VLVL2 (3) Zoyd and Hector

[gumbo at fuse.net]

 Are you suggesting that Pynchon
decided
> to use an ethnic stereotype to emphasise the point that the character is
> morally reprehensible? I find that unlikely, and Hector doesn't strike me
as
> a cartoon-like character at all.

No, I'm not. 

Although the book compares Hector and Zoyd to cartoon characters, "cartoon" suggests flat colors and an absence of complexity, and that really doesn't apply. I think Hector is more of a caricature than a cartoon, of a cop who happens to be Mexican and has some workplace issues, among other aberrant qualities. There are elements of stereotype--a whiff of the dangerously corrupt federale, for example--but they are deftly applied.

>
> I think the notion -- Paul N's point I think -- that Hector has
> self-consciously nurtured a "Ricardo Montalban impersonation" over the
years
> is the basic gist of the characterisation (23.21). And I'd say this has
been
> a deliberate effort on Hector's part to accentuate his ethnicity.

Yes on the deliberate attempt, but I think the Montalban impression is something Hector uses occasionally and sparingly, for effect. I get a picture of the urbane, upper class Montalban of the 80s Chrysler commericals, caressing the r-r-rich Cor-r-rinthian leather of a convertible seat. That may be what Hector aspires to, but I don't think it's a characterization he can sustain. His default persona seems more like a weirdly inverted Cheech Marin than Ricardo Montalban.

D.C.