Los Cachorros

Los Cachorros is a short novel published in 1967 by the Peruvian author and 2010 Nobel laureate in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa.

Plot

The novel tells the story of a group of friends as they grow through adolescence and into adulthood. Set in the religious school Champagnat in the upscale district of Miraflores in Lima, Peru, it begins with the arrival of a new twelve-year-old boy, Pichula Cuéllar. Cuéllar stands out for his talents in both academics and sports, and he quickly fits in and makes friends with his classmates, eventually becoming particularly close with a group of four other boys. One day while the boys are showering after a game of soccer, a dog enters the showers and bites Cuéllar's genitals, effectively castrating him. After this, everything changes: he finds himself treated differently by his parents, his teachers, and especially his friends, who give him the diminutive and emasculating nickname of "Pichulita". As his friends begin to move through adolescence, Cuéllar feels his emasculation more and more acutely, finding himself unable to engage in the kinds of sexual, romantic, and social development that are taking place around him. Desperate to salvage his masculinity, he pulls away from his friends and descends into violence and disobedience. The other four boys, meanwhile, grow up in accordance with the social norms that drove Cuéllar to desperation: they find girlfriends, they get married, and they raise children, beginning anew the cycle of life in the bourgeois world of upper-class Lima.

Awards

References

External links

• Los Cachorros on IMDb