The Estate Must Be Protected! Work and the Necessity of Restraint in Roa Bárcena’s La quinta modelo (1857)

Authors

Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Decimonónica

Volume

13

Issue

1

Publisher

Decimonónica

Publication Date

2016

First Page

87

Last Page

105

Abstract

Left to his own devices, man succumbs to vagrancy, idleness and, ultimately, death. That is the lesson that lies behind the political parody and moralizing polemic that is La quinta modelo (1857), a novel penned by Mexican Catholic writer José María Roa Bárcena (1827- 1908). Written in the eve of the Reform War (1857-1861), La quinta modelo staged the confrontation between a traditional and providential order, and what it considered the foreign and dangerous idealism of Mexican liberals in the domestic space of an hacendado family. Published in the Mexico City press of the time, the novel served not only as a cautionary tale of the dangers of the political and constitutional platform of the Partido Liberal, which had come to power after the Revolution of Ayutla (1854-1855), but also as a condemnation of what Roa Bárcena foresaw as an imminant and dangerous war.¹

Recommended Citation

Gutiérrez Negrón, Sergio, "The Estate Must Be Protected! Work and the Necessity of Restraint in Roa Bárcena’s La quinta modelo (1857)" (2016). Decimonónica. Paper 69.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/decimononica/69