El Fugitivo

Name: Maura Paneca 

Country: Cuba
Language: Spanish
Book Title: El Fugitivo (The Fugitive)
Author: Alejo Carpentier
First Publication: 1984

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SUMMARY:

This is a beautiful and unhappy story,  The writer talk about how the black’s people are abused and forced to work . Also the writer shows what these slave’s  people do in order to get their freedom, even putting their own life in risk.

The story, "The Fugitive" is based on slavery. The principal character is a black slave named Cimarron. This story is about how Cimarron  felt tired of being abused, and he escapes from the place where he works. When his bosses know about that, they send dogs to capture him. One of the dogs is called Perro, who is another important protagonist in this story. This dog becomes the fugitive’s friend, and he escapes with Cimarron. However, one day after, Cimarron starts acting inappropriately. He becomes a criminal, and he begins to  abuse people, make robberies and do other criminal acts. The dog Perro does not like that. One particular day, when Cimarron tries to abuse a woman, his bosses find him, and they capture him in front of the dogs. The dogs run faster and he escapes. After that, the dogs coincidentally find a pretty gray dog, so they get distracted.

Sometime later, Cimarron appears without chains, and the dog can identify  him. The black slave calls and tries to touch the dog, but he jumps and bites him, eventually he kills Cimarron. In this moment,  the dog remembers  that he has been sent  to capture Cimarron and that is why he pursued him this way.

RECOMMENDATION:

The writer of this story, Alejo Carpentier, was born in Havana on December 26, 1904. He was a famous writer, and also he was an important journalist and musicologist. The literature world gave him much fame for his creative writings.  Furthermore, Carpentier is considered to be one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was influenced by surrealism in his literature, and his writing was called magical realism. He is considered the first representative of the so-called "Magic Realism" based on the heritage of the Americas. Furthermore, he was made the Honorary Member of the University of Kansas (USA), and in 1977 he received the Cervantes (Spain) Award.

However, this story at the beginning is hard to read and interpret. I think this story should be read a second time to understand the main idea more clearly. Also, this book speaks about several points, such as, how the blacks slaves were treated. Also, the author describes how some dogs can become good friends and how they can steal and portray other animal behavior.