Tres Tristes Tigres the Lost City

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Title:

Tres Tristes Tigres: The Lost City

Journal Issue:

Mester, 7(1)

Author:

Frederick, Bonnie K.

Publication Date:

1978

Publication Info:

Mester, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (UCLA), UCLA

Permalink:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8tq5d60b

Local Identifier:

ucla_spanport_mester_13600

Abstract:

[No abstract]

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Tres tristes tigres: The Lost CityGuillermo Cabrera Infante's novel, Tres tristes tigres, followed the successof his short story collection, As en la paz como en la guerra. However, if As

en la paz como en la guerra is a document of a pre-revolutionary Cuba, thenTres tristes tigres is its memory. Written after the triumph of the Revolution,it again focuses on the situation that precipitated the overthrow of Batista and,with him, a way of Ufe. The new Cuba marks a profound tuming point forali Latin America with repercussions throughout the world. Thus one can sur-mise that a recoUection of pre-1959 Havana would be a recollection of a societydegenerating into chaos and destruction. Tres tristes tigres is exactly thatvisin.

Tres tristes tigres has been called un vasto fragmento ' for its Borges-likecomplexity and fragmentation of time. The reader must piece together thescenes (which begin with a master of ceremonies' opening spiel at the Tropi-cana Club and end with a mad woman muttering in the park) in order to forma coherent picture of the actor Arsnio Cu, the joumalist Silvestre, the pho-tographer Cdac, and the bongo-player Erib. As these characters go fromnightclub to nightclub, they remember their arrival in Havana, pursue loveaffairs, and reminisce about their dead friend Bustrfedon. Mainly they talk.The talk is witty, full of allusions to literature and the cinema, and so full ofpuns that the reader becomes suspicious of every phrase. However, the talkhardly ever becomes dialogue in the sense of mutual communication, becauseit is talk aimed at hiding, rather than revealing, thoughts and motivations.While the novel contains an incredible variety of scenes and subcurrents,

there are several main threads that constitute the plot of the work. Thechapters entitled Ella cantaba boleros are a narration by Cdac, the night-club photographer, which entails the rise to stardom and death of La Estrella,an immensely fat and immensely gifted singer of boleros. The section entitledRompecabeza is a catalogue of the word-play of Bustrfedon, which in-cludes parodies of Cuba's leading writers. If there is a plot in the conventionalsense, then it is the relationship between Arsnio Cu and Silvestre. They areboth in love with Laura, both come to Havana to flee the poverty of their vil-lages, and both are disciples of the word-master, Bustrfedon.There is much more included in Tres tristes tigres than these major threads

of narration, however. There is the rise of the beautiful but cruel Cuba Vene-gas, as well as a series of monologues of a woman talking to her psychiatrist.One of the most delightful of the minor characters is Delia Doce, who writesa misspelled letter to her friend in the city. The result of all these parts is akaleidoscope of lives intertwining in the La Rampa nightclub district ofHavana. There is no solution offered at the end of the novel; the ending isreally the coming of the Revolution itself, unspoken, yet waiting. Thus, thereader provides the ending from his own experience.

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This gallery of voices, ^ as Cabrera Infante aptly calis his work, outragesmany critics who see no order, no purpose, and no discipline in the novel.Others have come to the realization that there is very little that is accidentalabout Tres tristes tigres. Indeed, in the view of Carlos Fuentes, the apparentdisorder of the novel is the proper technique to describe Hispanic America:si en Amrica Latina las obras literarias se contentasen con reflejar o justifi-car el orden establecido, serian anacrnicas: intiles. Nuestras obras debenser de desorden: es decir, de un orden posible, contrario al actual. ' Fromthe many volees of Tres tristes tigres, there is one central voice: this world ofnightclubs, military strongmen, rich Americans, and desperate poor is a worldabout to die. It is an Havana cuya belleza tiene el encanto decadente de lascosas condenadas a desaparecer. ^

Tres tristes tigres is, first of all, a work of nostalgia, an elegy to the Havanathat vanished in the Revolution. The novel is preceded by a phrase by LewisCarroll: Y trat de imaginar cmo se vera la luz de una vela cuando estapagada. Then we are immediately plunged into the opening speech of theemcee at the Tropicana Club:

Showtime Seoras y seores. Ladies and gentlemen. Muy buenas noches,damas y caballeros, tengan todos ustedes. Good-evening, ladies & gentlemen.Tropicana, el cabaret MAS fabuloso del mundo . . . Tropicana, the mostfabuious night-club in the WORLD . . . presenta . . . presents ... su nuevoespectculo . . . its new show . . .^This introduction is more evocative than a physical description of the city

could be, for the city, like the nightclub, hides its truth behind a faade ofglamour and excitement. When Silvestre calis Havana una sabrosa bella dur-miente blanca ciudad, his friend Arsnio replies, Pero no es blanca ni roja,sino rosada. Es una ciudad tibia, la ciudad de los tibios (p. 354). The themesthat Cabrera Infante explores reflect this city of the lukewarm; it is a city ofmaterialism and poverty, dominated by a foreign culture and economy thatdegrade the indigenous culture to perpetual underdevelopment. Its citizens arethe products of such a society: ambitious, yet carrying guilt, solitude, and lossof identity within themselves. Thus Tres tristes tigres, & novel noted for itshumor, contains a very serious assessment of pre- Revolution Cuba. One aspectof this assessment is the human toll of poverty.

Cuba, for all its relative prosperity by Latin American standards, falis preyto the materialistic problems of underdevelopment in Tres tristes tigres. Fromthe ranks of the poor emerge the ruthlessly ambitious, the social climbers,hangers-on, the exploiters, and the exploited. In a society spurred on by hun-ger, the human vales of kindness, integrity, honor, and morality are oftenreserved for those with the money and leisure to afford them. Many of thenovel's characters find their lives determined by a desire to leave behind pov-erty. The destructiveness of the desire lies in the price one has to pay, as maybe seen in two women, Cuba Venegas and La Estrella.

Cuba Venegas is first introduced in the novel by means of a misspelledletter from her mother's best friend. Delia Doce. Delia bears the news that theformer Gloria Prez ya no se llama ni gloria ni Prez ni cosa que se le paresca.

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Ella se llama ahora Cuba Venegas que prese ser un nombre que vende segnnos dijo ella, pero a m no me preguntes qu es lo que vende (p. 31). Theformer Gloria has abandoned her studies for a carpe diem career as model andsinger:

. . . nos dijo que ella no pensaba estudiar ni cosa que se le pareciera eso fue loque nos dijo y nos dijo adems que ella no iba a pasarse cuatro o cinco aosde su vida matndose trabajando por el da y luego teniendo que estudiar porla noche sin salir ni ir a ningn lado y sin divertirse, para que luego tener quetrabajar como una mula en una oficina y ganar como una pulga, eso fue lo quedijo (pp. 28-29).

Other people are but stepping stones for Cuba Venegas. When her dis-coverer Erib the bongo-player is no longer useful, she feigns illness to go outwith Cdac, the next step on her ladder. Cdac is in tum left to observe bit-terly from a distance: vi a Cuba, entera como est, ms alta y ms bella yms puta que nunca . . . (p. 272). In this context her ame becomes signifi-cant, indicating that the island Cuba is also willing to accept an exploitiverelationship with the United States for immediate gains.

Cabrera Infante parallels the story of Cuba Venegas with that of EstrellaRodrguez, the bolero singer, more simply known as La Estrella. Ambitiousin proportion to her talent and great size, La Estrella gives herself over tomanagers who promise her fame and wealth. The unscrupulous managers sendher on a tour of Mxico against the advice of her doctor who wamed of heartattack in the high altitude. In Mxico she dies, never gaining the money andame for which she hungered. La Estrella engages in cultural prostitution,selling her mastery of the uniquely Cuban bolero to the highest bidder.

Ambition can carry a high price indeed, as many of the characters of Trestristes tigres discover. Guilt is the theme of the numbered scenes that make upa woman's visit to a psychiatrist. She tells him of seeing her childhood friendworking as a kitchen helper in her fianc's house:

Estaba tan vieja, doctor, tan acabada y tena mi edad, mi misma edad y habajugado conmigo cuando nias y ramos muy amigas ... y hacamos planespara cuando furamos mayor, que me dio una pena terrible saludarla y recono-cerla, porque ella se iba a sentir tan mal, que sal de la cocina. Luego, otra vezen la sala, por poco voy a la cocina y la saludo, porque pens que no la habasaludado porque tena miedo que la familia de Ricardo supiera que yo era delcampo y haba sido tan pobre. Pero no fui (p. 158).

Later she relates a confused story of how the friend had been raped as a girlby her employer, a baker. Ironically, the baker put bread in the girl's mouthto stop her screams. The patient's guilt is such that her identity has becomeuncertain:

Se lo he contado a mi marido. Se lo he contado muchas veces, pero l me pelea,porque dice que parece que todo eso me pas a m y no a la amiga ma. Locierto es, doctor, que ya no s si me pas a m o si le pas a mi amiguita o si loinvent yo misma. Aunque estoy segura que no lo invent. Sin embargo, hayveces que pienso que yo soy en realidad mi amiguita (p. 447).

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Lack of identity is common to almost ali the characters. In a ruthless worldof rapid social rising and falling, appearances and manners become of utmostimportance. One's identity must be uprooted and altered in order to qualifyfor the next step up the social ladder.

False namesCdac, Cuba Venegas, Bustrfedon, Eribabound in Trestristes tigres. Affected poses, false erudition, and social pretensions are soprevalent that surface appearances are almost automatically suspect. ArsnioCu, for instance, appears in public as a cosmopolitan man whose culture hasprepared him for every occasion. Erib, the bongo player, comments uponmeeting Cu for the first time: Las presentaciones las hizo en ingls y paramostrar que era contemporneo de la ONU se puso a hablar en francs consu novia o marinovia, o lo que fuera. Esper que cambiara para alemn o rusoo italiano a la menor provocacin, pero no lo hizo (p. 94). There are hints,however, that his erudition is superficial, as when a cab driver interrupts Cuand Silvestre who are arguing about the ame of the composer of a musicalpiece on the radio:Caballeros, ni Jaiden ni Jndel. Es Msar.Y cmo usted lo sabe?pregunt Cu.Porque lo dijo el locutor.Arsnio Cu no se poda quedar callado.Y a usted, un chfer, le interesa esa msica?El chofer, sin embargo, tuvo la ltima palabra.Y a ust, un pasaje, le interesa? (p. 107).

In reality, Cu moved to Havana from the country. The background he hidesis revealed in a monologue of his first days in the city, living on coffee andoccasionally a bit of bread:

Vi frente a m un hombre joven (cuando entr estaba a mi lado, pero me volv)de aspecto cansado, pelo revuelto y ojos opacos. Estaba mal vestido, con lacamisa sucia y la corbata que no anudaba bien separada del cuello sin abrocharsin botn. La haca falta afeitarse y por los lados de la boca le bajaba un bigotelacio y mal ciudado. Levant la mano para drsela, al tiempo que inclinabaun poco la cabeza y l hizo lo mismo. Vi que sonrea y sent que yo tambin son-rea: los dos comprendimos al mismo tiempo: era un espejo (p. 54).

The Cu of the nightclubs, the Cu of the televisin, the Cu seen escortingAmerican heiresses, has turned his back on that figure in the mirror. His poseis now his identity: . . . mir a Cu que beba su cerveza como haca todo,como un actor posando en todas las posiciones y algunas veces de perfil (p.301). Silvestre realizes that the aimless, high-speed drive of Bachata servesto erase the past that Cu no longer wishes to acknowledge:

Cuando Cu hablaba del tiempo y del espacio y recorra todo aquel espacio entodo nuestro tiempo pens que era para divertirnos y ahora lo s: era as: erapara hacer una cosa diversa, otra cosa, y mientras corramos por el espacioconsegua eludir lo que siempre evit, creo, que era recorrer otro espacio fueradel tiempoo ms claro , recordar (p. 297).

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Even at the end of the novel, the reader has never penetrated Cu's disguisesufficiently to determine when he is speaking the truth. Does he really intendto join the guerrilla movement? Does he love Vivian Smith Corona? Even hisfriends cannot distinguish whether he is being sincere or merely playing hispart. This uncertainty extends to other characters and situations as well. Thereader of the novel is constantly being faced with a fact that is negated lateron. With whom did Vivian Smith Corona lose her virginity? One must choosewhether to accept Erib's versin or Cu's versinor neither versin. Cuseems to be murdered, but the bullets were blanks. At the time of the narra-tive, both Bustrfedon and La Estrella are dead, although they at first seemalive. The novel takes place mostly in nightclubs, a tinsel and gilt world wherethe candlelight hides detall from the probing eye. Bustrfedon, a major in-fluence in the novel, lives only in the memories of the other characters. He ismerely a shadow as Cu realizes: No te parece significativo que no acertaracon el mejor [palndromo], el ms difcil y ms fcil, con el temible? Yo soy(p. 358).

Lacking identity of their own, the characters often take on roles from thecinema or literature. In an uncertain situation, the characters often act outcinematic reactions:

Te podra decir lo que dijo Clark Gable en el banquete o symposium de abordo, donde no queran admitir a ese fantasma platinado, Jean Harlow, aldecidir irse con ella a navegar por otros mares de locura, que dijo, citando alreo cuando le pusieron el nudo corredizo, Es una leccin que nunca olvidar(p. 443).

For Silvestre, even his feelings become real when associated with fiction:Me sent Philip Marlowe en una novela de Raymond Chandler. O mejor RobertMontgomery en la versin de una novela de Chandler. O mejor todava, la cmaraque haca del ojo de Montgomery-Mariowe-Chandler en los mejores, inolvidablesmomentos de La Dama en el Lago, vista en el Alkzar el 7 de septiembre de1946 (p. 320).

By choosing to act out his feelings in terms of the cinema, Silvestre effectivelyremoves himself from the situation. Within the world of Tres tristes tigres.the movies function as a symbol or symptom of disjunctive reality, an exter-nalization of the characters' failure to intgrate themselves into their environ-ment. *The result of the characters' lack of identity and artificial feelings is great

emptiness. Human contact is cut off because it threatens the success of the rolebeing played. Even though the characters are rarely alone, the alcoholic friend-liness of the nightclubs offers no relief from loneliness. Even Silvestre findsthat his friend Arsnio Cu cannot share his feelings when he shares an impor-tant incident from childhood:

Pareces Borges me dijo . Llmalo Tema del Malo y el Bueno.No entendi. No podra entender. No comprendi que no era una fbulatica, que lo contaba por contar, por comunicar un recuerdo ntido, que era

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un ejercicio en nostalgia. Sin rencor al pasado. No poda comprender. En fin(p. 347).

When the nightclubs cise, Silvestre must face the dawn alone:... en silencio entr en casa y en silencio me quit la camisa y los zapatos ensilencio y en silencio fui al bao y orin y me saqu los dientes en ms silencioy en silencio y en sigilo met el puente en un velero en un vaso y escond en silen-cio esta hierofana dental arriba detrs del botiqun y en silencio fui a la cocinay tom agua en silencio ... en silencio cerr las persianas en silencio y fui ensilencio a mi cuarto y me desnud en silencio y abr la ventana en silencio pordonde entr el silencio de la ltima noche en silencio . . . (p. 444).This terrifying solitude in Tres tristes tigres is founded on lack of communi-

cation. For ai the talk, communication is less its purpose than building averbal barrier between the inner soul and the eyes of others. In spite of theamusement of the jokes and puns, there is a great sadness behind them. Thesecond half of Tres tristes tigres is a conversation between the two friends,Arsnio Cu and Silvestre. Their dialogue is an endless stream of witty re-marks, puns, risque comments, and thrusts at literature and cinema. Thehumor becomes forced and tiring, but the two friends are afraid to stop. Eachhas an urgent need to speak seriously to the other about a difficult decisin:Silvestre plans to marry; Arsnio plans to join the guerrillas in the mountains.Neither, however, can break the barriers their wit has placed between them.The characters are isolated in the jokes that block understanding, even whenthey attempt to communicate:

Me voy al Sierra.Es muy temprano para la noche y muy tarde para la madrugada. No va aestar abierto.A la Sierra, no al Sierra.A Nicanor del Campo ahora?No, cono, me voy al monte. Me alzo. Me hago guerrillero.-QuQue me uno a Fiel, a Fidel.Ests borracho hermano.Nono, en serio. Estoy borracho, s. Pancho Villa estaba siempre borracho

y mralo. Por favor, te lo pido, no te vuelvas a mirar si entra o no entra PanchoVilla. Hablo en serio. Me voy al monte. . . .Irse a la Sierra, a la guerra. Es meterse en la Legin Extranjera . . . Sigueas y terminars como Ronald Colman. Primero mucho Beau Geste y despuscreyndote Otelo y al final muerto en el cine y muerto en la vida y muerto total(P. 347).

The characters in Tres tristes tigres share these concerns of solitude and lackof communication with all modern men faced with an anonymous society with-out the former support of faith. After death there is void, as Arsnio Cubelieves:

Hay ms nada que ser. La nada est siempre ah, latente. El ser tiene quehacerse expreso. El ser sale de la nada, lucha por evidenciarse y luego desapareceotra vez, en la nada.No vivimos en la nada, pero de alguna manera la nada vive en nosotros.La nada no es lo contrario del ser. El ser es la nada por otros medios (p. 323).

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Death is unthinkable porque la nica cosa por que siento un odio mortales el olvido (p. 287). La Estrella's ambition for fame, a means of survivingdeath, is thwarted by her premature death, surviving only in Silvestre'smemory:

... es verdad que ella est muerta y que dentro de poco nadie la recordar yestaba bien viva cuando la conoc y ahora de aquel monstruo humano, deaquella vitalidad enorme, de aquella personalidad nica no queda ms que unesqueleto igual a todos . . . (p. 286).

The tragedy of Bustrfedon's death during an operation to remove a tumor isincreased by the fact that the tumor gave him his wonderful verbal abilitydescribed by the doctor as the failure of la funcin cerebral del simbolismodel pensar por el habla (pp. 222-223). By removing his unique insight intowords, the doctors destroyed Bustrfedon's identity, and he too must join LaEstrella among the forgotten. Cu combats death by making it the pretext fora witticism: La muerte es la gran niveladora: la buldozer de Dios (p. 334),Humor, however, cannot hide fear of death. The horror of death makes theneed to break the barriers of solitude and lack of communication even moreurgent. The epilogue, a mad woman's mutterings, illustrates that those barrierscontinue unbreached. Tres tristes tigres is, then, una provocacin constantea la imaginacin, a la sensibilidad, a la risa, a la ternura, y tambin a un sub-terrneo, calladsimo, ms bien secreto pudor para nombrar lo ms doloroso. 'The situation of Cuba parallels the fate of the characters in Tres tristestigres. It too has lost its identity in the face of American domination and

politicai opportunism. Just as La Estrella sells out to the highest bidder, Cubahas exchanged its national integrity for North American materialism.

The opening pages are a good introduction to American domination. Themaster of ceremonies at the Tropicana Club altemately speaks in English,then in Spanish, as he explains to the Cubans in the audience:

Pueblo, pblico, queridos concurrentes, perdonen un momento mientras medirijo, en el idioma de Chakespeare, en English, me dirijo a la selecta concu-rrencia que colma todas y cada unas de las localidades de este emporio del amory la vida risuea. Quiero hablarle, si la amabilida proverbial del Respetablecubano me lo permite, a nuestra ENorme concurrencia americana: caballerososy radiantes turistas que visitan la tierra de las gay senyoritaes and brave caba-llerros . . . (p. 16).

In the please-the-tourist atmosphere of the nightclub, the characterization ofthe island as la tierra de las gay senyoritaes and brave caballerros is perhapsunderstandable, but Cabrera Infante's placement of the speech as the intro-duction to the novel gives it emphasis as an integral part of the book. It fore-shadows the attitude of Cubans throughout the work toward their own coun-try. The domination by the United States was a domination by means of com-merciaiism. Practically no manufactured items were Cuban in origin, breed-ing a dependence on the United States and at the same time stifling Cubaneconomic growth. The prosperity in Cuba according to economic tables is afalse prosperity unable to be self-sustaining. The picture of Livia at her dress-ing table is a picture of foreign domination:

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Livia saca de la caja de laca un coliar de varias vueltas, de perlas de cultivo:todo lo que usa Livia es de calidad pero de una calidad mediocre, falsa: unavez un fotgrafo, Jesse Fernndez, que le hizo varias fotografas me dijo: Baby,aqu ser una modelo, pero en Nueva York o Elei sera una callgirl de lujo /Liviat piensas que el Caraseda de Lena Rubistein sea mejor que la Mascaramatico me pongo el AyChado o el Comestico de Arden (p. 155).Such dependence on foreign producs breeds self-imposed underdevelop-

ment. The idea of an inventor in Cuba seems absurd even to the women ofdoubtful character who accompany Silvestre and Arsnio Cu. Magalenaknows that En Cuba no hay inventores. . . . Aqu to viene de fuera (p. 381).The exploits of a fictional Cuban inventor are funnyComo las mquinasque ruedan sin gasolina, por gravedad. No hay ms que construir las callescuesta abajo. La Shell descubrir que su perla es de cultivo (p. 384) butpathetic. The very fact that the idea of a Cuban inventor is funny offers nohope for Cuba's development. Commercialism, according to traditional His-panic stereotypes, is only to be expected from the Anglo culture. However,the final humiliation is to accept American domination in the arts. ArsnioCu indicts the Cuban public for its superficiality of understanding even offoreign literature:

Toda la dems gente de tu generacin no son ms que malos lectores de Faulknery Hemingway y Dos Passos y entre los ms adelantaditos del Pobre Scott ySalinger y Styron . . . hay tambin los peores lectores de Borges y alguien quelee pero no entiende a Sartre ni entiende a Pavese pero lo lee y leen y no entien-den ni sienten a Nabokov . . . (p. 340).

Cuban writers receive the most blame, as Cabrera Infante parodies sevenleading writers of the island. Each gives his versin of the assassination ofTrotsky. Even the titles of the parodies reveal the artificial styles of the authors:Jos Mart and Los hachacitos de rosa ; Jos Lezama Lima and Nuncupa-toria de un cruzado ; Virgilio Pinera, Tarde de los asesinos ; Lydia Cabrera,El indisime bebe la moskuba que lo consagra bolchevikua ; Lino Novas,Trnquenme ah a Momard ; Alejo Carpentier, El ocaso ; and NicolsGuillen, Elega por Jacques Momard (en el cielo de Lecumberri). ToCabrera Infante, these writers have ignored the rich Cuban heritage to pursueEuropean trends or exaggerated ethnic styles. This traicin de la esencianacional * is an alienation from the people. Lydia Cabrera's Afro-Cubaninterpretation complete with glossaries receives a HoUywood-Swahili treatmentfrom Cabrera Infante:

El hombre blanco (Moln mundele) lleg, vio y mat a Len (Simba) Trotsky.Le clav la gumpara en el coco y lo mand para su In-Kamba findantoto (tumba fra). Para asestar el golpe final, los orishas siempre fueron con-sultados de antemano (p. 237).Just as exotic is Alejo Carpentier's studied cosmopolitanism:

L importanza del mio compito non me impede di fare molti sbagli ... elanciano se detuvo en aquella frase truncada con regeldos de mortificaciones,mientras pensaba: Tengo un santo horror a los dilogos y lo traduca men-talmente al francs para ver qu tal sonaba . . . (p. 241).

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This passage suggests that the lack of dialogue in Carpentier's works is indica-tiva of how alien to the people they are. Isolated from the vigor of everydaymodes of speech, Carpentier's writings seem sterile and artificially literary.Style as consciously cultivated is the terror central of the parodies: Elestilo es la negacin, en el planteamiento de esta novela, de esa realidad sola-mente oral, hablada, donde el tiempo est vivo y donde el mito se precisa yse escurre. 'American dominance is evident in the spoken word as well as written lan-

guage. The result is neither English or Spanish:Arsnio es el nombre. Arsnio Cu.Feroz anglicista traduciendo naturalmente del americano. Dice, tambin, aflu-ente por prspero, morn por idiota, me luce por me parece, chance por opor-tunidad, controlar por revisar y muchas ms cosas. Qu horror el Espanglish(p. 369).

The artificial economy imposed by foreign domination creates a gulf be-tween the very rich and the very poor. The two worlds are constantly in col-usin in the novel and provide background and motivation for most of thecharacters. One of the most bitter of the collisions is the scene in whichRibot, the bongo player, goes to bis employer to ask for a raise in bis pay oftwenty-five pesos a month:

Solan y Zuleta, Viriato-Senador vitalicio de la Repblica, hombre de nego-cios presidente de honor del Centro Vasco y del Centro de Dependientes, sociofundador del Habana Yacht & Country Club, primer accionista de Papelimporty administrador gerente de Publicaciones Solaz. S. A., que en la Gua Socialde La Habana era una pgina entera, con hijos, hijas, nueras, yernos y nietosy sobrinos y sobrino-nietos, convenientemente ilustrada con fotos del grupofamiliar, habl de nuevo y por fin:Veintcinco a la semana? Pero hombre, Ribot, eso son cien pesos al mes(pp. 51-52).

The politicai unrest that such unequal distribution of the wealth inevitablybreeds is in the very atmosphere of the novel. The terrorism that tumed thestreets of Havana into an armed camp in the last year before the revolutionand causad a younger Cabrera Infante to write the vignettes for As en la pazcomo en la guerra is also present in Tres tristes tigres. Silvestre is remember-ing the ploys he and bis brother used as children to go to the movies. Too odfor success at former tricks, the boys must somehow raise the money fortickets. This obstacle overeme (for that week, at least), they begin the diffi-cult problem of choosing which movie to see. In the midst of an amusing andsomewhat precocious analysis of each theatre's offerings, a man is assassinatedin front of the children:

De pronto, todo es confusin. La gente corre, alguien me empuja por unhombro, una mujer chilla y se esconde tras una mquina y mi hermano mehala me hala me hala como un sueo persistente por la mano, por el brazo,por la camisa y grita: Silvestre que te matan (p. 41).

The incident is all the more shocking for its suddenness and contrast with theinnocence of the children.

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Yet, the novel avoids direct politicai involvement, reflecting Cu's abstention:Batista trata de que cruce la baha.Pero no tiene futuro. Ya lo vers.Quin, Batista?Me mir y se sonri.Qu t quieres?Yo? Nada.T sabes que nunca hablo de poltica. Esa es mi poltica (p. 301).

Instead, Cabrera Infante lets the decay show in the characters and in the set-ting. The reader comes to realize the immense solitude of Ufe in La Rampa(and, by extensin, Cuba). The island and its people have lost their identity,taking on instead a borrowed one from a foreign culture. As significant aswhat is included in the novel is what is omitted. Not present are those insti-tutions that protect man from the vastness of time and existence: religin,philosophy, family, marriage. There is little of the past and less of the future.The result is a feeling of chaos and lack of order, reinforced by the episodic,nonlinear structure of the work. Some characters still seek the key to order,but Arsnio Cu expresses the futility of the search:

Hay quienes ven la vida lgica y ordenada, otros la sabemos absurda y con-fusa. El arte (como la religin o como la ciencia o como la filosofa) es otrointento de imponer la luz del orden a la tinieblas del caos. Feliz t, Silvestre,que puedes o crees que puedes hacerlo por el verbo (p. 334).

The lack of time references and the open-ended nature of the ending causea suspensin of time, capturing as in a glass bubble an Havana doomed by therevolutionaries its weakness bred. Through the characters of Tres tristestigres, the reader learns what Cuban culture consisted of in 1959 the bastardculture of an island dependent on North Americans, with Spanglish as one ofits idioms, with instant commercialization and with a consumer culture over-laying any other aspirations. '

Bonnie K. FrederickLos Angeles, California

NOTES1. Alfred J. MacAdam, Tres tristes tigres: El vasto fragmento, Revista Iberoameri-

cana, 92-93 (julio-diciembre, 1975), p. 549.2. Rita Guibert, Seven Voices, trans. Francis Partridge (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,

1972), p. 414.3. Carlos Fuentes, La nueva novela hispanoamericana (Mxico: Cuadernos de Joaqun

Mortiz, 1969), pp. 31-32.4. Luis B. Eyzaguirre, El Hroe en la novela hispanoamericana del siglo XX (Santi-ago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1973), p. 313.

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5. Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barrai,1971), p. 15. All further citations are from this edition. Future references will be in-cluded by page number in the text.6. Julianna Burton, Learning to Write at the Movies: Film and the Fiction Writer

in Latin America, Texas Quarterly. XVIII (Spring, 1975), pp. 99-100.7. Emir Rodrguez Monegal, Estructura y significaciones de Tres tristes tigres SurCCCXX (septiembre-octubre, 1969), p. 51. * 8. Reynaldo Luis Jimnez-Snchez, Guillermo Cabrera Infante y Tres tristes tigres.(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1974), p. 117.9. Julio Ortega, Relato de la Utopa (Barcelona: La Gaya Ciencia, 1973), p. 147.

10. Jean Franco, A Literary History of Spain (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1973),p. 272.

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Tres Tristes Tigres the Lost City