Velmiro Ayala Gauna: The Rural as an Innovative Catalyst in the Argentine Detective Genre

Abstract

Velmiro Ayala Gauna has played a crucial role in the development of the detective genre by cultivating the tradition of the “rural commissioner.” His stories, set in Capibara-Cué, introduce innovative elements that highlight the conflict between rural and urban settings. This essay explores how the rural elements in don Frutos Gómez’s stories provide a fresh perspective on the Argentine detective genre in these environments. It aims to demonstrate how, in the short stories Los casos de don Frutos Gómez (1955–1960), rural elements enable literary innovation and offer a new perspective on the Argentine detective genre by contrasting the rural vs. urban conflict. The present author argues that Ayala Gauna uses the crimes committed in the rural context of Capibara-Cué to emphasize the negative influences of the city and progress as the main drivers of criminal actions, while also vindicating the ingenuity, knowledge, and pragmatic justice of the rural commissioner Frutos Gómez in the face of urban corruption, vice, and social inequality affecting rural communities.