Canadian Spy Scare in La Mordida

The bus went around the square past the booths where they sold coconuts and threaded through the boys selling Chiclets and newspapers that made him, even though Primrose was not wearing her white fur coat, look straight ahead for they announced a Canadian spy scare. La Mordida

Lowry was in Mexico when the Canadian Spy story broke in February 1946. Lowry doesn't document which newspaper he read about the story. It is possible that he read the story in the Montreal Gazette though the story did have international coverage. However, the above article dated February 16th 1946 can be read in full at the Google News site does give us some indication of how the story was reported. Lowry must have subsumed the story into his notes for La Mordida.

Lowry's La Mordida was a draft of a novel based on his journey to Mexico in 1945-46. This journey became a nightmare as he and his wife Margerie ran into problems with the Mexican immigration authorities.

An air of paranoia pervades the La Mordida manuscript. There are echoes of Lowry's previous visit to Mexico and the rabid anti-Communism and fear of spies of the 1930s. This fear forms a major part of Under The Volcano culminating in the death of the novel's hero the Consul at the hands of fascists because they believe him to be a spy.

Home Movie In Mexico 1945-1946

I have been re-reading Malc's Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid and I have been digging out images, video and music to illustrate references in the book.

A theme which runs through the Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid and La Mordida is Malc's contempt for American tourists who invaded Mexico after the WW2.

However, there is a certain irony in Malc's inferred criticism of US tourism in his work as he and Margerie behaved in many ways like the average tourist in their sight seeing.

There is an obvious tension in any writer visiting a country and using the visit as material for a novel. Malc was accused of adding too much "local colour" to Under The Volcano by one of Cape's readers before publication of the novel. It is interesting to note in the edition of La Mordida which has been published that Lowry's notes from a tourist guide to Mexico are included.

I have posted the above home movie from YouTube which gives a feel for US tourism in Mexico in the late 40's.