The first novel written after Mario Vargas Llosa’s public break with the Cuban Revolution in 1971, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service has been described as marking his “discovery of humor.” Vargas Llosa’s earlier novels were characterized by their searing seriousness, by their ruthless, perhaps even exaggerated, foregrounding of the corruption of Peruvian and, implicitly, Latin American societies. However, Captain Pantoja and the later Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter are two novels in which humor predominates. What makes this discovery of humor of interest is that the topic of Captain Pantoja is, in some ways, as revealing , if not more so, of the country’s profound corruption and immorality than those of his earlier novels.
Prostitution is, after all, a “serious” social problem. It frequently originates in the conjunction of social inequality and patriarchal structures. It is a specifically patriarchal form of exploitation. Moreover, by having the army become involved in the business of prostitution, he brings together the institution that, at least in The Time of the Hero, represented patriarchy at its most naked and brutal. Thus Captain Pantoja had the potential to become an expose of patriarchy, the exploitation of women, and, of course, of corruption in the army.
Moreover an important subplot in the novel is that of the cult of Brother Francisco, As we know, this is a religious cult that practices ritual crucifixions, not only of animals, a gory enough activity for my taste, but, on occasion, even of humans. Their rituals, which include the drinking of the blood of the beings crucified, could easily have been part of one of his earlier novels. One can easily imagine one of his “telescopic dialogues” in which prostitution and crucifixion would be juxtaposed presenting women as Christ-like victims and men/the army as crucifiers.
Vargas Llosa with great mastery manages to turn all of these potentially dramatic, even tragic, elements into an outright comedy rather than another direct denunciation of Peruvian society.
It has been argued that this “discovery of humor” is linked to a loss of faith in socialism. Caught between the earnest belief in the possibility of revolution, which had characterized his earlier novels, and his later belief in the need for neoliberal reforms, the Vargas Llosa of Captain Pantoja had necessarily to turn to humor in order to face, and enable the reader to face, the brutality depicted. That said, the problem with this view is that his earlier novels, while brutally honest in showing the failings of Peru, do not show any alternatives to the corrupt society depicted. Socialism or, better said, the possibility of socialism is kept outside the narrative. Vargas Llosa only shows the problem and scrupulously avoids showing any possible solution in his novels of the 1960s.
The same case can be made about Captain Pantoja. Again Vargas Llosa brilliantly depicts Peruvian patriarchy, fanaticism, and the irrationality into which military rationality can easily transform. However, as in his earlier novels, the actual solutions to these problems are never intimated. But by transforming his earlier anger into humor, the narrative no longer arouses in the reader the need to find a solution to these social problems. Subcomandante Marcos, in an interview with Gabriel García Márquez, pointed out the role of literature and, specifically, that of The Time of the Hero, in his personal political development. It is doubtful that he would also single out Captain Pantoja.
*In the photo, Vargas Llosa directing his film adaptation of Captain Pantoja
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