New Ways of Telling: Latinas' Narratives of Exile and Return
Author(s): Jacqueline Stefanko
Source: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1996), pp. 50-69
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3346592
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JacquelineStefanko
New Ways of Telling: Latinas'Narratives
of Exile and Return
In the liminalityof this moment in history,when discourses,disciplines,and
politics convergeand contend with one another, when border-crossinghas
become a site of resistantand liberatorypossibilities,I see Latin American
womenwritingin the United Statesmappingout paradigmatic
shiftsin the ways
we readand write.The workof JuliaAlvarez,CristinaGarcia,RosarioMorales,
and Aurora Levins Morales revealsthe processesof migrant souls, weaving
togetherthe threadsof memory,history,and narrationat the crossroadsof feminisms,postcolonialisms,and socialisms.At the sametime, theseauthors'works
highlightthe interculturalquestionsof identitythat emergeat thesecrossroads.
Eachof thesewomenwritersis a worldtraveler,havingemigratedor beenexiled
from a LatinAmericancountryto the United Stateswith the processof return
1
an ever-present,
physicaland/ortextualpossibility. Theseauthorsusetheirskills
and experiencesas world travelersto take us "to placesof subjectivitythat shift
and hyphenateinto the worldsof others."2 As EdwardSaid remindsus, "exile,
immigrationand the crossingof boundariesareexperiencesthat can ... provide
us with new narrativeformsor, in John Berger'sphrase,with otherwaysof telling."3
I proposeto readJuliaAlvarez'sIn the Timeof the Butterfliesand How the
GarciaGirlsLostTheirAccents,CristinaGarcia'sDreamingin Cuban,and Rosario Moralesand AuroraLevinsMorales's GettingHomeAlive as new ways of
telling.As hybridselveswho crossand recrossbordersof languageand culture,
theseLatinawriterscreatehybridtexts in orderto "survivein diaspora,"to use
Donna Haraway'sterm, seeking to heal the fracturesand rupturesresulting
from exile and dispersal.4Polyphonicnarration,permeableborders(between
genres,among nationalidentifications,in the dialecticof self and other), and
are
negotiationof the gesturesof whatJamesCliffordcalls"traveling/dwelling"
the attributesthat distinguishthese texts as new ways of telling.5 Migration
Copyright? 1996 by FrontiersEditorialCollective
50
JacquelineStefanko
becomesthe meansby which memoriesare narratedin specifichistoricalcontexts, infusingthe empty/open/silentspacesin history,discourses,and politics
with resistantand alternativeparadigms.
in diverseculturalspaces,LatinawritAs migrantsouls traveling/dwelling
ers become embeddedwithin the processof translation,the linguisticbordercrossingthat necessarilyaccompaniesany other shifts acrossboundaries.If we
considertranslationto be an alterationin signification,an act of decentering
one's self and playingwith language,then to translatemay be the Derridean
"affirmationof the play of the world and of the innocence of becoming, the
affirmationof a worldof signswithout fault,without truth,and without origin
which is offeredto an activeinterpretation."6
Translationenablesthe authorto
perceivethe occludedfiction of a stable center, the fictive purity of self-presence, while simultaneouslyenablingher to enterinto dialogueswith the multiple aspectsof self revealedthroughdisplacement.As Latinasand feminists,the
authorsrealize,as Harawayhas observed,that "releasingthe play of writing is
deadlyserious."Harawayexplainsthat the "poetryand storiesof U.S. women
of color are repeatedlyaboutwriting,about accessto the power to signify,but
this time that power must be neither phallic nor innocent."7 Morales and
Levins Morales'ssuggestivetitle, GettingHome Alive, indicatesan awareness
and negotiationof the messinessof playingwith languageand of the power of
wherethe terrainis impure,anomalous,unstable,
writingas boundary-crossing
and potentiallyhazardous.
Due to the shifting, unstable terrain they inhabit, Latin American
(migrant)women writersquestion and reject the assumptionthat a unitary,
synthesizingnarratoris capable of telling the stories they have to disclose,
insteadopting for a narrativestancethat includesmultiplevoicings.Their utilization of multiple narratorscontributesto the critiquethat "the theoryof the
subjectof consciousnessas a unitaryand synthesizingagent of knowledgeis
alwaysalreadya postureof domination."8Polyphonicnarrationis one mode of
crossingthe thresholdinto the anomalous,impure,and unstable.That crossing
enables the readerand writer to participatein the breakingdown of constructed,pure boundariesand to engagein complex heterogeneousdialogues.
Telling the story of three generationsof Cuban women and their experiences
with revolutionand immigrationin Dreamingin Cuban,CristinaGarciautilizes a mixtureof third person character-specific
narrators,first person narrarich texture of subject
to
the
and
tors,
convey
epistolary interjections
positionalitiesand the multipleworldswherethe subjectof consciousnesstravels. JuliaAlvarezexploresthroughout How the GarciaGirlsLost TheirAccents
the effectsof heterotopicalityupon four sisterstraveling/dwellingbetweenthe
51
JacquelineStefanko
Dominican Republic and the United States. Third person character-specific
narrativepiecesengagemobilityas the novel progressesbackwardthroughtime
and experiencein orderto enablefirstpersonnarratorsto emergeand takeover
the telling of their memories.Similarly,In the Timeof the Butterflies,
Alvarez's
secondnovel, is comprisedof the firstpersonvoicesof the foursistersknownas
Las Mariposasbecauseof their political activismin the Dominican Republic.
Yet, Dede, the sisterwho survives,speaksthrougha third-personcharacter-specific narratoruntil the end of the text when, afterher sisters'memorieshave
been narrated,her own voice emergesto articulate"I."Explicitlyautobiographof two women'svoices, Rosaical, GettingHomeAlive is the cross-fertilization
rio's and Aurora's,mother and daughter respectively,speaking in several
tonguesand severalgenres.The polyphonyof each of these textselucidatesthe
subjectof consciousnessas a weaveof multiplesites of identificationand contestation.
Underlyingthe constructionof each of these polyphonicnarrativesthere
appears to be what Clifford describes as "unresolvedhistorical dialogues
betweencontinuityand disruption,essenceand positionality,homogeneityand
differences(cross-cutting'us' and 'them') [that]characterizediasporicarticulations."9Due to the processesof exile and migration,which establishthe ambivalent gesture of traveling/dwelling,Alvarez, Garcia, Morales, and Levins
Moraleswritein diaspora,and theirtextsareexpressionsof the dialoguesgenerated by their negotiationof such traveling.In an essay on the blackwomen
writer'sliterarytradition,Mae GwendolynHendersonexplainsthat "whatis at
once characteristic
and suggestiveabout blackwomen'swritingis its interlocuor
tory, dialogiccharacter,reflectingnot only a relationshipwith the 'other(s),'
but an internaldialoguewith the pluralaspectsof self that constitutethe matrix
of blackfemalesubjectivity."10
While she is speakingspecificallyaboutAfrican
Americanwomen authors,her insightsappearto be quite relevantto the literaturebeingproducedby Latinasinvolvedin culturesof displacement,transplantation, and return.The creationof multiple narratorscan be consideredan
integralpart of the authors'performanceof both their externaland internal
diasporicdialogues,suggestingthat utilizingthe multiplevoices is a manifestation of the subjectof consciousness-shifting
amongmultiplepositions.Furthermore,as readersand critics,we must becomediasporicin our apprehensionand
comprehensionof their texts and accept Carol Boyce Davies's assertionthat
AfricanAmericanand Caribbeanwomen'swriting"shouldbe readas a seriesof
boundarycrossingsand not as a fixed geographical,ethnicallyor nationally
bound categoryof writing.11Both the dialogic,diasporicnarrativecreatedby
52
JacquelineStefanko
the authorand the dialogic,diasporicself expressedvia the text can be claimed
as hybrids.
Mestizaje,the conceptof hybridityculturallyspecificfor Latinas,involves
the conceptionof a "multiplesubjectwho is not fragmented."12The coverpictureand opening narrativepiece of GettingHomeAliveprovideinsightinto the
terrainof mestizajeas a site where the discoursesand politics of feminisms,
postcolonialisms,and socialismsconvergein their affiliationand modification
of one anotherand divergein theircontestationand resistanceto one another.
The coverpictureof the quilt introducesus to the recurrentimageryof sewing/
weavingas a metaphorfor both hybridityand narrative.The activityof sewing/
weavingis genderspecificwith classconnotations,implyinga spaceof intersection between feminismand socialism.Like the mestizaidentity presentedinby the PuertoRican-JewishAmericanMoralesand
processautobiographically
LevinsMorales,the strengthsof the quilt are its lack of homogeneityand the
fact that the piecesthat composeit cannot be separatedfrom one anotherwithout losingtheirintegrity.Furthermore,the imageof the quilt illustratesthe creative process that stitches diverse elements of different shapes, colors, and
texturestogetherto producea distinctand meaningfulwhole that is more than
the sum of its parts.The processevoked with this image informs our understandingof hybridselvesand hybridnarratives,as it does the hybridizationof
discoursesand politics.As LourdesRojaspoints out, the verbin Spanishfor "to
knit"is tejer,from the Latin texere,which has the sameroot as texto,the Spanish
word for text.13As majorcontributorsto the polyphonic characterof hybrid
selves and hybrid narratives,interreferenceand interlinguisticplay emerge as
at
importantfacetsof Moralesand LevinsMorales'swritingas traveler/dwellers
the crossroadsof feminisms,postcolonialisms,and socialisms.As readersand
critics,we must participatein interlinguisticplay if we are to apprehendand
comprehendtheirsubtleand complexdisplacementsand infusionsof discursive
meaning.
"Wolf,"the opening narrativepiece of GettingHome Alive, written by
AuroraLevinsMorales,picksup a parallelthreadin the discussionof hybridity.
LevinsMoralesends "Wolf' and begins the rest of the text with the emphatic
statement,"Imust makethem see the wolfs nature.I must tell them this story"
(GHA, 16). By placingthis statementat the end of the opening narrativepiece
and at the beginningof the restof the text, LevinsMoralesallowsthe wolf, representedas a shape-shifter,to tell the story of multiple transformationsas a
mode of survivaland of resistance.As an emblem for her "true self," the
wolfs story is also her own (GHA, 16). Facing the forces of extinction,
encountering racism, sexism, colonization, and elitism, Levins Morales has
53
JacquelineStefanko
acquiredthe necessaryskill of shiftingshapesor, in otherwordsconnotativeof
diaspora,she has learnedto be a world-travelerin orderto survive.By extentext is her storyof self, the one she must tell in
sion, the entireautobiographical
orderto survive.By expandingthe storyshe must tell to includethe entiretext,
LevinsMoralescalls attention to the text as a shape-shifteras well. We must
attune ourselvesto the negotiation of her writing'sboundary-crossings
and
the
oral
tradition
of
an
as
metamorphoses.By evoking
storytelling
endangered
species,akinto the wolf in this piece, LevinsMoralesrealizesRojas'sstatement
that "oralstoriesareno longerviabletestimoniesof thesewomen'sexperiences,
for they can no longer endureto bearwitness to a realitydefinedby the con14 Instead,she commits herselfto
stant struggleto surviveat the crossroads."
preservationthrough the written word, narratingthe creativeand liberatory
powerof what is multiple,anomalous,and hybrid.
While the viabilityof oraltraditionfor the transmissionof women'sstories
can be questionedin these turbulenttimes, we can acknowledgethat patriarchal,colonial,and neocolonialrecordedstorieshavealso failedto testifyand/or
representwomen'smemory.In praiseof JuliaAlvarez'sIn the Timeof the Butterflies,SandraCisneroswrites,"AllLatinasareindebtedto her for resistingthe
amnesiathat has been our history."Althoughthis statementcritiquesthe masculinist,nationalist,and racistbiasesof historicalrecords,which have resulted
in the absenceof women of color'svoices and stories,the concept of amnesia
alsohas otherimplicationswithin the contextof exile.In her postscript,Alvarez
discussesher motivationsin producingthis novel. First, she identifiesherself
and her familyas "exilesfrom the tyrannyof Trujillo"(ITB, 323). Second,she
connects her family's politics and their forced escape from the Dominican
Republicto the four inventedMirabelsisters,theirpoliticalactivities,and their
subsequentdeaths four months after their escape. Then, her returnsto the
Dominican Republicbecome entwinedwith storiesabout the courageof Las
Mariposas.Exile, translation,and migrationmarkprofound changesin consciousness,as BenedictAndersonexplains:"Allprofoundchangesin consciousamnesias.Out of such
ness,by theirverynature,bringwith them characteristic
in
historical
narratives
... Out of this
oblivions, specific
circumstances,spring
estrangement[of continuityand memoryloss] comes a conceptionof personhood, identitywhich, becauseit cannot be 'remembered,'must be narrated."15
Alvarezseemsespeciallyconsciousthat in orderto resistamnesia,one must narrateor reinventboth self and history:"ForI wantedto immersemy readersin
an epoch in the life of the DominicanRepublicthat I believecan only finallybe
understoodby fiction, only finally be redeemedby the imagination"( ITB,
324). As I suggestedearlier,the amnesiaproducedby the diasporicculturesof
54
JacquelineStefanko
Latinas gets negotiated within the text through polyphony. Living at the crossroads, migrating between the United States and the Dominican Republic,
establishes a dialogue between the author and the aspects of otherness within
herself; between the Mirabel sisters;and between the author, the sisters, and the
readers who are specifically English-speaking. The text becomes not only an
example of writing as boundary-crossing, but also the vehicle by which the
author crosses boundaries, negotiates the estrangement of continuity and memory loss, and traversesthe subject of consciousness.
Alvarez's first novel, the loosely autobiographical How the Garcia Girls Lost
TheirAccents,engages in a similar dynamic between exile and return, narrating
what cannot be remembered. Like the Butterflies,the four central charactersare
sisters. The text opens with "Antojos," the story of Yolanda's return to the
island as an adult in 1989. Immediately we are placed at the crossroadsof interreference and interlinguistic play. Several pages into the narrative piece we are
given a discussion of the meaning of the word antojo that negotiates race, class,
gender, and migration:
"What's an antojo?"Yolanda asks.
See! Her aunts are right. After so many years away, she is losing her Spanish ...
"An antojo is like a craving for something you have to eat..."
An antojo, one of the older aunts continues, is a very old Spanish word "from before
your United States was even thought of," she adds tartly. "In fact, in the countryside,
you'll still find some campesinosusing the word in the old sense. Altagracia! ..."
The maid obeys. "In my campo we say a person has an antojo when they are taken
over by un santo who wants something." (HGGL TA, 8)
The conversation between the aunts, Yolanda, and the maid over the meaning of
the word antojo enables the author to engage in a dialogue that both affirms and
contests the multiple aspects of herself. Yolanda attempts to resolve the ambivalence inherent to such a dialogue by re-inventing the word to convey her desire
for home.
Yolanda has returned to the Dominican Republic seeking to remedy her
feelings of displacement, which she believes are the reason "she and her sisters
have led such turbulent lives-so many husbands, homes, jobs, wrong turns
among them" (HGGL TA, 11). Yet, the tone of nostalgia expressed in regard to
finding an unspoiled home in the landscape of the Dominican countryside with
its rural campesinos is countered by the author's attention to details of crosscultural permeability and interaction: "In the glow of the headlights, Yolanda
makes out the figure of the old woman in the black square of her doorway,
55
JacquelineStefanko
waving good-bye. And above the picnic table on a near post, the Palmolive
woman'sskin gleamsa richwhite;her head is still thrownback,her mouth still
opened as if she is callingsomeoneovera greatdistance"( HGGLTA,23). The
contrastbetween distanceand proximity,the incongruityof the old woman
and the Palmolivewoman, the differencein skin color,privilege,and commodificationheightensour awarenessof the imperialisticinvasionof United States
commercialisminto the Dominican Republic after the island was liberated
from Trujillo.Within this neocolonial-colonialcontext, the third personcharacter-specificnarratordestabilizesYolanda'sreturnto the island,allowingus to
question the totalizing boundariesof what Benedict R. Anderson calls the
"imaginedcommunity,"as well as Yolanda'sdesirefor origin.16 She has, after
all, lost her accent.On anotherlevel, the authormay be decenteringand questioning her own returnto the island via a narrativethat moves backwardin
time and place to the memoriesof the four sistersbeforethey were forcedto
leavetheirhome in the DominicanRepublic.By purposefullyfictionalizingher
own historical,autobiographical
life storyin a polyphonicnovel,Alvarezcreates
a new way of telling that crossesthe boundariesbetweengenres,betweenindividualand community,betweennationalidentifications,and betweencontinuity and disruption,giving definitionto her writingas diasporicarticulation.As
readers,we must be waryof our contributionsto the narrative
English-speaking
and be preparedto questionour willing acceptanceand participationin colothat areoccurring.
nizinggesturesthat attemptto occludethe border-crossings
CristinaGarciabegins Dreamingin Cubanwith Celia scanning the sea
coastof Cubafor signs of U.S. invasion,givingprominenceto the issueof borders and their permeabilityon the first page of her novel. The fishing boats
Celiasees, "theNina, the Pintaand the SantaMaria,"invokethe issueof colonizationas they conjurethe imageof Columbusarriving( DIC, 4). The historical eventsof colonization,revolution,and threatenedinvasionentwinearound
the personalissue of family separationand exile. Celia'scommitmentto protectingher country'sboundariesbecomesambivalentwith the realizationof the
costs of exile: "FrustratedEl Liderwent home, restedhis pitching arm, and
starteda revolutionin the mountains.Becauseof this, Celia thinks, her husband will be buriedin stiff, foreign earth.Becauseof this, their childrenand
theirgrandchildrenarenomads"(DIC, 6-7). While "nomads"connotesmobility, thereis also the indicationof a lack of connection,of home. Celia thinks
specificallyof her granddaughterPilarand of the losses of acculturationthat
accompanyimmigration.Yet, despitethe seeminglyinflexibleboundariesseparatingCeliain communistCubaand Pilarin capitalistNew York,thereexistsa
56
JacquelineStefanko
bond betweengrandmotherand granddaughterthat remainstenuouslyelastic
and fluid:"Sheknows that Pilarkeepsa diaryin the lining of her winter coat,
hidden from her mother'sscouringeyes. In it, Pilar recordseverything.This
pleasesCelia. She closesher eyesand speaksto her granddaughter,
imaginesher
wordsas sliversof light piercingthe murkynight" (DIC, 7). Significantly,the
telepathicthreadconnectingCeliato Pilaris conceivedas textualityand creativity.
Pilar,speakingin the firstperson,reinforcesour awarenessof the connection betweenher and Celia.Narratinga memoryof herselfas a babywith nannies in Cuba, she says, "Theycalled me brujita,little witch. I staredat them,
tried to make them go away.I rememberthinking, Okay, I'll startwith their
hair, make it fall out strandby strand.They alwaysleft wearingkerchiefsto
covertheirbaldpatches"(DIC, 28). La brujais a powerfulfigurewithin Latino
cultureswho is often hated and fearedbecauseof her creativeabilitiesto conjure and conceive by playingwith language.If we identify Celia and Pilar as
brujas,then we realizethat Celiafearsacculturationbecauseof the lossesof language,traditions,and knowledges,which are neitherphallicnor innocent, that
are the fund of the bruja'spowersto conjurewith alternativeparadigmsand
activatechangewith activeinterpretationsof language.Yet, Pilardemonstrates
her memoryas a brujawhen she critiquesthe biasesof historyand suggestsshe
knows other(s')storiesthat havebeen silenced:"Ifit were up to me, I'd record
other things. Like the time therewas a freakhailstormin the Congo and the
women took it as a sign that they shouldrule.Or the life storiesof prostitutesin
Bombay"(DIC, 28). This knowledgeappearsto be part of Pilar'sinheritance
from her grandmother,an inheritancethat has significantimplicationsfor narratingmemory,resistingamnesia,and constructingpolyphonictexts.As brujas,
Celiaand Pilarshareknowledgesthat havethe powerto imaginecommunityin
alternative,transnationalways, thus permeatingboundariesand allowingus to
questionthe constructionof bordersas pureand inflexible.
In two separatebut relatedpoems, AuroraLevins Moralesand Rosario
Moralesspeakdirectlyto issuesof bordersand identification.In the confrontational "I Am What I Am," Rosariodefiantlyassertsher acceptanceof all the
pieces of herselfwithout the need for externalapproval:"I am what I am and
you can'ttake it awaywith all the wordsand sneersat your command"( GHA,
138). She rejectssociety'sfragmentationof her into pureparts,seeingthis as an
exercisein domination.Yet, she has had to strugglein order to achieve this
straddlingstanceand precariousbalance:"Iam what I am and I am U.S. American I haven'twanted to say it becauseif I did you'd take away the Puerto
Rican"(GHA, 138). Never havingbelievedin or experiencedas her realitythe
57
JacquelineStefanko
inflexible, unquestionable boundaries of "separationas purity," to use
Lugones'sphrase, has enabled Rosario to make the conceptualleap out of
dichotomouspatternsof thinking.17 Forcingthe readerto rethinkthe meaning
of several"national"identificationsin her terms,she helps us to move out of
the binarymode of classificationtowardhybrid,both/andconceptualizations
as
well. Puerto Rican identity is a piece in the mosaic of herselfthat has been
altered,madenew by her experiences:"I am Boricuaas Boricuascome fromthe
isle of Manhattanand I croonsentimentaltangosin my sleepand Afro-Cuban
beats in my blood" (GHA, 138). The multiplicityof her identificationsestablishesMoraleson the hyphen,shiftingamongthe manyworldsthat she inhabits and alteringthem in the process.The text she createsto expressher hybrid
identity and its creativealterationsis the instrumentof her agencyin healing
the fracturesand splits causedby diasporicdispersalwithin the contextof U.S.
imperialism,racism,sexism,and elitism.
Similarly,AuroraLevinsMoralesexpressesa hybridityof self in "Childof
the Americas."She identifiesherselfas a "light-skinnedmestizaof the Caribbean, / a child of many diaspora,born into this continent at a crossroads"
(GHA, 50). While diasporaconnotesdisplacement,crossroadsconnote confluence. Together,these two gesturessituateAuroraas a traveler/dweller
within a
specific historicalcontext. Although she claims her history-African, Taina,
European-and acknowledgesthat her historyhas shapedher, she also asserts
that she is somethingnew, as GloriaAnzalduadescribedit, as "somethingmore
than meredualityor a synthesisof duality."18LevinsMoralesexpandsour ethnocentricdefinitionof Americaby stressingthe multiplicityand heterotopicality of the spacesshe travels/dwellsin: "Iam a U.S. PuertoRicanJew, /a product
of the ghettos of New YorkI have neverknown. /. .. I am of Latinoamerica,
rooted in the historyof my continent:/ I speakfrom that body" ( GHA,50).
Likeher mother,LevinsMoraleshas engagedtextualityin orderto expressher
hybridityand testifyto the imaginativeambiguityof the mestizasubjectof consciousness.
Both Moralesand LevinsMoralesconveythe powerof performingmestizajethroughpolyphonicspeakingand writing.Moralesspeaksfrom the crossroads of "yiddish,and spanishand fine refinedcollege educatedenglish and
irish,"findingpoetic inspirationand an empoweringstrengthin the confluence
(GHA, 138). LevinsMorales'spoetic voice gains similarsustenancefrom her
bilingualism:"I speak Englishwith passion:it's the tongue of my consciousness, / a flashingknife blade of crystal,my tool, my craft./ . . . Spanishis in
my flesh, / ripplesfrom my tongue, lodges in my hips: / the languageof garlic
and mangoes, / the singing in my poetry" ( GHA, 50). Each strain contributes
58
JacquelineStefanko
something distinctive to her voice, and she refuses to deny either influence. Furthermore, she asserts the hybridity of her voice, the inseparability of her bilingualism: "My first language was spanglish" ( GHA, 50). For both Morales and
Levins Morales, heterogeneity, interpenetration, and the creative power of
imagining borders as porous facilitate new ways of telling self and constructing
community. The subject of consciousness, which emerges from the rich and
complex texture of their work, is not unitary and synthesizing, but is rather
mobile, or in Kathy Ferguson's words, "temporal, moving across and along axes
of power (which are themselves in motion) without fully residing in them ...
relational, produced through shifting yet enduring encounters and connections,
never fully captured by them ... ambiguous: messy and multiple, unstable but
perservering."19As Morales and Levins Morales attempt to "get home alive,"
they engage mobility when difference denies any easy, stable resting place of
identification.
Yolanda, the first sister to engage in first person narration in Alvarez's How
the Garcia Girls Lost TheirAccents,also demonstrates the mobility of the subject
of consciousness. The transition from third person, character-specific narration
to first person voice occurs after the narrative piece in which Yolanda is shown
negotiating issues of language, specifically the border-crossing of translation
and bilingualism. Within this context, the issue of naming as a process of identity starts the piece: "Yolanda, nicknamed Yoin Spanish, misunderstood Joe in
English, doubled and pronounced like the toy, Yoyo-or when forced to select
from a rack of personalized key chains, Joey" (HGGLTA, 68). As Yolanda's
names proliferate on the page, we begin to see the multiplicity of her identity.
We must also reckon with the ethnocentric irony of "personalized"when one is
Latino and not Anglo. And as the passage continues, we realize the struggle
Yolanda must engage in to not be fragmented in a society that marginalizes her.
Involved in a dialogue with her Anglo-American lover, Yolanda is forced into
an act of translation in order to place herself:
"Sky,I want to be the sky."
"That'snot allowed... Yourown rules:you'vegot to rhymewith your name."
"I"-she pointed to herself-"rhymeswith the sky!"
"Butnot with Joe!"...
"Yorhymeswith cielo in Spanish."Yo's words fell into the dark, mute cavern of
John'smouth. Cielo,cielo,the word echoed.And Yo was running,like the mad, into
the safetyof her first tongue, where the proudlymonolingualJohn could not catch
her, even if he tried. (HGGLTA,72)
59
JacquelineStefanko
The bilingualismof Yolanda'schosen name rhymeand her migrationinto her
(m)othertongue demonstrateher abilitiesas a border-crosser.
Implicitly,the
authorappearsto be askingus to critiquethe practicesof dominationthatmaintain the arrogantand fictionalpurityof monolingualismas the respectablenorm
viathecensureoftheambiguityandcreativityof bilingualismasmadness.
Yolanda'stransversalof languageresultsin John'scondemnationof her as
crazy.Theirdifferenceand his poweras a whiteAnglo-Americanmalethreatens
to split Yolanda.As the narrativepiece ends, Yolandaand John arein the processof separating,and Yolandagivesus an expressionof the pain of fragmentation: "Whenshe left her husband,Yo wrote a note, I'mgoingto myfolkstill my
head-slash-heart
clear.She revisedthe note:I'm needingsomespace,sometime,
until my head-slash-heart-slash-soul-No,
no, no, she didn't want to divideherself anymore,threepersonsin one Yo" (HGGLTA,78). Significantly,Yois the
Spanishword for the first personpronoun "I."Interjectingthis odd epistolary
firstpersondiscoursewithin a third personnarrativepiece, the authorappears
to be signalingthe performanceof curdling,wherethe subjectof consciousness
assertsthe many in the indivisible.Lugonestheorizescurdlingto be an impure
separation,one that has the resistantand liberatorypowerto assertthe multiple
and reject fragmentationinto pure parts.20 PresentingYolandaas a curdled
being,as an exampleof mestizaje,the authorsuggestsa continuumrelationship
between"she,"the third person,and "I,"the first person,wheresubjectpositions are not split-separated.Within this presentationof the alterationof the
self/other dialectic, Lugones says "there is the distance of metacomment,
autoreflection,looking at oneself in someone else's mirrorand back in one's
own, of self-awareexperimentation.21Through the creativemedium of language, the active interpretationof translation,Yolandais establishedon the
hyphenwhereshe can shift amongsubjectpositionsand worlds.Consequently,
she gains the self-reflexivitynecessaryto emergefully as a firstpersonnarrator
and enterinto dialogueswith the multipleaspectsof herYo.
As a diasporicinterlocutor,Yolandais locatedin the midst of the interaction and contradictionbetweenthe autoreflectionof homogeneityand difference. Coming to feministconsciousnessduringher teenageyearsin the United
States,Yolanda,along with her sisters,negotiatesthe specific Latino cultural
paradigmsof patriarchyand the specificAmericanstrainsof racism.Classcombineswith genderand ethnicityso thatwhen Fifi, the youngestsister,is sent to
live on the island,the three oldersistersfear "thatFifi was cavingin to family
pressureand regressinginto some nice thirdworldgirl"( HGGLTA,118). They
see Fifi losing her streak of independence,her strong-willedrebelliousness,
which they associatewith their"American"
identities,in contrastto the island's
60
JacquelineStefanko
prescribedgender roles, which they assume conform to the marianismo/
machismodialectic.Carla,Sandi,and Yolandaforgea feministbond of solidarity to battle machismoand the patriarchalindoctrinationof their sister.Conceptualizingtheiractionsas a revolution,they liberateSofiafrom the allureand
seemingsafetyof class-definedtraditions:"We look at each other as if to say,
'She'llget overit.' MeaningManuel,meaningher fury at us, meaningher fear
of her own life. Like ours, it lies aheadof her like a wildernessjust beforethe
first explorersets foot on the virgin sand"(HGGLTA, 132). In this narrative
piece, we can see unresolvedhistoricaldialoguesat work. As first world feminists, the sistersrefuseto allow Sofia to submit to the self-abnegationof docility. They demandthatshe act as a full subject,with the powerto determineher
own desires.Yet, the metaphorof life as a femalelandscapeto be penetratedby
the "exploring"
first-worldfeministexplicitlyinvokesthe historyof Conquistadors and imperialism.The girls' returnto the island is destabilizedand their
feministpracticesbecomeproblematicallyassociatedwith the gesturesof colonization.The homogeneous,essential"nicethirdworld girl"is placedin juxtaposition to the positionalityof the liberatedfirstworld feminist,and difference
is used to split "us"and "them."By makingher metaphorso conspicuous,the
author compels us to question our involvementin acceptingthe assumption
that firstworld women are more liberatedthan thirdworld women, that is, to
questionourown investmentandparticipationin the processesof colonization.
Offeringher readerstextualinstructionin what Lugonescalls "lovingperception"(asopposedto "arrogantperception"and its colonizingforce),Alvarez
details the developmentof feminist-socialistconsciousnessesand practicesin
four sistersin the Dominican Republicin her second novel, In the Timeof the
As Alvarezwritesin herpostscript:"Iwould hope that throughthis
Butterflies.22
fictionalizedstory I will bring acquaintanceof these famoussistersto Englishspeakingreaders.November25th, the day of theirmurder,is observedin many
LatinAmericancountriesas the InternationalDay AgainstViolence Towards
Women. Obviously,thesesisters,who fought one tyrant,haveservedas models
for women fightingagainstinjusticesof all kinds"(ITB, 324). Patria,Minerva,
Mate, and Dede come alivein firstpersonnarrativepiecesto resistamnesiaand
colonization.The authorexplicitlyconstructstheirnarrativein orderto present
her English-speakingaudiencewith an alternativeparadigmof feminist-socialism informedby postcolonialdiscourse,which may act as a bridgeconnecting
women without denyingdifferences.
Dede beginsthe novel in thirdperson,character-specific
narration,awaitthe
arrival
of
a
dominicana
who
wants
to
her
about her sisquestion
ing
gringa
ters. If Alvarezis representingherself through this hybrid designation, she
61
JacquelineStefanko
distancesherselfby severallayersfrom the telling,perhapsto avoidthe gestures
of colonizationthat say, "theycannotrepresentthemselvesso they must be represented."Furthermore,as the hybridgringadominicana,she blursthe boundariesbetween"us"and "them"in the performanceof her own subjectstatusand
locatesherself,as Fergusonexplains,"in relationto the moving trajectoriesof
power and resistancevia circumstancesof proximityand distance,restlessness
and rootedness,separationand connection."23 As we shall see, each of the sistersaremobile subjectsas well.
Dede's narrator,anticipatingthe questionsof the gringadominicana,utilizes the collectiveghost voices of past interviewersto articulatea centralquestion of the novel: "Usuallythey leave, satisfied,without asking the prickly
questionsthat haveleft Dede lost in her memoriesfor weeks at a time, searching for the answer.Why, they inevitablyask in one form or another,why are
you the one who survived?"(ITB, 5). The answerlies in the negotiationof personal and collectivehistory becauseby surviving,Dede enablesmemory,the
narrationof the storiesof LasMariposas.Rememberingis explicitlycharacterized as narrationas Dede constructsher sistersas if they arecharactersin a play
and describesmemoryas a movie she can watchin her mind's eye. Continuing
the metaphor,the woman interviewerasks Dede to recount a mini-narrative,
and Dede rewinds her memory like a video tape to time "zero"(ITB, 7).
as a moment "beforethe futurebegan,"andwe are
Groundzerois characterized
placedin the site of estrangementbetween continuityand memoryloss ( ITB,
8). As the sceneends, "Achill goes throughher,for she feelsit in herbones,the
future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she
doesn'twant to be the only one left to tell theirstory"( ITB, 10). The prophetic
tone and the confusionof time signalsa shift, as if the actorsareaboutto come
onto the stage.
Minerva'svoice is the firstto emergefromoblivion,and her openingparagraphsset the tone for the feminist-socialistconsciousnessof the Mirabelsisters.The girls'privilegeof being allowed,by theirfather,accessto educationis
envisionedas a blessing in a religiousmetaphorthat invokes the enmeshed
institutionsof the familyand the church.Minervadetailsthe restricpatriarchal
tions placed upon girls and expressesdesirefor autonomy,freedom,and selfdetermination.Unlike the rabbitshe attemptsto forceinto freedom,she refuses
to become accustomedto the confines of prescribedgender roles.A specific
kind of educationbecomesthe site of emancipation:"Andthat'show I got free.
I don't mean just going to sleepawayschool on a trainwith a trunkfulof new
things. I mean in my head afterI got to Inmaculadaand met Sinitaand saw
what happenedto Lina and realizedthat I'd just left a small cage to go into a
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JacquelineStefanko
biggerone, the size of our whole country"(ITB, 13). Thus, the patriarchalconfines of the familyand the churchareplacedin directconnectionto the patriarchal and totalitarianfunctioning of the state, establishing a relationship
betweenfeminismand socialism.
The knowledgeMinervagainswhile at school is the resultof her relationwith
two women. Realizingthe occlusionsand obfuscationsof historywill
ship
deny her/story,Sinita tells Minervathe secret of Trujillo-his violent rise to
power,his practicesof terrorismand tyrannyoverthose who opposehim-and
narratesher personalmemoriesof murder.Utilizing the oral traditionof testimonial to fill in the silencesof history,Sinita providesMinervainstructionin
the alternativeparadigmsof feminist-socialism.After hearing Sinita's story,
Minervasays, "sureenough, my complicationshad started"( ITB, 20). While
"complications"is clearlya euphemismfor female menstruation,the coincidence of Minerva'sphysicalawarenessand politicalawarenessinvokesthe complicationsof knowledgeand powerwithin the context of Trujillo'srepressive
regime.Minerva,as a mobile subjectof consciousness,will negotiatethe moving trajectoriesof powerand resistancethroughoutthe novel.
Lina'sstory continuesMinerva'seducationabout Trujillo.The beautiful,
physicallymatureand adoredLinais spottedby Trujilloand chosen by him to
become one of his many mistresses.Used and abandoned,Linaends up locked
awayin a mansionbehind high iron gates, designatedpobrecitaby her friends
(ITB, 23). Lina's story reinforcesthe enmeshing of sexualitywith issues of
knowledge,power,and politics,thus securinga foundationfor Minerva'sfeminist-socialism.She attempts to protect herself from the possibilityof sexual
exploitationby hiding the developmentof her breastsso that "whathappened
to Lina Lovat6nwould never happen"to her (ITB, 23). She also begins to
engagein a critiqueof the governmentand the recordof historythat seeks to
deny her memoriesof herstory.This critiquequicklyleads to her involvement
in politicallysubversiveactivities.
MariaTeresa,or Mate, as she is known throughoutmost of the text, is the
second sisterto speakin firstperson.Her narrativepiecesarepresentedas journal entriesin a seriesof diariesgiven to her by Minerva.Alvarezintensifiesthe
powerof her polyphonicnovel by utilizingmultiplenarratorsas well as multiple narrativeforms.The diaryform enablesher to heighten the sense of autoreflection.Aptly, the initial diaryis a presentfor Mate'sfirst communion,and
she writes:"Minervasayskeepinga diaryis also a way to reflectand reflection
deepensone's soul. It sounds so serious.I supposenow that I've got one I'm
responsiblefor, I have to expectsome changes"(ITB, 30). Within the context
of the church,we areonce againmadeawareof subtlesubversionsof patriarchy,
63
JacquelineStefanko
for the deepening of the soul toward which Mate is religiously instructed is
quite different than the consciousness she attains. While Mate's narrated memories seem superficial at first, the evolution of her political awareness becomes
evident via the process of writing. Gaining knowledge of sexuality and political
power, Mate loses her naivete along with her first diary and writes: "Minerva
was right. My soul has gotten deeper since I started writing in you. But this is
what I want to know that not even Minerva knows. What do I do now to fill up
that hole?" (ITB, 43). Political activism and the collective struggle against tyranny, although motivated by romance for Mate, seem to supply the sustenance
she seeks.
Patria, the third Mariposa to emerge in telling, is guided by a passion for
God and an altruistic faith, as well as by the different passion of sexual desire.
The teachings of the church direct Patria toward the appropriate spheres of
marriage and religious service. Her patriarchal indoctrination causes her, at
first, to accept the belief that women should not be involved in the public
affairsof politics. Yet, after she miscarries, Patria suffers a crisis in faith and her
feminist-socialist consciousness begins to grow:
That moment,I understood[Minerva's]hatred.My familyhad not beenpersonallyhurt by Trujillo,just as beforelosing my baby,Jesushad not taken
anythingawayfromme. But othershadbeensufferinggreatlosses.Therewere
the Perozos,not a man left in that family.And MartinezReynaand his wife
murderedin their bed, and thousandsof Haitiansmassacredat the border,
makingthe river,theysay,stillrunred- iAy Diossanto!I hadheard,but I had
not believed... How could our loving,all-powerfulFatherallowus to suffer
so?I lookedup, challengingHim. And the two faces [of the Good Shepherd
and E1Jefe]had merged!(ITB, 53)
While on a pilgrimage to Virgencita, Patria asks for guidance and a sign
that will renew her faith. Looking back at the "hundreds of weary, upturned
faces"who have packed the church to pray, Patria finds resolution to her spiritual crisis as she reorients her faith toward the masses and realizes that the people's liberty is sacred, worthy of devotion and imbued with the divine. Thus, a
third sister's political consciousness is born of subversions of patriarchy.
Although Dede similarly experiences the growth of consciousness, she
chooses to remain loyal to tradition, standing by her husband and his decision
to remain disengaged from the political sedition. When Minerva, Mate, their
husbands, and Patria'shusband are imprisoned and tortured, Dede realizesthat
"whether she joined their underground or not, her fate was bound up with the
fates of her sisters" (ITB, 193). She also acknowledges that her fate will be different and that "if they died, she would not want to go on living without
64
JacquelineStefanko
them,"but would haveto (Alvarez193). Afterthe releaseof Minervaand Mate,
and the subsequentmurderof Minerva,Mate, and Patriaas they returnfrom
visiting their husbandsin prison, Dede questions her choices, believing she
lackedthe courageto join her sistersin their struggle.Yet, at the end of the
novel, Dede recognizescourageas her responsibilityto narrateand renew the
story of Las Mariposas.The story she enablesembodies the feminist-socialist
paradigmsher sistersgeneratedin their politically subversiveactivities,thus
establishingthe resistantand liberatorypower of narrative.Coming full circle
to the futureprophesiedat the beginning,Dede looks aroundher for evidence
of the revolutionher sistersfought and died for. Seeing only reform,neocolonialism,and the losses of her country'scollectivememory, Dede asks, "wasit
for this, the sacrificeof the butterflies?"
(ITB, 318). As English-speakingreaders, as first-worldfeminists,we must examine our responsibilityin failing to
connect with the rest of the hemispherein the coalitionalpolitics that could
providethe meansfor more effectivechange.Yet, I believe,as Alvarezappears
to, that the sacrificeof the butterflieshas affectedsome real and important
changesin the worldand, at the veryleast,has resultedin this novel'sresistance
to amnesia.
For the charactersof Garcia'sDreamingin Cuban,the costs and failingsof
revolutionare equally importantfor acknowledgingthe power of narration.
Exiledfrom Cuba as a smallchild, Pilarfinds herselffeelingconnectedto other
exiles,the Jewswho surroundher in Brooklyn.As Amy Kaminskytheorizesin
Readingthe BodyPolitic,"languagetells us that exile is its own location:people
living out of their homelandare 'in exile' . . . the place of exile is defined by
what is missing,not by what it contains."24 As a conditionof her displacement,
Pilardoes not feel at home in New Yorkbecauseshe experiencesthis sense of
absence in the missing presenceof her grandmotherCelia. Separatedfrom
Cuba and her grandmotherby the "politiciansand the generalswho force
eventson us that structureour lives, that dictatethe memorieswe'll havewhen
we're old," Pilar'stelepathicconnection with Celia grows silent, and she is
forcedto engagein a quest to resolveher displacement( DIC, 138). As the first
step in her journey,Pilarconceptualizesa special,almosttropical,light favored
by her for painting as a "matrixlight, a recombinantlight that disintegrates
hard lines and planes,rearrangingobjectsto their essences"( DIC, 178). This
conceptualizationappearsto participatein the unresolvedhistoricaldialogues
characteristicof diasporicarticulationsas it negotiatesbetween the impurity
and fluidityof bordersand the stabilityof essences.Pilarfinds herselfguidedby
this light to a botanicawhereshe reconnectswith herAfro-Cubanheritageand
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JacquelineStefanko
her patronspirit,Chango, the god of fire and lightening.Guided by Chango,
Pilarbegins to recuperateher telepathicpowers:"I can hear fragmentsof people's thoughts, glimpse scrapsof the future . . . erraticas lightening"( DIC,
216). No longera spiritualexile,she has the powerto crossthe boundariesseparatingher from Cuba and her grandmother.Without any explanationof the
logisticsof travelingto Cuba,Pilarand her motherarriveas if by magicand rituallybatheCelia,thus healingthe rupturein communication:"Ipull the covers
over Abuela'sshoulders,searchingher face for a hint of my own ... I know
what my grandmotherdreams. Of massacresin distant countries,pregnant
women dismemberedin the squares.AbuelaCeliawalksamongthem mute and
invisible.The thatchedroofs steamin the morningair"( DIC, 218). In Pilar's
narrationof Celia'sdreams,we are not allowed to forget the harshestconditions, what Clifforddescribesas the "strongcultural,political and economic
compulsions"that forcepeopleto traveland emergeas diasporiccultures.25 We
can also begin to see the creativediscursivetransformations
emergingfrom the
of
and
discourse
as an implicit
feminism,
socialism,
enmeshing
postcolonial
force.
counterinsurgent
The violationsand rupturesof exile entwinewith the regenerativepowers
of the bruja, creating the complex weave of the text. Ending Dreamingin
Cubanwith a final epistolaryinterjectiondatedJanuary11, 1959, Celiawrites
to her long lost lover Gustavo,"The revolutionis eleven days old. My granddaughter,PilarPuente del Pino, was born today. It is also my birthday.I am
fiftyyearsold. I will no longerwriteto you, mi amor.She will remembereverything"(DIC, 245). Such an endingemphasizescyclicalityas opposedto closure.
At the age of fifty, Celia passesthe torch of "knowledgelike the first fire"to
hergranddaughter(DIC, 222). She knows Pilarwill be the next bruja,the next
storytellerwho will continue the narrationof memoryby filling in the silences
and constructingalternativeparadigmscapableof generatingresistantand liberatorypossibilities.Celia'slast gift to Pilaris a "boxof lettersshe wroteto her
onetime lover in Spain, but neversent"and "abook of poems she'shad since
1930, when she heardGarciaLorcaread"(ITB, 235). The textualityof Pilar's
entireinheritancefrom Celiaimplicitlyenablesher to constructthe polyphonic
narrativeof the novel, continuingthe cycle.Togetherthe implicitauthorstatus
threadsthat connectherto
of the characterPilarand the loose autobiographical
the authorGarciasuggestthat narrativeis the vehicleby which the rupturesof
exile can be healedand that the gestureof traveling/dwellingcan be negotiated
via the text.
Similarly,Alvarez ends How the Garcia Girls Lost TheirAccentswith
Yolanda'svoice emergingas implicitauthor,telescopingtime and eventsinto a
66
JacquelineStefanko
threadof exile and return,traveling/dwelling.She writes:"Atthat hour and in
that loneliness,I hearher, a blackfurredthing lurkingin the cornersof my life,
her magentamouth opening,wailingoversome violationthat lies at the center
of my art"(HGGLTA,290). The referenceto the kitten conjuresthe image of
Yolandaas a child rippinga kittenfrom its mother,just as she was rippedfrom
her mother-land,mother-tongue.If we see, as Kaminskydoes, in the writingof
exile "a discourseof desire,a desireto recuperate,repairand return,"then we
must also accept the violation, the rupture,the dispersal,and negotiateeach
gesture of traveling/dwelling in narrativesimultaneously. 26
The works of Julia Alvarez, Cristina Garcia, Rosario Morales, and Aurora
Levins Morales highlight the intercultural questions of identity that evolve from
being "in-between," from the condition of hybridity. Needing to survive at the
crossroads, "where one never belongs totally to one place, yet where one is able
to feel an integral part of many places," they construct hybrid narrativescapable
of engaging the mobility of their subject of consciousness, textually negotiating
the spiral of exile and return.27 The process of autobiographical writing
becomes the site and tongue of Levins Morales and Morales's struggle to get
home alive, to be immigrants and inventors of countries, to enunciate jibaro,
"meaning one who runs away to be free" ( GHA, 54). Their coauthored narrative demonstrates the resistant and liberatory power of the mestiza subject of
consciousness, utilizing the tools of feminism, socialism, and postcolonial discourse, and speaks from within their hybridization. When Pilar returns to Cuba
in Dreaming in Cuban and for the first time dreams in Spanish, she realizes that
Cuba, although it cannot be her home, will always be a part of her consciousness. She perceives Cuba and her cultural memory to be a place she can continually renew and re-invent through narrative, with her imagination. The spirits
of the Mirabel sisters in Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterfliescan finally come
to rest long after their deaths because Dede, the sister who survived, acts as a
medium through which their voices transcend death and oblivion to enact narrative. Each of these texts attempts to facilitate a return and a recovery from
exile, not by recuperating an essential origin, although nostalgia is tempting,
but by inventing through an active and imaginative interpretation a narrativeof
home, history, and memory. As new ways of telling that both displace and converge multiple voices, multiple genres, and multiple gestures, these texts by Latinas writing in the United States offer exciting opportunities for the continued
development of the fertile interlocking of discourses, disciplines, and politics.
67
Jacqueline Stefanko
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
I use the term "world traveler"in the sense used by Maria C. Lugones in "Playfulness, 'World-travelling,' and Loving Perception," in Making Face, Making Soul/
Haciendo Caras: Creativeand Critical Perspectivesby Feminists of Color, ed. Gloria
Anzaldua (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1990), 390.
Christine Sylvester, "African and Western Feminisms: World-Traveling the Tendencies and Possibilities," Signs 20:4 (1995): 946.
Edward Said, "Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors," CriticalInquiry 15 (1989): 225.
Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1994),
and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (New York: Plume, 1994); Cristina
Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992); and Rosario
Morales and Aurora Levins Morales, Getting Home Alive (Ithica: Firebrand Books,
1986). Hereafter, all references to these works will be cited parenthetically in the
text. Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and
Socialist Feminism in the 1980's," in Feminism/Postmodernism, ed. Linda J.
Nicholson (New York: Routledge, 1990), 212.
James Clifford, "Traveling Cultures," in Cultural Studies, ed. Lawrence Grossberg,
Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler (New York: Routledge, 1992), 108.
Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," in Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978),
121.
Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs," 217.
Norma Alarc6n, "The Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and
Anglo-American Feminism," in Anzaldua, Making Face, Making Soul, 364.
Clifford, "Traveling Cultures," 108.
Mae Gwendolyn Henderson, "Speaking in Tongues: Dialogics Dialectics, and the
Black Woman Writer's LiteraryTradition," in Feminists Theorize the Political, ed.
Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott (New York: Routledge, 1992), 145.
Carol Boyce Davies, Black Women, Writing, and Identity:Migrations of the Subject
(New York: Routledge, 1994), 4.
Maria C. Lugones, "Purity, Impurity, and Separation," Signs 19:2 (1995): 473.
Lourdes Rojas, "Latinas at the Crossroads," in Breaking Boundaries, ed. Asunci6n
Horno-Delgado (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989), 171.
Rojas, "Latinasat the Crossroads," 166.
Benedict R. Anderson, Imagined Communities:Reflectionson the Origin and Spread
of Nationalism (New York: Verso, 1983), 204.
Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6.
Lugones, "Purity, Impurity, and Separation," 462.
Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/LaFrontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt
Lute Books, 1987), 46.
68
JacquelineStefanko
19. KathyE. Ferguson, TheMan Question:Visionsof Subjectivityin FeministTheory
(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1993), 154.
20. Lugones,"Purity,Impurity,and Separation,"460.
21. Lugones,"Purity,Impurity,and Separation,"478.
22. Lugones,"Playfulness,'World-Traveling,'
and LovingPerception,"391.
Man
The
161.
23. Ferguson,
Question,
24. Amy Kaminsky,Readingthe BodyPolitic:FeministCriticismand Latin American
WomenWriters(Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,1993), 30.
25. Clifford,"TravelingCultures,"108.
26. Kaminsky,ReadingtheBodyPolitic,33.
27. Rojas,"Latinasat the Crossroads,"172.
69