Mateo Alemán

Spanish writer

  • Born: September 28, 1547
  • Died: 1614

Mateo Alemán published the two parts of Guzmán de Alfarache, one of the foundational texts of the picaresque genre. Not only was Alemán’s novel one of the most popular works of its era, but it also influenced his contemporaries, such as Miguel de Cervantes and Francisco de Quevedo. Ultimately, the picaresque in general and Alemán’s narrative style in particular continue to influence literature.

Early Life

Although the exact birth date of Mateo Alemán (mah-TAY-oh ahl-ay-MAHN) is not known, he was baptized on September 28, 1547. The future author was born to a medical doctor, Hernando Alemán, and his second wife, Juana de Enero. Both of Alemán’s parents belonged to the Spanish New Christian population. In 1492, the Spanish Jewish population was given a difficult choice: convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. Those who remained and converted were called New Christians or conversos.

The New Christians were objects of a great deal of discrimination. Regulations prohibited New Christians from certain religious orders, excluded them from the most prestigious educational institutions, and prohibited their emigration to the New World. Furthermore, the Spanish Inquisition policed the religious practices of these inhabitants with particular vigor.

As historian Donald McGrady notes in Mateo Alemán (1968), the only details concerning Alemán’s early education are from Alemán’s own comments about it in his Ortografía castellana (pb. 1609; Castilian orthography), in which Alemán laments that his education included the detailed study of various styles of penmanship. Although the young Alemán studied to be a doctor at several universities and eventually completed his degree, he never practiced medicine. The years immediately after Alemán’s college graduation established a pattern that would continue throughout his life: failed business dealings and incarceration for debt. In 1582, Alemán applied for a permit to emigrate to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Even though the author perjured himself and affirmed that he had no Jewish ancestors, his application was denied, most likely because of his New Christian origin.

Life’s Work

Had Alemán lived in a different era, he might well have been a professional writer. Because he lived before such a profession existed, this was not the case. Throughout Alemán’s adult life, he held a variety of government positions, including judge and accountant. Records show that Alemán also engaged in other business dealings, such as real estate ventures, to supplement his income. Yet, because he was imprisoned for debt at several points throughout his life, apparently none of these business transactions proved highly lucrative.

In 1599, Alemán published part 1 of the book that would become his masterpiece: La vida y hechos del pícaro Guzmán de Alfarache (best known as Guzmán de Alfarache in both Spanish and English; originally translated as The Rogue: Or, The Life of Guzman de Alfarache, 1622), the second work in the literary genre that would come to be called the picaresque. The anonymous 1553 La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (best known as Lazarillo de Tormes in both Spanish and English; originally translated as Lazarillo: Or, The Excellent History of Lazarillo de Tormes, the Witty Spaniard, 1653) was the first work in the new genre. Like all picaresque novels, Guzmán de Alfarache’s main character is a pícaro, a rogue, from the lower social strata. Prior to these texts, most literary protagonists were nobles. Also, the protagonist is an older first-person narrator, generally but not always male. Guzmán, in Alemán’s novel, recounts the misdeeds of his youth in a fictitious autobiography. During the course of the narrative, the rogue travels to various locales in the company of a series of masters. This life of crime, trickery, and deceit critiques the hypocrisy of society.

At the narrative level, Guzmán de Alfarache embellished the standard picaresque plotline with interpolated novels, independent narratives not related to the main plotline, and sermons. In fact, the alternation between Guzmán’s life of crime and religious discourse forms one of the most fascinating aspects of the text. As a result, critics frequently debate whether Guzmán’s narrative actually preaches doctrine or whether his inclusion of moralizing discourse is another trick.

Despite the fact that the novel was a best-seller, the author apparently received little monetary remuneration. A cousin of Alemán’s, Juan Bautista del Rosso, rescued the author from several financial scrapes in the early 1600’s. Historian McGrady notes that since popular Renaissance texts were frequently reprinted in unauthorized (pirated) editions, an author’s earnings generally did not reflect the commercial success of his or her work. Alemán’s literary problems deepened in 1602 when an apocryphal continuation of Guzmán de Alfarache appeared under the pseudonym Mateo Luján de Sayavedra; however, Alemán’s second part identifies the author of the spurious volume as Juan Martí. In 1604, Alemán continued Guzmán’s adventures in his own second part, subtitled Atalaya de la vida (watchtower on human life).

As is the case with another renowned Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes, critics speculate that Alemán’s colorful life and travels inspired his literary production. Although life experience most likely motivated literary creativity in both authors, with regard to one of Alemán’s works in particular, the 1604 San Antonio de Padua , this was certainly the case. During a 1591 trip to the port city of Cartagena, burning shrapnel from a cannon pelted Alemán in the head. Because the author credited Saint Anthony of Padua for his escape from fatal injury, he celebrated the saint’s life in a biography.

In 1607, Alemán bribed an official to circumvent the official prohibition against New Christian emigration to the New World; however, concerns over piracy scrapped the fleet’s voyage that year. When Alemán departed Spain in 1608, one of companions on the voyage to Mexico was the new archbishop of Mexico, Father García Guerra.

Once in Mexico, Alemán published a number of nonfictional works. As Alemán describes in his preface to the 1609 Ortografía castellana, he began the work in Spain but could not publish it on the peninsula because it was not yet finished. In the same year, Alemán wrote the prologue to Luis de Belmonte Bermúdez’s Vida del Padre Maestro Ignacio de Loyola (life of the reverend father Ignatius of Loyola). In 1613, Alemán wrote Sucesos de D. Frai García Guerra (The Sucesos , 1911), which narrated Alemán’s former shipmate’s arrival in Mexico, rise to viceroy of Mexico, and subsequent sudden death. The last reference to Alemán placed him in the small town of Chalco in 1614. The precise date of the author’s death is not known.

Significance

Alemán’s biography embodies several of the most important historical tendencies of the Spanish Renaissance. Like many Spaniards of his era, Alemán sought to improve his economic position via emigration to the Americas. Furthermore, his status as a New Christian excluded him from the higher echelons of Spanish society.

Alemán’s greatest legacy, however, is his novel Guzmán de Alfarache. Like the author’s life, the text represents paradigmatic concerns of the era. While this picaresque novel harshly critiques social mores, it also moralizes. This combination of social criticism and religious values is called desengaño in Spanish, a virtually untranslatable term for disenchantment. This disdain for the world combined with religious motivation characterizes much of the literary production of the Spanish Renaissance. Yet, as Edward H. Friedman suggests, Guzmán’s contradictory espousal of thievery and religious virtue forces the reader to decide between the two and interpret the text as either moralizing or entertaining. It is this ambiguity that continued to interest readers of later generations and that influences the course of literary production through the creation of a more complex narrative structure.

Bibliography

Davis, Nina Cox. Autobiography as Burla in the “Guzmán de Alfarache.” Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1991. Posits trickery as the fundamental meaning of the text. Discusses word choice in the James Mabbe 1622-1623 English translation.

Davis, Nina Cox. “Confidence and the Corullero:Guzmán de Alfarache.” In Conflicts of Discourse: Spanish Literature in the Golden Age, edited by Peter W. Evans. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. Davis analyzes Guzmán’s use of repentance to deceive.

Friedman, Edward H. “Insincere Flattery: Imitation and the Growth of the Novel.” Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America 20, no. 1 (2000): 99-114. Contextualizes Guzmán de Alfarache in the picaresque genre in Spain. Demonstrates that the spurious second part influences Alemán’s second part.

Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. 2d ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998. Excellent overview of the Spanish Inquisition. Chapter 6 analyzes the impact of the Spanish Inquisition on intellectual endeavors.

Kaplis-Hohwald, Laurie. “The Sermon as Literature in Guzmán de Alfarache.” Romance Quarterly 48, no. 1 (Winter, 2001): 47-53. Supports the authenticity of Guzmán’s religious conversion.

Leonard, Irving A. “Mateo Alemán in Mexico: A Document.” Hispanic Review 17, no. 4 (1947): 316-330. Detailed biography of Alemán in Mexico. Includes transcriptions of archival material.

McGrady, Donald. Mateo Alemán. New York: Twayne, 1968. Accessible biography of Alemán that believes Alemán’s life is antecedent for Guzmán’s adventures. Includes notes, references, and bibliography.

McGrady, Donald. “A Pirated Edition of Guzmán de Alfarache: More Light on Mateo Alemán’s Life.” Hispanic Review 34, no. 4 (1966): 326-328. Concerns Alemán’s lawsuit regarding a 1601 piracy of Guzmán de Alfarache.

Smith, Paul Julian. Writing in the Margin: Spanish Literature of the Golden Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Section three contains a highly informative overview of the picaresque novel.