The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes

First published:Gringo viejo, 1985 (English translation, 1985)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Symbolic realism

Time of plot: c. 1914 and after

Locale: Chihuahua, Mexico; Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Virginia

Principal characters

• Harriet Winslow, a teacher
• Old gringo, an old man
• Tomás Arroyo, a general

The Story:

Harriet Winslow, at home in Washington, D.C., remembers her Mexican adventure, one that had shaped her life. She recalls the time she set off to accept a position as English teacher to the children of a wealthy landowner in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Arriving at the hacienda, as Harriet remembers, she finds revolutionary chaos. The hacienda, taken over by the revolutionaries following Pancho Villa and led by General Tomás Arroyo, is burning to the ground. Among revolutionaries and villagers is another American known to the locals as the old gringo, a name reflecting his age as well as the antagonistic Mexican attitude toward Americans. Old gringo is now buried in Harriet’s father’s cemetery plot, and Arroyo, his assassin, now wanders through her thoughts, more real to her than the living.

The three lives become intertwined when the old man, the young woman, and the revolutionary meet in the beautiful, private rail car owned by the Miranda family, who have all fled to France. The three express their reasons for being on the train and discuss their intentions, their impressions of each other, and their respective countries. Having fled a boring life with her solicitous mother and tepid fiancé, Harriet is now determined to stay in Mexico even though her prospective employers are gone and Arroyo has offered her safe passage home. The old gringo, having no one left in his life who cares for him and tired of his own cynicism, intends to die fighting with Villa.

Arroyo, an angry revolutionary, holds in his hands the deed to the Miranda estate, where, as illegitimate son of Miranda, he had lived as a servant. Though resentful of both Americans, he decides, at least temporarily, to tolerate their presence. The three then begin to reshape their lives and redirect the lives of each other.

The old gringo falls in love with thirty-year-old Harriet, who reminds him of his wife and daughter. His feelings for her fluctuate between the sexual and the fatherly. He recognizes fatherly feeling for Arroyo as well. Harriet and Arroyo feel antagonism for each other yet experience a sexual attraction. Though the old gringo tells Arroyo of his military credentials—he was a volunteer with a Union regiment from Indiana in the American Civil War—and proves his skill with a gun, he is not welcomed by Arroyo as one of the revolutionary forces. Nevertheless, Arroyo allows him to ride against the government troops, the federales. Facing the enemy and ready to die, the old gringo rides bravely alone into gun fire, returning unscathed and earning high praise from his comrades, a recognition that Arroyo resents. Arroyo challenges the old man further, demanding that he execute a prisoner. When the gringo refuses, Arroyo promises to kill him.

Harriet remains in the village while the revolutionaries fight. Though the students she was hired to teach are gone, she decides to stay and “civilize” the Mexicans. She organizes the peasants, sets up a school for the children, starts the men repairing the burned structure, and instructs the women in organizing the clothes. Looked up to as a leader, she wins the love and admiration of all the villagers for her efforts; she then inspires awe for what they consider the miraculous saving of the life of the two-year-old daughter of the prostitute who has followed the troops.

When the men return, Harriet, the old gringo, and Arroyo reconnect at a celebration in the ballroom. The old gringo and Harriet recount that they have both dreamed of each other. She has dreamed of him as a replacement for the father who abandoned her, and he has dreamed of her as idealized love. Arroyo sees them talking and becomes jealous, despite his finding happiness with a woman named La Luna. Harriet and Arroyo dance, and he persuades her to make love with him, telling her that unless she does he will kill the old gringo. In having sex with Arroyo, she gives in to the moment, enjoying the sensuality of the experience.

Angry and vengeful, the old gringo gains possession of and burns the deed so prized by Arroyo. With this provocation, Arroyo kills the gringo. Harriet vows vengeance. She construes an opportunity both to get the body of the old gringo, claiming it as her father, and to persuade Villa, who arrives in town followed by many American journalists reporting on the war, to have Arroyo killed. Villa, seeing in Arroyo a person who has placed his own interests above the cause of the revolution, shoots him to death.

Harriet, with Arroyo’s lover, La Luna, leave the camp with the bodies of their men. Harriet returns to the United States to bury the old gringo in her father’s cemetery plot in Arlington, Virginia, next to her mother. La Luna sets out to some indeterminate spot in the desert with the body of Arroyo. Harriet spends the rest of her time musing on these two men and living the lonely days of her life.

Bibliography

Boldy, Steven. The Narrative of Carlos Fuentes: Family, Texts, Nation. Durham, England: University of Durham Press, 2002. Presents analyses of ten works by Fuentes written between 1958 and 1995. Topics discussed include Mexico and memory, the Mexican national identity and history, literature and evil, the carnivalesque, violence and impunity, and intellectual traditions of Mexican national thinking.

“Carlos Fuentes.” In The Paris Review: Latin American Writers at Work, edited by George Plimpton. New York: Modern Library, 2003. Fuentes explains his connection with Mexican and Latin American culture and writers as well as the writing intentions expressed in this novel and elsewhere.

Chrzanowski, Joseph. “Patricide and the Double in Carlos Fuentes’s Gringo Viejo.” International Fiction Review 16, no. 1 (Winter, 1989): 11-16. Elucidates the theme of patricide and the technique of doubling in The Old Gringo.

Gyurko, Lanin A. Lifting the Obsidian Mask: The Artistic Vision of Carlos Fuentes. Potomac, Md.: Scripta Humanistica, 2007. A thorough examination of Fuentes’s artistic vision, the motifs in his novels, and the way his work reflects his influences and concerns.

Harss, Luis, and Barbara Dohmann. Into the Mainstream: Conversations with Latin American Writers. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. Features an interview with Fuentes that emphasizes his particular concern with the evolution and nature of the Mexican character.

William, Raymond Leslie. “The Novels of Carlos Fuentes.” In The Modern Latin American Novel. New York: Twayne, 1998. A comparative study of Fuentes’s works. Also examines Fuentes’s assertion that all of his fiction explores a preoccupation with time.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Writings of Carlos Fuentes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. Explores Fuentes’s life and writings as well as his concerns with the culture and style of what he identifies as Indo-Afro-Ibero-America.