They're Cows, We're Pigs

April 28, 1997
"We are cattle but you are pigs!" This defiant declaration is the heart of the conflict in the American debut of a highly regarded Mexican writer. In a freewheeling but finely tuned work that makes use of magic realism, Boullosa describes the ordeal of a native people conquered and preyed upon by the Spanish, here not soldiers but buccaneers. A bildungsroman of sorts, this fictional chronicle uses real locations (Tortuga Island), and people (Alexander O. Exquemeling) to render Caribbean piracy in the second half of the 17th century. The primary narrator, Jean Smeeks, is a European lad who is kidnapped in Flanders, put on a ship bound for Tortuga Island and sold into slavery. After learning medicine from a native healer and a French surgeon, Smeeks signs on to be a medical officer in a marauding brotherhood of pirates, or "pigs." As the story unfolds, the reader is treated to a running commentary on the difference between the "pigs"--who envision their life as democratic, free of women and of national and religious prejudice--and the land-locked, law-abiding "cattle," bound by traditional values. The squeamish should be advised that references to pig and cow viscera spill across these deftly written pages. The narrative is fractured into many different voices and stories, but this format appropriately reflects the restless, roaming pirate life, and all the strands knit together in a well-crafted closure. Regarded as one of the most dazzling of Latin America's new generation, Boullosa justifies her laurels in this rich work.