The animal kingdom and its symbolism in The crazy horns by Cándido F. Mazas. An approximation
Laura Paz Fentanes

A M. F. B.

I met Cándido Fernández Mazas a little less than half a year ago through José Ángel Valente and Eugenio Granell. Well, in reality I did not "know" Cándido F. Mazas, but rather his legacy, his art; nor was it through José Ángel Valente and Eugenio Granell, through whom I asked who made it known to me.

I saw a drawing by Fermazas for the first time, as the painter signed in most cases, three years ago. It was the illustration on the cover of number 35 of the magazine Alfar, published in December 1923; However, at that time I was still not aware of who its author was.

The first piece I saw, knowing it was by Fermazas, was the cover that the illustrator made for the volume The Moon, the soul and the beloved by Xavier Bóveda, published in 1922. When I saw it, not only did it strike me as one of the most beautiful drawings I have seen in a long time, but I couldn't believe that someone could have painted it more than a hundred years ago.

Since I am not an art specialist, I am going to focus on the literary dimension of Cándido F. Mazas. Specifically, in one of the two published dramas: The crazy horns, subtitled as "Farce in seven moments." The piece saw the light for the first time in 1981 at Ediciós do Castro (along with Santa Margorí, the author's other play) and was published again, this time independently, in 1993 by Ediciones Andoriñaⁱ. However, and as the author himself has indicated, the work was ready for publication in 1931, before his publishing project failed.

The cuckold theme, central in The crazy horns, As its title itself suggests, it enjoys a great literary tradition since the Greek figure of the goddess Hera. In the Spanish literary field there are abundant examples, such as the famous Lazarillo de Tormes or, already contemporary with Cándido F. Mazas himself, The horns of Don Friolera (1925) by Ramón del Valle-Inclán.

The crazy horns has been studied from a comparative perspective by Javier Navarro de Zuvillaga on this same website, where the author already highlighted the importance of the sound and animal world of the workⁱⁱ. From this, I want to briefly analyze here the fauna of the drama from an analytical point of view in terms of some of the most important symbols that have been identified. Mainly, the birds of all kinds and the Morito cat by Don Juan de Montemor stand out, since both the first, as a collective element, and the second were included by the author in the list of "People of farce" from the beginning of the theatrical piece.

Birds are mentioned with some frequency throughout the work, most of the time in reference to their sound: "the birds sang, mocking my sorrow" (p. 61), "the chirping of the little birds" (p. 136), "I will rejoice with the chirping of the birds" (p. 153), "It was the chirping of the birds" (p. 159), "No birds, no voices" (p. 163), "here a long silence with bird songs" (p. 165), "the birds pretend a collation of squawks" (pp. 168-169) or "the birds greet a joyful dawn" (p. 199). On other occasions they are used as a symbol of "love aspirations that are still unrealizable" (Pérez-Rioja, 2004: 332-333) and a simile of the caged lover: "Morriñosa as a caged bird" (p. 25), "Imagine yourself in a cage a little bird in love. Imagine a little bird in love in a cage. Imagine her love bird! Every morning the little bird flies to the cage... The window opens... a pretty maiden comes out to water the flowers... the little bird flies away scared... (...) I am the little bird!» (pp. 54-55) or “I will fly like a little bird” (p. 79)ⁱⁱⁱ. These last examples are those that fit within the conception of the bird as a metamorphosed lover proposed by Cirlot.^iv.

Among all the birds, the specific and repeated allusion to the dove stands out, which is almost always identified with Blanca Flor when one of the characters tries to describe it, which fits with the conception of Cirlot and Pérez-Rioja when the dove represents the soul of the protagonist^v. The character of Anduriña also stands out, who is the girl who accompanies Blanca Flor and Martina throughout the first act. According to Cirlot, swallows are birds sacred to Isis, the Egyptian goddess who has traditionally been considered the establisher of marriage and, therefore, its protector.^we.

It is still worth mentioning here some examples of another bird that recurs throughout the work: the rooster. This appears frequently mentioned in the notes and, then, the author transcribes its cackling (pp. 174, 175, 178, 190, 193 and 199), which gives a voice to the bird and greater sonority to the work. For Cirlot and Pérez-Riojas, the rooster is an emblem of vigilance and activity, which fits with the scenes in which it is included, mentioned above.^vii. In the rest of the mentions made of this animal in the piece, the rooster serves as a comparison with the male lover: Don Floro and Don Juan de Montemor. While Don Floro wears a beret that "is an aphonic cocoricó in his figure of a wet rooster" (p. 69), Don Juan repeatedly calls himself a "capon rooster" (pp. 110 and 111) by allowing Floro to "joy" to Blanca Flor, but without “stealing her affection” (p. 107).

The cat, like the swallows, is also considered an animal sacred to the goddess Isis, but, in this case, it appears in the last act of The crazy horns as a symbol of the soul of Don Juan de Montemor. An example of this is found when "Don Juan trembles" and, similarly, "the cat gets upset" (p. 174). It is a black cat, its symbolism is well known, always associated with witches, death and evil in general terms.^viii. It is called Morito in a not random way, since in one of the scenes between the animal and the protagonist he is adjectived as "delinquent" (p. 177) in the sense of 'lack of activity' or 'slow'. At the same time and in this same scene, the cat awakens from his dream to the joy of Don Juan de Montemor: «crying for her, Morito, crying for her... Blanca Flor loved you, she put colored ribbons on you, she pampered you... And you loved her... A your way, of course, your way…” (p. 178); already recognizing himself as the cuckold: "Cuernos, Morito, horns..." (p. 180); and comparing Blanca Flor with a squirrel because of her liveliness and lightness: «Here she came, the squirrel... Here the squirrel, you know? She came to look for him... Him, Morito, the lover »(p. 179).

At this point, I do not want to give up the pictorial facet of Cándido F. Mazas, where you can also find a very rich and varied fauna. Some examples of vignettes by the author in which the animals previously analyzed appear are the following:

• The birds:

  • "The national birdhouse" (1925, signed under the pseudonym Dichi) in The Zarpa,

  • "Through the branches" (1926, signed as Dichi) in The Zarpa,

  • "The Reistachg speech" (1930s) in The red fighter,

  • "I will reign in Spain" (1930s) in the diary Politics O

  • "Rumors of birds" (1936) in The Pueblo Gallego.

• The doves from the series “Goyesque etchings” (1926, signed as Dichi) in The Zarpa.

• The owl from "The Lovers of the Dark" (1926, signed as Dichi) in The Zarpa.

• The animals with horns - cows, goats, etc. - from the series "Goyesque etchings" (1920s, signed Dichi) in The Zarpa or "Cosas veredes, galaicos" (1935) in The Pueblo Gallego; in addition to The penitent cuckold (1930s), which illustrates The crazy horns.

In conclusion, the symbols used by Cándido Fernández Mazas in The crazy horns They are numerous, not only in the area of ​​animals, but also in many others, such as colors, names or sounds. Although Cándido F. Mazas has been more widely studied in his pictorial facet, certainly more profuse, the truth is that The crazy horns It is a literary work loaded with strong symbolism, not absent of historical passages and nuances, all of which can only leave the reading public with the sadness that his premature death would not have allowed the author to develop all the ingenuity that could have been achieved in every sense of the word until.

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