Social Issues during the Times of Artemio Cruz A good story written by Carlos Fuentes The Death of Artemio Cruz reveals social issues that were around during pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and post revolutionary periods Mexico. This is shown through two important characters: Artemio Cruz, and his son Lorenzo. A romantic (Lorenzo) is a being that has ideals and fights for them. They know their goals and try to achieve them, while survivors have an only goal of keeping themselves alive. The survivors live through their choices and the romantics die as heroes, but each one complements the missing half of the other. Artemio Cruz is a typical survivor.
He knew how to fuck up other people and not get [himself] fucked over (Fuentes 137).
His choices allow him to survive and others to be killed. Although he lives through his choices, Fuentes shows through his interesting narrative device of expressing Cruzs unconscious, thoughts and memories that he regrets and reflects upon while on his deathbed. When the second person narrator says that you are going to live…You are going to be the meeting point, the universal orders reason for being…Your body has a reason for being…Your life has a reason for being…You are, you will be, you were, the universe incarnate (Fuentes 305), he is trying to show that everyone has a reason for living. Fuentes shows the reader why Artemios life is so important and why he believes that he is a model to the people. Artemio Cruz lives through his choices.
The Essay on Artemio Cruz Revolution Social One
The significance of the Mexican revolution lies not in the repercussions this insurrection exerted on the international level, but rather in the way it served as a precursor to the direction the 20 th century would follow. For while Mexico had gained significance internationally by being a leading exporter of raw material under Porfioro Diaz, it was not the only Latin American, or Lu so-American ...
He chooses to be a survivor, but each time he makes a choice, he leaves part of his romantic half behind since he saved himself instead of others. Instead of following his ideals, he follows his greed. He chooses to become rich and corrupt and to abandon his dreams, but he regrets doing a lot of those things because he killed many people in order to survive, including a part of himself. He said that he could have died at Perales…with that soldier…I survived. You died (Fuentes 236).
After everything is passed, he stops to think about what he did wrong and regrets it, but at the time, he just cared about himself. When he went to war he met Regina and they started to have a relationship, but since he is a survivor, once again he saved himself.
Regina got killed, but he didnt. However, his son Lorenzo, has a completely different life story, but of the same importance. Lorenzo was a romantic. He had his ideals and although he wasnt involved in the Spanish Civil War, he fights only to reach his dreams. He fights against the Fascists because they were oppressive, and not only that but because he wanted to make his father proud of him. In order to have a better understanding of the issues and how things were during that revolutionary period of time we need to take a closer look at the revolutionary events that were taking place and find our how they correspond to the events presented in the book. Ruling by divine right, the Bourbon kings were enlightened despots whose major interests lay in increasing the economic returns from the Spanish Empire; they introduced many French practices and ideas into overseas administration. Having strung a series of mission-forts across northern Mexico, authorities in Madrid and Mexico augmented the few regular Spanish troops that could be spared from the peninsula by fostering a local militia with special exemptions granted to Creole officers. Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Spain in 1808, imprisoned King Ferdinand VII, and attempted unsuccessfully to impose his brother Joseph Bonaparte as monarch.
Rebelling, the Spanish resurrected their long-defunct Cortes to govern as regent in the absence of the legitimate king, and, with representation from the overseas realms, the Cortes in 1812 promulgated a liberal constitution in the King’s name. Continental events stimulated rivalries in Mexico as contradictory commands were being received from the mother country. On Sept. 16, 1810, Hidalgo issued the Dolores, calling for the end of rule by Spanish peninsulas, for equality of races, and for redistribution of land. Mexican Independence Day commemorates this event. Warning that the Spaniards would deliver Mexico to the godless French, Hidalgo exhorted his followers to fight and die for the Mexican Virgin, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Hidalgo captured the warehouse on September 28, but he quickly lost control of his rebel army. The Guanajuato massacre swung moderate and undecided support behind the viceroy’s efforts to crush the Hidalgo rebellion, lest a full-scale caste war ensue. Royalist forces defeated Hidalgo at the Bridge of Calderon on Jan.
The Essay on Spanish Criollos Hidalgo Mexico
... priest continued Hidalgo's struggle. Jose Maria Morelos y Pav on attracted the Criollos. He came close to Mexican independence by bringing ... priest named Miguel Hidalgo. They wanted to establish Mexico as an independent country. Noone wanted confrontation with Spanish military though. Word ... found out that the French forces that had occupied Spain, had imprisoned their leader King Ferdinand VII, they ...
18, 1811. The Hidalgo cause was taken up by his associate Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, another parish priest, who won control of substantial sections of southern Mexico. The constituent congresses, which Morelos called at Chilpancingo in 1813, issued at Apatzingan in 1814 formal declarations of independence and drafted republican constitutions for the areas under his military control. The departure of the French freed Spanish troops needed to crush the Morelos revolution. Scattered but dwindling guerrilla bands kept alive the populist, republican, nationalist tradition of Hidalgo and Morelos. (Course of history) Mexican independence came about almost by accident when constitutionalists in Spain led a rebellion that, in 1820, forced Ferdinand VII to reinstate the liberal constitution of 1812.
Conservatives in Mexico alarmed that anticlerical liberals would threaten their religious, economic, and social privileges, saw independence from Spain as a method of sparing New Spain from such changes. They found a spokesman and able leader in Agustin de Iturbide, a first-generation Creole. United as the Army of the Three Guarantees the combined troops of Iturbide and Guerrero gained control of most of Mexico by the time Juan ODonoju, appointed Spanish captain general, arrived in the vice regal capital. Without money, provisions, or troops, O’Donoju felt himself compelled to sign the Treaty of Cordoba on Aug. 24, 1821, thus officially ending New Spain’s dependence on Old Spain. The convention provided that the Mexican nation, thenceforth to be styled the Mexican Empire, was to be recognized as independent. In one of the ironies of history a conservative Mexico had gained independence from a temporarily liberal Spain.
The Term Paper on Independence Movement of Brazil and Mexico
If “revolutionary movement” is defined as a social movement dedicated to changing the power or the organizational structures by an independence movement, and if “most” is defined as greatest, “successful” as a desired outcome and “original rationale and/or purpose” is defined as an fundamental intentional reason, then between the countries of Brazil ...
(Course of history) Returning back to our story, it is necessary to mention that at war, Lorenzo learned to love, admire and respect his friend Miguel, which was something very hard for you to see in Artemio Cruz. Lorenzo cared a lot for his friends. When he met Dolores, he felt that he had to save her, protect her (Fuentes 231), and because of those thoughts, he sacrificed his life for hers. As they crossed a mountain, an airplane passed by, trying to shoot them. Everyone hit the dirt (Fuentes 232), except for Lorenzo who had two bullets left in his riffle. He tried to save all his friends by killing the enemy, but since the trigger did not work, the riffle did not fire and he ended up dying as a hero for his friends. Lorenzo achieved his goals.
He fought for his ideals and died for them. One of his goals was to make his father proud, and we realize in the chapter 1939, that Lorenzo was able to accomplish that. The whole chapter is based on the gratitude Artemio Cruz felt towards his son for basically continuing his life for him. He believed that Lorenzo finished off…the second part that [he] could not complete (Fuentes 233).
The main difference Lorenzo had from his father that led him to be a romantic, was that while in war, Artemio Cruz let a soldier and Regina die in order to survive, while Lorenzo died himself in order to save Miguel, Dolores, Nuri and Maria. For that reason, Lorenzo is the romantic and Artemio Cruz is the survivor, but Lorenzo was Artemios other half.
The twin brother he never had. The world today is full of survivors, but very little romantics. People do not have to die for others in order to become a romantic, all they have to do is to stop fuck [ing] up other people (Fuentes 137) and try to help them instead. That would make the world a much better place to live in. Finally it is necessary to say that probably Artemio Cruz was a real existing hero although possibly had different name. As it is presented in the book Mexico was experiencing great deal of changes during those revolutionary times and consequently there were many historical figures that were symbolizing struggles and ventures that the nation had to cope with.
The Term Paper on The Merchant Of Venice: A Romantic Comedy
The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, probably written in 1596 and 1597, and forms one of a group of such comedies, along with The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, andTwelfth Night. Romantic comedy was a popular and much-preferred type in Elizabethan theatre, and all the trappings of such are present in The Merchant of Venice. First, the romantic involvement is ...
Bibliography: Carlos Fuentes. The Death of Artemio Cruz. Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, and Susan M. Deeds. The Course of Mexican History- 7th Edition..
