Macho Camacho's Beat: Analysis of Major Characters
"Macho Camacho's Beat: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the lives of several interconnected individuals, exploring the complexities of their circumstances and relationships within a socio-political context. Central to the narrative is The Heathen Chinky, a woman who endures extreme hardships, having faced sexual exploitation since childhood and now struggling to care for her developmentally disabled son while resorting to prostitution. Her son, often referred to as The Kid, leads a tragic existence marked by neglect and cruelty, culminating in a heartbreaking incident that underscores the fragility of life in their environment.
Senator Vincente Reinosa, also known as The Old Man, is portrayed as a self-inflated politician with a tenuous grip on family dynamics, while his wife, Graciela, represents a sheltered and naïve perspective, unable to confront the harsh realities around her. Their son Benny embodies a blend of privilege and discontent, depicted as a lazy student entangled in acts of violence, revealing the darker undercurrents of rebellion against his upbringing. The characters' lives intersect in a way that highlights themes of inequality, apathy, and the consequences of societal neglect, reflecting the broader struggles within their community. This exploration prompts readers to consider the impact of their decisions and the systemic forces that shape their destinies.
Macho Camacho's Beat: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Luis Rafael Sánchez
First published: La guaracha del Macho Camacho, 1976 (English translation, 1980)
Genre: Novel
Locale: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Plot: Social satire
Time: The early 1970's
The Heathen Chinky, also called The Mother, a woman who has been used sexually since she was five years old. Her brother was killed in the Korean War, and her mother died of grief shortly thereafter. When her husband deserted her for a Chicano woman, he left her alone with her encephalitic, retarded son. She prostitutes herself to pay for the boy's food and medical expenses and calculates the price of her material wants in terms of the number of tricks she will have to turn. At the suggestion of the Old Man, she has taken to leaving her child in a nearby park for a beneficial “sun bath” while she meets him. Ironically, she is waiting for the senator's arrival when her child is hit and killed by the car driven by his son, Benny.
Senator Vincente Reinosa (veen-SEHN-teh rra-NOH-sah), called The Old Man, a Puerto Rican politician. Reinosa prides himself on supporting the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and on his coining of the phrase “Yankee this is home” in response to the “Yankee go home” sentiments of the nationalist movement for independence. He has an inflated sense of his sexual prowess, classing himself within a great tradition beginning with Don Juan and coming down to him through Ricardo Montalbán and other Latin lovers. The senator's wife allows him in her bed only on rare occasions, and she is quick to make the sign of the cross immediately thereafter. His relations with his son are limited to providing material goods and immunity from the law. While he waits in traffic, creating inane campaign slogans (“Vince is a prince and easy to convince”), his son, Benny, kills the child of his mistress.
Graciela Alcántara y López de Montefrío (grah-seeEH-lah ahl-KAHN-tah-rah ee LOH-pehs deh mohn-teh-FREE-oh), Reinosa's wife. Having been sheltered from the world of men by her widowed mother and sent off to finishing school in Switzerland, she remains ignorant of sexual matters until the day of her wedding. She has since become resigned to this fact of life with the attitude of a Christian martyr. Her relations with her son are limited to admonishing him to keep his friends' motorcycles out of her garden and to prodding him to observe the social graces. She does not care for native Puerto Rican artists who depict the sordid reality around her; she claims that she was not born to look at ugly things. She will not be able to avoid the reality of her life for long. While her son is out on the street mourning the fact that the Kid's brains have stained the door of his Ferrari, Graciela discovers to her dismay that even her posh psychiatrist has become enchanted by Macho Camacho's vulgar guaracha.
Benny, the son of the senator and Graciela. Benny is a lazy and reluctant university student and a budding terrorist. He is responsible for plotting and carrying out with his friends the firebombing of the office of a local nationalist group, causing at least one death. His father has presented him with a brand-new Ferrari, which becomes the object of Benny's sexual fantasies; he masturbates in his bed each night with visions of the car dancing in his head. When Benny kills the Kid, his only regret is that the door of his Ferrari is dirtied with the child's blood and brains.
Doña Chon (DOH-nyah chohn), the Heathen Chinky's friend and neighbor. Doña Chon is enormously overweight and is constantly conjuring up some traditional Creole concoction in her kitchen. She pours forth platitudes and prayers as she pontificates on the problems of the world. She is genuinely kind; she shows concern for the welfare of the Kid; and she mourns deeply the unjustifiably long imprisonment of her daughter Tutú on a minor drug charge. It is because Doña Chon is delayed at the office of her daughter's inept attorney that she is unable to reach the child in time to take him home safely.
The Kid, the encephalitic and mentally retarded son of the Heathen Chinky. He consumes three lizards and innumerable flies per day and lives in a constant puddle of vomit and drool. He is tortured mercilessly by the neighborhood children when he is left in the park, and he is killed as he runs away from his own reflection in a broken mirror.