SOURCE: "The Redeeming Quest: Patterns of Unification in Carpentier, Fuentes, and Cortázar," in Revista de estudios hispánicos, Vol. XI, No. 1, January, 1977, pp. 91-117.

In the following excerpt, Jiménez-Fajardo details the significance of the inverted temporal progression of "Journey Back to the Source," linking the linguistic implications of the protagonist's search for a unified identity to similar developments in other Latin American texts.

With strange cadences of his walking stick, an old Negro in Alejo Carpentier's "Viaje a la semilla"¹ reverses the course of time toward the origins, the seed. The demolition of the Marqués' palace is halted, then reversed; the Marqués himself reenters life, youth and infancy; as he returns to his mother's womb and nothingness, the palace disintegrates, all of its materials restored to their natural state.

This short story first appeared in an edition of one hundred plaquettes, and was later...