Jennet Rodriguez Betancourt

The Criollo Voice in Alonso’s Jibaro
In an essay read at the symposium, From the New World to Utopia,
“Descolonización Literaria y Utopia: El Caso Puertorriqueno”, Pedro Lopez Adorno
questions how the literary production on the island could become decolonized and
acquire Puerto Rican literary sovereignty if the Caribbean island has never reached
independence at the political or economical level. He points out that because of the
island’s colonial status for over five hundred years, Puerto Rico’s literature has at all
times been produced under the vigilant eye of the colonializer, “De esa manera nuestra
literatura nace (como en toda América Latina) de un encuentro-choque-desengaño entre
conquistadores y vencidos” (López Adorno 1). Since the arrival of Christopher
Columbus (1493), the Europeans confronted an indigenous pre-colonial culture with an
oral cultural discourse which was suppressed, resented, and denied by the colonizer.
From the beginning, the written discourse employed the dominant European voice to tell
the story of the island and of its people from the colonizer’s perspective and personal
interests. “El tapaboca colectivo que Cristóbal Colón inauguró fue el de implantar un
discurso escrito sobre un discurso oral” (López Adorno 1).
The Spanish Crown who feared that the island would develop its own social and
cultural identity was largely responsible for Puerto Rico’s small and slow amount of
literary production. In fact, in the beginning of the 19 th century, the island had an
illiteracy rate of more than eighty percent and 85.4 percent of the civilian population
lived in the countryside (Johnson 13). The first island writers were cautiously consented
by the Spanish Colonial government to chronologically document the island’s history.
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During the Spanish Colonial rule, writing in Puerto Rico was produced by a literate elite
identified with or representatives of the colonizing power; therefore, the first texts
produced in spite of their detailed descriptions of the land, the customs, and the people
did not integrate the culture. For example, two historical texts that projected a
stereotyped image of the inhabitants of the island in the second half of the 18 th century
were Memoria de Alejandro O’Reilly (1765) and Historia geográfica, civil y natural de
la isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico de Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra (1778).
Even though these authors wrote about Puerto Rico, Lopez Adorno states that
they did not narrate the traditions that defined the people and the differences between
metropolis and settlement. Both writers presented publicity discourses depicting the
colony “como una colonia rentable, como una aventura sin riesgo” (López Adorno 2).
The docile image sculptured, stressed the similarities that would be desired rather than
the differences that would present a threat for European commerce. In this manner, there
already existed the “Other”-a collective personality in formation which was principally
silenced and hidden from the metropolis for political and business purposes. During this
period, writers under such watchful imperial circumstances were in reverence to the
colonial centre.
Yet, although Puerto Rico has never been independent politically and
economically, writers have continuously been attempting to attain cultural autonomy
through their literature. It is through the written text that writers especially during the
19 th century began developing a discourse-a voice; a voice that evolved from story telling
to its present day position. Spanish imperial conquest had already destroyed the land and
had regarded its inhabitants as disposable; therefore, it was vital that in order for Puerto
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Rico to develop any type of autonomy, the inhabitants had to be literate because “The
seizing of the means of communication and the liberation of postcolonial writing by the
appropriation of the written word become crucial features of the process of self-assertion
and of the ability to reconstruct the world as an unfolding historical process” (Ashcroft
81). Thus literacy not only produces transformation, but also authority it, “… leads to the
development of historic consciousness. It allows scrutiny of a fixed past. It enables
distinctions to be made between truth and error and so permits the development of a more
conscious, critical, and comparative attitude to the accepted world picture” (Ashcroft 80).
The arrival of the printing press in 1806 dramatically changed Puerto Rico
because more writers began to flourish and institutions like the Royal Academy of Belles
Letters were founded which enormously contributed to the academic and literary
development of the island. In addition, La Gaceta, the first published newspaper began
to circulate. The Spanish government continued to exercise absolute censorship over
newspapers, journals, and creative writing, thus generating a firm literal silencing and
control. However, the literature written by elite Creole or Criollo writers born or residing
in Puerto Rico during the 19 th century slowly began to elaborate the concept of
difference, of “Otherness”.
Writers like young eighteen year old Celedonio Luis Nebót de Padilla who in
1833 published the first literary piece, a drama called Mucén o el triunfo del patriotismo
began signing his work as “joven puertorriqueño” and not “joven español”. Maria
Bibiana Benitez, poet and dramatist, published La Ninfa de Puerto Rico in La Gaceta
(1833). In 1834, Jose Simón Romero Navarro wrote Arrogante Gulleron, Reina de
Nangán, and nine young Puerto Rican writers residing in Barcelona collaborated in
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writing literary compendiums such as: Aguinaldo Puertorriqueño (1843), Album
Puertorriqueño (1844), Cancionero de Borinquen” (1846), and a second Aguinaldo
Puertorriqueño (1884).
Although this group of young Creole writers evidenced a new form of artistic
expression with a deep love for homeland, they did not communicate “…una firme
expresión de nuestro espíritu, por estar sometidos ingenuamente a los temas y las normas
ya caducas de la literatura española. La imitación supera a la originalidad y el balbuceo
se evidencia” (Pedreira 155). Yet, in their self-expression they began to display a new
self-awareness that was contributing to the beginnings of a new artistic manifestation.
According to Ramón Luis Acevedo, “La literatura puertorriqueña como expresión
colectiva de un pueblo con clara identidad y conciencia de sí mismo comienza hacia
mediados del siglo XIX” (9). He goes on to state that before this period the Puerto Rican
still did not exist as a cultural and historical subject with its own uniqueness.
It is during this period that a new Creole state of mind began to surface and that
writers increased their literary production both in quantity and quality; nonetheless, it
continued under imperial authorization and approval. According to the authors of The
Empire Writes Back, “… early post-colonial texts have the potential for subversion in
their themes, but they cannot be fully developed because of rigid censorship.
Consequently, any type of discourse in the colony is “under direct control of imperial
ruling class who alone license the acceptable form and permit the publication and
distribution of the resulting work” (Ashcroft 6). This is the setting under which Manuel
A. Alonso (1822-1889), one of the most important figures of the group of ascending
young Puerto Rican writers along with Francisco Vasallo son and Santiago Vidarte,
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produced the first writings El Gibaro (old spelling) in 1849. Antonio S. Pedreira,
affirms, “Cuando aparece en Barcelona la edición príncipe de El Gibaro, 1849, encendió
su luz nuestra primera estrella” (Pedreira 156).
Alonso’s book of verse and prose regarded as “criollisimo” full of costumbrismos
puertorriqueños was cautiously assembled under strong overruling censorship and
authority of Spain’s colonial regime at the time. As Salvador Brau so strongly
emphasizes in the prologue, to understand Alonso’s text the reader must transport himself
to the context in which the author wrote. Brau signals that in Manuel A. Alonso’s case
this was particularly crucial since he was already a target of persecution warned by
Spanish authorities and even by the respected older Puerto Rican writer Francisco
Vasallo “El Buen Viejo,” to not lose sight of “las condiciones del pais para el cual
redactaba sus escritos” (xxxi).
Alonso’s El Salvage, included in Album Puertorriqueño, expressed deep
sentiment while daringly denouncing the white European. Here is an example of one
bold verse in the poem:
Que venga aquí el europeo
codicioso,
Y si acercarse le veo
morirá al punto a mis manos.
Que para sufrir tiranos
En su patria no naci.
After much criticism and suppression, Alonso quickly learned that in order to publish his
works, he had to be watchful of every word and camouflage his ideas and sentiments
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ehind varied discursive masks. So this time the determined writer focused on the spirit
and way of life of the inoffensive, modest inhabitants of the mountains.
According to Brau, El Gibaro was already categorized as “libro sospechoso”; and
therefore, it would be detained and carefully examined at the port. It was Alonso’s
connection with San Juan’s bishop, Gil Esteve, which redeemed the book of its sins and
helped it enter the island with the church’s blessings of the Catholic Church. Lopez
Adorno states that the literary production of Puerto Rican writers continuously
confronted political, institutional, and ideological obstacles that did not permit it to attain
a larger readership nationally and abroad (Making the decolonized visible 7). Flemming
Brahms affirms that “As a group the Commonwealth nations, however different they may
be, share the experience of colonialism and its subsequent developments. Their histories
vary, but they always need to be understood in terms of a dependence upon the imperial
centre and a later movement towards independence” (66). Brahms further agrees that
these countries exhibit a sense of urgency and an enthusiasm to re-create both their social
and cultural self-hood and many times an obsession with cultural identity is observed.
(66)
The jibaros, one of Alonso’s main themes, were the deprived people from the
countryside or mountains. A jíbaro or gíbaro is an expression meaning hill or forest
people, commonly used to refer to mountain dwelling peasants in Puerto Rico. Francisco
A. Scarano relates in “The Jibaro Masquerade and the Subaltern Politics of Creole
Identity Formation in Puerto Rico, 1745-1823” that the jíbaro initially appeared in
writings during the Spanish colonial period in which elite writers hid their political ideas
behind discursive disguises using the uneducated, inoffensive peasants who lived in the
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mountains of the island as their shield. He expresses that “The Puerto Rican-as-jíbaro
trope was initially tied to the politics of historically young, ascendant elites; as such, it
formed part of the arsenal that this group used to advance a particular socioeconomic and
political-that is, class-project” (1403). According to this author, in time the masquerades
intention became popularly recognized and the jíbaro symbol assumed a significant role
In his work, Scarano traces the jíbaro masquerade of the early 19 th century
signaling three instances in which Creoles wore jíbaro masks with the obvious intent of
disguising a political message or simply voicing disapproval. In 1814 a letter, from an
anonymous writer signing with the pseudonym of the patient jíbaro denounced an abuse
by local tax authorities in the Diario, a Puerto Rican newspaper. Later in 1820, El
Investigador published an anonymous poem, Coplas del Jíbaro which satirized reactions
of both island and peninsular conservatives against Spain’s liberals. Another instance in
which the jíbaro was used was in 1822, the Diario liberal y de vriedades de Puerto Rico
printed poems by anonymous correspondents who exchanged verses between two peasant
families, in a peasant culture, using peasant expressions.
Although Alonso was not the first to use the jíbaro as trope in the 19 th century, he
was one of the most exceptional authors to express and describe the peasant language and
the rural and urban traditions of the jíbaro. Describing Alonso, Auffant Vázquez says
that his work is “…el más representativo por que une el lenguaje al proceso de
pensamiento de su momento” (xiv), and that it “…expresa la sincera revelación del alma
nuestra, en el tardío y lento amanecer de las letras boricuas, cuyo mediodía aun no se
logra plenamente. La política, la educación y el progreso sostienen el aliento de su
criollísimo festivo y sano humorístico” (Auffant Vázquez 14). Alonso is also considered
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the first exponent of costumbrismo (cultural mannerist) or Creole literature, in fact “…el
criollísimo salvó al fin su primer libro sagrado” (Martínez Masdeu 158).
In this work, I will explore how Manuel A. Alonso Pacheco in selected vignettes
of El gíbaro (1849), skillfully eluded censorship by using diverse literary devices or
masks in the midst of the extraordinary oppression imposed by the Spanish colonial
government at the time. Three topics that continuously surface in his work are: the
beginnings of a Puerto Rican identity (uncovered in descriptive jíbaro verses), and the
author’s ideas and concerns with progress and education (cautiously inserted in writings
in prose). During the 19 th century, this author of Criollo self-identification, not only
recorded the customs and traditions of the jíbaro; but he significantly contributed to the
beginnings of a Puerto Rican identity by appropriating and uplifting this peasant figure
without crossing imperial boarders. Auffant Vaquez states that “los obstaculos de la
censura los venció con el folklore, el humor, lo onírico fundamentados en el elemento
innegable: el puertorriqueño” (xv). In El gíbaro, Alonso recreated the feelings of a
shared belonging –a Creole identity in its initial stage; according to Lopez Adorno, this
text recorded the commencement of a cultural nature belonging to a collective group.
Manuel A. Alonso was born in San Juan to Spanish parents that classified him as
a Creole or Criollo. In 1842, he moved to Barcelona where he went on to become a
doctor in medicine and surgery. After six years, when he returned to the island in 1848,
he lived in Caguas, but left on two occasions and in 1871, he returned to San Juan where
he worked as director of the Casa de Beneficencia while also directing El Agente, a
reformist newspaper. Alonso wrote El Gibaro while studying in Barcelona, absent from
his country for six years. Like most writers away from their homeland, he was full of
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nostalgia and a deep urgency to revisit, and record moments and places left behind. In
Advertencia a los lectores, he writes “Al escribirlo me propuse pintar la sociedad tal cual
existía en el año 1842, cuando me trasladé a aquella ciudad teniendo solo diecinueve
años” (Alonso xli).
This young author who published under the pen name of El Gibaro de Caguas
wrote El Gibaro, a collection of vignettes about customs (cuadro de costumbres) in prose
and verse which consist of 20 scenes, writings dedicated to several friends, and other
articles in two parts. An expanded 2 nd edition was published in 1847, where a more
mature Alonso continued to write about earlier themes, with more explicit criticisms, a
short story, Perico Paciencia, as well as a prologue written by Salvador Brau which
scholars today consider a valuable piece of literary criticism. Many of the vignettes
present portraits of Creole every day life, in which Alonso masterfully transcribes and
imitates rural speech patterns. This author not only gathers the customs and traditions of
the island’s modest rural folk, but as Acevedo points out
“… las enjuicia de acuerdo a criterios de progreso, originalidad, y utilidad económica y
social. El interés en los asuntos de Puerto Rico, el patriotismo critico y activo, la
intención didáctica de ensenar deleitando, el humorismo, el optimismo cauteloso y la
simpatía por lo popular son rasgos que se destacan en El Jibaro y que encaminan nuestra
literatura por la autorreflexión y definición de lo propio” (14)
Alonso was an educated Creole who assumed a peasant identity and voiced his
deep sentiments about the people, the island, and the traditions. Throughout the
enjoyable, humorous, and serious accounts the author depicts the activities of the
romanticized rural folk “que trabaja, canta baila, se diverte, se lleva su hambra a caballo o
se casa por la iglesia; que cree en brujos, hechiceros, y curanderos…” (Melendez Muñoz
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1). According to Meléndez Muñoz, Alonso begins integrating in his stories the typical
characteristics of the Puerto Rican of the time and how the very soul and spirit are
artistically captured in an entirely collective manner. In fact, in verses like Un
casamiento jibaro, El baile del garabato, Una pelea de gallos, and La fiesta de Utuao,
this author describes the customs and traditions of the country folk of the island. By
choosing to relate humorous jíbaro stories and even signing with the pseudonym el
gíbaro de Caguas, this author wisely saved his book from censorship.
In Scene IV, Un Casamiento Jibaro, the clothes worn by the bride and groom are
described in vibrant jíbaro speech which clearly reveals a different manner of speaking,
“… Los hombres ensapataos
Y casi toos con chaqueta,
Yeban aygunos pañuelo
Amarrao en la cabesa
Y sombrero e pelo negro,
Tejio entero, o de empleyta,
Camisas aymionaas,
Y carsones e tapeta.
Las mujeres yebangorras
De pelo con plumas negras,
Guantes de lagoon tejios.
In, La fiesta de Utuao, a story to compae Pepe is narrated about the jbaro’s
experience at the festivities in Utuao, the municipality that “…como es sabido,
representaba el espacio típico de la jibaridad de la montaña…” (Forastieri-Braschi
XXXII). Food, dance, men, women, the usual brawl (which accompanied most parties),
the town mayor, and the priest were all portrayed with lively peasant language and style.
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These scenes on the surface portray the characteristics of the jíbaro, yet between the lines
they expose disparity from the metropolis and the beginnings of uniqueness. “Al
diferenciar entre el isleño respecto al peninsular define la puertorriqueñdad” (Auffant
Vazquez xii).
Alonso firmly believed that the jibaro’s customs and celebrations were quickly
being forgotten and replaced; therefore, and he felt a true obligation and urgency to return
to, defend, remember, and document the trullas or aguilnaldos, bodas, competencias de
caballo, juegos de gallos, velorios, etc. and the distinctive traditions that accompanied
them. Defenitely, Alonso brings the jíbaros to center stage throughout the many
descriptions of their popular festivities and traditions. “En esta decada XIX, el tema
jíbaro se hizo por vez primera preocupación científica y literaria…, puede decirse que se
cultivó tan ampliamente que ninguna otra época posterior ha podido aventajar la variedad
de su desarrollo” (Pedreira 9).
Córdova Iturregui in an interview by Angel Collazo Schwartz states that “…en
todo momento Alonso observa lo popular con un amor extraordinario” (22). He goes on
to marvel at Alonso’s respect and ability to describe scenes with so much color and
meticulous detail
“…como se entrena un gallo, las plumas de los gallos, las diferentes formas de
los gallos, el tipo de pelea que hacen los gallos. Solamente una persona que
desde su juventud prestase una atención profunda a las actividades propias del
pueblo, como el baile las jugadas de gallo, las carreras de caballo, podía
describir, por ejemplo, ese bando de San Pedro, los detalles que ofrece de esa
fiesta, que es una fiesta carnavalesca… Es algo extraordinario” (22).
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Córdova Iturregui insists that even today “…algunos grupos folklóricos pueden
montarlos porque siguen la descripción de Alonso” (22). Forastieri-Braschi in his critical
edition of El Gibaro (2007), further states La Gallera (Scene VII) “…todavía hoy es la
descripción mas completa de esa costumbre en Puerto Rico (XXXVIII).
Una Pelea De Gallos, Scene VIII and A Mi Amigo D. Miguel Delgado, Scene XV
are also writings full of descriptions and fine details which demonstrate his enthusiasm
for cock fights. Alonso narrates that any municipality on the island can go without
cultural events, and even a town mayor; however, “…cuando se trata de fundar una nueva
población no es extraño ver que aparece este edificio antes que la iglesia…” (Alonso 55).
These descriptions clearly evidence the writer’s keen awareness of the cultural and
popular traditions and forms of the island; nonetheless, they also expose Alonso’s
concern with the apparent lack of progress that the island is confronting.
In Scene V, Bailes de Puerto Rico, Alonso describes the dances in Puerto Rico
making a clear distinction between los bailes de garabato from los bailes de sociedad.
He clarifies that although el garabato is an inferior dance used by the popular class, it has
“… sus reglas, que se observan con todo rigor, y que nadie que toma parte en ellos esta
dispensado de guardar estrictamente. Aunque, como he dicho, son propios de la gente de
la clase inferior y del campo, algunas veces he visto bailar en ellos a personas muy
distinguidas” (47). He continues to cautiously voice that despite the fact that the island
doesn’t have theatres open all year round or enough people to attend them, “En cuanto a
los bailes nada tenemos que envidiarle al mundo” (48).
Once again through the lens of this young writer, the beginnings of a new Criollo
identity is being recorded; yet between the lines, Alonso continues to articulate his
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concerns about the needs of more theatres and cultural events so as to advance in the
appreciation of the arts and not chiefly to concentrate on cock fights and dances which
are events which he believes contribute little to the future progress of the island.
Besides Alonso’s respect and affection for the jíbaro’s popular culture, he was
also extremely attentive and caring to the peasant’s needs especially when it was related
to mental health conditions. It is evident that he is a doctor concerned with the health and
above all, the human dignity of the patient. In Scene X, Los Sabios y Los Locos En Mi
Cuarto, he uses the literary technique of dreams and of appropriating characters in this
dream in order to diverge suppression while masterfully voicing his sentiments about the
neglect and abuse in Puerto Rico’s mental institutions.
Alonso uses a 1 st person fictive narrator who has a dream in which four celebrated
French men that worked with mental patients appear in his room. One of these men was
Pinel, a wise, well known, older character, joined by four mental patients from France
who call themselves “la comision de locos”. One patient affirms that some institutions
in France are of high-quality “…buenas camas, buenas comidas, buenos baños, no nos
maltratan los guardias, un profesor sabio dirige el establecimiento y nada se le olvida
cuando se trata de nuestra comodidad y pronta curación…” (Alonso 84). At the same
time, other patients are disturbed because all patients do not enjoy equal and fair care and
many institutions do not even count with a director to oversee and defend the patient’s
innumerable needs. One patient describes his contrasting experience and Pinel is
outraged when he hears about the deplorable conditions and treatment.
“A nosotros no se nos tratan con tanto cumplido como allá en su tierra de usted;
nos tienen encerrados y en completa incomunicación en unas habitaciones
húmedas y hediondas; nuestra cama es una poca de paja; no tenemos salas de
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estudio, ni patios, ni jardines; comemos como las fieras cada uno en su rincón, y
cuando la miseria y los malos tratamientos acaban de trastornar nuestro juicio
nos encierran en una jaula o nos atan como a perros con un collar y una
cadena.”(Alonso 86)
After much uproar, a Puerto Rican patient respectfully requests that he be
permitted to speak about his country and when he is granted the opportunity, the dream is
interrupted-he (Alonso) is awakened and the reader is left wondering what the Puerto
Rican patient would have said. This was a brilliant way to avoid oppression. First, the
setting is France, not Puerto Rico. The complaints are not from the Criollo because he
was never able to articulate his opinion. Yet, the negative conditions were undoubtedly
exposed and contrasted with the fair and humane ones using fictive characters. Most
importantly, Alonso didn’t assert anything-he didn’t need to; the question to anyone who
knew the island was already answered. Censorship was evaded and between the many
layers, the message was undeniably communicated. The neglect, the injustices, and the
ill-treatment were voiced through the characters of a different race and in another land.
Once again there is a hidden transcript in which what is left unsaid is just as important as
what is.
In Espiritu de provincialism, Scene I, Alonso once more evades censorship using
fictive characters and the literary technique of a story within a story. In this vignette
there is a masked criticism to those who believe that their culture is superior to others.
The author escapes repression by presenting a dialogue between three characters: a
Cuban friend named Pepe, a young arrogant Cuban student (el cubanito), and the
narrator, a Puerto Rican which is perhaps Alonso himself. The cubanito is a student in
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Barcelona who does everything, but study (a highly condemned topic by Alonso in many
of his narrations).
During the characters first meeting, the wealthy, spoiled student constantly
disapproves of Barcelona (where Alonso deliberately places him) which he insolently
refers to as “…un país en que hay tan poco trato, ese maldito dialecto o jerga que me
horripila, estas costumbres, estas comidas, todo en fin me aburre tanto…” (Alonso 4).
Several days later, the three characters meet again and the Puerto Rican (Alonso) decides
to play a joke on the cubanito, (creating a story within a story), constructing an imaginary
conversation with an Englishman who has become wealthy in Puerto Rico by exploting
the land and its people “…cuatro años negrero, otros cuatro semicontrabandísta, y siete
hacendado: total quince, para llegar después a propietario acomodado, _y no perdona
usted sus faltas a aquel país que las ha pagado en libras esterlinas? (Alonso 6). The
Englishman angrily replies that he will never like that terrible country whose disgusting
food has made him fat and ill.
After listening to the narrator’s words, the upset cubanito wants to know the
response to the arrogant, abusive Englishman. At this point Alonso humorously turns the
focus on the cubanito asking him what he would’ve replied. The student replies exactly
what was expected, “¿Yo?, que era una bestia, un mal educado, que no tenía presente que
hablaba con un puertorriqueño” (7). Nothing more needs to be said, Alonso’s trick has
been successful and the cubanito, not Alonso, not a Puerto Rican, has voiced the lack of
respect, humiliation, and total discontent that a human being feels when an offense of this
manner is directed towards him and or his country.
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The cubanito has outwardly expressed that he would not tolerate what he himself
had previously done. Once again by using diverse literary devices and expressing truths
halfway this author has uncovered some very serious denouncements towards the
metropolis; in this case insults masqueraded by an Englishman and a cubanito in
Barcelona. Córdova Iturregui states, “Es una escena maravillosa, que resalta por su
carácter democrático y respetuoso hacia todas las culturas” (20).
Like Salvador Brau, Cordova Iturregui agrees that anyone reading El Jíbaro must
be transported to the historical, cultural, and political context in which Alonso wrote.
The reader must also bear in mind that Puerto Rico’s literature bloomed in the hands of
young writers who were continuously under the watchful eye of the colonizer who
permitted very little tolerance or space for self-expression. He further stresses that
Alonso was a reformist who wanted Puerto Rico to move toward modernization and
progress with the help of the metropolis. “Alonso no era revolucionario, sino un
reformista que proponía en todo momento el diálogo como solución a los problemas del
país: hay que entenderlo en esa dimensión” (Cordova 22). Alonso wanted an association
with Spain, but he also wanted all the rights that accompany this alliance. That’s why he
promoted dialogue and not conflict while cautiously struggling for progress and a literary
space that was almost inexistent.
According to Luis Felipe Diaz, Alonso was a liberal and his book reveals the
author’s own social project. “En El gibaro de Manuel Alonso se nos revela, en tal
sentido, como el más formidable intento de textualizar los deseos y aspiraciones de
progreso social de unos grupos liberales comprometidos, ya directa o indirectamente, con
la producción material y simbólica que se desprende de la actividad hacendado-
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capitalista” (Díaz 41). Within the text, Díaz emphasizes that it is important to rescue “…
la noción de un sujeto- hablante que, sin conciencia plena de su proceder, se dispone a
proyectar (a crear) la visión tanto real como utópica de un nuevo proyecto social” (41).
Alonso was constantly looking to the future towards change and progress and he believed
that it could be accomplished through educating the jibaro. With Spain’s help this pursuit
of progress for the island could be reached. Scenes I, III, IX, XIX, address one of
Alonso’s major concerns and themes, education.
In Reflecciones Sobre Instrucción Pública A Los Padres De Familias, Scene III
Alonso stresses and warns that the best contribution that parents can give their children is
a good education; an education that unfortunately Puerto Rico does not offer.
Throughout the vignette, he reveals the appalling educational conditions and contrasts it
with the superior education offered in the metropolis and even in Cuba. In addition, he
reveals that many “señoritos” sent abroad to acquire a better education just waste their
time and their parent’s hard earned money (an example in Scene I previously discussed).
Alonso inserts recommendations that could contribute to elevate the quality of
instruction, “En cuanto al colegio centro de estas escuelas en mi concepto debería ser un
establecimiento en el cual se enseñara filosofía tal como previene el plan de estudios que
rige en España, adoptando en el los mismos métodos y obras, para que nada nuevo
encontrara un estudiante al llegar a la Península…” (31).
While Alonso concludes the vignette motivating parents to claim a fair and
superior education for their children, it is evident that the author writes with much
caution and reverence towards the Spanish Crown.
“Sin instrucción no puede haber adelanto en las artes y la industria que tanto necesita el
país; los extranjeros nos comprarán siempre nuestros productos para elaborarlos, y hacer
17

después que los paguemos a peso de oro; desvelémonos pues; y cuando todo esté
allanado, reclamemos la protección del Gobierno, que nunca se la niega a un pueblo que
pide medios para instruirse; venzamos todos los obstáculos, y digamos entonces al
Soberano: “Somos religiosos, somos leales, somos honrados, somos hospitalarios; sólo
nos falta que nos permitáis ser sabios” (33).
The vignette exposes enormous deficiencies and neglect, but the author’s opinion
and adamant disgust, inferiority, and shame are carefully masked by addressing the
parents to pay more attention to the needs of their children’s education and to respectfully
ask for the Colony’s assistance. From the start Alonso dedicates this vignette to the
“padres de familía” and not to Spain. In fact, he exalts the Peninsula and puts the burden
on the parents, yet between the lines he has uncovered the injustices and inequalities that
Puerto Rico’s educational system was facing while trusting that the “Soberano
Protector” would permit the people to become wise and enlightened.
In Scene IX, Escritores Puertorriqueños, Alonso revisits the topic of education
and begins “La literatura, ha dicho un escritor célebre de nuestra época, es el termómetro
verdadero del estado de la civilización de un pueblo…” and continues “…la literatura
marcha sin avanzar más de lo que permiten las circunstancias del país…” (69). Alonso
continues to stress the magnitude of decent educational opportunities,
“Cuando una juventud ávida de instrucción la adquiera en las escuelas del país a que
ahora puede alcanzar un reducido número de privilegiados; cuando esta juventud se
dedique a profesiones que en el día se miren con desprecio, porque son casi ignoradas,
entonces estará el grano de sazón y brotara dando después abundantísima cosecha.
Sembrar en un campo cubierto de malezas es perder el tiempo y la semilla” (70).
After Alonso discloses the existent educational truths, he inserts a significant
literary analysis of a remarkable poet, SantiagoVidarte, who has flourished in spite of the
18

underprivileged circumstances. 156). At this point , Alonso masters the role of a literary
critic incorporating and examining verses from different poems (La Vida, Insomnio, Mis
Memorias) in which the poet illustrates his enormous talent while vibrantly describing the
island’s beauty. He evidences that if Santiago Vidarte was able to create such
exceptional work under such appalling conditions; what would occur if the circumstances
were otherwise. He ends the scene describing the death of this gifted twenty-one year old
poet, who in the arms of friends repeatedly rambled “…los nombres de sus padres y el de
su patria, anadiendo siempre: es preciso estudiar…” (Alonso 80). Although Alonso is
frustrated with education in Puerto Rico, he does not want to disturb colonial authority
and he continuously inserts writings that carry concealed transcripts. Most importantly,
“El fue nuestro primer costumbrista y el primer escritor que se ocupo críticamente de la
obra de un poeta puertorriqueño” (Martínez Masdeu 156).
Manuel A. Alonso published El Gibaro as a collection of vignettes masterfully
weaving stories and articulating customs and traditions that should not be forgotten. Yet
between the lines, this cultural mannerist depicted the language, customs, and traditions
of this romanticized peasant to shield his own discourse. A discourse that did not want
Puerto Rico to be independent from Spain, but that pleaded for justice, equality, and
respect from the imperial power.
From the very beginning the title in El gíbaro, the protagonist is the inoffensive
rural peasant who must be educated and cultivated in order for Puerto Rico to move
forward. Immediately it is this country-folk figure who takes center stage and not the
already mistrusted writer, Alonso. While illustrating vivid snapshots of the clothing,
music, dance, festivities, and daily life of this simple jíbaro, an identity in formation
19

egins to surface filled with elements of Puerto Rican-ness. At the same time, amid the
idealized humorous jíbaro verses, in his writings in prose, Alonso cautiously masked his
criticisms using multiple literary devices (folklore, dreams, humor, a story within a story,
fictive characters and settings, etc.). The struggle and ability of this gifted writer in
composing such a significant literary work full of colorful vignettes packed with hidden
transcripts, in a period of so much oppression is extremely remarkable and valuable.
There are those who criticize Alonso’s appropriation of the jíbaro as an unfair
one. Puerto Rican intellectual, José Luis González claims in his controversial work, el
país de los cuartro pisos (1987) that the black population was omitted from the scenario
and that Alonso’s jíbaro is not Puerto Rico’s true jíbaro. “Jose Luis Gonzalez attempts to
deconstruct motivations behind the appropriation of the jíbaro in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries and to expose the reasons for its continuing resonance in Puerto Rican
national discourse in contemporary times” (Guerra 54).
Alonso’s jíbaro may not have been the true depiction of the jíbaro at the time, or
perhaps there just was not a true jíbaro, but without a doubt, his text contributed to the
beginnings of a collective distinctiveness. A personality and sense of Otherness created
by giving the jíbaro a voice and a visibility never before granted to this rural figure. By
cautiously orchestrating as a costumbrista writer illustrating the traditions of this
romanticized character, this talented author not only survived strict colonial conditions,
but he wrote a Puerto Rican classic.
Whatever Alonso’s intentions in writing this canonized work were, this text most
certainly contributes to documenting the popular culture of the jíbaro while contributing
to the beginnings of a Puerto Rican national identity. A reading of the verses will reveal
20

glimpses of the past; whereas, a reading or re-visiting of the stories, will surely shed
significant light on the prevalent colonial conditions of the times. To have masqueraded
using the marginalized jíbaro as trope was perhaps Alonso’s only and finest way to carry
out his project.
“De la entraña nativa le salían los humores aconsejados por el ingenio; y su
inconformidad solía despistar a la censura porque iba a su trabajo montada en
ocurrencias. Sus escritos en general llevaban la música por dentro como todos
los puertorriqueños. A poco de levantar el manto de donaires se verán en su
obra la índole pedregosa de nuestra situación; y la única manera que teníamos
entonces para exponerla sin peligros” (Pedreira 157).
Because of Puerto Rico’s colonial status, the island has always exhibited a cultural
struggle and this condition has always been present in its literature. It is through this
valuable tool that testimonies, histories, cultures, and the narrations of a nation are
recorded.
El gíbaro de Manuel A. Alonso Pacheco definitely offers an invitation to visit or
revisit the texts of other Puerto Rican writers who have included the topic of the jíbaro in
their narrations. Guerra states that Alonso documented jíbaro culture as he saw it, while
the writings of Zeno Gandia and Salvador Brau in the 1880s and 1890s “sharply
criticized and degraded it” (56). Sociologists Miguel Meléndez Muñoz and Jose
Colombán Rosario researched jíbaro culture and both have offered valuable contributions
for further study. This topic has especially awakened an interest not only in the jíbaro
representation, but more so in the representation of the Puerto Rican jíbara.
In Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican, the author calls the
autobiographical protagonist of her memoirs (Negui) a jíbara. Her stories are full of
21

jíbaro speech and ways, different from Alonso’s jíbaros; but nonetheless, different from
how city dwellers of the island expressed themselves in the mid-twentieth century. In
addition, when she experiences internal migration to the city, she records how she was
labeled a jíbara by classmates and even by one of her teachers because she was louder
and exhibited a different manner of behavior. Throughout her narrations there is an
extremely interesting female gaze at this national icon who has been at times both
idealized and scorned.
My interest in how the jíbara sees herself arises from the realizing that this female
figure has been defined in relation to the male peasant and primarily by elite male writers.
“Although Dávila, Meléndez Muñoz, Llorens Torres, and Muñoz Marín did formulate an
image, their contributions were only partial ones …” (Guerra 111). The project of the
elites both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was one of “…centralizing the jíbaro
in the national identity of Puerto Rico was exactly that, one which concentrated almost
entirely on the construction of a jíbaro-centered myth, not a jíbara-centered myth. This
does not mean, however, that a jíbara myth was not developed. It was. What it does
mean is that the jíbara myth was dependent on that of the jíbaro, not only for its defining
characteristics but also its mere existence” (Guerra 110).
The topic of the jíbara definitely motivates further research because the diverse
appropriations of this symbol of national identity in Puerto Rican literature during two
colonial periods, both in Spanish and English, “desde aquí y desde allá” is a fascinating
and an incredibly interesting literary subject for further study.
22

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29