Tale
El hombre que parecía un caballo
Not translated into English
Rafael Arévalo Martínez · 1915
Synopsis
The narrator is introduced to the señor de Aretal, a poet with long, dry limbs, his head tilted like a horse's. From the first meeting, Aretal parts with his translucent necklaces of opals, amethysts, emeralds and carbuncles, which are his verses, and the narrator, dazzled, believes he has at last found the being he was waiting for; he gradually discovers that this lord of topazes reflects the soul of whoever keeps him company.
Context
The tale appeared in 1915 and later gave its title to a collection; in it its author inaugurated the stories he called psycho-zoological, in which the characters bear the traits of an animal. The señor de Aretal was at once recognised as a portrait of the Colombian poet Porfirio Barba Jacob, who claimed the role; the author later judged this claim childish. Critics now see in it a pioneering text on homosexual themes in Guatemalan literature.
Who it is for
In Spanish, some twenty pages. The story proceeds through ornate images, inherited from modernismo.
Prizes and reception
Gabriela Mistral saw it as one of the perfect readings of her life, and the story long passed for the most famous Latin American short story of the century.