See WARS OF ANDREW ARTEMISA MORALES FOR LOMAS 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 THIS DAY IN THE LIBRARY MALAGA TO LIGHT 20.00 H. ACCOMPANIED BY THE AUTHOR AND EDITOR OWN EDUARDO MORENO.
Eduardo Moreno, Andrés Sorel
and Lomas Morales (Malaga, Lights Bookstore, 12/02/2010)
We are witnessing a work of epic and features monumental. So it is with the novels in which the causes of war and breed peoples characters reach a height of impudence view or historical. Since the run
Andrés Sorel want to make it very clear to the reader who the protagonists of the work and what scaffolding holds the creative act. And in the same preface there is a warning about the protagonists of this novel are nothing more than the Cuban people, the writer and military Ciges Manuel Aparicio and English troops in Cuba led by General Valeriano Weyler, in a time frame, basically decline of the nineteenth century, which in the last chapter has ramifications around late July 1936 that have profound value and auction allegorical novel cycle. Traditionally been understood
sunset deadline of Spain from the moment you lose the war in Cuba from an initial course that begins in the seventeenth century. The generation of 98, which belongs Ciges Aparicio, was responsible for raising the flag of the English decline. What has not been adequately explained, or at least, there are references vacuous in the population, is the sheer cruelty and outrage with which the English acted in Cuba. Especially the wealthy English and Creole Hispanicized loyal to the Crown on whose shoulders fall the historic responsibility for their racist and exploitative, particularly if we consider that Cuba was the last to abolish slavery and black Cubans being descendants of slaves are hated by them and feel their absolute contempt for the rebel leaders.
Andrés Sorel, through wars of Artemis (El Olivo Azul, Córdoba, 2010, 287 pp.) Delves into this wound and get to dig into the territory of promiscuity and the absurd despotic cruelty. Artemis is the symbol, a place to identify a specific territory, the military capital of Pinar del Rio who was under the power of a close friend Weyler, General Arolas, and, by extension, must be identified with all of Cuba. But there is something that goes beyond the anecdotal, or semiology would say, the arguments of specific events around Cuba, is the fact that the allegory of Artemis not completed a period but, in some Thus, finally starts and ends in the military coup of Franco and, under the cruelty of history, the English we anticipate the creation of the Nazi camps forty years before the Germans with the star of a English military, Valeriano Weyler.
The novel has a will of coral structure in which many voices participate in the storytelling process. In fact, each chapter has a protagonist who is flying the course of the narrative in first person but it is stuffed full of constant interference of the third person omniscient. In some cases the very Weyler, Ciges Aparicio, Tula, Juan Vives ... So the story tries to introduce in this story line sound spectrum and a colorful imagination, although in the background (perhaps ideological thread or thesis of the writer) is maintained critical voice to the ominous mock the reader will to contemplate.
This structural framework is systematized into nine chapters bearing the following titles: 1. The old, 2. 1986. General Weyler, 3. 1986. Sergeant Manuel Aparicio Ciges 4. 1896. Captain Martínez Calonge 5. Tula Sage 6. Re-concentration and extermination; 7. Blindness 8. Last days of Artemis, and 9: 1936. The children of Weyler. If the first chapter shows the general Weyler ninety years, the absolute decrepitude, talking to ghosts, chapters two through eight mana the leadership of Cuba and the "heroes" of the story, to reach the last chapter that represents a time shift dramatic, as in the previous action Set in the year 1897 and now we are in 1936. Each chapter focuses on the essence of a character and his world or in a place or situation, but all characters are interspersed with its density, its ideas and its torrential creator.
What happens to the writer has intended to leave the final chapter as a single element, like a brooch literary, perhaps as a requiem? Itself will mean a circularity. I think there is a thesis clarifying Andres Sorel, a choice that no one can ignore: the idea that historical perversions are reproduced over time and eventually become recurrent because of its ability to maintain and deploy when conditions you are right historical. Weyler is the symbol of a Spain shocking that in the last chapter (hence the title of "Children of Weyler") took the lead again for the sake of the Falange and the military coup of General Franco. Although Weyler dies October 20, 1930, are figuratively "their children," the coup of 36, the authors of the death of Ciges Aparicio, civil governor of Avila for the Republic and shot when the rebels are made to control city. If Ciges Aparicio survived Weyler, not get get away from "political-military children." And so, say the third-person narrator: "Immediately, a face associated with those younger than she looked with contempt and hatred: that of Valeriano Weyler. Were their descendants. Damn story again in Spain. The general had been dead for six years and it was reincarnated murderers "(p. 273).
But is the voice of Ciges Aparicio, true protagonist of the play, whose ideas
Lights bookstore owner, Eduardo Moreno, Andrés Sorel and Lomas Morales (Malaga 12/02/2010)
Andrés Sorel is the debtor, who in chapter sings those last moments rearward of existence, he admits his humanity free, subject to the tyranny and the discipline and its anti-militarist ideas that saw him forced out twice exile: "All soldiers are equal. Spain has no remedy. Inquisition is meat. Priests, soldiers and Marquises "(p. 278). But earlier, in chapter three had said talk of the barracks: "They looked, in its pure essence, ineffective military brutality by only cared about the troops abusing, enslaving and using soldiers as servants at your service and whatever they could scavenge from the quartermaster "(p. 73). And when you have to shoot you in your imagination mixing times experienced in the past and present, near and the firing squad, and says: "Here there is no Weyler. He has been General Franco. I fall into error. " It is through your dreams when, as in a cloud of Spain as sad and tragic, these events are mixed past and present seamlessly creating a uniform magma and sorrowful. Through his words, his actions, there is a power game and a fierce critique against the dictatorship and against the monster breeding has been historically.
exists in the work of Andrés Sorel a deep work of the reader, data collector and historical events, but we can not forget that we are dealing with a fictional creation but the story is true truffle of those events that are held in the obstinacy of the actual data and irrefutable.
The beginning of the novel is dark and desolate interior that we announce where we will introduce gradually. And there is the emblem of ambition and betrayal in the image of the Macbeth of Shakespeare quote: "POWER OFF, short calls him" The General has completed ninety years old and can not sleep. The nightmare takes over his mind and, as Ciges in the last chapter, confusing reality with dreams and wonders whether there really that time. One is in the prologue of death does not get abandoned by their children, at the height of decrepitude: a soldier in His Labyrinth, very close to similar characters has left the English American narrative, dictators, murderous. I could not help remembering the death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes. But the image we projected Andrés Sorel, there is also a lot of grotesque valleinclanesco of Mardi Gras, in that ridiculous picture of the general and his cornet, a general who believes betrayed him, like Macbeth. As the narrative progresses and as he is the protagonist, black blade, neo-expressionist elements take over their face, of his own life to mess with his life and deeds this story. There is a critical angry and bitter the narrator introduces a character so angry he does not know who mourn and describes the general himself in this manner: "Ugly, asymmetrical (1.60 meters tall), maybe I took my mother's womb early, so I was born sickly. It took me grow, and despite my efforts I could never entirely "(p. 22). And, as Macbeth (with which you are the paragon literary) is haunted by the ghosts of his past: "I was brave at the time of killing others and show me now powerless to take my life to myself" ( p. 21). Believing and instigator of the death ("I just believe in death", p. 23, as Millan-Astray, your child's allegorical "Long live death!"), is transformed from the beginning in a repulsive character who likes the strong smell of urine acid, capable of a life of deception and loyalty to the death. General etopeya arises friend toughness and violence, unable to awaken any affection, sober, no drinking, no smoking and rarely struck up a conversation with someone and who is always compared with that Macbeth bloodthirsty, lustful, greedy, perfidious, liar and violent. That allowed his soldiers to steal, rape, kill ... and that, as stated in the story, well what was taught the rule to destroy the Cuban side, "Arson, ravage villages, do not prisoners, do not store any consideration to the elderly, women or children. License to kill, rape, nobody is going to demand an explanation "(p. 58).
There is a grim philosophy to be discovered as you go
Andrés Sorel
the story and acts as a deterrent to any reader who might have some kind of whims. No doubt for the narrator and his view seeks to create an abject image of the military. The second chapter is a compendium to create a devastating portrait of this character who was ousted by the terrible events fluently discussed the character of General Piedelobo assertion: "In the army, and talks to someone who has more than thirty years there, learned men have no place, and less on the war, hates and despises the time. Weyler, if I could kill them all "(pp. 64-65). An icon will be gradually expanded through statements sevincorporan the story characters, as writer-military Ciges Aparicio, who said about him: "Weyler is just a murderer without conscience of evil" (p. 82). A counterpoint his image will basically transmitting the fourth chapter Captain Martínez Calonge, who would direct relations with the general and journalist Eva Canel, whose adoration it was evident. In this chapter say about gays and people: "People are corrupted and lost when feminized and relax in its natural destiny, not a discipline. Homosexuals, for example, are not men, but patients who weaken the race and lead to defeat "(p. 110).
Soon, however, raises the other characters that gradually will take over the story, going on at certain times Weyler to the background, it is Ciges Aparicio and Juan Vives ... but also the journalist Eva Canel, dedicated to the cause Weyler, Gonzalez Arocha (Maceo), the Cuban revolutionary, Tula (supporting the troops of Maceo in Artemis) ...
Sergeant Ciges Aparicio is the soul and critical humanitarian story from chapter three. Be defined by the revolutionary Tula as "shy but good, as few men have known in my life" (p. 260). Myopic, black clothes lover, no father, oblivious to the discipline and religion, violence is repugnant and is afraid of women, but, however, is not of punishment but obsessed with living forever, and entered the army as a way to abandon its ill-fated home, alone, clinging to literature as a lifeline. Through the first person Ciges talks about his feelings and his life, items with those who worked in the press, and is a process of falling in love the character that is parallel to transmitting the writer who is recognized and rewarded in their attitude and views. As you lose the shadow that has engendered the general Weyler, Ciges becomes normal in the real hero of the people, the committed intellectual who from within upbraideth and repudiates all its forces to the military. A frequently accompanies Ciges Juan Vives, whose ideas are put into discussion more often in the story and create a condensation of thought of both. Of them will be deducted progressively Ciges personality, the true protagonist of the work in the more suggestive. He tells Juan Aparicio: "Your default Ciges, is that still accept moral laws when there is moral "(p. 88). But Ciges Aparicio is the awareness of what is happening in Cuba. A man who is moved over the suffering of others than with his own and finally locked up when they discover he has written an article addressed to the French newspaper L'Intransigeant which criticizes the behavior of the English army in Cuba. But a writer who had a deep love of literature to identifying with life. Arrested on January 6, 1897, was sentenced twenty-eight months and one day in prison for insulting the military.
Tula's history, from the fifth chapter is of great importance, because through it offers a view from the other end, from the persecuted people and raped and decimated, a woman of character that comes into the cause of revolution and liberation of the Cuban people, but will be related to certain military, especially Ciges Aparicio to hold talks with it fairly and with Juan Vives. And as sexual symbols and their love story compensates moments of cruelty in the story. Has sometimes been seen as the child of the Sonata Chole summer of Valle-Inclan, a woman who goes beyond the limits of sensuality and eroticism. But it is also consistent but feisty woman who embodies the values \u200b\u200bof a people fighting for their freedom. Also embodies the character that analyzes the politico-social situation of their country and explains the causes of their poverty and lack of freedom.
From a certain point, lost the life of General Weyler, the story thickens short stories, in interpolations and enrich secondary situations and stories appear Narciso López, Abel Borrego, Father Arocha
But the novel ... , which participates in the historical, psychological, social ... also offers moments where the action takes over the story and the scenes of war and attacks multiply in the seventh chapter. No time for relaxation because the narrative tempo gets its expected effect and the transition from one situation to another always have the interest to his narrative manages to give strength to the story Sorel.
A work in which ideas do not drown the narrative but contend the ultimate meaning of history to reach, as we have said, an epic account. Watertight compartments of the structure are diluted when the characters are intertwined in the course of these situations and assimilated into each other creating perfect communicating vessels.
In short, Sorel to get Artemis wars show a dark period of our history in Cuba and we relive an era, but also takes us into the mind of a character, Ciges Aparicio, whose ideas of humanity and solidarity principles also are claimed as immanent in the history of Spain.
Antonio Soler, Rafael Ballesteros and Lomas Morales (Delivery of the gold medal Rafael Ballesteros, December 14, 2010) 
