Three Plays: The Young Lady from Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, La Chunga

by Mario Vargas Llosa

  LA CHUNGA: Don’t you want to have it?

  MECHE: Of course I do. But Josefino doesn’t. If I’m pregnant, he’ll make me get rid of it. No woman’s going to tie him down with a child, he says.

  LA CHUNGA: He’s right there, I grant him. I don’t think it’s worth while bringing more people into this world. What do you want a child for? If it’s a boy, he’ll only grow up to be just like one of them.

  MECHE: If everyone thought like that, life would soon come to an end.

  LA CHUNGA: It could end tomorrow for all I care.

  (Pause.)

  MECHE: Do you know something, Chunga? I don’t think you’re as bitter as you’d have me believe.

  LA CHUNGA: And what would I have you believe?

  MECHE: If you were, I wouldn’t be here. (There is a twinkle in her eye.) You wouldn’t have given Josefino those three thousand sols for me to spend the night with you. Besides …

  LA CHUNGA: Besides what?

  MECHE: (Indicating the bed) A little while ago, when you were holding me in your arms, you said some very tender things to me. That I made you feel as if you were in heaven, that you were happy. Were you lying to me?

  LA CHUNGA: No. It was true.

  MECHE: So life isn’t so ugly after all. It has its advantages too. (Laughs) I’m glad I’m one of the good things life has to offer you, Chunga. (Pause.) Can I ask you a question?

  LA CHUNGA: If it’s how many women have been here before you, it’s better you don’t. I’m not going to tell you, anyway. MECHE: No, it’s not that. But, could you ever fall in love with me, Chunga? Like a man does with a woman? Could you ever love me?

  LA CHUNGA: I wouldn’t fall in love with you or with anyone else.

  MECHE: I don’t believe you, Chunga. No one can live without love. What would life be like if you didn’t love someone, if you weren’t loved by anyone?

  LA CHUNGA: When a woman falls in love, she becomes weak. She lets herself be dominated. (Looks at her in silence for a while.) Now do you think that’s a good thing? We’ll talk about it again when you see what Josefino does with your love. We’ll talk about it when you’re in the Casa Verde.

  MECHE: Why do you keep frightening me with that?

  LA CHUNGA: Because I know what will happen to you. He’s got you in the palm of his hand, he already does what he likes with you. One of these nights, in a fit of drunkenness, he’ll lend you to one of the superstuds, but that’s just the beginning. He’ll end up by persuading you to whore for him, with some cock and bull story about saving money for a little house, or a holiday, or to get married.

  MECHE: When you tell me these things, I don’t know if you’re doing it out of kindness or spite. If you really want to help me, or if you just like frightening me.

  LA CHUNGA: I want to help you.

  MECHE: But why? You couldn’t be in love with me, could you? You’ve just said you weren’t. Why should you want to help me, you, to whom everything is like water off a duck’s back – you who don’t give a damn about anyone.

  LA CHUNGA: (Looking at her, thinking) You’re right. I don’t know why I’m giving you advice. Why should your life matter to me?

  MECHE: Have you given advice before to one of Josefino’s girlfriends?

  LA CHUNGA: No.

  (She looks closely at MECHE. Takes her chin in her hand and forces her to look her in the eyes. She puts her face very close to MECHE’s.)

  Perhaps I feel sorrier for you than I did for the others, because you’re more attractive. Another one of life’s injustices. If you didn’t have such a pretty little face, I’m quite sure I wouldn’t give a damn what Josefino did with you.

  MECHE: Sometimes I think you’re a monster, Chunga.

  LA CHUNGA: Because you don’t want to see life as it is. It’s life that’s monstrous. Not me.

  MECHE: If life is as you say it is, it’s preferable to be like me. And not to think about what’s going to happen. Just live for the moment. And let God take care of the rest.

  (She looks at her stomach, with an expression of despair.)

  LA CHUNGA: Perhaps you’ll work that miracle: perhaps you’ll reform Josefino.

  MECHE: You know that won’t happen.

  LA CHUNGA: No. It won’t happen.

  (MECHE leans against LA CHUNGA and rests her head on her shoulder. LA CHUNGA doesn’t embrace her.)

  MECHE: I wish I was strong like you. You know your own worth, you can stick up for yourself. If I didn’t have anyone to look after me, I don’t know what I’d do.

  LA CHUNGA: You’ve got two hands, haven’t you?

  MECHE: I can hardly read, Chunga. Where would I find work? Except as a servant. Sweeping, washing, ironing, morning, noon and night for the rich men of Piura. No, I wouldn’t do that.

  (Pause.)

  LA CHUNGA: If I’d known that you might be pregnant, I wouldn’t have made love to you.

  MECHE: Do pregnant women disgust you?

  LA CHUNGA: Yes. (Pause.) Did it upset you, what we did?

  MECHE: Upset me? I don’t know. I don’t …

  LA CHUNGA: Tell me the truth.

  MECHE: At first, yes, a bit. I felt like laughing. I mean, you’re not a man, are you? It didn’t seem real, it was like a game. I was trying not to laugh, at first.

  LA CHUNGA: If you had laughed …

  MECHE: You’d have hit me?

  LA CHUNGA: Yes, I’d probably have hit you.

  MECHE: And yet you were saying that it was only men who are turned into foul demons by what they have between their legs.

  LA CHUNGA: I must be a man, then.

  MECHE: No, you’re not. You’re a woman. You could be an attractive woman too, if you wanted to be.

  LA CHUNGA: I don’t want to be attractive. No one would respect me if I were.

  MECHE: Did what I said annoy you?

  LA CHUNGA: About trying not to laugh? No, I asked you to tell me the truth.

  MECHE: I want you to know something, Chunga. Although I’m not a dike, sorry – like you, I mean – I am fond of you. I’d like us to be friends.

  LA CHUNGA: Go on, leave Piura. Don’t be silly. Can’t you see you’re already half caught in the trap? Before Josefino gives you the coup de grâce, get out of here. As far away as you can. You’ve still got time. (Turns MECHE’s face towards her with her hand.) I’ll help you.

  MECHE: Will you really, Chunga?

  LA CHUNGA: Yes. (Strokes MECHE’s face with her hand again in a swift caress.) I don’t want to see you rotting away in the Casa Verde, being passed around from one drunk to another … Go on, take my advice and go to Lima.

  MECHE: What’ll I do in Lima? I don’t know anyone there.

  LA CHUNGA: Learn how to stand on your own feet. But don’t be stupid. Don’t go and fall in love. It distracts you and there’s no hope for a distracted woman. Let them do the falling in love. Not you. You look for security, a better life than the one you have now. But always remember this. Deep down, all men are like Josefino. If you show too much affection for them, you’ve had it.

  MECHE: Don’t talk like that, Chunga. You know when you say things like that, you remind me of him?

  LA CHUNGA: Then Josefino and I must have something in common.

  (As if the mention of his name had been a summons, JOSEFINO gets up from the superstuds’ table and goes up the little staircase.)

  The great pimp

  Although MECHE is in the little room and follows with interest what is being said, JOSEFINO and LA CHUNGA act as if she is not there.

  JOSEFINO: Hello, Chunga. (Looks round and casts his eyes over MECHE without seeing her.) I’ve come to take Meche away with me.

  LA CHUNGA: She’s gone already.

  JOSEFINO: So soon? You could have held on to her a little bit longer. (With an impudent little laugh) Then you could really have got your money’s worth.

  (LA CHUNGA confines herself to looking at him with that expression of reproof and disgust with which she always looks at him.)

  Well, h
ow was she? What was it like?

  LA CHUNGA: What was what like?

  JOSEFINO: Mechita. Was she worth it?

  LA CHUNGA: You’ve been on the booze all night, haven’t you? You stink from head to foot.

  JOSEFINO: What else could I do, Chunguita, since you’d taken away my little woman. So, tell me, how did Meche behave?

  LA CHUNGA: I’m not going to tell you. It wasn’t in the contract.

  JOSEFINO: (Laughing) You’re right. Ha ha. Next time I’ll put in a special clause. (Pause.) Why don’t you like me, Chunga? Don’t lie, I realize that you’ve never seen eye to eye with me.

  LA CHUNGA: I’ve no reason to lie. You’re quite right. I’ve always thought you were one of the most poisonous creatures alive.

  JOSEFINO: And yet I’ve always had a soft spot for you. Quite seriously, Chunga.

  LA CHUNGA: (Laughing) Are you going to try and seduce me too? Go on. Show me how you lure all those poor idiots into your snare.

  JOSEFINO: No, I’m not going to try and seduce you. (Undressing her with his look) It’s not because I don’t want to, I assure you. Actually, I find you quite attractive as a woman. But I know when I’m defeated. I’d be wasting my time with you, you wouldn’t take any notice of me. And I’ve never wasted time with women.

  LA CHUNGA: Right then, be off with you.

  JOSEFINO: First, let’s talk. I want to make you a proposition. A deal.

  LA CHUNGA: A deal? Between you and me?

  (JOSEFINO sits on the bed, lights a cigarette. It’s clear that he’s thought about what he’s going to say for a long time.)

  JOSEFINO: I don’t want to carry on being what I am, Chunga. A superstud and all that. Hell, I’ve got ambitions. I want to have money, drink champagne, smoke expensive tobacco, wear white silk suits, have my own car, my own house, servants. I want to be able to travel. I want to live like the rich do round here, Chunga. That’s what you want too, isn’t it? That’s why you work, morning, noon and night, that’s what you practically sell your soul for. Because you want another life, one you can only get with money. Let’s become partners, Chunga. You and I together, we could do great things.

  LA CHUNGA: I know what you’re going to propose.

  JOSEFINO: All the better, then.

  LA CHUNGA: The answer is no.

  JOSEFINO: Why are you so prejudiced? What’s the difference between this little bar and a brothel? I’ll tell you what: here you earn a few miserable cents, but in a brothel you’d make millions. (Standing up, gesticulating, walking round the room) I’ve got everything taped, Chunga. We can start with about four little rooms. They can be built round the back, behind the kitchen, in the yard where the rubbish is dumped. Nothing fancy, just straw matting and bamboo. I’ll take charge of the girls. All first class guaranteed. In the Casa Verde they take 50 per cent off them. We’ll take forty so we’ll be able to pull whichever ones we want. Just a few at first – quality rather than quantity. I’ll see to the discipline and you can do the administration. (Anxiously, vehemently) We’ll become rich, Chunguita.

  LA CHUNGA: If I’d wanted to set up a brothel, I’d have done it already. What do I need you for?

  JOSEFINO: For the girls. I may be all sorts of things. But in that particular field, have I proved my worth or not? I’m the best there is, Chunga. I’ll get first-rate girls – ones that haven’t worked before. Virgins even, you’ll see. Young fifteen-, sixteen-year-olds. The clients will go out of their minds, Chunga. We’ll have all the little rich boys in Piura, prepared to pay the earth – for fresh young girls, who are just starting out in the world …

  LA CHUNGA: Like Meche?

  JOSEFINO: Well, Meche is not so fresh any more, ha ha … We’d keep her as the resident celebrity, the star attraction, of course. I swear to you I’ll get girls as good if not better than Meche, Chunga.

  LA CHUNGA: And what if they don’t want to work?

  JOSEFINO: That’s my affair. I may not know much else, but teaching a girl that what God gave her is a prize lottery ticket, that I do know how to do. Because of me fortunes have been made at the Casa Verde. And what do I get in return? Bloody hell, a few mangy tips. Well I’ve had enough of it, now I want to be a capitalist too. What do you say, Chunguita?

  LA CHUNGA: I’ve already told you. No.

  JOSEFINO: Why, Chunga? Don’t you trust me?

  LA CHUNGA: Of course I don’t trust you. The very day after we went into partnership, you’d start lying to me and cheating me.

  JOSEFINO: I wouldn’t, Chunga. I promise you. You’d handle all the money. I’d be prepared to accept that. You’d be responsible for the agreements with the girls, you’d decide on the percentages. I wouldn’t touch a cent. You’d have carte blanche. We’d do what you decide. What more do you want? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

  LA CHUNGA: You’ll never be anyone’s gift horse, Josefino. And certainly not a woman’s. You’re bad luck for any poor woman who’s gullible enough to believe what you say.

  JOSEFINO: So you’ve become all righteous now, Chunguita? I’ve never pointed a pistol at any woman’s head. I just convince them of one truth. That in one night at the Casa Verde they can earn more money than working for six months in the market. Well, am I right, or not? Thanks to me, some of those women live better than we do, for God’s sake.

  LA CHUNGA: It’s not because I’m righteous that I don’t want to be your partner. I don’t feel sorry for them. If they were stupid enough to listen to you, they deserve whatever they get.

  JOSEFINO: I don’t like the way you’re talking to me, Chunga. I came here peacefully, to make you a sound proposition. And you insult me. What if I do get annoyed? Do you think a dike like you is any match for me? (As he speaks he gets more and more irritated.) Do you know what could happen if I got annoyed? The truth is I’m fed up with these airs and graces you give yourself, as if you own the whole fucking world. I’ve had enough of it, Christ Almighty. I’m going to teach you a lesson, and put you in your place. You’ve been asking for it now for quite some time. No woman, let alone a dike, is going to look down on me. (He takes out his knife and threatens LA CHUNGA, as if she were still in front of him. But in fact, LA CHUNGA has discreetly moved beside MECHE. Both look at JOSEFINO who carries on talking, threatening an invisible LA CHUNGA.)

  Now, you dike, you? Afraid, aren’t you? Pissing yourself with fear, aren’t you? Now you’re going to see how I deal with insubordinate women. There’s nothing I like more than a woman who gets fresh with me. It makes me feel randy if you want to know. Down on your knees. Bloody hell, will you do as I say – if you don’t want me to play noughts and crosses all over your face. On your knees, I said. You believe you’re quite something, don’t you? Just because you’ve got this filthy pigsty – just because you’ve saved the odd buck by exploiting bastards like us who come and drink your beer, and put up with your bad temper. Do you think I don’t know who you are? Do you think all Piura doesn’t know you were born in the Casa Verde, for Christ’s sake. Amongst the prostitutes, the douches and the filth. Keep still there, I didn’t tell you to get up, stay on your knees or I’ll cut you to shreds, you bitch. Because that’s what you are, Chunga. You were born in the Casa Verde, that’s to say you’re the daughter of a prostitute. So don’t come the high and mighty with me, I know very well where you were dragged up. Now suck. Suck or I’ll kill you, you bitch. Obey your man, and suck. Slowly and with feeling. Learn how to be my whore. (For a while, he mimes the scene, sweating, trembling, caressing the invisible LA CHUNGA.)

  Now swallow what you’ve got in your mouth. It’s my birthday present. (Lets out a little laugh, appeased and even a little bored.) They say it’s good for the complexion, ha ha. Did you get a fright? Did you think I was going to kill you? What a fool you are. I’m not capable of killing a woman. I’m really a gentleman, Chunguita. I respect the weaker sex. It’s a game, you see? It excites me and I like it. Don’t you have your little games too? When we know each other a little better you can tell me, and I�
�ll oblige … I’m not one of those men who believe a woman shouldn’t have her pleasure and that if you teach her to let herself go, she’ll end up by being unfaithful to you. That’s what José and Mono think. But not me, I’m fair-minded. Women have their rights too, why shouldn’t they? Let’s be friends, Chunguita, shall we? Don’t be bitter. Let’s make it up. Let’s shake on it.

  (LA CHUNGA has materialized again beside JOSEFINO.) Now what do you say if we strike that bargain? We’ll get rich, I swear.

  LA CHUNGA: We wouldn’t get rich. Perhaps we’d make more than I earn at the moment. But I’d certainly end up losing sooner or later. You’d make me feel that you were the stronger, like you’re doing now. And if I ever disagreed with you, out would come your knife, your fists, your boots – you’d end up winning. I prefer to die poor than to get rich with you.

  JOSEFINO: (Going to join the other superstuds, who are gambling at the table) How stupid women can be, God Almighty …

  The end of the party

  Long pause between MECHE and LA CHUNGA while they watch JOSEFINO going down the staircase and taking up his seat again.

  MECHE: Chunga, can I go now? It’ll soon be light. It must be about six, mustn’t it?

  LA CHUNGA: Yes, you can go. Don’t you want to sleep a little first?

  MECHE: If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to go.

  LA CHUNGA: I don’t mind.

  (They go down the staircase together and head towards the exit. They stop by the rocking chair. The superstuds have finished their beers. They yawn as they play and appear not to see the two women.)

  MECHE: (A little hesitant) If you want me to come back again, and stay with you sometime, I mean at night …

  LA CHUNGA: Of course I’d like us to spend another night together.

  MECHE: Right, there’s no problem. I don’t mind, Chunga, I even …

  LA CHUNGA: Wait, let me finish. I’d like to, but I don’t want to. I don’t want you to spend another night with me, nor do I want you ever to come back here.

  MECHE: But why, Chunga? What have I done?

  LA CHUNGA: (Looking at her for a moment, silently, and then, drawing her face towards her as before) Because you are very pretty. Because I like you and because you’ve made me care about you, and what happens to you. That, for me, is just as dangerous as falling in love, Meche. I told you before I can’t let myself be distracted. I’d lose the battle. That’s why I don’t ever want to see you here again.