César Vallejo #09 - Individual and Society

Also from Against the Professional Secret, Vallejo here places us in one of his favorite scenes: before the tribunal. This allows the Peruvian poet to explore the ideas of justice, guilt, innocence & responsibility through numerous perspectives. Indeed, his three month incarceration in Peru was clearly a big part of his proclivity to take up the topic– especially because he was unjustly imprisoned & since it took the Peruvian government 8 years (!) to formally express a pardon. Nonetheless, here Vallejo explores the relationship between the accused & the collective that will decide his fate. The figure of Milad– his likeness –is the key to the piece. Is it that this double simply extracts the guilt out of the "murderer" because of this likeness, or is it that the likeness itself convinces the "accused" that he is guilty, that he is the murderer?