Wild Fable, by César Vallejo

SUMMARY
Under a modernist writing model, the text develops the topics.
connected to the strange, the unforeseen, the unexpected; a world where the
rational explanations do not lead to a satisfactory answer and
one of the pillars of that construction is marked by the
strangeness, the perplexity that the represented world proposes. In front of
the certainty the story proposes an unsettling world.
César Vallejo, narrative, wild speech, figuration
lyric, representation.

ABSTRACT
Under the modernist model of writing, this text presents motifs
related to the uncanny, the unforeseen, the unexpected; a world where
the rational explanations fail to give satisfactory answers. One of the
pillars of such constructions is determined by the uncanny, the
perplexity proposed by the represented world. Faced with certainty,
this story proposes a disturbing world.
César Vallejo, narrative, Fabla salvaje, lyric figuration
representation.

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 1.

César Vallejo published the short novel Fabula salvaje in Lima in

May 1923. In the work, set in a small town in the
Andes mountain range, it portrays the progressive emotional collapse of
a young couple of spouses. The episode that triggers the
deliriums and the suffering of Balta, Adelaida's husband
protagonist of the novel, occurs at the beginning of the story and can
seems linked to the presence of a supernatural entity, although
it also raises suspicion that it is the consequence of a pathology
mental. According to the key in which this story is read, it can be
consider the Wild Fabla as a piece of fantastic literature, with
the protagonist plagued by a strange force, or as one of
realistic literature, with the same protagonist falling defeated before the
mental and physiological discomforts that he/she is unaware operate in his/her
interior.
According to the story, Balta, one morning in July, just
out of his bed, he thought he saw in the mirror of his room, instead
of his own reflection, a face that seems foreign to him and, at the same time, so
terrifying as threatening: 'Balta was left pale and trembling.'
Startled, he quickly turned his face back and looked around, as if
his shuddering would have been due to the surprise of feeling someone
to move stealthily around him. He discovered no one" (Vallejo
1967: 85). As the days go by, the young husband, because of the fact that
you will start to perceive this entity practically everywhere, it
will become a more withdrawn and aggressive person. His wife
Adelaida will be, despite the great love she feels for him, constant.
victim of their rejection. The situation will become even more complex,
since both are aware, as mentioned in a passage
from the novel, that they will be parents of a creature that is already there
on the way.
The narrative —and here is one of the reasons why still, almost
A century after its publication, it captures the attention of critics—, harbors

84 Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019

some of the literary topics present in his time, such as the
exploration of the boundaries between reason and madness, but
situated in a rural environment and with characters of indigenous origin. This
peculiar situation allowed Vallejo to intertwine in the plot of
Wild fable, certain beliefs and superstitions of popular origin,
characteristics of the Andean world, with an idea that had been
developed and previously exploited by Western literature: the
existence of an evil twin.
In that sense, and this is the objective of this work, it is
It is striking to recognize the resources, both stylistic and conceptual,
of which Vallejo took advantage to reconcile both traditions
discursive, so that —as will be demonstrated below—
Wild fable represents a milestone within its production.
narrative and, more broadly, of its prose production. As part
from that reconciliation work, the narrator, in his intention to
convey to the reader the sensations and emotions of Balta, resorting to
use of images described in a lyrical way, so it could be stated
that in these passages the narrator Vallejo lays bare Vallejo
poet. Moreover, if it is considered that Savagery language was created while
his author was in the midst of a process of experimentation and
consolidation in his writing (Zavaleta 1989), both in prose and in
verse, its analysis will undoubtedly contribute to delving even deeper into the
expressive mechanisms of a figure so relevant to literature
in Spanish as Vallejo was.

2.

One aspect that various members of the Peruvian literary criticism, regarding
Over the years, they have agreed to highlight, regarding Fabla
wild, it's that his prose is not only notably different, but
superior to that of the previous book by Vallejo, Escalas, which appeared
also in 1923, but a couple of months earlier, in March. If the prose of
Escalas, a set of short stories, contains archaic terms.

Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019 85

 and syntactic periods of great length, often loaded with
appositions, Wild Speech, on the other hand, is a linear story in which
a series of scenes unfold described without exaggeration in the
details, but with precision in focusing on objects and phenomena
from a certain angle. Precision takes precedence over the
altisonance. This twist meant, according to what was stated by
more than one scholar of Vallejo, the end of an aesthetic project, to which
it is identified, according to the current critic, with modernism, but
also with the avant-garde and the baroque, which was already outdated
for the early twenties of the last century.
Carlos Eduardo Zavaleta points out, regarding the prose of the narrative,
that "the language of this short novel, Fabla salvaje, is measured,
sober, distributes the argument well in scenes that paint a
atmósfera adecuada a las intenciones del autor [...] Aquí Vallejo está
clean from the rhetoric of scales, disbelieving of artifices, and his phrase
"It has already been achieved" (1989: 174). In the same vein, Edmundo
Bendezú, who also turns to Zavaleta to carry out his
interpretation of Wild Fable, points out that in this book the prose 'is
exhausting all the possibilities of modernism" (1992: 136). According to
the reading of these two authors, modernism is conceived as a
movement in which the style, convoluted and full of embellishments, possesses
an excessive prominence that is, however, counterproductive for
achieving the expected effects. The fluency and precision of the prose of
Wild fable, if one follows what has been put forward by Zavaleta and Bendezú,
it contrasts immediately with the texts of Escalas.
For his part, Ricardo Silva-Santisteban addresses the prose of Fabla.
wild, and before resorting to classification by schools or
aesthetic trends, choose to identify it from your own
features: "A little later, with Wild Speech, a short novel, published
Shortly before his trip to Europe, Vallejo achieved a refinement of his
fictional prose through a more spontaneous expression lacking
the baroque excesses of Escalas. In Wild Speech [...] prose is given
"the most terse of all her narrative" (1999: XXI). It also emphasizes the

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the quality of Vallejo's prose to achieve spontaneity without artifices
in its expression. The result is that the reading of the story, as it is
it can be inferred from the term used by Silva-Santisteban, be
smooth and without jolts. Related to some extent with Silva-
Santisteban appears Miguel Gutiérrez. Although they do not share the
terms used, both agree in pointing out that the prose of
Vallejo acquired a quality that he previously possessed in lesser quantity: the
immediate readability, to the detriment of the initial estimates: "The
the most striking aspect of FS language is the abandonment of
avant-garde experimentalism of Scales, due to the use of the norm
"standard of Spanish" (2004: 37). From Gutiérrez's perspective,
Vallejo bets on a prose that is more accessible in
understand for their readers. It sets aside, thus, the twists and turns that
they presented in their writing of Scales.
Ricardo González Vigil is the most emphatic among the specialists.
In Vallejo, to highlight the dimension of Wild Fabula: "[This novel
the best work, narratively speaking (because, in its best
moments, scales have greater creative originality and achievement
expressive, although of a lyrical or lyrical-reflective nature), of Vallejo from the
stage that lived in Peru" (2012: 15). The attribute is sustained in the
narrative condition of the work, which could lead to inferring that the
the development of the story completely captivates the reader,
since its reading is not obscured by the way it is used
prose. The form aligns with the content, which is why the form
it is not an obstacle.

A more thorough review of the readings conducted about

Wild fable since the eighties, when for fifty years
Following Vallejo's death, a sudden interest in his narrative emerged,
Let me see that there are two access points for your corresponding
exegesis. One is the figure of the protagonist, Balta. The other is the work of

Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019 87

 Vallejo as the author of the work. Each case presents various
artists. Considering the importance, judging by what was said among their
specialists, in the way the prose was used, what
it allowed that Wild Speech stands out among other titles of the narrative
vallejiana, we consider it necessary to focus our attention on recognizing
What mechanisms of writing does it use and under what conditions?
applies to the narration. For that reason, our work would focus on
the figure of Vallejo, especially to analyze his decisions as
creator.
Another of the traits of the book that coincide in celebrating the
Researches is Vallejo's skill in portraying not only the
landscape, but also the tribulations of the protagonists, that is,
to represent both an external world and an internal world. The
achieves because it resorts to an imagery shaped by a subtle tone
lyrical. Zavaleta describes the survival of the poet in the following
terms: "That said, it retains the lyrical outburst of the novelist among
romantic and affectionate towards magic and the supernatural" (1989: 174). For its
part, Bendezú is one of the first to allude to the use of images,
constituted from metaphors, in the narration: 'The narrator with a '
complex metaphorical language confronts the reader with the phenomenon of
the loss of Balta's imago and its transformation into a species
from that primordial. Vallejo uses a geometric metaphor to
show the fragmentation that occurs in Balta's mental life and his
regression to a purely instinctive stage" (1992: 147). The
the highlight of Bendezú's contribution is that it transfers the attributes of
the narrator reveals to Vallejo himself in such a way that it exposes or makes
more obvious, what is the degree of responsibility of the author for the effects
of the work. This fact does not imply, of course, disregarding the
the distance existing between the textual author and the real author of the work.

The use of images to describe phenomena or situations that

surpass rational conception, or are on a plane of
consciousness only achievable by the character; in other words, the
lyrical figuration is, precisely, the resource that Vallejo resorts to for

88 Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019

try to convey to their readers Balta's suffering. Therefore, his
experience as a poet will be decisive. It could be linked to this
resource with another of the attributes that has been noted in Wild Speech:
Vallejo provides psychological depth to the indigenous characters.
Miguel Gutiérrez points out in this regard: 'Until the novel by Vallejo,
In Peruvian narrative, characters from the world were represented.
rural as simple beings or of elementary psychology" (2004: 34).
Vallejo, in his eagerness to represent the sufferings of his
the protagonist achieves an effect of naturalness that Gutiérrez explains
like this: "One of Vallejo's successes is to describe us with decorum and
plausibility the fall of Balta into the depths of madness (madness
of jealousy) without transgressing at any moment their mental horizon and
cultural" (2004: 35).
González Vigil knows how to synthesize the aspects that, with experience
poetic, Vallejo shows in the work with precision and naturalness: 'The
Andean landscape is portrayed with poetic intensity and interwoven.
skillfully to the psychology of the characters, and to the development of the
intrigue. The greater merit has to do with the nuanced characterization.
psychological aspects of the protagonist Balta Espinar, his wife Adelaida and the
her little brother" (2013: 16-17). Both for the world
exterior (the Andean landscape) as for the inner world (Balta,
Adelaida and Santiago), the representation as it is executed turns out
determinant.
Macedonio Villafán also focuses on Vallejo's figure for the
construction of Wild Fabla. In that sense, it offers some features
that would characterize it and that influence the work. Thus, for example,
indicates that "Vallejo evidently knew the Indian: the condition of
Andean man or indigenous person, his social situation and history, and the same
time, their spirituality and culture" (2014: 378). This observation
allows articulating the author's experience with the configuration of
narrator. That is why, Villafán states: "the narrator assumes a way of
vision of nature covering its conception under a mantle of
mystery, which does not hide the Andean worldview" (2014: 392). This in

Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019 89

 regarding the outside world (landscape). With respect to the inner world
(characters) and the work of the author, Villafán states: "The answer to his
behavior and fears [those of the protagonist] must be found in the
forms of relationship that are established in the cultural universe of
town [the Andean culture] where the story takes place" (2014: 395).
This idea can be linked to the values for which, according to
Gutiérrez, as has been seen previously, speaks savagely is a work
achieved: decorum and verisimilitude to represent the world
interior of his characters. It could be argued that Vallejo achieved those
values in his work because he shared, if not everything, a part, the way of
interpret the world —the basis of Andean culture— of its
characters. Thus, it is also for the constitution of the characters
there is a link to the author's life experience.
4.

Taking into account Villafán's last statement, it turns out

it is relevant to understand, from the Andean world, the activity
emotional of people, since it is on that level where Balta is
affected, and it is the same in which Vallejo, as a narrator,
focuses on representing with certain lyrical images. Address
these conceptions will help to unravel the use of images in
what Vallejo resorted to in the work, since, in a way, it will be known
the basis on which he sustained himself and that he applied in Wild Talk.
In his research on community mental health, Escribens,
Portal, Ruiz, and Velásquez hold that in the Peruvian Andes there subsists
an ancestral way of conceiving the human being, in its different
plans. In the case of emotions, the way they are activated and
they manifest themselves through different layers of the individual: "to
heart, painful thoughts or memories come, the tears,
where they are loaded with affection; these "emotional thoughts"
they erase the distinction between intellectual and affective faculties.
This is how they fill the heart, they arise from the heart, they fill the body and the
people become sorrow "you are pure sorrow" (2008: 38). Of

90 Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019

agreement with this Andean conception of emotions, the subjects
they would reveal their condition, as they would "become"
one could say 'they would embody' the emotion that overwhelms them.

In Wild Facade, it is evident that for Vallejo his characters

are transparent, so it identifies the feelings that these
they experiment. So, for example, one can say about Balta that '[he was]'
overflowing with excitement and very confident in the years to come" (1967: 87) or
that "[he was] possessed by an impression of anger and subtle unease of
omen" (1967: 99). This kind of descriptions, common for
when an omniscient narrator is used, they can help to make
more natural to the characters. Even more so when it comes to a
activity that also takes place in Andean culture. Without
embargo, Vallejo does not limit himself to this resource when he wants to expose the
inner world of its protagonist. And this is where the prose of a poet
is used with greater emphasis.
A sample of the imagery with a lyrical tone is the following:

This was said while biting the bullet, as a very fine needle was playing at
along its tense veins and stitched a bend to another, a papilla
firm and vibrating to another fugitive, with a hard black whip that he had never
seen sprouting from the vast mature agaves... That pita was tough, and it
it hurt; and that needle erratically pierced through his blood
troubled. Balta wanted to grab her but she slipped through his fingers
91-92).

The image relies on a metaphor and is used to refer to

an emotional state of Balta. The popular expression "to make from guts
«heart» appears earlier, perhaps as an intertextual mark that helps
to the readers to interpret what will come next. The discomfort
what Balta feels was provoked by insecurity and dissatisfaction,
after the conversation with his wife. This discomfort, in Vallejo's eyes
poet, becomes a needle. Properties of it, like the piercing
and the sliding are useful for translating the preservation of discomfort

Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019 91

 inside Balta. In this passage, the image is that of a mundane object,
a sewing needle.
A simple classification of the lyrical images present in
The wild tale allows us to identify four areas in which
divide these. One is that of inorganic elements (phenomena
atmospheric and geographic accidents); another, that of the organic
(plants and animals); another one is that of physical sensations
produced by specific events; and, finally, that of real objects
or imagined.
5.

The existence of an evil twin of Balta may be, as mentioned in

a principle, interpreted in two ways: to conceive it as a
supernatural entity or as a hallucination produced by a
mental illness. Gutiérrez proposes the following diagnosis: "FS
narrate a psychopathological case that specialists would characterize
perhaps of paranoid schizophrenia" (2004: 33). González Vigil also
comment on Balta's mental condition: "Fabla salvajeno is only a
story of pathological jealousy. It represents a tragedy in which the
wild part (the wild speech of the title, which plays, at the same time, with the
archaic vocabulary (related to fable) of the human being and,
general, nature takes over Balta's mind" (2012: 16).
Again considering Villafán's observation,
mentioned lines above, Balta's vision as a patient of
any untreated mental illness cannot be supported just like that
from a Western perspective. The Andean perspective should also be considered.
take into account. González Vigil's statement that the wild part,
nature has taken over Balta's mind, it also motivates to do
case of the observation of Villafán. And the thing is that in the Andean world, such
as revealed by the work of Alejandro Viveros: 'The subject is a'
constitutive element of nature and contains within itself, all
those characteristics that make up the world in which he/she lives.
There is therefore a continuity between human beings and nature, thus

92 File Vallejo 3 (3), 2019

as well as between individual and community. These characteristics
they are also present at different levels of the subject's life
(2006: 33). And it is here that it is pertinent to comment on the following: in
the perception of mental health in the West, as reflected by the
comment by González Vigil, nature is a factor
destabilizer in the subject; while in the comment of
Nurseries, about the Andean world, this is, on the contrary, one
harmonizer. In the work of Escribens, Portal, Ruiz, and Velásquez, there is
it affirms that mental health in the Andean world involves harmony
with nature:

It would seem, then, that mental health is conceived as a

. this would not imply eliminating or removing 'the bad' — the
"disease"— to replace it with something different, understood from
Western logic as good or healthy, but rather it seeks the
balance among the different elements present since they all are
important for life, for example sorrow, joy, anger, the
pain, likewise the harmony between the body, the hills, the earth, etc.
(2008: 36, the emphasis is ours).

At the same time, Viveros also reveals that geography is inherent to

Andean thought: 'The Andean world is already something extremely
determinant with respect to its geography. The Andean landscape is a broth of
cultivation for the symbolism of his thinking. The radicality of his
geography involves a way of thinking that is not isolated from its environment but rather
"It ascribes" (2006: 39, the emphasis is ours). It is evident, then,
that in the Andean world, both well-being and thought of
Human beings must be in harmony with the geographical environment.
According to the type of images found in Fabla
wild, it was identified that the geographical accidents and the phenomena
atmospheric, that is, the environment as a whole, were used to
express the alteration of emotions within Balta. It does not stop
It is striking that the elements chosen by Vallejo share a
characteristic recognized in Andean thought. These elements

Vallejo File 3 (3), 2019 93

 they are the lightning, the cloud, and the thunderbolt. It makes use of their physical qualities.

to symbolize the effects of the presence of certain emotions. The

three cases, in the Andean worldview, are known as
"transitional phenomena." Santos points out in this regard that: "places,
events and special times where the deities reveal themselves
in a denser and more perceptive way, [they are] associated with phenomena of
transition" (2009: 97). As for Morón, also about the
transition phenomena, add: "All transition phenomena,
due to their precariousness and danger, they deserve a ritual dedication and
"special ceremonial by humans" (2009: 8).
According to these observations, the use of those elements in the
lyrical images, if it is considered that Vallejo —as it is suggested
Villafán acts from his knowledge of Andean culture, reveals
something more than a mere psychopathology of a single individual. For
to realize, we must review the passages in which such are mentioned
elements. The first case, that of the lightning, is shown as follows: "the
stupor flashed in his nerves, causing him to knock down the mirror
(Vallejo 1967: 91, the emphasis is ours). The second, that of the cloud,
it happens like this: "and after pondering for a moment, a cloud
gloomy rose with a ferrado flight to his forehead. "Since July...", he thought.
And then he recalled, after a long time, the untimely vision.
that, like in dreams, he saw in the mirror, that distant July afternoon
(Vallejo 1967: 93, the emphasis is ours). The last case, that of the lightning,
He looked back at the cliff of the mountain range again and
He lost his mind. With the speed of lightning, he crossed through his
the brain the fugitive idea, subtle, imprecise, of a living being, real, made of flesh
and bone, undeniable, to whose existence the image of the crystal belonged.
Someone is, undoubtedly. Someone had to be.
the emphasis is ours). In all cases, it serves the element to
allude to an effect of the interaction between Balta and his evil double.
Similarly, in all cases, the feature that they are events is noted.
sudden, impossible to dominate or control.

94 File Vallejo 3 (3), 2019

 The conflict that Balta holds (or believes he holds) against his double is
reflection of the lack of harmony with its environment. If this fact is analyzed
from the Andean worldview, Balta is experiencing revelation
by a divine entity, for which one feels hunted and harassed. The
the use of transition phenomena allows to associate those emotions and
sudden sensations stronger than him with the power of the environment due to
to his sacred condition. Therefore, for Balta, she is someone real, of flesh and
bone, capable of fertilizing his wife instead of him. It should not be surprising,
therefore, let it also be in an element like water where I see
appear to this double of yours. It is an entity related to the
nature.
The imbalance of Balta exists. The manifestations of this can
vary: to be considered as hallucinations, from a perspective
Western; or being seen as announcements of a fracture between the subject
and its sacred environment, from an Andean perspective. Vallejo employs
Andean symbols to describe this imbalance when it tries to
to represent, through lyrical images, what Balta feels. The origin
the imbalance is not clear. What is clear is that Vallejo
nourished by the Andean worldview when determining the substance of its
characters, but it makes use of stylistic resources typical of literature
Western early 20th century when he must model his prose,
the way of his expression.

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