El tungsteno / Paco Yunque

César Vallejo (1892-1938), one of the most important and innovative Hispano-American poets of the 20th century, also made significant contributions to theater, journalism, and prose fiction. This volume brings together two of his most powerful narrative works: El tungsteno (1931) and Paco Yunque (written 1931, published posthumously), offering a unique window into Vallejo’s aesthetic conception of committed art.

In El tungsteno, Vallejo delivers a searing indictment of the corruption and devastating human and environmental exploitation caused by transnational mining corporations in the Peruvian Andes. Set against the backdrop of US entry into WWI, the novel exposes how local elites, military, and religious authorities conspire with foreign capital to dehumanize and destroy Indigenous and peasant communities. It foreshadows later social realist novels of the region and is crucial for understanding the dynamics of imperialist exploitation.

Paco Yunque, a poignant short story intended for children, subtly yet powerfully critiques the mechanisms of social inequality and the construction of masculinity within Peru’s hierarchical society. Through the microcosm of a classroom, Vallejo reveals how prejudice, class privilege, and racial discrimination are normalized and reproduced from early childhood, deeply impacting identity formation.

Edited by Flor María Rodríguez-Arenas, this critical edition provides an in-depth introductory analysis that contextualizes these works within Vallejo’s literary and ideological trajectory. It is an indispensable resource for courses in 20th-century Latin American Literature, Marxist Literary Theory, Post-Colonial Studies, and Masculinity Studies, revealing a César Vallejo committed to using fiction as a means to awaken social consciousness.