Juan Diaz Covarrubias: Mexico's Martyr-Novelist

Author(s): J. S. Brushwood
Source: The Americas, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jan., 1954), pp. 301-306
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/977936
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JUAN DIAZ COVARRUBIAS: MEXICO'S MARTYR-NOVELIST

ON APRIL 11, 1859, during the Mexican War of the Reform,

the liberal forces of Santos Degollado were defeated at
Tacubaya by the conservative forces under the command
of General Mirquez. Among the prisoners taken by the conservatives
were several young physicians who were ordered shot by the con-
servative command. One of the physicians was Juan Diaz Covarrubias.
The specific source of the command is obscure, but its infamy is clear;'
it has lived as a shameful chapter in Mexican history, and it has granted
Diaz Covarrubias the glory of the man who might have been.

Diaz Covarrubias was twenty-nine years old at the time of his death.
His biographers see him as the precocious son of a poet in Jalapa.
The circumstances of his death recalled all the sadness of the short
romantic life: the death of the elder Diaz when Juan was nine years
old, the near poverty of the mother and young son, an obscure love
affair which has been called unfortunate, the untimely death of the
mother.2 The romantic aura that has been cast around the life of Juan
Diaz Covarrubias has been cast also around his literary work. By the
time of his death he had attracted the attention of his contemporaries
through his romantically sensitive poetry and prose. More than one
critic has found in the prose of Diaz Covarrubias qualities that might

1 A concise statement concerning the Tacubaya incident may be found in Justo

Sierra (ed.), Mexico, its social evolution, translated by G. Sentifion (Ballescai, 1900),
Tome I, vol. 1, p. 260: "General Miramon arriving at the end of the conflict ordered
the captured officers to be shot; general Marquez, the bran-new [sic] victor who had
got on the battle field his division general's sash, had the order executed comprising
therein the surgeons of the vanquished army and some civilians who were impiously
shot."
Bancroft gives a more detailed and clearer account. Miram6n returned to the
capital just as the battle reached a decisive point. In a note written and signed by
Miram6n the latter ordered Mirquez to execute the captured officers. Mirquez ordered
executed the officers, the physicians and some civilians, and later contended that
Miram6n had ordered him to do so. Miram6n denied the charge, admitting only the
written order to execute the officers. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico
(San Francisco, 1885), V, 763-764.
2 Diaz Covarrubias carried on his literary activity and his medical study at the same
time. His biographer, Antonio Carri6n, says he began his medical study in 1854 and
was an intern in the San Andres hospital in 1857. Carri6n says also that only one
soldier in the firing squad would shoot Diaz. After shooting him twice, the soldier
finally killed him with the rifle butt. Juan Diaz Covarrubias, Impresiones y senti-
mientos (Mexico, 1859), "Apuntes biograificos," by Antonio Carri6n, pp. i-viii.
301

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302 JUAN DiAZ COVARRUBIAS

have made him a great novelist.3 An objective view can find little that
rises above mediocrity as far as artistry is concerned; but themes of
the works must be seen as peculiarly representative of a period in
Mexican literature. The young novelist was aware of the world
around him. He knew that literary production in Mexico had been at
a virtual standstill since the outbreak of the War of the Reform; he
understood also that the confusion in which Mexican society found
itself was hardly conducive to the production of literature. In the
dedication of his last novel, El diablo en Mexico, to Luis G. Ortiz, he
says somewhat apologetically that many might think only a fool or a
child would consider writing in that time of tribulation. Nevertheless,
Diaz Covarrubias poured out the sentimentality, the yearning and the
frustration that were in his heart. By the time of his death he had
completed five prose works, the last of which was published posthu-
mously: Impresiones y sentimientos (1857), La sensitiva (1859), Gil
Gdmez el insurgente (1859), La clase media (1859) and El diablo
en Mexico (1860).

The predecessors of Juan Diaz Covarrubias in the cultivation of the

novel in Mexico are few. Novel production in the first half of the
nineteenth century was sporadic; generally the works were carelessly
executed, and the similarities of the Mexican novelists resulted from
common influences upon all rather than from strong bonds among
themselves. The brief political calm for a few years right at mid-
century had been accompanied by increased literary production; but
the turmoil created by the War of the Reform interfered, and Diaz
Covarrubias was the only Mexican novelist to produce the major part
of his work during that period. There was a strain of natural realism,
or costumbrismo, in the Mexican novel of the time; but more often
the Mexican novelists concerned themselves either with the sensitivity

3 Among the critics who have generously evaluated the novels of Diaz Covarrubias
are Carlos Gonzilez-Pefia and Manuel Pedro Gonzalez.
"It [the fictional work of Diaz] seems a preparatory exercise, a happy augury of
better things, rather than a finished product." Carlos Gonzilez-Pefia, History of
Mexican Literature, translated by G. B. Nance and F. J. Dunstan (Dallas, 1945), p. 231.
"M~s que obras logradas, estas cuatro novelas representan una gran promesa..
Es posible que de haber vivido veinte o treinta afios m~s, Diaz Covarrubias hubiera
sido uno de los mejores novelistas que Mexico ha producido." Manuel Pedro Gon-
zailez, Trayectoria de la novela en Mexico (Mexico, 1951), p. 41.
An interesting evaluation of Juan Diaz Covarrubias is his appearance as a minor
personage in a novel written by one of his own contemporaries. The author, Nicoliis
Pizarro, relates in a footnote the circumstances of the death of Diaz and explains
that he wishes to portray him as the man he might have become-a kind and capable
physician. Nicolis Pizarro, La coqueta (Mexico, 1861), pp. 168-170.

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 J. S. BRUSHWOOD 303

of the individual or with a panoramic view of society that offered

superficial criticism. This social view paid lip service to Balzac, who
was poorly imitated, and admiration to Eugene Sue, who was imitated
all too successfully.
Impresiones y sentimientos was an accurate forecast of what was to
be found in the author's later works. The book is a series of sketches
interlarded with fiction and poetry. The content can be divided into
two basic categories: critical sketches of certain well-known types
(the beata, the political opportunist, the aging lecher, the talkative
woman) and considerations of contemporary manners illustrated by
fiction. In the latter category, Diaz shows some ability to tell a story,
but the whole book is burdened with the superficial social thought of
the time. The author questions and discusses the usual ideas of love by
citing unorthodox cases: the mother who is ashamed of her deformed
child, choice of money over love, surrender to parental will regarding
marriage. He ponders envy, passion, family friction. Through it all
he emphasizes the sensitivity of the individual to such an extent that
he greatly weakens the types which he portrays.
The idea of sensitivity is prominent in all the works of Diaz Covar-
rubias. The undesirable characters are, of course, in no way sensitive;
but the others weep, faint and suffer indescribable agonies because of
the vulgarity and materialism of the world in which they live.
The best presentation of this sensitivity is in La sensitiva, a tale rather
than a novel, in which the extreme emotionalism is acceptable because
the story is removed completely from the inhibiting environment of
ordinary society. Saving no particular setting in place or time,
La sensitiva tells the story of two young lovers whose idyl is inter-
rupted by the hero's attraction to another woman. The hero's defec-
tion is followed by his return only to find his sweetheart dying.
La sensitiva and the many other amatory novels of nineteenth-
century Mexico are certainly attempts to retreat from the existing
confusion and tragedy of the time. Such novels also represent an
attempt on the part of the Mexicans to Europeanize themselves, which
was basically another way of retreat from their environment. La
sensitiva happens to be superior to others of its kind because Diaz
Covarrubias had the good taste to remove the story completely from
his environment and, therefore, did not fall into the trap of striving
for effect by the use of foreign and false glamor. The author was far
less successful when he intermingled the development of sensitivity
and portrayal of the social scene.

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 304 JUAN DiAZ COVARRUBIAS

For Diaz Covarrubias and for the other Mexican Romantics after
1850, the social scene was one of injustice rampant. The presentation
was a mixture of romantic exaggeration and the picture of society as
they had dimly seen it in the novels of Balzac. More often than not
the society portrayed was essentially a French society in a Mexican
setting. In La clase media, Diaz apparently wanted to portray all the
miseries of the middle class. He failed because the reader never feels
the middle class as a unit, but rather stumbles from one protagonist to
another. The author's failure is less important than the fact that his
sympathies are with the middle class, just as was generally the case
with his contemporaries, rather than with the lower class. A similar
situation is found in El diablo en Mexico, which is a better integrated
novel built around the argument that one should be free to choose
one's mate for love rather than for financial or social convenience.
The four lovers involved follow the latter principle. Surprisingly,
Diaz does not show unhappiness as the result of the two unfortunate
unions. Just as in La clase media, the people of the middle class are
targets for the misdeeds of the wealthy. In such a portrayal the
novels of Diaz are quite typical of the novels of his contemporaries.
One can hardly believe that the middle class in Mexico presented
such a dominant problem. Little is seen of the lower class, but the
members of it that are seen are either criminals or honestly impoverished
people trying to emulate their superiors. Few of the problems of the
lower class are seen; none of them are emphasized. There is no in-
timation of the dignity and worth of the lower class that is found
in the contemporary novel. The rich, especially the newly rich
(another class whose prominence in the Mexican Romantic novel can
hardly be justified by the real situation),4 are examples of injustice and
meanness. They are blamed for all the misfortunes of the middle class.
They bring financial ruin upon respectable families, they deny op-
portunity to professional men and artists, they seduce and desert the
daughters of the middle class families. There is no goodness in them
and they are feared by the members of the middle class because the
latter know that at any moment disaster may be brought upon them
by the wealthy. The middle class is seen as a group with great
ambitions, but little hope. Their problems are not the result of causes
that can be demonstrated as typically Mexican. The great problems

4The first indications of any considerable number of newly rich may be found in
the last quarter of the nineteenth century. See Jos6 C. Valad6s: El Porfirismo, historia
de un regimen (Mexico, 1941), especially pp. 339-387. The principal growth of
a class of newly rich came with the Agrarian Revolution.

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 J. S. BRUSHWOOD 305

that have governed the social course of Mexico are almost completely
overlooked.

Although Diaz could hardly avoid portrayal of some aspects of

society that were familiar to Mexicans, he escaped the full impact of
the costumbrista tradition that is seen in the works of his contemporary,
Manuel Payno. Either of the two novels concerning the middle class
might easily have been written in the manner of Payno. Certainly one
might expect Gil Gdmez el insurgente to possess a strong Mexican
flavor, but such is not the case. The novel may be called historical
because it is set during the time of the Hidalgo revolt and one of the
two poorly integrated plots concerns itself with that action. Un-
fortunately, the second plot is a purely amatory affair which reveals
the author at his maudlin worst and serves only to detract from the
development of the historical plot. Gil G6mez, the hero of the latter,
is a combination of romantic idealist and patriotic realist. Although
the character is unconvincing, much of the action with which Gil
G6mez concerns himself has a good deal of color. There is a certain
picaresque tone about one or two of the humbler persons, but that is
as far as Diaz progressed toward costumbrismo. Considered as an
historical novel, Gil Gdmez must be compared with the majority of its
contemporaries in Mexico. The tendency of the Mexican Romantics
was not to evoke the past in the manner of Scott. Rather, they wrote
of the relatively immediate national past. When they did evoke the
distant past, it was to judge that past according to their own values.
The treatment of the immediate national past in Gil Gdmez is a
proclamation of patriotism rather than an evocation of a time remote
enough to have acquired an exotic flavor.

The pathetic contradiction in the work of Diaz Covarrubias is that

his intense patriotism is never questionable, yet the Mexico that he
portrays reveals little that is essentially Mexican. He wanted to correct
the wrongs that existed in Mexico, but he would have done so by
refusing to recognize the real image of his country. Diaz was not
alone in wishing to make Mexico something it was not; most of the
novelists who were his contemporaries failed to search out the funda-
mental problems in Mexico, and took refuge in the creation of a
European society which they wished to superimpose upon the Mexican.
The superimposition was a fragile thing that offered no solution, and it
fell away as Mexico's consciousness of its real self was strengthened
by maturity and introspection. One may believe, then, that the real
tragedy of Diaz Covarrubias was not the manner of his death as much

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306 JUAN DiAZ COVARRUBIAS

as it was the irony of a man's persistently giving his best for a

country which he understood so poorly.
J. S. BRUSHWOOD

University of Missouri,
Columbia, Missouri

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