[Issue #1, Winter 1997-98]
Esperando a Loló
By Ana Lydia Vega
San Juan: Ed. Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994
Reviewed by Nancy Bird
Contemporary Puerto Rican author Ana Lydia Vega has dedicated most of her
literary production to the complexities and cultural debates of writing
in "Puerto Rican." Some of her most renowned works are short story
collections, such as Encancaranublado (1983), Vírgenes
y Mártires (1983; co-authored by Carmen Lugo Filippi), and Falsas
Crónicas del Sur (1991). In Esperando a Loló, Vega
not only combines a wide variety of Puerto Rican cultural themes and points
of view, but also takes on a new approach to genre selection and combination.
Thus, Esperando a Loló becomes more of a mosaic of autobiographical
essays, socio-political critique, and animated cartoons of daily life in
modern (or postmodern) Puerto Rico.
Paying special attention to the language issue and the ambiguities set forth
by a bilingual education that fails as it promotes the assimilation of the
English language (while looking down on the Spanish language in terms of
prestige), Vega directs her discussion onto the subject of defensive nationalism
as a mechanism of reaffirmation. However, as a continuation of the themes
presented in her previous collections, Vega underscores the contradictions
that nationalism represents as to what the role of the engaged writer should
be in the mission of cultural reaffirmation. In the essays-chronicles in
this collection, themes such as machismo, emigration, higher education,
and politics are presented in relation to how they have been portrayed in
twentieth century Puerto Rican literature. Once again, Vega succeeds in
denouncing the ambivalent attitudes of modern Puerto Rican society regarding
its political and cultural dilemmas. She directly prompts the reader to
evaluate the situation: "¿No será porque la ambigüedad
ha sido siempre lo nuestro?" ("Is it that ambiguity has always
been what is ours?" [Translation by Nancy Bird]).
This collection, so critical of society and politics, does not lose momentum
in terms of stylistic variety and creativity, since it does not follow a
strict order from the most humorous pieces to the most serious ones. Vega
oscillates between the celebration of the popular and the critique of the
socio-cultural dilemmas of Puerto Rican society. Through this approach,
she is able to attack the manipulation of certain concepts, like what is
"national" and what is "Puerto Rican," and the resulting
identity crisis.
It can be said that Esperando a Loló is a step further in
the discussion of the themes previously put in the spotlight by Vega, especially
because of the way in which they are exposed, allowing for a broader diversity
of perspectives. The theme of Puerto Rican literature and the role of the
woman writer in this process, continue to be main concerns for Vega, since
this is all directly related to the problem of machismo and the "national"
models created for women in Puerto Rican society. We shall see in Vega's
future publications how she chooses to present her critique and how she
will direct her creativity in terms of new possibilities for combinations
of literary genres, language styles, and narrative perspectives.
[The only book by Ana Lydia Vega to be translated into English thus far
is True and False Romances: Stories and a Novella (Masks). Translated
by Andrew Hurley, it was published by Serpents Tail in 1994.]
__________
From Esperando a Loló
(Translation by Nancy Bird)
"Se restauran la hospitalidad y la confianza, virtudes
puertorriqueñas por excelencia que promueve Turismo junto a las playas
y el ron. Tregua de hostilidades, licencia a la alegría, las Navidades
rescatan brevemente el precario equilibrio mental de un pueblo asustado
por su propia violencia." [p.76]
"Hospitality and trustworthiness are restored, downright Puerto Rican
virtues advertised by Tourism along with the beaches and the rum. Cease-fire
of hostilities, license to happiness, the Christmas season briefly rescues
the precarious mental equilibrium of a society afraid of its own violence."
[Vega is commenting here about traditional Puerto Rican festivities during
the Christmas season.]
____________________
Nancy Bird is an instructor of Spanish at UW-Madison, where she is pursuing
an M.A. in Hispanic Literature. She studied abroad in Toledo, Spain in the
summer of 1993.
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