The tzántzicos threaten the city: the poetic performance of indig-nation in Ecuadorian modern times

Abstract

In this article I analyze the first public performance of the Ecuadorian Tzántzico Movement (1961-1968), “Cuatro gritos en la oscuridad” (“Four Howls in the Dark”), as well as the most representative gesture of the movement, Humberto Vinueza’s poetry book Un gallinazo cantor bajo un sol de a perro (A Singing Vulture under a Worthless Sun). The Tzántzicos —“head-shrinkers”— sought to confront the capitalist social order through the persuasive character of their destabilizing, politically-engaged poetic performance. Through analysis of their first recital, I elucidate the movement’s insolent and patricidal spirit and how it questions the elitist cultural politics of State institutions. I highlight how Vinueza’s readings and re-readings of history trouble official historical narratives of the nation-state. By examining the Tzántzicos' iconoclastic poetic performance, I demonstrate how this generation of poets modernized Ecuadorian poetry as well as the figure of the politically-engaged or public intellectual in the face of power.