Human Diastrophism

Human Diastrophism, also known as Blood of Palomar, is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez. It appeared in serialized form in the comic book "Love and Rockets" in 1987–88, and it first appeared in collected form in 1989 in "The Complete Love and Rockets, Volume 8: Blood of Palomar". The story tells of a serial killer in the fictional Latin American village of Palomar, and the political and social implications of the insular villagers' growing contact with the outside world.
Background and publication.
"Love and Rockets" was an alternative comic book begun in the early 1980s showcasing the work of the Hernandez brothers: Mario (b. 1953), Gilbert (b. 1957), and Jaime (b. 1959). The stories featured sensitive portrayals of prominent female and multiethnic characters—especially Latinos—which were uncommon in American comics of the time.
A version of Gilbert's Luba appeared in the first issue, but the character as she was to be known first appeared in his "Palomar" stories as a strong-willed, hammer-wielding "" bathhouse girl, and makes her way to the center of political and social happenings in the fictional Latin American village of Palomar. Hernandez gradually took advantage of serialization to broaden his narrative scope; the stories became longer and more ambitious, and Hernandez delved more deeply into the backgrounds of his characters and their community, and sociopolitical issues.
"Human Diastrophism" appeared in "Love and Rockets" 21–26 (July 1987 – June 1988, and then in a revised and collected form as part of "The Complete Love and Rockets, Volume 8: Blood of Palomar" from Fantagraphics Books. The story has since appeared in a number of other collections, including the third "Heartbreak Soup" volume from Titan Books in 1989, titled "Human Diastrophism: A Heartbreak Soup Graphic Novel"; the "Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories" in 2003 from Fantagraphics; and in 2007 the fifth volume of the "Love and Rockets Library" from Fantagraphics, titled "Human Diastrophism".
Synopsis.
The story weaves several narrative threads in the fictional Central American village of Palomar. An archaeological excavation team that arrives in Palomar brings a forgotten former resident, Tomaso, who begins serial killing. Among the victims are a Swedish archaeologist and the mayor and his wife.
The schoolteacher Heraclio introduces modern art to the aspiring artist Humberto, whom he finds secretly sketching the locals. This flood of ideas overwhelms Humberto, who feverishly redoubles his artistic efforts. He sketches Tomaso's attempted murder of a local girl, but keeps this discovery to himself. Police discover the sketches and realize Tomaso is the murder, but a local man, stricken with grief over having murdered his own children, confesses to Tomaso's murders as well. Humberto confounds the investigation by refusing to testify, asserting his "work speaks for itself".
Growing personal anxieties lead Luba, the owner of Palomar's bathhouse, to verbally and physically abuse her eldest of her four daughters, Maricela. Among the archaeological workers, Luba finds Khamo, with whom she has twice had sexual affairs. The pair begin another, cut short when Khamo falls for another woman. At the height of her frustrations, she hands over her youngest three daughters to their unknowing biological fathers: Guadalupe to Heraclio, whom Luba had seduced when he was a teenager and whose wife is expecting their own first child; and Doralis and Casimira to Khamo.
Tonantzin, who has a reputation as shallow and sexually promiscuous, has become politically conscious and devotes her energies to preparing for nuclear Armageddon. She takes to dressing in the manner of her indigenous ancestors, which alarms her friends and draws the disapprobation of the locals. Her sister Diana discovers letters to Tonantzin from a prison inmate, Geraldo, who had once held her hostage, and which relate an apocalyptic political vision. She learns Maricela had read the letters to the near-illiterate Tonantzin, and had forged many more of them after Geraldo turned to Christian topics, as she and her secret lover Riri are attracted to Tonantzin and wish to keep her coming back. The pair run away from Palomar to escape Luba's abuse and the prejudice the village would have against their affair.
Waves of destructive monkeys have invaded the village, and the locals have taken to beating them to death. The monkeys destroy the laboratory set up for the murder investigation; this drives the sheriff Chelo to join the monkey hunt, where she accidentally shoots Luba's youngest daughter, Casimira, in the shoulder. A repentant Chelo convinces Luba to run for mayor. Police catch Tomaso attempting to kill Diana, who had spied him trying to kill Humberto. Tomaso impales himself in the neck, but survives and receives a jail sentence.
Khamo comes to sympathize with Tonantzin's cause, and the pair leave Palomar hoping to enact political change around the world. At a demonstration in New York Tonantzin sets herself on fire; she dies, and Khamo suffers severe burns trying to save her. As the story closes, the ghost of Tonantzin as she was before she was radicalized appears and an unexpected ash falls over Palomar.
Background.
From 1981 until 1996, the Hernandez brothers—Mario (b. 1953), Gilbert (b. 1957), and Jaime (b. 1959)–showcased their work in their anthology comic book "Love and Rockets". Gilbert's "Palomar" stories and Jaime's "Locas" stories accounted for the bulk of the content. "Love and Rockets" soon gained recognition as one of the leading publications in alternative comics. The stories rely on the complex social interactions of their large casts of characters, which drew attention for the large numbers of ethnic minorities—Latinos in particular—and complex and prominent female characters, in a field known traditionally for less sympathetic—and often misogynistic—portrayals of women.
Gilbert's Luba appeared in the first issue; a reworked version of the character as she came to be known first appeared in his "Palomar" stories as a strong-willed, hammer-wielding "" ("bathhouse girl"). Over the course of the stories she made her way to the center of political and social happenings in the fictional Latin American village of Palomar. Hernandez introduces her and the teenaged Heraclio as newcomers to the fictional Latin American village of Palomar in "Sopa de Gran Pena" (Spanish for "Heartbreak Soup") in "Love and Rockets" in 1983. Hernandez gradually took advantage of serialization to broaden his narrative scope; the stories became longer and more ambitious, and Hernandez delved more deeply into the backgrounds of his large cast of characters as their stories develop over a narrative timeframe of decades. Hernandez embarked on his longest and most complex work to date when he began "Human Diastrophism" in 1987.
Style and analysis.
The word "diastrophism" refers to the deformation of the earth, such as by earthquakes; Hernandez defines it as "the action of forces that deform the Earth's crust and so produce continents, mountains, etc". "Human diastrophism" thus refers metaphorically to the great changes that take place in the lives of those in Palomar through the events in the story. The insular village society feels threatened by the encroachment of the outside world; its mayor resists having even a telephone installed: "It would mean the end of our innocence", he replies to Chelo's pleas.
Hernandez deploys a highly stylized cartooning style that nonetheless captures nuances of expression and the individuality of his characters' features. He renders characters at times naturalistic and at others highly distorted and caricatured, particularly when expressing strong feelings.
Jesse Molesworth sees parallels between Luba and Tomaso: Tomaso murders five in a span of time during which Luba has sex with five men, and both spend time in Humberto's home gazing at his artwork.
Works of literature appear frequently throughout the story. Guadalupe idolizes the protagonist of Hugo's "Les Misérables", Jean Valjean. Heraclio encourages Carmen to read García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and is excited to find another teacher, Gloria, who shares his reading interests, though he does not known Raskolnikov from Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" when she refers to the character. Moleworth sees parallels with these characters and characters in "Human Diastrophism": between Raskolnikov and Heraclio, who fears the discovery his teenage affair with Luba; and Luba with Jean Valjean, both of whom rise from disreputable backgrounds and harassment from the law to become mayor of their communities, and for whom the romantic lives of their children become a focus in their stories.
Aftermath.
Hernandez followed "Human Diastrophism" with "Poison River", a longer, more complex and again politically-tinged graphic novel, after which he scaled back his Palomar stories and largely back away from politics. Years later, he stated, "I had two political stories in me, ["Human Diastrophism"] and ["Poison River"], and that's it. Unless I came upon something political that I would've liked expressed, I preferred to keep away, as not to repeat myself or half-ass any truth about other people's misery."
The character Humberto nearly disappears from the Palomar continuity following his début appearance in "Human Diastrophism". He reappears only in "Chelo's Burden", the last Palomar story in the first "Love and Rockets" series, where it is revealed that he is behind the submerged statues of the denizens of Palomar that have been discovered. He declares, "One day this stream will be gone and the statues will be exposed. Reaching ever upward toward God—the sun—like eternal flowers and I will be forgiven my sins ..."
Reception and legacy.
Shortly after Tonantzin's suicide, a reader's letter printed in "Love and Rockets" in December 1989 asks Hernandez: "Do you think you could develop a character whose life wasn't pure misfortune? Someone who didn't have a miserable, depressing life? Someone I could care for, but not pity?" Hernandez retorts: "None of my characters has had a 'miserable, depressing life'. None. And I don't do requests."
Henrandez recognized how difficult it was for new readers of "Love and Rockets" to get up to speed with the increasingly longer and complex stories; in issue (June 1988)—in which the last instalment of "Human Diastrophism" appeared—in lieu of a "story so far", he declared: "For any new reader of this story; forget it, it's hopeless." The problem only worsened with the following serial, "Poison River", which was longer and more complex. The weak reader reception to these two serials contributed to Hernandez' decision to bring "Love and Rockets" to an end in 1996, after which he produced various series and standalone graphic novels.
Critic Charles Hatfield called "Human Diastrophism" "one of the signal examples of alternative comics from the 1980s", and reviewer Tom Knapp called it "a landmark volume that belongs in the collection of any collector of graphic novels or, for that matter, any form of quality storytelling".