Erro-Peralta, Nora

Silas Weir Mitchell in 1872 defined as "phantom limb" the sensation and feelings of
anxiety, confusion and even pain the amputee receives from an absent body part. By extending
this concept and applying it to the architectural imagery within literature, it is possible to observe
the dynamics between the characters and their structural environment. This thesis explores the
relation between spatial structure and identity in two Latin American works: "Walking Around"
(1933) by Pablo Neruda and Aura (1962) by Carlos Fuentes. Both authors introduce architecture
as an intrinsic element in the construction of their narrative; Neruda's poetic voice wanders
around a seemingly living city, while Fuentes's characters abandon the city to become part of a
house. The architectural imagery of both texts leads the reader to explore the construction of its
literary subjects and to see the physical space as their "phantom limbs." This reading will
elucidate the importance of architecture within Latin American literature as well as reveal the
maneuvering of the structural representations in the construction of the Latin America identity.

Silenced for almost half a century, testimonies of those who lost the Spanish Civil
War are now surfacing and being published. The origin of this dissertation was the
chance discovery that Martín Herrera de Mendoza, a Spanish Civil War exile living in the
United States, was truly a Catalonian anarchist named Antonio Vidal Arabí. This double
identity was a cover for the political activist dedicated to the fight for change in the
anarchist workers’ union CNT (National Confederation of Workers) and the FAI
(Federation of Iberian Anarchists). He founded the FAI chapter in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
and planned a failed assassination attempt on General Franco’s life in an effort to avoid
the military takeover in 1936.
This dissertation is the reconstruction of Antonio Vidal Arabí’s life narrative. It is
based on the texts written during his seventeen-month stay as a refugee in Great Britain.
Copies of his writings were left in a suitcase with a fellow anarchist who he instructed to
have sent to his family upon his death. In 1989, “The English Suitcase” was delivered to his children in Barcelona. Based on his own account, this study follows his service as an
intelligence agent for the Spanish Republic during the War. When it was over, he
attempted to evacuate his family from France, to save them from the threat of the Nazi
invasion and reunite with them in England or America.
The analysis of the letters he wrote to his wife and children in France documents
how he hid from Franco’s spies using his dual identity. In his letters, always signed as
Martín Herrera de Mendoza, he invents a persona in order to help his family. The present
study narrates his transformation into the persona he created and the events that brought
about his translation into his “other.” Antonio Vidal Arabí’s bilinguism and biculturality
is underlined as the main factors in his change into Martín Herrera de Mendoza. His was
a voyage into exile documented by his own words; a story of survival and reinvention.

Saudade, a sentiment similar to but stronger than the English word "melancholy," has been a subject of much interest on the Iberian peninsula for centuries, especially among Galician-Portuguese writers. Rosalia de Castro, a nineteenth-century poet and author from Galicia, is recognized as one of Spain's most talented writers, partly because of her ability to express the various phases of a sentiment which is so difficult to understand. In her poetry Castro skillfully describes the feelings of the Galician people and, in doing so, bares the depth of her own saudade. The loss of love and departure from one's homeland are aptly presented as causes of saudade as well as the poet's love for nature and longing to return to the beauty of her native province. In her personal suffering, Castro's longing evolves into a desire for death. Her expressions of this sentiment in verse induce in the reader a desire to learn more about this little-known province and its people.

The feminist ideology Gioconda Belli develops in La mujer habitada is a critique of the dictatorial and/or patriarchal restrictions which oppress her women characters. In the novel, the protagonists, Itza a mythological woman warrior from the time of the Spanish Conquest, and Lavinia, a Sandinista guerillera during the Somoza regime, are revolutionary characters who transgress the limitations inherent in the traditional societal roles of "passive" females. Itza challenges the pre-Colonial and Colonial patriarchal ideology, while Lavinia seeks to undermine at once the official state discourse of the Somoza dictatorship, and the phallocentric revolutionary ideology of some of the Sandinistas. In the process, these female characters constitute themselves as subjects and challenge the male-centered canon that so often objectifies women and devalues their creativity.

Characterization of Black women as erotic beings in Spanish-Caribbean narrative has shifted significantly from 1880 to 1990. Their representation as totally submissive and erotic beings has evolved into that of socially conscious and self accepting Black women. In Villaverde's Cecilia Valdes (1882), Cecilia and Maria de la Regla are depicted as objects of male sexual desires. Diaz's Pascua in Cumboto (1948) and Asturias' Mulata de tal (1963), although eroticized, insinuate an underlying androgynous nature which makes them more assertive in their use of sexuality. However, it is contemporary women writers who dismantle the erotic stereotype: Ferre's "Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres" (1974) portrays a Black prostitute who, advances socially and economically. Cabrera's Nana in "La tesorera del diablo" (1971) is the bearer of ancestral knowledge and moral values, and Cartagena Portalatin's Aurora, in "La llamaban Aurora," (1978) speaks forcefully on social issues and fully accepts herself as a Black woman.

Antonio Buero Vallejo is well-known for his modern Spanish tragedies. In La tejedora de suenos, Madrugada, and Irene o el tesoro, he presents three female protagonists, Penelope, Amalia, and Irene, who must struggle to overcome the boundaries placed on them by their assigned roles in society. Different from his male protagonists who resolve their problems within their normal environment, Buero Vallejo recognizes the inherent creativity of these women, who, in spite of their difficult circumstances and tragic flaws, find a solution to their challenging situations through the creation of alternate realities.

Alcoholism is one of the many grave social problems in Mexico that Rosario Castellanos depicts in her novels, short stories and plays. In her Indigenist works, Castellanos connects alcohol abuse to other social ills: poverty, violence, prejudice, exploitation of Indians and mistreatment of women and children. She has illuminated a complex, interconnected web of social crises of which alcohol is often at the center. Furthermore, anthropological, historical and medical studies on alcohol use in the locations and times in which these works take place indicate that her descriptions of the problems are based on fact. This analysis suggests that Castellanos has written about the alcohol issue in order to expose the facts surrounding it and to promote social change.

In Mexico, fragmentation is an integral element in social, political, and literary realities expressing an inequality among its citizens. This disparity is reflected in literary and cinematic representations. The Mexican male is the agent that perpetuates the fractured society, and his representation in the arts reflects the impediments to social progress in both the heterosexual and homosexual communities. The novels Los de abajo, Pedro Paramo , and La muerte de Artemio Cruz, present the traditional Mexican male and images of masculinity in the heterosexual community. El vampiro de la Colonia Roma by Luis Zapata introduces the male homosexual character into Mexican discourse and implies how he is affected by fragmentation. The film Y tu mama tambien (2001) by Alfonso Cuaron proposes that inequality will be perpetuated if Mexican society does not change its views of what is to be considered "masculine."