That’s what they are up to, those authors.
Meanwhile: Hispanism is an imperial project but Latin American writing is multi-voiced from the beginning; the Inca Garcilaso, for instance, insists upon himself as a Quechua narrator, for instance, and Mazzotti (1995 in Revista Iberoamericana and elsewhere) insists on the aural qualities of this text as well. There are also indigenous mestizos, José Piedra’s reblackening mulattos and more. White authors as well try to appropriate this, participate in this scene somehow, but also Westernize it (Allende and Neruda do this too, not just conservatives)–and are also participating in the management of alterity.
I remember when I first started thinking about this project: I was amazed people in Latin America could not imagine extending democratic rights to someone different from themselves. We all had to become mixed-blood first, it seemed. But that was just it: one must manage alterity.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 