Huellas ignotas: Antología de cuentistas centroamericanas (1991-2005) (review)

This anthology of short stories by Central American female authors is the result of Willy O. Muñoz's many years of research in Central America and productive contact with the region's writers and their literature. Volume 1, which is not under review here, includes texts published between 1890 and 1990. Volume 2 contains texts written or published by a diverse array of writers from the region between 1991 and 2005, a period in which there was a proliferation of writings by Central American women.

Muñoz has organized his anthology by the date of composition or publication of each text. This arrangement allows for inclusion of authors from different generations. The thirty-seven writers included in the anthology were born between 1933 and 1974. Nine were born in Panama (Isis Tejeira, Beatriz Valdés, Rosa María Britton, Moravia Ochoa López, Aida Judith González Castrellón, Consuelo Tomás, Yolanda J. Hackshaw, Melanie Taylor, and Gloria Guardia); eight in Guatemala (Esmeralda Putzeys Illescas, Mildred Hernández, Jessica Masaya Portocarrero, Aida Toledo, Ruth Piedrasanta Herrera, Gloria Hernández, Fabiola Juárez, and Lorena Flores); seven in Nicaragua (Mercedes Gordillo, Patricia Belli, Isolda Rodríguez Rosales, Marisela Quintana, Betty Lacayo, Alejandrina Gutiérrez, and María del Carmen Pérez Cuadra); four in Honduras (María Eugenia Ramos, Rocío Tábora, Waldina Mejía, and Lety Elvir); four in El Salvador (Ruth Evelyn Cruz, Jacinta Escudos, Irma Chavarría, and Jennifer Rebeca Valiente); and one in Costa Rica (Anacristina Rossi). The remaining four writers were born outside of Central America: Erika Harris, who is considered a Panamanian writer, was born in Mexico, and Myriam Bustos Arratia, Giovanna Giglioli, and Dorelia Barahona, considered Costa Rican authors, were born in Chile, Italy, and Spain, respectively. Moreover, Alejandrina Gutiérrez, who was born in Nicaragua, spent part of her childhood in Venezuela and lives in Costa Rica. Muñoz provides biographic and bibliographic information for each of these authors and an introduction to each short story.

Although this is a diverse group of women, their writings share many characteristics. Several of their stories reflect what Beatriz Cortez, in her recent study Estética del cinismo:Pasión y desencanto en la literatura centroamericana de posguerra (2010), has characterized as an esthetic of cynicism and expression of disenchantment in post-conflict Central American literature. Indeed, in his introduction, Muñoz asserts that contemporary Central American female authors are highly conscious of the power of the written word and have made use of language to represent the diversity of experience of Central American women and their cultures that, in many cases, had not been given representation in the past. He notes that these writers expose and critique the use of language and knowledge by a patriarchal system of oppression, wherein, in many cases, women are relegated to domestic roles where they must endure the abuse and infidelities of their husbands. To varying degrees, these writers see their work as the appropriation of language to contest and replace its phallocentric representation of the world with one that takes account of women, their bodies, and their experiences. Muñoz also points out their interest in representing individuals from socially, economically, or politically marginalized sectors of society. Additionally, he notes these authors' efforts to represent the diverse nature of human sexuality and its manifestations. Stylistically, Muñoz observes that they avail themselves of a sophisticated array of fictional techniques to give expression to their themes.

A brief description of several of the stories will demonstrate their diversity and how they exemplify Muñoz's characterization of contemporary short story writing by Central American female authors. In "Punto y seguido" (1999), a brief story by Honduran writer Rocío Tábora, the narrator struggles with the language of others and realizes she must find her own words or perish. Female sexual attitudes and practices are explored through a multiplicity of voices in...