Even his most explicitly political works, like El Senor Presidente, make use of magical realism rather than address specific contemporary issues directly: "The society of the novel is corrupted; evil spreads downwards from the ruler. Justice is a mockery, and army officers spend their time plotting or in brothels. El Senor Presidente utilized surrealistic techniques; it reflected Asturias's idea that Indians' nonrational perception of reality is an expression of the subconscious forces, the collective dream of mankind" (Gascoigne 2008). Asturias saw the worldview of Indians as more humane, fruitful, and inspiring and another of his works, Hombres de Maiz, "depicted a rebellion by a remote tribe of Indians against desecration of their mountains and their annihilation by the army" (Gascoigne 2008).
The work was openly Marxist and primitivist, celebrating the natives' protection of their indigenous corn harvesting from wealthy industrialists from those seeking to profit from the life-giving soil without respect to its traditions and the heritage of the Indians (Callan 1961, p.250). Eventually, the native populace loses their land, and with the loss of land and corn comes the loss of culture and their magic. This astute tying together of agriculture and culture as a whole with colonization came to the forefront in Asturias more literal, later works, including his infamous...
(Gascoigne 2008).Although Asturias died in 1974, the issues that were the focus of his fiction seem even more relevant today, as concerns about food shortages, the abuses of modern, massive farming, and the health and economic costs of globalization and Westernization are of ever-increasing concern.
Works Cited
Arias, Arturo. (2006, Sept)."Constructing ethnic bodies and identities in Miguel Angel Asturias and Rigoberta Menchu." Postmodern Culture: An Electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Criticism. 17:1.
Callan, Richard J. (1968, Jul). "The Quest Myth in Miguel Angel Asturias' "Hombres de maiz"
Hispanic Review. 36:3. p.249-261
Franklin, Richard L. (1961, Dec.)."Observations on 'El Senor Presidente' by Miguel Angel
Asturias.' Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese.
Gascoigne, Bamber. (2008). "Miguel angel Asturias (1899-1974)." Books and Writers.
Retrieved 6 Jun 2008. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/asturias.htm
Preble-Niemi, Oralia. (2004). "Miguel angel Asturias." Modern Spanish American Poets:
Second Series. Edited with an introduction by Maria a. Salgado. Detroit, MI: Gale, pp. 12-19.
