El Zarco, the Bandit by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano

First published:El Zarco: Episodios de la vida mexicana en 1861-1863, 1901 (English translation, 1957)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: 1861-1863

Locale: Province of Morelos, Mexico

Principal characters

• Nicolás, an Indian blacksmith
• El Zarco, a bandit
• Manuela, a woman in love with El Zarco
• Doña Antonia, her mother
• Pilar, Doña Antonia’s godchild, in love with Nicolás
• Martín Sánchez, a rancher and El Zarco’s enemy
• El Tigre, El Zarco’s lieutenant

The Story:

During the War of Reform and after, bands of robber outlaws take advantage of the troubled times to overrun those districts of Mexico where the local authorities, in a land still disturbed by civil war, are powerless to make effective reprisals against them. Roaming the countryside in armed bands, the plateados, as they are called, waylay and murder travelers, kidnap wealthy estate owners for ransom, and levy tribute on the villages and haciendas. For their amusement, they often wantonly burn the cane fields and inflict brutal tortures on their prisoners.

One town terrorized in this fashion is Yautepec, a pleasant village of the tierra caliente in the province of Morelos. By day, the people of the village maintain lookouts in the church towers to give warning of approaching marauders; at night, they barricade themselves in their houses, so that after sunset the little town in the middle of its circling orange groves resembles a place of the dead. The bandits, some five hundred strong, have their headquarters at Xochimancas, a nearby ruined hacienda from which they make forays to ravage the whole district. Their leader is El Zarco, a man of savage temper and cruel disposition whose bloody exploits cause respectable, decent people to fear him. The bandits sometimes enter the town and ride boldly through the streets.

On an evening in August, 1861, Doña Antonia sits in the inner courtyard of her house with her daughter Manuela and Pilar, her godchild. The two girls are plaiting flower garlands for their hair. After a time, Manuela begins to tease Pilar because her friend is making a wreath of orange blossoms, the flower of weddings; Manuela is twining a circlet of roses. When Manuela complains of her dull life, her mother rebukes her sharply, saying that Manuela ought to forget fiestas and dances, and take a husband who will protect her. Doña Antonia’s choice is Nicolás, the sober and industrious blacksmith of the estate at Atlihuayan. At this suggestion, Manuela begins to speak scornfully of the Indian, as she calls him, and declares that she would rather have El Zarco as a suitor. She adds that Nicolás might be good enough for Pilar, but she herself will never have him. Pilar blushes but says nothing.

Before Doña Antonia can reprove her daughter further, Nicolás, a nightly caller, arrives with the news that, on the previous night, the plateados robbed and killed an English family traveling to Acapulco, and that a cavalry detachment is being sent from Cuernavaca to pursue the bandits. Alarmed at this latest outrage, Doña Antonia decides that she and Manuela will go to Mexico City until times are better; they will travel with the troops as their escort for part of the dangerous journey. Nicolás thinks her decision a wise one for Manuela’s sake.

Later, while Nicolás is on his way back to Atlihuayan, another rider is traveling toward Yautepec. The horseman is El Zarco. In the village, he turns down a dark lane that leads to a stone wall surrounding Doña Antonia’s orange grove. Drawing rein beneath a giant sapota tree, he whistles twice. An answering whistle comes from the darkness under the tree, where Manuela is waiting for her lover.

El Zarco had met Manuela in Cuernavaca during a brief period when he and his men were aiding the government forces, and the two were strongly drawn to each other. After he established himself at Xochimancas, the bandit learned that Manuela and her mother had returned to Yautepec. Through his spies in the village, he has arranged to see her regularly. El Zarco finds her wholehearted devotion flattering to his vanity. Manuela, refusing to believe the stories of his violence and cruelty, sees him only as a handsome, brave caballero. Now, unwilling to leave Yautepec, she tells him of Doña Antonia’s plans and asks him to take her away. Before they part that night, they arrange for him to carry her off to Xochimancas. In parting, El Zarco gives her several small boxes for safekeeping. After his departure, she sees that one of them is bloodstained. The boxes contain a diamond ring, two bracelets, and earrings. Putting the jewelry on, Manuela goes to a pool in the garden and looks at her reflection by the light of a lantern. She buries the jewels with other gems and money that El Zarco has already entrusted to her.

The next night, Manuela flees with El Zarco to his hideout, leaving behind a note in which she tells her mother good-bye. Heartbroken, Doña Antonia asks Nicolás to go with her to beg the cavalry troop from Cuernavaca to hunt down the bandits and rescue Manuela. They approach the cavalry commander, but he refuses, and Nicolás accuses the officer of shirking his duty. The blacksmith is then placed under arrest and ordered held for trial.

Pilar, upset by the news of Nicolás’s arrest, tries to visit him in prison but is turned back by his guards. Nicolás, hearing her pleas, realizes that it is Pilar and not Manuela whom he truly loves. The authorities of Yautepec and the manager of Atlihuayan are indignant over the treatment Nicolás has received. When the commander sets out to take his prisoner to the capital, a large party accompanies the troops to see that the blacksmith receives full justice. Through the intercession of the owner of Atlihuayan, Nicolás is finally released. He returns to Yautepec in time to see Doña Antonia on her deathbed, for the poor woman is dying of grief over her daughter’s disgrace. After her death, Nicolás continues to ride into the village each evening, but now he visits Pilar.

Meanwhile, at Xochimancas, Manuela lives a different and sordid life of lawlessness and violence. Forced to associate with the disreputable women of the plateados, ogled by the men and showered with their lewd comments, she is at first terrified by her new surroundings. She realizes that she was attracted to El Zarco by infatuation and greed, not love. In particular, she is horrified by the condition of a French prisoner whom the bandits torture daily with the aim of extorting a greater ransom. At a fiesta to celebrate one of El Zarco’s raids, Manuela is forced to dance with El Tigre, a repulsive creature who tells her that El Zarco will tire of her eventually and turn her over to one of his lieutenants. El Tigre intends to be that man.

A short time before, El Zarco had killed the father and son of a rancher named Martín Sánchez. Swearing revenge, Sánchez sells his property and buys arms and equipment for twenty men whom he recruits to track down the bandits. After he and his men make several successful raids on the outlaws, others are roused from their apathy and fears to join them. In an encounter at La Calavera, in which Nicolás takes part, El Zarco is wounded and taken prisoner. With him is Manuela.

In spite of Sánchez’s protests, El Zarco cleverly arranges to have his trial held in Cuernavaca. While the prisoners are being taken there, bandits attack the escorting troops and set El Zarco and Manuela free. Sánchez, determined to end lawlessness in the region, obtains from President Juarez the authority to hang, without trial, any bandit who falls into his hands.

The day of Pilar and Nicolás’s wedding arrives at last. After the ceremony, the couple starts by coach for Atlihuayan with friends invited to the wedding feast that is to be held there. On the way, they meet a troop of horsemen led by Martín Sánchez, who asks the party to drive on without stopping. At that moment, Manuela appears from behind the horsemen and begs the help of Nicolás and his bride. El Zarco and El Tigre, she says, have been captured and are to be executed. Sánchez tells them that he has saved the wedding party from an ambush. Pilar, filled with pity for Manuela, wants to take her into the coach, but Manuela cries out that she would rather die with El Zarco than see Pilar in her wreath of orange blossoms. Saddened, the wedding party rides on.

El Zarco is shot down by a firing squad, and his body is then hung from the branch of a tree. Manuela, seeing her lover dangling there, gives a loud cry and falls to the ground. Blood runs from her mouth. Several men try to lift her, but she is already dead.

Bibliography

Castagnaro, Anthony R. The Early Spanish American Novel. New York: Las Américas, 1971. Focuses on the development of the Latin American novel since the nineteenth century. Establishes Altamirano as a precursor of the genre in Mexico.

Duncan, Cynthia. “Ignacio Manuel Altamirano.” In Dictionary of Mexican Literature, edited by Eladio Cortés. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. Good introduction to Altamirano presents a survey of his works.

Long, Ryan. “The Cautious Critique of Foundational Violence in Ignacio Manuel Altamirano’s El Zarco.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 16, no. 1 (March, 2007): 81-94. Provides a character study of El Zarco and Nicolás, focusing on why Altamirano chose to end El Zarco’s life at the hands of Martín Sánchez and not those of Nicolás, who is a more significant character in the novel.

Nacci, Chris. Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. New York: Twayne, 1970. Offers a good introduction to Altamirano’s life and works. Presents an overview of his fiction along with strong biographical and historical background.

Reyes, Lisa. “The Nineteenth-Century Latin American National Romance and the Role of Women.” Ariel 8 (1992): 33-44. Provides a comparative study of major nineteenth century novelists’ treatment of women in their works. Stresses the influence of the strong Latin American patriarchal social structure on the emerging novel.

Segre, Erica. Intersected Identities: Strategies of Visualisation in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Mexican Culture. New York: Berghahn Books, 2007. Asserts that the “visual element” has played a significant role in creating the Mexican national identity since the country gained its independence. Analyzes Mexican literature, periodicals, films, and photographs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to demonstrate how this visual element operates. The works of Altamirano are addressed in a chapter titled “An Italicised Ethnicity: Memory, Renascence, and Visuality in the Literary Writings of Ignacio Manuel Altamirano.”