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2. BETRAYED BY AUNT CLARA The frivolity and glamour that the earliest readers of Puig’s La traición thought trivial and offensive was an effect of a desire, on their part, for orden y concierto. They sought to impose a fixed linear structure on the novel, in defiance of the “queer aesthetics” to which they were sufficiently sensitive to be disturbed by. La traición was read censoriously by those who tried to disambiguate the ambiguities in Puig’s narrative out of a need for clarity. But its apparent lack of authority (of orden y concierto) originated in Puig’s intentional omission of what had been designed to be its first chapter, “Aunt Clara” [“La tía Clara”], which Puig self-censored precisely in order to enhance the apparent desorden y desconcierto of the novel.9 His intention in omitting “Aunt Clara” was to emphasize the narrative’s appropriation of the styles of others and to blur any authoritative or dominant voice. But the effect of this omission was to further complicate the titular traición, a word whose various meanings and nuances in Spanish—betrayal, treachery, deception , and disappointment in their active and passive senses—are fully exploited in the novel and, in addition, are closely tied to censorship as Puig had experienced it. Puig’s characters, in both the published novel and the omitted chapter, experience traición in all its various senses. To Puig himself, the marketplace’s rejection of his novel felt like a traición, a huge disappointment that in part had its origins in his own deliberate omission of “Aunt Clara.” And if the omission of this chapter was an act of self-censorship on Puig’s part, it was an act of treachery for his prospective readers, and one of deception for the Spanish censors. The chapter’s suppression, though, needs to be understood as a function of the general textual economy designed by Puig, that is, within his desire to produce what the censors described as a “pile-up” or a “tailor’s drawer,” a desire that turned out to be likewise misunderstood by Puig’s prospective publishers.10 Certainly, “Aunt Clara” would have pleased those who felt deceived (or perhaps disappointed) by the novel’s narrative dispersion and wanted to read a more clearly defined linear narrative.11 But also aunt Clara is perhaps the most outspoken member of the Casals family, and the inclusion of this chapter might have resulted in an even more troublesome experience for Puig with the Spanish censors. Not coincidentally , her name means “clear, bright, transparent,” and the information she provides would have brought a “clarity” to the novel that the latter would probably have appreciated in one way, but would have been scandalized by in another. Betrayed by Censorship 155 In this respect, aunt Clara’s monologue contains several potential stumbling blocks. The most significant of these is her portrayal of the Spanish immigrants of Coronel Vallejos, mostly owners of small businesses like the pharmacy where Mita works, and wanna-be entrepreneurs like Berto Casals, whom Mita will end up marrying. Clara voices her concerns about the way of life of Spaniards in Argentina, showing a mixture of resentment and admiration. The “gallegos” in the novel (“Galicians,” as Spaniards are called in Argentina) own property, small businesses, and lend money to the locals, reproducing the colonial presence of Spain in the economic structure of the remote rural town of Coronel Vallejos. By metonymy, Galicia, Spain’s most northwestern region and birthplace of Francisco Franco, came to represent Spain in many Latin American countries; it was (and is) the place of origin of the vast majority of Spanish immigrants in Argentina. By contrast, Clara’s mother comes from a small town on the River Po in Italy, and was forced to move to La Plata after marriage. Clara’s contrasting of these two immigrant communities concludes that Spaniards are not to be trusted: ya se sabe que estos medios gallegos no son de nuestra modalidad , a la italiana, somos más tranquilos, más de confianza. Los españoles tienen esos arrebatos y esa mugre en la casa, y por ahí se salen con desplantes de los más desagradables. Hoy te adoran y mañana te odian, según como sople el viento . . . eso sí tienen estos españoles, y es que nuncan olvidan su tierra, extrañan como locos. It is well known that these half-Galicians are not of our kind, as...

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