The Lure of the Crocodile in Mexican Children’s Literature

• In Event: Mexican Children's and YA Literature

Abstract

Juana Inés Dehesa in her Panorama de la literatura infantil y juvenil Mexicana (2014) ends her study with a question: “Por qué será que, de entre los textos que se han producido en México en los últimos veinticinco años hay dos, por lo menos, en los cuales aparecen cocodrilos a manera de compañeros y mascotas? Me refiero a Sputnik y David, de Emilio Carballido y El cocodrilo de Matilde, de Pedro Bayona. No lo consideré suficientemente representativo como para dedicarle un apéndice completo, pero ello no quiere decir que no me resulte intrigante” (p. 124). In fact, Dehesa could not have chosen two books more different, nor two crocodiles more unalike. No wonder she has trouble seeing what they have in common. She concludes, somewhat lamely, “Gracias, pues, por los cocodrilos y nuestra alma tropical” as if geography is the only underlying explanation for two children’s books that feature talking alligators. Nevertheless, she has missed the forest for the trees. The crocodiles are not what ties these two stories together, but rather the terrifying messages that lie behind the words. Despite the humorous performance of the crocodiles and the comic illustrations that accompany the texts lies a view of life that is both tragic and frightening, and one that identifies both stories as distinctly Latin American.

Author

• Ann B Gonzalez, University of North Carolina at Charlotte