ATDTDA: (35) Part II

Sat Jul 5 20:32:11 CDT 2008

(My sender addie is messing up - sorry.)

And the overview of (35) Part II - pgs 982-999  (again,  from the  
Pynchon Wiki unless noted with ***s.

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Page 982

***  And we now move to Frank in Mexico for the continuing Revolution  
(about 2 years into a 20 - year civil war)  against the Diaz  
government and then against the Madero government and then ...  (see  
below).   This is about 1911/12.

http://ic.ucsc.edu/~ksgruesz/ltel190f/PynchonGrid.htm

*** More on the revolution:

http://cnparm.home.texas.net/Nat/Mx/Mx00.htm

map:  http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/mexico_1910.htm

(nutshell version):   http://www.emersonkent.com/ 
wars_and_battles_in_history/mexican_revolution.htm

http://tinyurl.com/5rfocf    (scroll down)

****!!  with good photos including one entitled,  "Favorite pastime  
of Mexican revolutionaries, blowing up trains."

***  So first we have the old corrupt Diaz regime,  then the Madero  
government from 1911 to 1913 when  Lascuráin Paredes took over the  
presidency (for Huerta) and after a few days  Huerta took office  
himself for a few years.  Huerta was ousted  by  Venustiano Carranza  
Garza who, except for a  10 week interruption by Eulalio Gutiérrez  
Ortiz  (1914-15),   held the high office until 1920.
Magonistas

Mexican anarchists, followers of brothers Enrique and Ricardo Flores  
Magón (1874-1922). During the "Magonista" Revolt of 1911, a short- 
lived revolutionary commune was set-up in Baja California. In present  
Mexico, the Flores Magon brothers are considered left wing political  
icons nearly as notable as Emiliano Zapata, and numerous streets,  
towns and neighborhoods are named for them.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Flores_Magón  (very  
interesting guy - died at Leavenworth)

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Page 983
***  Morelos
A state in southern Mexico.  Morelos has always had great  
revolutionary activity, and numerous guerrillas have made their homes  
and struggled for justice in the region. Most notably, Anenecuilco in  
Morelos[clarify] was the home town of Emiliano Zapata; the state was  
the center of Zapata's Mexican Revolution campaign, and a small city  
in the Morelos is named after him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morelos

*** nice map:   http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/ 
morelos_mexico_map_1910.htm

***  More names from the Orozquista - the term for those who followed  
Pascual Orozco and son in fighting first for the Madero against Diaz  
and then against Madero (with cause)   side of the revolution(s):

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/OO/for8.html

Emiliano Zapata - from Morelos, Mexico,  begun a serious insurrection  
against the (Madero) government..."

Pascual Orozco  1882-1915, importer of armaments from U.S.,  
maderista, revolted against Madero government in 1912.

Pascual Orozco,Jr. (1882-1915) was a Mexican revolutionary hero and  
leader - first against Diaz and then against Madero.  Worked with  
Pancho  Villa - defeated by Huerta.)

José Inés Salazar was longtime colleague of Pascual Orozco and later  
one of the leading Orozquista generals.

Braulio Hernández A prominent Maderista but later became a radical  
Orozquista.

Photos of Revolution people:  http://www.texancultures.utsa.edu/ 
library/bakerPhotos.htm        (includes Villa, Orozco and Hernandez  
in different photos)

Pancho Villa  a prominent leader of the Revolution - joined  
Orozuistas after Madero's murder

José Gonzáles Salas    Maderista general in command against Orozco

the country around Jiménez . . .
The region around Jiménez, a mining center in Chihuahua 130 miles  
south of Chihuahua City, is known for large number of meteorites,  
some of them discovered by the Spaniards in 16th and 17th centuries,  
and now exhibited in Palacio de Mineria (Minery Palace) in Mexico city.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=J

"In 1852, two meteorites were found about 16 miles from Jimenez  
(formerly Huejuquilla), Chihuahua, Mexico. The two masses were  
removed in 1891 to the School of Mines, Mexico City."   With a weight  
of 14.114 tons, Chupaderos I is ranked as the 10th largest meteorite  
in the world; and Chupaderos II with a weight of 6.767 tons ranked  
14th. Photos of Chupaderos I and Chupaderos II.

***   Chupaderos II meteorite:   http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/ 
Chupaderos/Chupad(II)-1.jpg

***  Chupaderos I meteorite:    http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/ 
Chupaderos/Chupad(1)-3.jpg

"... the Bolsón de Mapimí"

A small desert area east of Jiménez,

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Page 984
***   Frank is looking around in the Bolsón de Mapimí when he finds a  
little meteorite (?) which seems to speak to him
"máquina loca"
Spanish: crazy machine. The translation of máquina is often tuned to  
the context: here, "locomotive."

***  History of trains in Mexico:   http://www.2020site.org/ 
mexicanrailway/central.html

***  photo of derailment or bombing/?: http://www.emersonkent.com/ 
wars_and_battles_in_history/mexican_revolution.htm

***  Oh shades of the Kieselguhr Kid.

"a sus órdenes"

Spanish: (ready) for your orders. In English one would say, "at your  
service."

"One prong of the government attack . . . between Corralitos and  
Rellano . . ."
The Battle of Rellano.   The Battle of Rellano was the high-water  
mark of the Orozquista military campaign.

Andale, muchachos

Spanish: let's go, boys.

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Page 985
Parral
Parral is where Pancho Villa was assassinated on July 20, 1923.  
Apparently someone remembered the sacking, dynamiting, looting, and  
killing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parral%2C_Chihuahua

El Espinero = Tarahumara duende - is this the place Frank was guided  
to - for a railroad battle?

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Page 986
*** Victoriano Huerta -  fought for Madero until he usurped power  
himself.  Cf page 376 (Frank and Ewball run into Huerta and his men  
prior to all this)

Tampico

cf. page 637, where (and when) Frank first meets Günther.

Orizaba product
One of the leading industries of Orizaba is the Cervecería Moctezuma  
brewery which was established in 1896.

Chiapas
cf. page 637

** Situation not hopeful - Huerta has guns,  Orozco no.

The "Maquina loca tactic"  will eventually fail  -  (this was the  
tactic of hiding a hijacked locomotive behind enemy lines and and  
packing it with explosives.  Then sending it full throttle into the  
cars in front of it.

Frank gets to Mexico City where he meets up with

  Günther von Quassel

a  "wealthy coffee scion" and Yashmeen's old boyfriend; inhabits "his  
own idiomatic 'frame of reference'" 599; aka "El Atildado" in Mexico,  
with Frank Traverse, 637; in Mexico City, 986;

  "quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

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Page 987

Gunther and Frank catch up on stuff:

Oaxaca   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaxaca

cafetal
Spanish: coffee plantation.

The work is being mechanized and there is really no insurgency in  
Oaxaca - only family disputes and banditry.

jefe politico
Spanish: political boss.

Juchitán
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juchitán_de_Zaragoza

Benito Juárez Maza - son of Benito Juarez president of Mexico  
(1858-1872)  Governor of Oaxaca from 1911 until his death the next year.

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Page 988

chegomista
Follower of Che Gómez,mayor of Juichitan, follower of Madero until he  
was double crossed.

http://tinyurl.com/5om2f

"El Reparador"
Spanish: "The Fixer." Epithet of a hundred operators in crime  
literature. Or, as the text eventually suggests, "The Repairman."

Ibargüengoitia
Speculation on this surname: Jorge Ibargüengoitia was a novelist and  
playwright who wrote, among other things, Los Relámpagos de Agosto  
(The Lightning of August, 1964), which uses cartoonish mayhem to  
debunk the Mexican Revolution's heroic myths; improbably it won for  
its author the Premio Casa de las Américas, despite or because of the  
consternation which its flippancy caused.

Ibargüengoitia is also the name of the "Genevan contact" that  
Slothrop meets on behalf of Squalidozzi the Argentine anarchist in GR.

On p. 384 Squalidozzi's shipmate Belaustegui asks why he didn't  
deliver the message himself:
"Why didn't you go to Geneva and try to get through to us?"
"I didn't want to lead them to Ibargüengoitia. I sent someone else."

Chapultepec Park
Chapultepec Park is an enormous green area in the middle of Mexico  
City covering 2,000 acres, containing three of the city's most  
importnat museums, an amusement park, several lakes, the only genuine  
castle in North America,, Mexico's largest zoo and the residence of  
the President of Mexico, Los Pinos. Chapultepec Castle is also known  
as "The Halls of Montezuma."

Wie geht's, mein alter Kumpel
German: How are you, my old workmate?

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Page 989

the new Monument to National Independence
Mexico City's No.1 landmark. The Monumento de la Independencia,  
situated on a roundabout at the Paseo de la Reforma (Reform Avenue)  
in Mexico City's downtown area, was inaugurated in 1910. The  
sculptures that surround the base represent Law, Justice, War and  
Peace. On top of the monument is a winged and gilded angel, known as  
Angel de la Independencia, or just El Angel. See photo of
El Angel.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ángel

When his eyes refocused, whoever had spoken had moved on and Frank  
has, at recognizing Dally's face, gone into the same kind of trance,  
a merger with the moment, or with the machine, that had almost taken  
him into the collision with the Federal train on P.985. The warning  
words seem to be "crazy machine", "dead" and "you". A warning from  
the Angel of Death, via another Alternate Communication channel.

a face he recognized
Another angel modeled on Dally?  El Angel was sculpted by Enrique  
Alciati.

"máquina loca," "muerte" and "tú"
Spanish: "crazy locomotive," "dead" and "you."

Why the Angel of Death rather than the Angel of Light?
  "Frank could see The Angel "in the declining sunlight..."

http://www.zanzig.com/travel/mexico-photos/m005-070.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ángel

abrazo
Spanish: hug.

"sinvergüencistas"
 From sin vergüenza, Spanish: without shame. The -istas ending makes  
it refer to a group of adherents.

Ibargüengoitia gets Frank and Gunter out of Vera Cruz, down to  
Frontera . . . to Villahermosa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez . . . and across the  
Sierra to the Pacific coast where lies Gunter's plantation, on the  
Pacific coast around Tapachula near the border with Guatemala.

"Tu madre chingada puta"
Rude, rude Spanish: Your mother's a fucking whore.

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Page 990

Machine-Age nightmare . . . the future of coffee
Another Crazy Machine, or perhaps "Out of Control" machine (the  
governor on the locomotive on P.985 "no longer regulated anything").   
Industrialization has struck again.

***  Chamula - a city in Chiapas comprised of Tzotzil Mayan Indians  
who work (and have been worked) on coffee and sugar plantations.  The  
city is autonomous within Mexico.

***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil

***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil_people

*** Today many in the Zapatista Liberation movement are Tzotzil.

***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation

Chamula is near San Cristóbal

http://wild-net.com.au/mexico/html/san_cristobal.phtml

Tuxtla - the capital of Chiapas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuxtla_Gutiérrez (nice positional map of  
Mexico)

Tapachula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapachula

El Quetzal Dormido
The Sleeping Quetzal. Quetzals are elaborately-plumed birds of the  
genera Pharomachrus and Euptilotis, and are in the trogon family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzal

http://cloudbridge.org/avifauna.htm

And Frank "had observed, or thought he had ..."    "

Brujos;"  male witches

Frank meets Melpómene in "El Quetzal Dormido"

Melpómene is the name of the Greek muse of song and tragedy. http:// 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpomene

***  see also "18 Melpomene" a large, bright asteroid located in the  
Main Belt, discovered by John Russel Hind on June 24, 1852, and named  
after aforementioned muse.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Melpomene

Palenque - a small town in Chiapas, powerful in the Mayan Era.   
Overrun by jungle today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palenque

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Page 991

guayuleros - wild rubber workers of the old days.   Pancho Villa´s  
cross-border raids scared off "guayuleros" in Southwestern U.S.

Melpómene tells Frank about the cucuji
According to the text they are "giant luminous beetles." Pynchon  
seems to have read this "Handbook for Travellers" Google Books scan  
to Mexico, written in 1907, by Thomas Phillip Terry. This passage  
includes descriptions of reading by their light, simultaneous  
flashing, use by women under thin veils, and small cages containing  
several beetles acting as torches

http://tinyurl.com/6r8vec

tinterillo - told Melpomene that the little cucuji were very bright
Legal scribe. A "writer to prepare papers, collect and adduce  
evidence in legal cases, such as was to be submitted to illiterate  
judges of such tribunals as then existed." (From here, p 160.)

Ahora, apágate
Spanish: Now put yourself out, extinguish yourself.

Bueno
Good.

*** And Frank has a little communication going with a beetle named  
Pedro who lets him know that he is Frank's soul and that all the  
little lit up beetles are the souls of all who had ever passed  
through his life and that they all went to make a single soul.

*** " 'In the same way,'  amplified Gunther, 'that our Savior could  
inform his disciples with a straight face that bread and wine were  
indistinguishable from his body and blood. Light, in any case, among  
these Indians of Chiapas, occupies and analoguous position to flesh  
among Christians.  It is living tissue. As the brain is the outward  
and visible expression of the Mind.' "

Yeah?

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Page 992

instantaneously
In violation of Einstein's special theory of relativity.  a wireless,  
immediate, human way of communicating.

Caray . . . novio . . .
Spanish: Good heavens . . . boyfriend . . .

Mazatán
http://www.travelpost.com/NA/Mexico/Chiapas/Mazatan/7645531

Qué
Spanish: What, as in "what the fuck?"

querida
Spanish: dear, darling.

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Page 993

** alternate communication systems - telepathic**

It is like the telephone exchange . . . the single greater organism  
remains intact, coherent, connected.
Actually not like the telephone exchange. On P. 708, Derrick Theign  
worries that in case of war, telephone and telegraph will become  
unreliable; this is his reason for creating the R.U.S.H. This  
telepathic network, like an unfailing cell phone network, is far more  
reliable.

** On page 993 Gunther talks about a network of Indians in telepathic  
communication.

Tenochtitlán
Tenochtitlán was the capital of the Aztec empire, built on an island  
in Lake Texcoco in what is now the Federal District in central  
Mexico. At its height, it was one of the largest cities in the world,  
with over 200,000 inhabitants. The city was destroyed in 1521 by  
Spanish conquistadors. Mexico City was erected on top of the ruin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan

Angel of the Fourth Glorieta on Reforma

Glorieta is a monument. See the angel, pg. 989.

"As a gateway the arch seemed to define two different parts of the  
city..."

*** http://www.flickr.com/photos/44011434@N00/2404223525

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Page 994

He knew what it was but could not find its name in his memory
Presumably the unknown menace from which Aztlan's inhabitants fled.  
But suggestive both of air attack and the menace of North American  
industrialization.

***!!!!   Air attack?   What is this?  Indeed!  the US sends  
aeroplanes to support Huerta?  (NYTimes 5/24/1912)

tezontle
The colonists and Indian artisans employed local tezontle, a light  
and porous volcanic rock, to create elaborate facades on buildings.

tepetate
A porous whitish-yellow rock used in building construction when cut  
into blocks. As a construction material tepetate has played a major  
role in the development of modern Mexico.

indicative world
Very potent phrase. The world of everyday reality, indicating the  
deepeer reality of the visions? The indicative mood in grammar is the  
mood of simple declarative statements, plain facts: there was  
Melpomene, here is a chair. A mood incommensurate with Frank's trance.

the Huerta coup
Against Madero, who was shot, February 1913.

Ciudadela
http://archaeology.asu.edu/teo/intro/ciudad.htm

Félix Díaz - Huerta supporter until he was duped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Díaz

Decena Trágica
Spanish: the tragic ten days (before the assassination of President  
Modero)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_decena_trágica

Zócalo -A zócalo is a central town square or plaza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zocalo

el palacio blanco
Spanish: the white palace

Pino Suárez - Vice President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_María_Pino_Suárez

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Page 995

It was the first time he was aware of getting paid for being stupid.  
Could there be a future in this? Sounds like another Pynchonian 'in- 
joke'. In "Vineland", Zoyd Wheeler is getting his yearly cheques for  
precisely that, i.e. doing something stupid.

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Page 996

¡Epa!
Spanish: Whoa! Soccer (fútbol) announcers interject ¡Epa! when two  
players have a very physical coming together.

Since last September the mine workers' union had been out on strike
The Colorado "coal war" of September 1913 to April 1914; here is an  
eye-opening account.

Just a taste of what's coming a bit later in Ludlow:

http://www.du.edu/anthro/ludlow/cfhist.html

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Page 997

Pagosa Springs
South Central Colorado town in the heart of the San Juan Forest.

1914 with photos:  http://gawiz.com/HistoryoftheRanches.htm

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Page 998

...over Wolf Creek Pass, into the San Luis Valley...San Luis  
Basin...through Fort Garland...up the Sangre de Cristos over North La  
Veta Pass...the first rooftops of Walsenburg.
The route described would take them from the presumably UMW- 
sympathetic mining country in the San Juans, north and east along  
current US highway 160 (called the Navaho Trail), across the San Luis  
Valley and Basin to North La Veta Pass, with Walsenburg and the  
prairies and canyons of the coal country beyond to the east (the only  
safe approach to the striking mines).

http://tinyurl.com/65g53v

The geography of this journey is as carefully described as the  
various characters' journeys through the Balkans (the description of  
the view of the Spanish Peaks and Culebra Range are absolutely  
accurate), and there must be a reason, something these regions have  
in common.

The San Luis Valley and immediately adjacent areas are the furthest  
northeastern reaches of the Spanish Empire in North America, part of  
the Province of Nueva Mexico del Norte of New Spain, later Mexico  
(part of which became the state of New Mexico in 1912). The area  
around Telluride would be the northern border of Pynchon's vision of  
Aztlan (it is in fact the northern border of the Pueblo settlements).  
These are, therefore, like the Balkans, borders between newly  
industrializing empires and older, tribally-organized, "pre- 
scientific" cultures (both with indigenous mystical/spiritual  
traditions, with which the characters interact). Here and in nearby  
Mexico, mechanization and industrialization of resource extraction  
are causing heartbreaking exploitation and violence, and the  
indigenous shamanism and mysticism and their unmediated power are  
being destroyed by advancing industrial civilization, exactly as  
described by Dwight Prance on P.777.

Niall Ferguson(The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and  
the Descent of the West, Penguin Press, 2006) points to three  
demonstrated conditions for becoming a conflict flashpoint: (1) Multi- 
ethnic population (2) location at the border of a failing empire (3)  
economic volatility (See note to P.939). Both the Balkans and the  
American Southwest/Mexico fulfilled those conditions.

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** Also see:
http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-i-tell-you-three- 
times-is-true.html