Plot summary
The story unfolds around presidential elections and“The methods for ''Senderista'' attacks described in this book, as well as the counterterrorism strategy of investigation, torture and making people disappear are real. Much of the characters’ dialogue is, in effect, quoted from documents from Shining Path or from the statements of terrorists, officials and members of Peruvian armed forces who took part in the conflict. The dates for Holy Week in 2000 and the description of the celebration are also true. Nevertheless, all of the characters as well as the majority of situations and places mentioned here, are fiction, including the factual details that have been removed from context of place, time and meaning. This novel narrates, as do all, a story that could have happened, but the author does not attest to it having been thus.”In other words, maybe the events happened, maybe they did not. Along another plane, the narrative stage upon which ''Red April'' unfolds is in Ayacucho:
“Ayacucho is a strange place. The seat of theAlthough there is a slight relation to the capital city, given that the main character despite having been born in the southern city, at the age of nine departed to be reared by relatives in Lima after his mother's death, but later decides to voluntarily return to his place of birth. His opinion of Lima is not very high since he considers it quite competitive, the source of popular consensus and, at the same time, full of smog, and arid gray hills in some parts. Ironically, the protagonist finds his roots planted in Ayacucho, Lima and Cuzco, the latter city being the birthplace of his estranged father and deceased mother.Wari culture The Wari ( es, Huari) were a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1000 AD. Wari, as the former capital city was called, is located north-east of the mo ...was here, and then theChanka people The Chanka people (or Chanca) are a Quechua people ethnic group living in the regions of Apurimac, Ayacucho and Lamas of Peru. They were enemies of the Incas, and they were centered primarily in Andahuaylas, located in the modern-day region of ..., who never allowed themselves to be subjugated by the Incas. And later were the indigenous uprisings because Ayacucho was the half-way point betweenCuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ..., the Inca capital, andLima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ..., the Spaniards’ capital. And independence in Quinua (''cf.'', Quinua, Peru). And Sendero. This place is condemned to be bathed in blood and fire forever, Chacaltana.”(Roncagliolo, p. 245 Spanish edition).
Literary fiction, folklore and anthropology
The novel spins thematic currents by interweaving the writer's creative story telling content of a thriller novel with the context of Andean life and world view, and the elements Pre-Columbian Incan anthropology.Maternal Relationships
Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar was very aware of his mother's (''mamita'') presence, from whom he asked for advice and consent. Likewise he held eerie conversations with her in the ancestral estate, perhaps, of her refurbished home, despite her being dead, as a sort of intermediary of the past and the present in a modern form of Incan ancestor worship, an important element in Andean life.“When Huayna Capac perished of a mysterious disease in Ecuador around 1527, retainers mummified his body and carried it back to Cusco. Members of the royal family frequently visited the deceased monarch, asking his advice on vital matters and heeding the replies of the oracle sitting at his side. Years after his death, Huayna Capac remained the owner of Quispiguanca and the surrounding estate. Indeed, royal tradition dictated that its harvest keep his mummy, servants, wives, and descendents in style for an eternity.” Perhaps his consciousness of her may be due, as will come to light, to the fact that he did not rescue her from the house fire that cost his mother her life. One may also note the desperation of certain mothers upon the disappearance of their sons. In Red April, the mother of Edwin Mayta Carazo was always present at the opening of burial pits in hopes of finding her son's body.Paternal Relationships
The relationship between the protagonist and his father is extremely distant since Chacaltana assures that he never met his father and neither did he ever inquire about him. It's almost as if he never had had a father. It later becomes known that his father exhibited violent behavior toward his mother and Félix as a child, and who would later wind up threatening him. It is through the eyes of Commander Carrión, who bares uncanny witness to an unusual wealth of detail of the protagonist's childhood, that Chacaltana comes to reveal the nature of his early relationship with his father. He is reminded of the childhood psychological horror in hand-written notes penned in crayon and fractured syntax—in stark contrast to the pedantically precise legal briefs and reports Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar strives to produce—that the killer(s) ostensibly composes after each murder and are strung out over the novel's trajectory, which are accidentally spilled from a briefcase belonging to a prime suspect.References
{{Reflist 2006 novels Crime novels Fiction set in 2000 Novels set in Peru