Resumen de Conflicting ecologies: an ecocritical analysis of Argueda's "Agua"
With the relatively recent boom in ecocritical studies in the field of Latin American literature, increasing attention has been given to identifying "the roots of our environmental/social problems [...] to achieve a fundamental ecological transformation of our sociocultural systems, collective actions and lifestyles" (Kane 38). Certainly, the twentieth-century Peruvian author José María Arguedas is known for addressing the complex race relations, cultural intersections and often, tense relations between mestizo and indigenous inhabitants, emphasizing the unequal and antagonistic nature of transculturation. This is true of the collection of short stories, Agua, which broaches topics of social injustice in the power struggle between property owners and the peasant workers, specifically presenting forms of resistance by the indigenous worker to the semi-feudal system of the hacienda. However, little attention has been given to the portrayal by Arguedas of the abusive or destructive relationship between humans and the environment which sustains them. In her discussion of Aníbal Quijano's coloniality of power as it relates to environmental topics, Jennifer French has suggested the importance of reevaluating texts through an ecocritical lens with the hopes of unearthing alternative environmental imaginings to replace the destructive practices instilled initially during the conquest ("Voices" 158).' In the short story "Agua," Arguedas examines the requisition of elemental resources by the powerful landowner in order to expose the negative effects of primitive accumulation in both causing social injustice and environmental degradation. By expanding the notion of the coloniality of power to include the profound implication of ecology, Arguedas's short story can be perceived as not only critiquing the relationship between the land owner and the indigenous communities but also as calling for a revision of the relations between the human and non-human environment in favor of more sustainable modes of dwelling with the land.
