Vulnerability and Retribution: in Search of the Aesthetics of Xavier Vargas Pardo’s Short Stories

Abstract

The book Céfero (1961), by Xavier Vargas Pardo, remained unattended by critics until recent years. Reviews right after its publication emphasized its particular use of the rural speech from central Mexico, while contemporary approaches have favored interpretations of the violent deeds described in the eleven short stories of the volume. Next to this violence, another element in the book emerges as a necessary correlative: characters’ vulnerability. This article offers a critical revalorization of Vargas Pardo’s book through the analysis of the conditions of vulnerability in the characters who are both subjects and/or perpetrators of the violence, as well as the acts of retribution by non-human agents who offer an unexpected balance to the absence of justice dominating the book from Michoacán.