La resignificación de la frontera en Basura de Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny

Abstract

The narrative work of Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny (Hermosillo, 1973) with works like Una no habla de esto (2007), Nenitas (2013) Todo eso es yo (2016) y Basura (2018), among others, is populated by narratives voices in conflict with their surroundings, due a double status of marginality, caused by their gender and social status. This confrontation can be recognized in the characters’ expression of their interiority, who are located and mobilized in urban spaces of northern Mexico. In Basura (2018), a novel framed within the marginal context of the Ciudad Juarez’ landfill, female characters build a story in which the boundaries of urban spaces and intimacies are subject to a transformation process that re-signifies both the environment and the protagonists. The daily life of both the landfill and the neighborhood of the periphery, marginal spaces par excellence, are presented, paradoxically, as the last bastions of peace in the face of the ravages of urban violence. These are the spaces containing the narrative of three differentiated voices, Alicia, Reyna and, Gris. In Basura, through the aforementioned liminal voices, the intimate universe of those who inhabit the marginal area historically invisible are explored. The frontier as a spatial, social, cultural and personal limit is redefined through an interesting play between narrative voices and their referent.