout the entire novel, and is represented often through the gender expressions of the characters. The women come to represent peace and life while the heterosexual men represent fighting and war. This speaks volumes to the strict gender roles of this culture and time period, in which femininity
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
and masculinity
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...
are defined in these classic terms. Don Santiago is also seen as the ultimate patriarch, an identity that ultimately does not serve him well.
Literary Significance & Reception
The 1990s witnessed an immense expansion in canonicalCanon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
Mexican-American literary texts
Chicano literature
Chicano literature is the literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after 1848, when the USA annexed large parts of what had been Mexico in the wake of the...
. Like Caballero, many of these had just recently been "recovered" and made available for wide consumption for the first time. In their introduction to the book, co-editors José E. Limón and María (Eugenia) Cotera anticipate the role Caballero would play in this enlargement of the canon, calling it "a work that speaks centrally to the Texas experience" that deals centrally with the "oft-neglected" experience of Mexican-American women. Accordingly, González and Raleigh's critique of patriarchal traditions won the book its supporters, who celebrated Caballero as the formerly "lost jewel in Chicana literature".
However, the praise, and in particular the labeling of the book as a Chicana/o text
Chicano literature
Chicano literature is the literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after 1848, when the USA annexed large parts of what had been Mexico in the wake of the...
, has not been uncontested. Problematic especially to literary scholars who identify as Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
s has been the fact that Caballero is coauthored—by a Mexican-American woman in partnership with an Anglo-American woman—thus calling into question the text's authenticity. Critics have also been troubled by González's own aristocratic heritage and her association with J. Frank Dobie
J. Frank Dobie
James Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range...
, whose "paternalist attitude" toward heritage Mexicans is much maligned. In her defense of the novel, Cotera acknowledges that the "politics of its production" complicate our ability to classify it as either a "Chicana/o
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
" or "feminist" text, but that it nevertheless warrants study. In similar fashion, literary historian Andrea R. Purdy writes: "Regardless of her motives, [González's] choices provide an interesting forum for further discussion and analysis". That discussion is carried out today in classrooms and literary journals.
External Resources
- Partial text of Caballero: A Historical Novel at Google Books.
- Texas A&M University Press: Caballero: A Historical Novel.
- Biography of Jovita González (1904-1983) by María Cotera.
- The Jovita González Papers. Archived in the Witliff Collections at Texas State University at San Marcos.
- Partial text of Jovita Gonzalez's Dew on the Thorn at Google Books.
- Partial text of Jovita's Gonzalez's Life along the Border: A Landmark Tejana Thesis at Google Books.
- Partial text of José Limón's "Folklore, Gendered Repression, and Cultural Critique: The Case of Jovita González".
- José Limón's Professional Website at the University of Texas at Austin.
- María Cotera's Professional Website at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
- Latinoteca: The World of Latino Culture and Arts.
- Hispanic Review. Published quarterly by the University of Pennsylvania (Department of Romance Languages).
- H-Texas (Life & Culture in Texas list-serv) at h-Net.org.
- H-Borderlands (list-serv) at h-Net.org.