The Proletarian Commune in Veracruz: José Mancisidor's La ciudad roja

In La ciudad roja, Mancisidor rewrites the 1922 tenant strikes in the city of Veracruz, a social movement that managed to paralyze the city's economy throughout that year. In this article, I discuss the novel in relation to the larger ambitions and objectives of the “proletarian literature” collective project. The article focuses on three aspects of the novel: first, the process of historical rewriting that frames, selects, and erases different elements of the Veracruz tenant strikes; second, the novel's account of the communal urban space that emerged during the rent strikes; and finally, the relation presented in the novel between the artist-leader of the tenant movement and the proletarian masses. I will suggest that this may be understood as a novelization or a novelized debate of the aesthetic and political program of “proletarian literature” as a whole.