Who Killed Polomino Molero
Vargas Llosa, Mario. (1986). Who Killed Palomino Molero?. New York: Noonday Press.
This is a narrative about the chaotic investigation of Palomino Molero. The story takes place in a small town in Peru during the 1950’s. There are two distinct worlds in this novel. The first being the Air Force base a few miles from town where the officers live in clean houses. They come equipped with gardens, swimming pools, and sufficient amounts of food. Then there is the poverty-stricken, hot and humid town where the locals live including Officer Lituma and Lieutenant Silva. Lituma comments when they visit the base that “They really live it up. Like the gringos at the IPC, these lucky bastards live like movie stars behind their fences and screens.”
A young boy stumbles across the mutilated body of a young man, Palomino Molero. Molero was soldier in the Air Force base miles from the town. He was found with “bruises, cuts, [and] cigarette burns…they’d even tried to castrate him; his testicles hung down to his thigh” (Vargas, p.3). Officer Lituma witnesses the gruesome murder scene after the young boy runs to town and informs him. Officer Lituma of the Guardia Civil and his boss, Lieutenant Silva, begin their investigation.
Throughout the story, Lituma watches his superior officer with admiration because of his knowledge and experience in criminal investigation, though that does not stop Silva from sharing his feeling about a fat, old lay named Dona Adriana with Lituma.
Lituma and Silva discover that Molero enlisted in the Air Force voluntarily and was infatuated with a lady that lived near the base. This leads Lituma and Silva to question Colonel Mindreau, the commanding officer of the base, but get nothing but hostility and sarcasm. During their questioning, the colonel’s daughter, Alicia is introduced in the novel.
Later in the story, Lituma and Silva discover from an old lady in a neighboring town that Alicia and Molero were lovers and left the Air Force base to get
This is a narrative about the chaotic investigation of Palomino Molero. The story takes place in a small town in Peru during the 1950’s. There are two distinct worlds in this novel. The first being the Air Force base a few miles from town where the officers live in clean houses. They come equipped with gardens, swimming pools, and sufficient amounts of food. Then there is the poverty-stricken, hot and humid town where the locals live including Officer Lituma and Lieutenant Silva. Lituma comments when they visit the base that “They really live it up. Like the gringos at the IPC, these lucky bastards live like movie stars behind their fences and screens.”
A young boy stumbles across the mutilated body of a young man, Palomino Molero. Molero was soldier in the Air Force base miles from the town. He was found with “bruises, cuts, [and] cigarette burns…they’d even tried to castrate him; his testicles hung down to his thigh” (Vargas, p.3). Officer Lituma witnesses the gruesome murder scene after the young boy runs to town and informs him. Officer Lituma of the Guardia Civil and his boss, Lieutenant Silva, begin their investigation.
Throughout the story, Lituma watches his superior officer with admiration because of his knowledge and experience in criminal investigation, though that does not stop Silva from sharing his feeling about a fat, old lay named Dona Adriana with Lituma.
Lituma and Silva discover that Molero enlisted in the Air Force voluntarily and was infatuated with a lady that lived near the base. This leads Lituma and Silva to question Colonel Mindreau, the commanding officer of the base, but get nothing but hostility and sarcasm. During their questioning, the colonel’s daughter, Alicia is introduced in the novel.
Later in the story, Lituma and Silva discover from an old lady in a neighboring town that Alicia and Molero were lovers and left the Air Force base to get