Polvo y ceniza by Eliécer Cárdenas: Originality and Tradition of the Bandit Hero

Abstract

Polvo y ceniza by Eliécer Cárdenas engenders the legendary and mythical figure of the bandit hero. The first circumstances with which the protagonist Naún Briones faces teach him that, due to his condition as a third-rate citizen, he must be limited and subjected to a deceitful and unjust world in which he has no possibility of improvement due to his social condition. There is no solution in sight for him through the path of the law. His only alternative is to follow the path of assault, robbery or murder; this violence does germinate a change, even if it means being outside the law and death lurks around any sinister shortcut. His person became glorified because his mission was to help the abandoned and miserable; he brought welfare and satiated the hunger of the needy. He became a robinhoodsian outlaw who ended up immolating himself for a cause, at the very least, questionable.