JUAN LUNA’S TOXIC MASCULINITY
Secondly, Luna views the year, 1892, as his annushorribilis. “…I can assure you this has been a disastrous year for me, I am looking forward to see it disappear off the calendar.” It is a bizarre perception of recent events. He appears to see himself as a victim of circumstance, suffering misfortunes that, seemingly through no fault of his own, have unjustly befallen him. In other words, in his head, this guy is taking no responsibility for his actions.
- fidently presumes he will be acquitted. “I’ll take this rest of my destroyed family [which we can take to mean his son] so I’ll meet yours and he will play with them.” Despite committing a that he will be released and is anticipating his freedom.
At the age of 29, Juan Luna had achieved fame and accolade for his art. His patrons included Spanish royalty. In 1884 he had Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid with the “Spoliarium,” a massive canvas depicting the appalling gore of slain Roman gladiators. It was a signal triumph. Luna was gain renown in Spain, he was the recognition in the mother country.
In 1886, Luna was living in Paris and had married the Filipino-Spanish mestiza Paz Pardo de Tavera. She was 24 years old and came from a close-knit, cultured family with a long tradition of male intellectuals and female entrepreneurs. Her family was also extremely wealthy, maintaining their comfortable lifestyle in Europe from the considerable revenue generated by their extensive Manila properties. Luna had little money and was impecunious throughout his career. Their marriage merged fame with fortune.
The couple had two children, Andres and Maria, although the latter, nicknamed ‘Bibi,’ did not live beyond infancy. Speaking before a Paris jury in 1893, Danet, Luna’s defense lawyer, described Luna as being passionately in love with his wife. “He was more than a good husband, [he] had been a lover to his wife, a man deeply in love.”
But there was evidence of tension between the couple even prior to the marriage. In a letter written during their courtship, Luna accused Paz of mocking him in public. “You offend me,” he wrote. “Do not ridicule me in front of your family by imagin- ing vices that will greatly hurt my honor.” Once married, Luna took control of his wife’s money, pawned her jewelry without her knowledge, and insisted she ask her mother for extra money. Doña Juliana Gorricho, Paz’s mother, had agreed to live with the family and was already shouldering their rent, paying for Luna’s studio, and most of the household expenses.
Things went really downhill for the couple after Paz, shortly after the death of Bibi, decided to take a short break at a spa. Luna harassed her with his letters. He accused her of maternal neglect, and of his authority being undermined by her and his domineering mother-in-law. He had started to physically beat her. On one oc throwing crockery at his wife and shaking her violently by the wrists.
By 1891, the beatings had escalated in frequency and brutality.
Juan Luna (1857-1899) He beat her with a cane so hard it broke in two. He attempted to - dow of their house. He destroyed all her clothes and forbade her to wear anything but black mourning clothes so that she would be constantly reminded of the death of her daughter. He prohibited her from wearing make-up. When he discovered that she had shopped for eyebrow pencils, he punched her eyes black and blue. He accused her of having an affair and instructed his brother, Antonio, to follow her whenever she went out. In fear and despair, Paz wrote: “I hate him with my whole body and soul.”
Things came to a head after Paz’s family decided on the modern solution of divorce. Luna was having none of it. On the morning of September 22, 1892, he calmly got the pistol he had bought previously with his wife’s money, brought the barrel of the gun to the temples of his mother-in-law and his wife, and blew their heads off.