The Proletarian Commune in Veracruz: José Mancisidor's La ciudad roja

Abstract:In La ciudad roja, Mancisidor rewrites the 1922 tenant strikes in the city of Veracruz, a social movement that managed to paralyze the city's economy throughout that year. In this article, we discuss the novel in relation to the larger ambitions and objectives of the collective project of "proletarian literature." The article focuses on three aspects of the novel: first, the process of historical rewriting that frames, selects, and erases different elements of the Veracruz tenant strikes; second, the novel's account of the communal urban space that emerged during the rent strikes; and finally, the relation presented in the novel between the artist-leader of the tenant movement and the proletarian masses. We will suggest that this may be understood as a novelization or a novelized debate of the aesthetic and political program of proletarian literature as a whole.