The Time of the Hero

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The Time of the Hero

THE LITERARY WORK

A novel set in Lima, Peru, in the 1950s; published in 1962.

SYNOPSIS

An adolescent boy from a middle-class background comes of age as a cadet in a military school. When the death of one of his classmates during a training exercise is covered up by the school officials, the cadet tries to expose the truth.

Events in History at the Time of the Novel

The Novel in Focus

For More Information

Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Peru, in 1936. His parents separated before his birth, and shortly after he was born his mother moved with the infant to Bolivia. After ten years in Bolivia, Vargas Llosa’s mother was reconciled with his father and took her son back to Peru, to reunite the family in Lima, the capital. Disturbed by his twelve-year-old son’s literary efforts, Vargas Llosa’s father enrolled the boy in the Leoncio Prado Military School in an attempt to change his direction. Vargas Llosa hated the school and left after three years to spend his last year in a civilian high school. Inspired by his experience at the Leoncio Prado, Vargas Llosa used the school as the setting for his first novel, The Time of the Hero.

Events in History at the Time of the Novel

Peruvian politics

Throughout the twentieth century, the state of affairs in Peru has seen almost constant upheaval, with a succession of rulers and regimes that ranged from moderate to dictatorial. Throughout the 1920s a U.S.-supported president, Augusto Leguia, served primarily the interests of the local oligarchy and foreign investors. Poor economic conditions for the working classes and rising inflation led to the formation of two powerful populist movements. The leftist APRA, (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) was founded in 1924 by Raul Haya de la Torre as a response to postwar inflation. Another populist leader, Sanchez Cerro, founded the Union Revolucionaria, a right-wing and nationalistic party that, like the APRA, gained most of its support from the working class. Cerro took power in 1931 only to be assassinated in 1933, quite likely by a supporter of the APRA.

The two decades following the assassination were plagued by political strife and economic instability. The government of José Luis Bustamente, a moderate liberal elected in 1945, gave power to Haya de la Torre and the apristas (APRA supporters), but General Manuel Odria took over the government in 1948 with the backing of the country’s elite, who had been distanced by leftist tendencies in the Bustamente government. According to Mario Vargas Llosa, “With Odria, barbarism reigned once more in Peru” (Vargas Llosa in Williams, p. 9). Odria’s regime was brutal, oppressive, and rife with corruption. Under his presidency, APRA members were forced to remain underground; Haya de la Torre himself fled to the Colombian embassy in Lima in hopes of gaining political asylum, but he was forced to remain inside for five years. Odria permitted elections in 1956, which resulted in the presidency of Manuel Prado, who won the contest with APRA support. Toward the end of Prado’s second term in 1962, new elections were held. The three candidates consisted of Odria, Haya de la Torre, and Fernando Belaúnde, a leader of APRA. After a period of political and military maneuvering following the elections, as well as a brief military junta, Belaúnde was elected. Vargas Llosa attended the Leoncio Prado Military School during Odria’s presidency and wrote the novel during the political turmoil of the 1962 elections.

Peru’s corruption

Throughout modern Peru’s history, corruption has been a constant factor. This is evident in the questionable political and economic influence of the country’s major banks, as well as in the state’s clandestine provision of key pieces of information to powerful businessmen, who in turn wield an imposing influence on the government and the economy. Such corruption and its stultifying effect on Peru would become one of Mario Vargas Llosa’s greatest inspirations for writing. For Vargas Llosa, much of the corruption stems from the prevalent masculine values in the country. One Vargas Llosa biographer, Dick Gerdes, points out that Peruvian society tends to exalt masculinity and male chauvinism. Vargas Llosa—not unlike other intellectuals—views this cultural determinant as an overpowering and destructive force. He also condemns Peru’s middle class, blaming them for many of the country’s problems; Vargas Llosa described Peru’s middle-class as “the worst thing under the sun: an absolutely noxious class, infected with prejudices, ignorant, and hypocritical” (Vargas Llosa in Gerdes, p. 2).

Vargas Llosa realized early that he wanted to attempt to cure some of Peru’s problems through his writing. “I had discovered, in my last year of high school,” he explains, “that the country had severe social problems. I wanted to be identified with the poor and to be part of the revolution that would bring justice to Peru” (Vargas Llosa in Gerdes, p. 3).

Many of the country’s social problems have involved the stratified society and the extreme prejudice directed toward the native Indian population, who live in impoverished conditions in rural mountain areas. Other troubles involved Peru’s political sphere. Popular elections have been nullified by the military, as in the case of Odria’s seizure of power in 1948; accusations of voter fraud occurred during the 1962 elections; and members of specific political parties were harassed mercilessly in society, namely the apristas during Odria’s presidency. In the novel, Lieutenant Gamboa comments on Peru’s problems, believing the military to be exempt from the problems. “Why is our country the way it is?” he asks. “Lack of discipline. Lack of order. The only part of it that stays strong and healthy is the army, because of its structure, its organization” (Vargas Llosa, The Time of the Hero, p. 310). Despite Gamboa’s belief in the army, it becomes apparent that the army is corrupt in its own right when Captain Garrido tells Gamboa to stop his search for truth in the death of Arana because “A clean conscience might help you get into heaven, but it won’t help your career” (The Time of the Hero, p. 351). Gamboa finally realizes this after his diligence in looking for the truth brings him nothing but disdain from other officers and reassignment to a remote military outpost. In the novel, injustice goes unpunished and virtue unrewarded, underscoring the author’s belief that Peru’s society is in desperate need of moral improvement. With this in mind, it is not surprising that Vargas Llosa would opine, “Literature in general and the novel in particular are expressions of discontent. Their social usefulness lies principally in the fact that they remind people that the world is always wrong, that life should always change” (Vargas Llosa in Williams, p. 8).

Peruvian ethnic groups and prejudice

The principal ethnic groups in Peru are the Indians, Hispanicized mestizos (of mixed Spanish and Indian blood), and whites. There is also an influential Japanese presence in the country; Peru has even seen the election of a president of Japanese descent, Alberto Fujimori, in 1990. Whites, or criollos as they are also known, are the elite of Peruvian society. Their claim to social superiority comes not only from their control of the country’s resources but also from their heritage of aristocracy; many whites trace their descent to the early Spanish settlers of Peru. Mestizos are also sometimes called criollos. This ambiguous terminology reflects the ambiguity of ethnic group membership in Peru. To say someone is white is to attribute elite status to that person. To call someone a mestizo is to assign him or her to the middle or lower class. Despite this distinction, mestizos and whites share similar legal status and both have traditionally held power over the Indian majority.

The contrast between mestizo and Indian in Peru exists in various dimensions of life. Culture, economics, ethnicity, class, and language all play a part in defining the relationship between mestizos and Indians. Mestizos speak Spanish and are integrated into the Peruvian political and economic systems, but most Indians speak Indian dialects (Quechua and Aymara) as their native language and enjoy little involvement in politics or the economy. Geography also plays a part in the distinction between mestizos and Indians. Mestizos generally live in Peru’s major cities along the coastal area, while Indians inhabit the Andes Mountains, where they raise crops and cattle. Other minority groups in Peru include a small black population and descendants of Chinese immigrants who moved to Peru in great numbers in the nineteenth century.

Various ethnic distinctions of Peru appear throughout the novel, and the Leoncio Prado student body seems to mirror the prejudices of the country as a whole. At the school, the Indians are considered “peasants” and are stigmatized with countless negative stereotypes. When Boa thinks about Cava’s suspension from the school, several of these stereotypes emerge. He muses that “the peasants have bad luck, something’s always happening to them.... The peasants are kind of stupid.... It’s good luck not to be born a peasant” (The Time of the Hero, p. 173). Later, Boa thinks about Cava again: “That poor peasant Cava, he’s had a bad time... now he’ll go back to the mountains and won’t ever study again, he’ll just stay up there with the Indians and the llamas, he’ll just be a stupid field hand” (The Time of the Hero, p. 218). These stereotypes are common throughout Peru, as reflected in the Peruvian expression “The Indian is the animal closest to man” (Nyrop, p. 73). Other prejudices about Indians include the beliefs that they are drunken, lazy, dirty, superstitious, pagan, and addicted to coca.

The Novel in Focus

The plot

As the novel begins, four cadets at the Leoncio Prado Military School in Lima, Peru, play dice in the barracks bathroom. The four boys are Alberto Fernandez—also known as “the Poet”—Porfirio Cava, Boa, and Jaguar. Their dice game will determine who among them will have to steal a chemistry examination from a locked classroom. Cava loses the game and must steal the test. During the theft, he accidentally breaks a window; the school officials discover the theft and confine the cadets who were on guard duty to the barracks. The cadets are to stay there until the culprit comes forward to take responsibility for the crime.

Through their various narratives, the cadets describe events from their lives before coming to the Leoncio Prado. Alberto Fernandez and Ricardo Arana, a cadet known as “the slave” because of his submissive nature, fantasize about romances with neighborhood girls and think about their families. The Jaguar, who is the toughest cadet in the academy, recalls a childhood spent working for a ring of thieves.

After several weeks without any weekend leave, Arana can no longer cope with the confinement and tells the officers that Cava stole the exam. In exchange for his information he receives an afternoon leave. Cava is suspended from the academy, and the Jaguar vows revenge on the unknown “squealer.” A few days later during a combat training exercise, Arana is shot in the head from behind and dies.

The preliminary investigation reveals little about the death. To minimize scandal as local elections approach and to protect the reputation of the school, the academy officers attribute the death to Arana’s own negligence, stating that he was clumsy and shot himself with his own weapon. Alberto, who was Arana’s only friend in the school, believes that the Jaguar is the killer. Desiring justice for his dead friend, Alberto decides to tell Lieutenant Gamboa, one of the officers, that the Jaguar killed Arana. He also tells Gamboa about other illicit cadet activities on the campus, namely the countless thefts, fights, drinking, smoking, and escapes without leave. Gamboa is shocked and feels morally obligated to investigate the allegations. As a result of Gamboa’s prompting, the school officials search the barracks and find an abundance of alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling paraphernalia. However, the officials would rather let Arana’s death go unsolved than create a scandal. Gamboa is even reprimanded for his attempt to uncover the truth.

Alberto is likewise blackmailed into complicity after school officials discover incriminating evidence against him; Alberto has written pornographic stories for the other cadets in exchange for cigarettes and money. When they are placed in a cell together, Alberto accuses the Jaguar of Arana’s murder and tells him that he has told the school officials. The two cadets fight viciously, and the Jaguar beats Alberto severely. When they return to the barracks, the other cadets think the Jaguar is responsible for the shakedown that has resulted in heavy punishment for all of them. The Jaguar does nothing to admit or deny his guilt; his code of honor forbids him from “snitching” on another person.

Finally, the Jaguar admits to Lieutenant Gamboa that he did shoot Arana, but by this point it is too late. Gamboa has been reassigned to a remote outpost because of his quest for the truth and is too disillusioned to pursue the incident further. By dropping his accusations, Alberto is permitted to graduate and returns to civilian life. As the novel ends, the Jaguar goes unpunished, marries his boyhood sweetheart, and becomes a bank clerk.

Masculine values in the novel

One of the most prominent issues in the novel is the recurring theme of masculinity that is so much a part of life for the cadets at the Leoncio Prado. The interactions and conversations of the cadets center around their attempts to prove their masculinity. As the cadets joke with each other, they constantly challenge each other’s masculinity and sexuality. In one episode, one of the cadets, Vallano, calls Alberto a “fairy” (The Time of the Hero, p. 142). Alberto turns the jest back on Vallano to the delight of the other cadets, raising the ire of Vallano, who shouts, “... I’m more of a man than any of you and if somebody wants to prove it, come on over” (The Time of the Hero, p. 142). When Boa wonders what’s happening, the cadets draw him into the jocular dispute by saying, “He [Vallano] said it’s obvious you’re a queer” (The Time of the Hero, p. 143).

In fact, many of the cadets are in the academy as a result of the masculine values of their fathers. Just after Arana is shot, Alberto talks with Arana’s father outside the infirmary. Arana’s father describes his motivation for sending Ricardo to the academy, “It did him good, it changed him, it made a man out of him” (The Time of the Hero, p. 211). He goes on to say, “His mother thinks I’m to blame, that’s a woman for you.... But I’ve got a clear conscience, absolutely clear. I wanted him to be a man” (The Time of the Hero, p. 212). Alberto thinks back to a conversation with his own father about enrolling at the academy. “It’s for your own good,” his father told him. “They’ll make a man out of you. They’ll give you a strong body, a strong personality” (The Time of the Hero, p. 215). As if to prove his own masculinity, Alberto’s father has numerous girlfriends even though he is married. Almost every night he comes home late, or fails to come home at all. When Alberto tells his neighborhood friends about a fight his parents had over his father’s indiscretions, one of the friends says, “He’s a killer, all right. He’s got rafts of women” (The Time of the Hero, p. 221). Instead of being disappointed in this behavior, Alberto’s friends admire Alberto’s father for his proficiency as an adulterer.

The best definition of masculine values in the novel appears during a discussion between the officers of the Leoncio Prado. When Gamboa tells Captain Garrido about the illicit activities of the cadets and demands severe punishments and an investigation of Arana’s death, the captain is less anxious to take action. He tells Gamboa, “We’ll have to punish them for the liquor and the exams. But remember, the first thing you learn in the army is to be a man. And what do men do? They smoke, they drink, they gamble...” (The Time of the Hero, p. 310). He continues, telling Gamboa, “The cadets all know they get expelled if they’re discovered.... But the smart ones don’t get caught. If they’re going to be men, they have to take chances, they have to use their wits” (The Time of the Hero, p. 310). At the Leoncio Prado, the cadets certainly do learn to become men according to Garrido’s definition. Outside educational and military training, the cadets occupy much of their time with sex, drinking, gambling, and fighting, the very values that appear in Garrido’s assessment of typical masculine behavior. When Gamboa suggests that he will “make better men of them” (The Time of the Hero, p. 311) by teaching them discipline and honesty, Garrido tells him, “You talk like a religious fanatic. Do you want to wreck your career?” (The Time of the Hero, p. 311). With such an attitude prevalent at the highest level of the school’s leadership, the cadets are doomed to the same codes of masculinity that have been taught to their fathers and destined also to pass them on to their own sons.

Sources

Much of Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Time of the Hero comes from his own experiences as a cadet at the Leoncio Prado Military School. Vargas Llosa writes, “Ever since I was in the Leoncio Prado I wanted to write about it... It was an outlet for my revolt against the Leoncio Prado. Also something hidden. Because in school one didn’t dare show any sign of that” (Vargas Llosa in Gerdes, p. 2). Much of the description of the masculine values shaping the lives of the cadets at the Leoncio Prado comes directly from Vargas Llosa’s own life. As Vargas Llosa describes, his father had found out that he was writing poems, feared for his future (believing that poets were doomed to die of hunger), and also feared for his manhood since it was generally believed that poets were homosexual. It seemed to the father that the perfect antidote was the Leoncio Prado Military School. There is obvious similarity between the attitude of Vargas Llosa’s father and that of Ricardo Arana’s and Alberto’s fathers in the novel, who have enrolled their sons at the academy to make men of them.

Alberto’s discontented life in Lima also bears a relation to Vargas Llosa’s own experiences as a boy. Vargas Llosa describes his introduction to the city: “I went to Lima for the first time when I was just growing out of childhood. I hated the city from the beginning because of the unhappiness I felt there. My parents had been separated and then reconciled after ten years” (Vargas Llosa in Williams, p. 10). His parents’ separation may have also served as a source for the novel. Several of the cadets at the school describe marital problems between their parents as major causes of concern.

Critical response to the novel

The publication of The Time of the Hero in 1963 gave rise to a wide variety of responses. The most dramatic response came from the Leoncio Prado Military School, which Vargas Llosa had used as the setting for the novel. Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Time of the school officials: “The book had a brilliant reception: one thousand copies were ceremoniously burned in the patio of the school and several generals attacked it bitterly. One of them said that the book was the work of a ‘degenerate mind,’ and another, who was more imaginative, claimed that I had undoubtedly been paid by Ecuador to undermine the prestige of the Peruvian army” (Vargas Llosa in Williams, p. 13).

A more significant response, however, was the immediate critical praise from reviewers and Latin American writers. The novel was lauded for its clever use of slang and taboo vocabulary, and for its complex narrative strategies. The fact that Jaguar is one of the narrators is not revealed until late in the novel. One critic, J. J. Armas Marcelo, applauds the secret narratives of the novel during which the reader is uncertain as to who is speaking. Marcelo writes, “This functionality of the concept of secrecy in the formal structure of the novel constitutes, without a doubt, one of the fundamental characteristics and, at the same time, one of the most outstanding stylistic features of The Time of the Hero” (Marcelo in Bryfonski, p. 500). Another assessment of the novel commended Vargas Llosa’s ability to create a complex narrative while maintaining fluidity in his prose:

He [Vargas Llosa] will write around a scene until he feels he has wholly encompassed it. There is, of course, the danger that too many devices will draw attention to themselves and defeat his whole purpose by running interference. They do sometimes. But he is skillful enough not to get caught in the quagmire.
(Harss and Dohmann in Bryfonski, p. 493)

Vargas Llosa’s success in creating a narrative in his first novel, The Time of the Hero, that defies conventions without detracting from the story instantly established him as one of Latin America’s foremost novelists. Vargas Llosa himself ran unsuccessfully for his country’s presidency in 1990.