The traditions between fiction and history
Ricardo Palma his humble origins were not an impediment to become one of the most important figures of the nineteenth century. He knew how to go further, reaching the pre -Columbian era, being a seasoned chronicler of that way of life, which transmitted to future generations.
Traditions are written from real, popular historical events or popular light and burlesque anecdotes. It can be said that a new genre is built. A combination between short narration and romantic legend, which gives a historical background to the story, and the costumbrista painting, which roots the legend in national reality.
Tradition always had a popular character, arising from the people and for the people. In it, improvisation and song were essential;Sometimes it was used for pedagogical purposes, hence many sayings and ballads play this function in society. The purpose of this analysis is, then, to show how traditions are built. At first, we will see the social context in which the author develops, in a second half, we will identify several elements, which perform an important work the construction of tradition, finally, focus on the impact of gender in Latin America.
Ricardo Palma was born in Lima, Peru, in 1833. It was the descendant of a free union, later legitimated, by Pedro Palma and Dominga Soriano. The father was mestizo, street vendor of manufactures for personal use and a mother for whom he ran indigenous, Spanish and black blood. His childhood was developed in the years close to the independence of Peru. Palma worked in journalism, especially in the satirical genre, from a young age, at fifteen years. He was an important media editor, including El Correo de Lima and La Prensa, Diario de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
As any political change does not immediately bring a cultural transformation in society, this writer could know the traditions of the region originated in the customs of viceregal origin. His first literary works by Ricardo Palma were poetry, published in August 1848, in the newspaper El Comercio, who is already director of a political and satirical newspaper called El Diablo. In addition, he wrote criticism of shows and theatrical works, that last without much impact. He published his first prose book, Patriotic Corona, in 1853 and then his poetic works appear and a compilation of authors of this literary style of Peru, Chile and Bolivia.
In 1872 he published his first book of traditions, with which he acquired an important recognition from critics, which led him to publish other series, some with names such as old clothing, crowded clothes, cachivaches, etc. All of them compilations of their appreciated historical-literary stories previously out of newspapers and magazines (the magazine of Lima, the mail of Peru, the joke, etc.), These texts are mixture of chronicle and legend of the colonial era of Peru. Palma at the same time continues to collaborate with serious publications such as El Liberal, Magazine of South America, Mercury and El Correo. Likewise, from that year the active policy was gradually leaving to devote more to literature.
Argentine essayist Enrique Anderson Imbert (1910-2000) expressed: Much has been written about the traditions and the alleged structure that underlies this appellation assigned to a form of narration difficult to define.
Tradition, as Ricardo Palma himself defined, is a mixture of history and fiction. Because we cannot think of one without the other, we must add that apart from those fundamental elements for the construction of tradition in addition are other significant cultural ingredients that, in colonial time, were used by palm in traditions having incounts the following pillars: local language, sayings and saying, the costumbrista painting, the words of special significance, the scenario.
As the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, the communication or transmission of news, compassion literary, customs, made from parents to children, or, also, the news, news of an ancient fact transmitted in this way. And by derivation, the same dictionary points out that traditionist is the narrator, collector writer of traditions The traditions have great value, in addition to being invention of Palma resorts to it to connect the story with the reader.
On the formal porterists of the tradition, Palma added: light style, rounded phrase, sobriety in the descriptions, speed in the story, presentation of characters and characters in a feather feature, simple dialogue at the same time that, animated, novels in miniature, homeopathic novel, so to speak, that is what, in my concept, the tradition must be.
In this way the tradition turns out to be a narrative of the events that occurred in the last time of a society, and began with a presentation of the stage, then used the pauses with historical data and then continued until it ended with the initial plot. In addition to the aforementioned features Palma had the desire to perpetuate events that could be forgotten. Ricardo Palma, contributed considerably to the expansion of the tradition tradition had many Latin American imitators who, like him, wrote "traditions", although few really achieved the difficult balance of the model. In all countries an enumeration of authors and "traditional" authors determined to rescue legends, anecdotes, etc., also animated by historicist and motivated passion, some more than others, among later generations.
Concluding, tradition is part of the daily reality that builds the world of individuals with which a people are revitalization, it is used to connect the story with the reader and its most outstanding characteristic is the retrospection to the past.
Bibliography
- Oswaldo Holguín Callo, Infant and Bohemian times. Ricardo Palma (1833-1860), Lima: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, 1994.
- Estuardo Núñez, the impact of Ricardo Palma in Latin America. Alta Mater 1999
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