Introductory Notes to Los perros duros no bailan (Tough Dogs Don’t Dance) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Los perros duros no bailan is a novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (born in Cartagena, Spain, 1951) published in 2018. Its title is a parody of the novel Tough Guys Don’t Dance by Norman Mailer. Both novels depict scenes that touch on the topics of masculinity, and violence. Even though Mailer’s novel is told through a man that has become his own detective in order to find the truth (wikipedia), this story resembles Tough Dogs Don’t Dance because readers see the story through Negro’s viewpoint as he becomes like a detective on a perilous quest to find his friends, not knowing what horrors will await him. Moreover, this novel refers to those same characteristics and environments as Tough Guys Don’t Dance but to tell the story it is focused on dogs. 

Negro’s Perilious Journey

The protagonist is a dog called Negro who is a mixed Brazilian and Spanish Mastiff.  At the beginning of the novel, Negro is the guard dog of a storage, but he spends most of his time on the streets, in contact with other dogs. He is haunted and scarred (not only physically but mentally) by the dog fights he had to endure in the past. In addition, he is haunted every time he sees a dog that reminds him of the ones he has killed or injured. Apart from that, Negro is courageous and valiant. When it comes to doing something dangerous for his friend Teo, he will do it, and will not be intimidated by the dangers of dog fights nor humans in general (Pérez-Reverte 46-47). Negro is a troubled dog who, despite his past, still holds a good heart. An example of this is when he is willing to risk his life to save Teo and Boris even though he does not want to go back to a life of fight and kill. Despite knowing that rescuing his friends will place him at a disadvantage, Negro is forced to confront what haunts him the most in order to rescue his friends, demonstrating us readers that there is more in him than just a dog that has fought and killed. 

The journey that Negro sets out to complete serves a good purpose not only for the novel that Arturo Pérez-Reverte has written, but also to bring awareness to dogs fights which is an issue that many people do not know. Through Negro’s perspective we are able to, in some capacity, understand the dangerous lives of dogs who aimlessly roam the streets, and the treacherous experience that awaits them. Moreover, the several flashbacks that Negro has throughout the story allows us to gain an understanding of how it is not only his past that haunts him, but also how the world perceives and judges him. With the amount of scars he has, we can see that he earns respect by almost all, and those that see him as an enemy wish to fight him. 

Claudia Alonso-Recarte states that Negro’s age is a determining factor that affects not only his masculinity, but also the masculinity of the other dogs. When referring to his age, “his body, on the other hand, is the actual substance that makes his age a sensorial marker: there is a ‘look’ and a ‘smell’ linked to old age that makes him vulnerable in the hellish Cañada Negra and the Desolladero” (Alonso-Recarte 622). No matter what kinds of difficulties and challenges Negro is presented with, he always shows his toughness by never backing down and by never saying no to a fight. While the book presents Negro as a scary and intimidating dog, which he is, the book also depicts him as an older dog that is trying to leave his “war” memories behind him. Negro resembles the typical profile of a veteran that experiences PTSD after all the fighting is over. War veterans have difficulties adjusting to life and reintegration into their normal lives because of all the physical and psychological trauma experienced (Morin). 

Through the experience of Negro in dog fights, the novel brings attention to the problem of this illegal activity that comprises animal abuse. There is plenty of information about dog fights in Spain that recall the environment described in Pérez-Reverte’s work. They include drugs and organized crime that make these underground fights happen and how these dog fights end (Oscar and Pozas). 

A Test of Loyalty

When Teo first met Negro he proved his loyalty by fighting against the other dogs who claimed that Negro had left a dog permanently disabled (Pérez-Reverte 20-21). This form of loyalty showed Negro that Teo was a true friend. Throughout the book, Negro kept saying that they were no longer friends, due to a love triangle among them and a female dog called Dido. However, once Negro found out that Teo, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, was dognapped to participate in dog fights, Negro risked his own life, showing us how valuable Teo’s friendship to him was. As Alonso-Recarte put its, Negro “risks suffering a violent death when planning to re-enter the arena as a fighting dog just to save Teo; he keeps his word in the deals he cuts to obtain information about Teo’s whereabouts” (621). Even as Negro knew that saving Teo meant his own luck would change, the loyalty he had for his friends was greater than the fear he had of being in the dog fights again. Later in the novel before Teo entered the dog fights, Negro remembered his friend as serious, trustworthy, quiet, and courageous (Pérez-Reverte 19).  However, once Teo and Negro met at the fights, the Teo that Negro saw was unrecognizable. His friend Teo had been beaten and starved by the dognappers in order to subdue him to the laws of the underground fights. This form of physical and psychological abuse broke Teo’s trust in humans and hopes of living the life he had once known. Once he escaped with Negro’s help, despite the dog fights scarring Teo and changing him completely, Teo was able to find his calling: to organize and lead a dog rebellion against humans because of the abuse. After Teo becomes a sort of guerilla warrior, he and Negro were able to find peace within themselves, while following different paths. Back home, Negro was at peace knowing he had saved his friends, and Teo was at peace by comprehending that a dog is more loyal to its owner than an owner being loyal to their pet. 

Another form of devotion in Los perros duros no bailan is a dog's loyalty beyond knowing.This novel shows us how it does not matter all of the terrible things humans can do to their pets because a pet will always stand by its owner. Some dogs had the privilege of having good owners, but others were not so lucky. An example of a dog who had a little bit of both is the guard dog of the dognappers. He is a mixed breed, who’s job is to look out for any dogs that want to escape or any trouble that erupts near the caged dogs. The guard dog could witness the abuse that the other dogs received and even after witnessing this violence, he wanted to stay by his owner’s side. When the guard dog was asked by Negro to join the dog’s side to escape, the guard dog was hesitant when he said “aunque cuesta renunciar [...] a unos amos que, sean como sean, son mis amos. Ya sabes. Esa estúpida lealtad que tanto nos ata a ellos y tantos males nos causa, cuando no nos merecen” (Pérez-Reverte 117). Even though the guard dog acknowledges his loyalty is stupid, he admits that this comes from an instinct from within that does not align with reason. Another example is of a dog who grew up with a family and during Christmas was abandoned. When Negro was in his cage, the dog says: “Yo me llamo Tomás - sonreía con tristeza -. Es un nombre ridículo para un perro, ya lo sé. Pero me lo puso una niña. Una pequeña humana… recuerdo su olor tibio” (Pérez-Reverte 81). Even though Tomás was abandoned, the dog serves his loyalty to his owner by not forgetting her name. 

Gladiators_from_the_Zliten_mosaic_3.jpeg

Gladiators from the Zliten mosaic. AD 200. Author Unknown. 

An Intertextual Reference: Spartacus’ Rebellion (1960 film)

After obtaining his freedom, Teo longed for a rebellion against humans. In the novel, the dogs talked about Spartacus, the gladiator who led a rebellion against Rome to free himself and other slaves like him. Evidently, the novel creates an identification between Teo and Spartacus, because they share the same anger and political plans, but will have tragic endings. Negro warns Teo about the risk of following that path, which ultimately will end in death: “Espartaco y su gente [...] acabaron en la perrera municipal de allí, la de los romanos o lo que fueran. Los sacrificaron a todos. Punto final”. However, Teo does not fear this destiny, as he replies,  immediately: “Tal vez. O seguro que sí. Pero mientras ese momento llegaba, fueron libres.. Sin ley ni amo” (Pérez-Reverte 153).  

What Teo admired about Spartacus’ movement is that they had no boundaries and their goal was to rebel against unjust actions. The most famous depiction of this historical episode is the movie Spartacus (1960). The protagonist is an enslaved man who is set to train and become a gladiator. Upon his journey, the gladiator proves his valiance and determination to not be corrupted by what his oppressors want him to be (“Spartacus (film)”). Similar to the film character,  Teo became a slave to the forbidden dog fights, and once he was trained, he became one of the best fighters there. After Negro’s aid in helping him escape, he vowed to live a life of action, rebellion, and did his best to stand for what he believed in. More broadly, Alonso-Recarte also identifies the use of Spartacus’ figure and its connections with Pérez-Reverte’s literary ideas (637).

Works Cited:

Alonso-Recarte, Claudia. “Weary Old Dogs: Ageing Masculinities in Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Los perros duros no bailan.Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume XCIX, Number 4, 2022, pp. 619-639. 

Morin, Rich. “The Difficult Transition from Military to Civilian Life”. Pew Research Center, 

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2011/12/08/the-difficult-transition-from-military-to-civilian-life/  Accessed July 24, 2024. 

Óscar, Alex. “Dogfighting Gang Who Bred and Abused Animals for Organised Illegal Fights to the Death Across Spain to Go on Trial in Madrid”. The Olive Press, https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2021/07/13/dogfighting-gang-who-bred-and-abused-animals-for-organised-illegal-fights-to-the-death-across-spain-to-go-on-trial-in-madrid/ Accessed July 24, 2024. 

Pérez-Reverte, Arturo. Los perros duros no bailan. Alfaguara, 2018. 

Pozas, Alberto. “La caída de la mayor red de peleas de perros de España: ‘Hasta los cachorros estaban destrozados’”. ElDiario.es, 

https://www.eldiario.es/politica/caida-mayor-red-peleas-perros-espana-cachorros-estaban-destrozados_1_10605155.html Accessed July 23, 2024. 

Spartacus (film).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_(film). Accessed July 23, 2024.

“Tough Guys Don't Dance (novel)” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_Guys_Don%27t_Dance_(novel) Accessed July 23, 2024.

CITATION:

Martinez, Emely, Rodriguez-Mansilla, Fernando, "Los perros duros no bailan" (Tough Dogs don't dance, Spain, 2018) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte," Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, Summer, 2024

Introductory Notes to Los perros duros no bailan (Tough Dogs Don’t Dance) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte