"Soy la Avon Lady"
Tomorrow, my Chican@ lit students and I will be discussing Lorraine López's bleakly hilarious, moving short story of cultural loss and reclamation, "Soy la Avon Lady," the title story from her collection that won the Miguel Mármol Prize when it came out in 2002.
I'm wondering about an idea for a possible scholarly article that explores the role of the city as a site of interpersonal misreading in contemporary Chican@ short fiction. Here's the basic notion. Displaced from the locating context of village, family, and homeland of origin, Chican@ characters on their own in the metropolis become subject to diminished legibility, misreading each other and/or being misread, sometimes to humorous effect but sometimes with devastating and violent results. I'm thinking particularly about stories that foreground the role of the city, such as Viramontes's "Cariboo Café," Chacón's "The Biggest City in the World," Troncoso's "My Life in the City," and this story, "Soy la Avon Lady," by Lorraine. In each, ethnicity, history, and identity are at stake. In each, there's some degree of alienation from Mexican culture. In each, individuals' spatial mobility plays a significant literal role in the story. How are all these facets working together?
And are there questions of genre to be asked? Why does this set of issues crop up so markedly in short stories? (Maybe it's just as prevalent in novels and poetry, and I'm not reading widely enough.)
I'm just kind of kicking this idea around, wondering what it means and what, if anything, I can/should do with it, in a scholarly way. If you're familiar with these stories and/or with the issues and want to respond with your take on it, please do. I'd really welcome your perspective.
And if you just want an entertaining and thought-provoking read, definitely check out "Soy la Avon Lady." I can't wait to hear what my students say about it tomorrow.
I'm wondering about an idea for a possible scholarly article that explores the role of the city as a site of interpersonal misreading in contemporary Chican@ short fiction. Here's the basic notion. Displaced from the locating context of village, family, and homeland of origin, Chican@ characters on their own in the metropolis become subject to diminished legibility, misreading each other and/or being misread, sometimes to humorous effect but sometimes with devastating and violent results. I'm thinking particularly about stories that foreground the role of the city, such as Viramontes's "Cariboo Café," Chacón's "The Biggest City in the World," Troncoso's "My Life in the City," and this story, "Soy la Avon Lady," by Lorraine. In each, ethnicity, history, and identity are at stake. In each, there's some degree of alienation from Mexican culture. In each, individuals' spatial mobility plays a significant literal role in the story. How are all these facets working together?
And are there questions of genre to be asked? Why does this set of issues crop up so markedly in short stories? (Maybe it's just as prevalent in novels and poetry, and I'm not reading widely enough.)
I'm just kind of kicking this idea around, wondering what it means and what, if anything, I can/should do with it, in a scholarly way. If you're familiar with these stories and/or with the issues and want to respond with your take on it, please do. I'd really welcome your perspective.
And if you just want an entertaining and thought-provoking read, definitely check out "Soy la Avon Lady." I can't wait to hear what my students say about it tomorrow.
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