Rafael Landivar Rusticatio Mexicana Study Guide

TLDR

Rusticatio Mexicana is a Latin poem in dactylic hexameter by the Guatemalan Jesuit Rafael Landivar (second edition, Bologna, 1782). In Book 2.67-79 and 114-127, a mysterious old man predicts the birth of the Jorullo volcano, and then the ground starts to roar. It is a suggested Teacher's Choice text, not required reading. It is useful practice because its vivid, Vergil-style poetry trains the same reading skills you need for sight poetry.

Why This Matters for the AP Latin Exam

Unit 6 is Course Project and Teacher's Choice: Latin Poetry. Your teacher picks the Teacher's Choice poems, often from Appendix 1, a list of suggested authors and texts. That list is nonexhaustive and offered only as a resource. Reading a listed text gives you no special advantage, and brief selections from listed texts may or may not appear on the exam.

So why read Landivar? Section I has 52 multiple-choice questions (50% of your score). That includes 20 discrete sight prose or poetry questions (18%) and short 3-question sets on sight prose and sight poetry (3% each). Read and comprehend skills (word meaning, grammar, summary, translation) make up 70% of the exam. Describing style and context is 11%, and analysis is 19%. A passage like this one gives you practice with all three: tricky hexameter word order, an epic simile, metonymy, and a real historical event.

Key Takeaways

• Landivar was a Guatemalan Jesuit who wrote Rusticatio Mexicana in exile in Italy, modeling it on Vergil's Georgics.
• Book 2, "Xorullus," tells how the volcano Jorullo in Michoacan was born in an eruption in 1759.
• In lines 67-79, an unknown old man in a yellow garment warns that in seven months Vulcan will bury the valley, then he leaves.
• In lines 114-127, the ground bellows day and night, and an epic simile compares the noise to a thundering storm cloud.
• Vulcanus stands for fire and the volcano (metonymy). Phoebe is the moon and Titan is the sun.
• Watch for separated noun-adjective pairs (hyperbaton), future and future perfect verbs, and historical infinitives.
• Solet with an infinitive is an ordinary complementary infinitive. "Is accustomed to do" means "usually does."

Who Was Rafael Landivar?

Rafael Landivar (1731-1793) was born in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, today Antigua Guatemala. He became a Jesuit. In 1767 the Spanish crown expelled the Jesuits from its territories, and Landivar went into exile in Italy. He lived in Bologna and died there in 1793.

Rusticatio Mexicana ("Mexican Country Scenes") is a long Latin poem in dactylic hexameter about New Spain (Mexico and Guatemala): its landscapes, natural wonders, farming, and work. Its model is Vergil's Georgics, the poem about farming. The first edition (Modena, 1781) had ten books. The second, expanded edition (Bologna, 1782) has fifteen books plus an appendix, and the AP list cites this 1782 edition.

Book 2 is titled "Xorullus" (Jorullo). It tells how the volcano Jorullo rose in 1759 on a prosperous farming estate. Landivar's own footnote calls it "mons ignivomus Provinciae Michoacanensis," a fire-spewing mountain of the province of Michoacan.

What the Passage Is About

Before line 67, Landivar describes a rich, peaceful valley and estate. Then the story turns.

1. Lines 67-70: Suddenly an old man appears. Nobody knows him. He wears a yellow garment and a rough cloak, has a white beard, and looks worthy of respect. He stops and speaks with sighs.
2. Lines 71-77: He prophesies a time crueler than any other. After seven months, in autumn, Vulcan will rage over these fields and the valley will be buried in ash. He says he can see fiery rocks rolling and Jorullo sunk in ruin.
3. Lines 78-79: He leaves in a hurry while the frightened farmers are still getting ready to question him.
4. Lines 80-113 (not in the selection): Panic spreads and people start to flee. The estate owner scolds them for believing a stranger.
5. Lines 114-118: Just as the fear fades, the ground begins to bellow, distant caverns roar, and the fields thunder night and day.
6. Lines 119-125: An epic simile compares this to a storm cloud flashing with lightning and filling the sky with thunder. The valley's insides roar in the same way.
7. Lines 126-127: The people are shaken again and keep brooding over the warning of disaster.

Reading the Latin

Lines 67-70:

When suddenly an old man, not known to the people before, whom a yellow garment and a rough cloak covered, remarkable to look at for his white beard and worthy of reverence for his face, stops, and mixing sighs with sad words,

• Quem is a relative pronoun (antecedent senior), the object of tegebat. The verb is singular even though it has two subjects, vestis and amictus.
• Spectandus and venerandus are gerundives (verbal adjectives meaning "to be ___ed"): "to be looked at," "to be revered." Cana ... barba and ore are ablatives telling in what respect.
• Cana ... barba is split by spectandus. That separation is hyperbaton.
• Sistitur is a present passive used for vivid narration: "he takes his stand, stops."

Lines 71-73:

"There will be a time," he said, "than which none is crueler, after Phoebe has completed seven orbits and Autumn has made the black shadows equal to the daylight;"

• Quo is ablative of comparison with crudelius: "than which." Supply tempus with ullum.
• Compleverit and aequarit (short for aequaverit) look like future perfect, which fits postquam in a future prophecy. The same forms could be perfect subjunctive, but the future context points to future perfect.
• Phoebe is the moon, so seven orbits mean seven lunar months. Equal dark and light suggests the autumn equinox.
• Lucibus is dative with aequarit: "equal to the days." Notice the hyperbaton in Septenos ... orbes and nigras ... umbras.

Lines 74-77:

"when devouring Vulcan will rage savagely, unpunished, through these fields, and the valley will fall, consumed by ashes. I see fiery rocks rolled through the plains, dreadful rocks, and Jorullo sunk in a long death."

• Furet and cadet are future indicative.
• Isthaec ... arva is the 1782 spelling of istaec, "these." The preposition per sits between the adjective and its noun.
• Saeva is most likely a neuter plural used like an adverb ("savagely") with furet. Some readers take it with arva instead ("through these savage fields"); either way, Vulcanus is the subject.
• Cerno governs an indirect statement: saxa with the passive infinitive volvi, and Xorulum with mersum (supply esse).

Lines 114-116:

And now fear had gradually released their weary limbs, when suddenly the ground began to bellow, and caverns, heard far off, began to resound dreadfully with a hoarse crash.

• This is a "when suddenly" pattern: a pluperfect main clause, then cum subito introducing the surprise.
• Mugire and resonare are historical infinitives. They work like main verbs, with subjects in the nominative (solum, cavernae). Translate them as past tense ("began to bellow").
• Horrendum is best taken adverbially, "dreadfully." Auditae is a perfect passive participle agreeing with cavernae.

Lines 119-121:

As a cloud, thickened with vapor, which the blazing Titan has lifted from the sea's waves, sometimes tends to flash purple torches and to be scorched by fires,

• Nubes is the subject of solet. Vibrare and uri are ordinary complementary infinitives with solet. Ut solet means "as [the cloud] usually does."
• Quam is a relative pronoun referring back to nubes and is the object of extulit. Fervidus agrees with Titan (the sun).
• Uri is the present passive infinitive of uro: "to be scorched."
• Aequoreis ... undis and Purpureas ... faces are separated noun-adjective pairs.

Lines 122-125:

and, dark, stirring up a terrifying crash in the sky, it throws the upper air, the fields, and the mountains into confusion with uproar: not otherwise do the blackening insides of the rich valley resound everywhere, disturbed by a hellish roar.

• Tenebrosa is feminine nominative, so the cloud is still the subject. Permiscet is indicative, continuing the description.
• Aethera is a Greek-style accusative singular of aether.
• Pinguis ... vallis is genitive singular. Viscera (neuter plural) is the subject of resonant, and turbata agrees with it.
• Terrificum ... fragorem is spread across most of the line, and Inferno ... boatu is split the same way in the last verse.

Style, Meter, and Context

Epic simile. Lines 119-125 build a full comparison: Ut solet sets up the storm cloud, and Non aliter ("not otherwise") brings you back to the valley. When you see ut or qualis followed later by non aliter or sic, expect a simile.

Metonymy. Vulcanus edax ("devouring Vulcan") uses the fire god's name for fire itself and the eruption. Phoebe (moon) and Titan (sun) use divine names for natural objects. This is a context skill: recognizing references to mythology.

Repetition. saxa, horrida saxa (line 76) repeats the noun and adds a frightening adjective, as if the prophet is staring at the falling rocks.

Word order. Hyperbaton is everywhere: Cana ... barba, isthaec ... arva, Terrificum ... fragorem. In line 127, Horrida venturae reputant praesagia cladis, the adjectives and nouns interlock (Horrida ... praesagia, venturae ... cladis). That ABAB pattern is synchysis.

Sound. Words like mugire, fragore, tonant, and boatu fill lines 114-125 with noise.

Meter. The poem is in dactylic hexameter, six feet per line. Each foot is a dactyl (long-short-short) or a spondee (long-long), though the fifth foot is usually a dactyl and the last foot has two syllables. Elision happens when a word ends in a vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel plus m, and the next word starts with a vowel, a diphthong, or h. The end of the first word is partly suppressed when you read the line aloud. Practice scanning these lines yourself and check your work with your teacher.

Context. Landivar writes about a real event, the 1759 birth of Jorullo, but frames it in classical epic: a mysterious prophet, divine names, and an epic simile. He was writing in exile in Italy about the lands he left behind. Book 2 opens with Nunc quoque Xoruli Vulcania regna canendo / Persequar, announcing "Vulcan's realms" as his subject.

How to Use This on the AP Latin Exam

Translation

Find the main verb first. In lines 67-70, the old man (senior) is the subject, but Sistitur does not show up until line 70. Bracket relative clauses (quem ... tegebat) and participle phrases, then link adjectives to nouns by matching case, number, and gender. On sight poetry, that matching skill gets you through hyperbaton.

Using Latin Evidence

If asked how Landivar makes the scene frightening, cite specific Latin and explain it. For example: Vulcanus edax turns fire into a hungry god, and the repetition saxa, horrida saxa lingers on the danger. Always quote the exact words and say what they do.

Common Trap

Do not assume the first nominative you see in a simile is a new subject each time. In lines 119-123, nubes stays the subject through vibrare, uri, and permiscet; tenebrosa is a clue because it is feminine nominative.

Common Misconceptions

• Misconception: Rusticatio Mexicana is required AP reading.
  Actually: It is one suggested Teacher's Choice text, and reading it gives you no special exam advantage.
• Misconception: Landivar was an ancient Roman poet.
  Actually: He was an 18th-century Guatemalan Jesuit who wrote in Latin in exile in Italy.
• Misconception: Vulcanus means the god literally walks through the fields.
  Actually: It is metonymy for fire and the eruption.
• Misconception: Solet with an infinitive is a strange construction.
  Actually: It is an ordinary complementary infinitive: solet ... vibrare means "usually flashes."
• Misconception: Mugire and resonare depend on a verb of saying.
  Actually: They are historical infinitives acting as main verbs, translated as past tense.
• Misconception: Septenos ... orbes means seven years.
  Actually: Phoebe is the moon, so it means seven lunar months.