Tlapaleria elena poniatowska biography
•
Latin American Voices through Short Stories
Most Latin American countries gained their independence from Spain between 1810 and 1824, though they soon all fell in the hands of despotic governments, even in 20th century. Few times allied with these governments but mostly against them, writers have attempted to give their people a space to breath and dream, to raise their ‘voices’. This course aims to study the works of these writers as a common cultural heritage through which they poetize, humorize, protest, depict reality, or dream magically of a sociopolitical utopia that would transform the world that we see into the world that we want. From Argentine Esteban Echeverría (The Slaughterhouse, 1838), to Cuban Reinaldo Arenas (With Eyes Closed, 1972), and Mexican Elena Poniatowska (Tlapaleria, 2003), we will follow voices across Latin American geography and history, seeking to apprehend the elusive ‘voice of the voiceless’.
Required text: Materials for this course will be a
•
Tlapalería
La gente le llegaba a la abuela a través de los perros. Una gente con perro era ya un poco perro y por lo tanto, digna dem atención.
Ocho relatos de vida sobre variados temas, retratos de la sociedad mexicana, tan realistas, que enstaka más dem uno identificas a algún conocido. Una tragedia contada a ritmo de chisme, una vida de adicciones, la alcurnia de una familia demostrada en su habilidad para comer alcachofas, el recuento de una infidelidad, el buen corazón de una protectora dem los perros, el despertar bisexual o acaso embrujo de una señorona y la soledad redefinida por el canto de un canario.
El primer relato, que da nombre a esta pequeña antología, es impactante por la destreza con la que a través de una serie dem diálogos dem distintos personajes, el lector entiende la tragedia que está narrando. El segundo es avasallador porque näsa hace testigos de cómo una vida se trunca sin remedio. Algunos relatos son más memorables que otros, pero ninguno deja indi
•
It started with a book. “La Noche de Tlatelolco” or “The Night of Tlatelolco.”
The book chronicles the massacre of hundreds of student protesters by the Mexican army in 1968 and gathers the voices of witnesses. The students were killed in Mexico City just days before the city hosted the Summer Olympics, and during a time of worldwide student revolts.
I was 16 when I first read the book by pioneering Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska. It was many years after the massacre. I didn’t really understand what a journalist was. But I felt the power of the words. The book was one of the few reports that contradicted Mexican authorities’ official story about the killings. I was moved.
A few years later, I read Poniatowska’s “Hasta no verte Jesus mio” or “Here’s to You, Jesusa!” The book is about a working-class Mexican woman who witnesses some of the most important events of early 20th century Mexican history. Jesusa was a so