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Narrating Immigration, Gendered Spaces, and Transnational Feminism in Lucía Etxebarria's Cosmofobia (2007)

Maryanne L. Leone Assumption College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Leone, Maryanne L. (2013). Narrating Immigration, Gendered Spaces, and Transnational Feminism in Lucía Etxebarria's Cosmofobia (2007). Letras Hispanas 9(1): 48-64. http://www.modlang.txstate.edu/ letrashispanas/previousvolumes/vol9-1.html.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department at Digital Commons @ Assumption University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Assumption University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 48 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013

Narrating Immigration, Gendered Spaces, and Transnational Feminism in Lucía Etxebarria’s Cosmofobia (2007)

Maryanne L. Leone, Assumption College

Is it possible for a Spanish author to of mutual understanding and posit the po- narrate immigration without speaking for tential for transnational feminist collabora- immigrants and thereby colonizing their tion in a multicultural environment in which voices, perspectives, and positions? As part ethnic enclaves persist.2 of the hegemonic national body, authors of Etxebarria states in the introduction Spanish origin occupy a problematical posi- that the text we are about to read does not tion when constructing narratives about im- conform to literary conventions. This chal- migration to the Peninsula. Tabea Alexa Lin- lenge to convention, however, very much hard has argued that narratives that “consist conforms to the Etxebarria public and au- of complex and somewhat messy layers of thorial persona that has sparked controversy representation” (401) exemplify ethical liter- and that has provoked strong sentiments on ary responses to immigration, in contrast to the value, positive and negative, of her writ- dualistic characterizations of immigrants and ing. Christine Henseler has examined critical Spaniards, “reified immigrant experiences” reception of her work, her strategies of auto- (403), or “an idealized or desired multicul- promotion, conflictive relationship with the turalism or hybridity as a solution” (403). She publishing industry, and creation of a place observes that Lucía Etxebarria’s “Sintierra,” for herself among the writers of her genera- narrated from the perspective of a Sauhari tion and the reading public. Calling atten- woman, presents a “complete lack of layers tion to women’s place in the cultural estab- [...] [and] seamlessly appropriates the voice lishment, Silvia Bermúdez also suggests the of this young girl without questioning what merit of the author’s dialogue with literary such a gesture might imply” (411).1 In turn, production, consumer culture, and gender, this article examines a subsequent Etxebarria and she proposes that the anxiety that Etxe- narrative on the subject of immigration and barria causes has more to do with the taboo of argues that the 2007 Cosmofobia attends to talking about the business of producing and the issues with which Linhard rightly found selling literature than about sex. fault in the author’s earlier narrative and Focusing on sexual relations, Carmen in many Spanish authors’ immigrant tales. de Urioste argues that in Etxebarria’s first Cosmofobia presents instead a multilayered, two novels, Amor, curiosidad, prozac y du- nuanced representation of Spain’s evolving das (1997) and Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes ethnic composition that engages self-con- (1998), the author pioneered for Spanish nar- sciously with the issue of authoring, narrat- rative female homoerotic desire that subverts ing, and representing the story of individuals heterosexual normativity and an oppositional and groups of ethnic minority and directly understanding of identity. Kathryn Everly addresses discourses of race and gender. emphasizes as well a model in Beatriz y los Cosmofobia places particular emphasis on cuerpos celestes for lesbian relationships that women’s voices, where concerns common to transgresses dual boundaries, and she ob- their gendered experience emerge as points serves the representation of women’s identity Maryanne L. Leone 49 as process rather than physical corporeality European Union and brandished its official (“Mujer y amor lesbiano”). Also focusing on European identity, that same European status the body in the same novel, Jessica Folkart and Spain’s burgeoning global economy at- suggests that the narrative act serves to over- tracted unprecedented immigration until the come isolation and pain in a social environ- worldwide financial crash and the subsequent ment without boundaries and create a female implosion of the Spanish real estate market subject position that exists in a productive di- led this trend to reverse in 2011. Etxebarria’s alogic relationship to others. Sandra Schumm Cosmofobia outlines not only disparity in the concurs that Etxebarria’s literature offers pos- global economy and the uprooting of people itive new models in her study of the mother- from their home societies, but also the poten- daughter relationship in Un milagro en equi- tial of globalization to forge new and produc- librio (2004) and Verónica Tienza-Sánchez tive connections among people of different studies empowered images of women in Bea- habitus, or social conceptions of place. triz and De todo lo visible y lo invisible (2001). In Cosmofobia, Etxebarria interweaves Akiko Tsuchiya has argued, however, that an intricate web of some one hundred and although the author self-identifies as a femi- thirty-five characters of diverse backgrounds nist writer, her works turn the gendered and with a direct or indirect connection to the sexual strictures she critiques into commodi- Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés, a narra- ties with mass appeal, and she fails to suggest tive structure Prádanos has termed “narrativa satisfactory models for women. sistémica” (n.p.).4 The seven degrees of sep- In his study of social and narrative net- aration-type network creates the sensation works in Cosmofobia and Lo verdadero es un that one is getting to know a considerable momento de lo falso (2010), Luis Prádanos swath of the neighborhood’s residents and, concludes that Etxebarria’s works capture if the reader is a contemporary living in Ma- multicultural interdependence in Spain’s drid, perhaps even some of the characters. In global, postmodern society yet fail to resist sharp contrast to the traditional association neoliberal globalization and consumerism. of this neighborhood with a castizo identity Certainly one might accuse the author of at- that originated in the late nineteenth century tending to the global mass market, detract- and is celebrated with dance, zarzuela music, ing attention from her literary work, and and chulapo dress on the festival of Madrid’s seeking the vanguard topic of the moment patron San Isidro, Etxebarria’s narration (homoeroticism, drug use, domestic abuse, highlights the multicultural composition of immigration, and social networks are some Lavapiés in twenty-first century Spain.5 The examples), yet I concur with critics who have introductory section of the novel describes a argued that her literature brings a critical community center that serves primarily im- eye to the historical and social conditions of migrants in “la Comunidad de Madrid” (12), her time and that her experimentation with in the neighborhood later identified as La- textual strategies merit critical attention.3 vapiés. “El Caserón” offers classes in Spanish For its enmeshed layers, conscious authorial as a second language, employment counsel- presence, and feminist concerns, Etxebarria’s ing, explanation of immigrants’ rights and re- Cosmofobia warrants consideration as an quirements for residency, and support groups ethical literary response to Spain’s multieth- for women, while its annex “La Casita” or- nic society. ganizes evening activities for “niños deriva- Etxebarria sets the novel in contempo- dos de Servicios Sociales” (12). Interethnic rary Madrid, where the uneven effects of neo- conflicts are patent in the neighborhood, as liberal capitalism are seen in the migration of punctuated in the observation by Claudia, a people to this European city from all areas of social worker at “La Casita,” and others that the globe. Paradoxically, as Spain joined the “el barrio es multicultural, no intercultural 50 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013

[...] las comunidades se toleran, pero no se sible outcomes, Massey emphasizes that mezclan, los límites se respetan” (27). Cos- “the geographical stretching out of social mofobia explores the limits of these ethnic relations” in this era of “time-space compres- borders, where friction occurs yet also where sion,” or globalization, “forces us to recognize convergence attenuates the perceived rigidity our interconnectedness” (122). Nonetheless, of difference.6 the “power geometry” (149) in this global Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of “habitus” spatial and social reorganization presents un- and Doreen Massey’s work on the gendered even, differentiated relationships within and implications of place elucidate Etxebarria’s with a place. The issue is not who migrates, creation of shared urban spaces in Cosmo- but rather the power that one has in migra- fobia and her contribution to feminist goals tion: “some initiate flow and movement, oth- that traverse ethnic borders. The notion of ers don’t; some are more on the receiving- habitus denominates organizing structures of end of it than others; some are effectively human behavior by which people act based imprisoned by it” (149). Particularly acute in on past experiences and their power relative globalization, the sharing of social and politi- to others; in Bourdieu’s words, “a system of cal space with peoples considered of another durable, transposable dispositions, struc- place has incited nostalgia for a perceived ho- tured structures predisposed to function as mogenous place that never was, assertions of structuring structures” (The Logic of Prac- local or national uniqueness, and protection- tice, 53). Shared histories and conditions ist polices (151). In Spain, some signs of this produce consensus in practices, though not negative perception of displacement include consciously recognized as norms, at the same various cycles of reformation of the country’s time inequities in social power differentiate immigration law, increased border policing, people’s sense of what is and is not possible and both open and (partially) concealed rac- (64). Bourdieu emphasizes the durability of ist sentiment. Massey disputes the dominant habitus, yet when asked if the concept de- binary association of space with stagnancy scribes stable societies only or if it also ap- and time with dynamism, female and male plies to “contemporary western cities” and respectively. Instead, she argues, places are our “fast-changing world,” he replies affirma- open, porous “geographies,” multiple and in tively (“Habitus,” 27). People inhabit dynamic flux, that connect seemingly disparate loca- social environments, the “field,” in which dif- tions and groups, and in which gender, eth- ferences in dispositions generate conflict and nicity, economic status, and age, among other also may generate change in structures of be- factors, influence people’s experience and havior (31-32). This observation is especially conception of place (121, 255-58). relevant to contemporary Spain, where in the Etxebarria presents a “gendered geogra- last few decades a diversity of people have ar- phy” (Massey 181) in Cosmofobia, in which rived with backgrounds of distinct individual “its specificity is not some long internalized and collective experiences that have shaped history but the fact that it is constructed out behavioral structures and expectations. Un- of a particular constellation of social relations” even social power influences the conditions, (Massey 154, emphasis added). The meaning economic and otherwise, in which immigrant of space and social power fluctuate in Etxe- and Spanish populations act and live, gener- barria’s Lavapiés and broader Madrid in re- ally favoring the latter, with conflicts in habi- lation to the characters that inhabit or move tus producing greater social tension yet also through a place, and their interactions with potential for change.7 each other. Moreover, Extebarria’s novel sug- Consistent with Bourdieu’s argument gests that this gendered and social concep- that social interactions reflect the inter- tion of place may alleviate the contemporary nalization of expected practices and pos- experience of “Cosmofobia” as defined in the Maryanne L. Leone 51 epigram: “A noun (Psych.) Morbid dread of de la autora” in which she echoes a state- the cosmos and realising ones [sic] true place ment typically made in films based on real in it” (n.p.). Although the characters only oc- stories, though also a convention in novels: casionally recognize interethnic connections characters and situations are fictional, how- and often stake a defensive positionvis-à-vis ever real people, testimonials, and research the perceived other, constellations of shared serve as the basis for the text. “Esta es una experiences emerge to suggest a flexible un- obra de ficción” (n.p.), Etxebarria confirms. derstanding of community for a multicultur- Nonetheless, references to actual people al, global Spain. The amalgamation of voices throughout the text not only blur genres but and stories in Extebarria’s narrative, particu- also highlight the author’s presence, in par- larly of women, reveal fissures in the belief ticular because the Etxebarria that the real that the other is completely different. Simi- author crafts recounts her personal relation- lar to Etxebarria’s Una historia de amor como ship with several of the characters, including otra cualquiera (2003), feminist concerns in some well-known figures. Cosmofobia textually unite women who other- The alphabetical listing of “Dramatis wise might seem to have little in common and, Personae” at the end of the narration illus- in this more recent text, create connections trates this vacillation between the fictional across the seemingly impervious racial barri- text and the real world of Madrid and La- ers at the ludoteca, on the playground, in the vapiés. In the list we find film director Pedro Lavapiés neighborhood, and in the capital city. Almodóvar and painters Alfredo Álvarez Uneven economic and social power in global Plágaro and Robert Rauschenberg, figures as- Spain is just one of a multitude of overlapping sociated with Madrid and international cul- contemporary concerns that traverse the text, ture of the 1980s, alongside characters who included among them domestic violence, sin- are not well-known and thus more readily gle motherhood, pressure on women to con- believable as fictional constructs. A case in form to impossible body types, and superficial point, Fátima, “niña que juega en el parque y interpersonal relations. Immigration does not va a la ludoteca” (372), is a prototype, as her become the issue or problem under analysis, popular Arab name suggests, yet this same but rather part of a host of contemporary so- name also negates absolute ethic boundaries cial issues that many of the characters share for its association with both the Muslim and thus suggesting the complexity and messiness Christian faiths, the daughter of Muhammad that Linhard argues is critical for an ethical and the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fáti- textual representation of global Spain. ma, Portugal, so named Our Lady of Fátima. Cosmofobia unites the politics of space Claudia, “trabajadora social [y] supervisora de with transnational feminism’s attention to so- la ludoteca [...]. su cantante favorita de todos cial justice concerns that arise from globaliza- los tiempos es María Dolores Pradera” (371) tion and the potential for collaborations across and Mónica, “novia de Cristina [...]. Almódo- national borders to improve conditions for var le ofreció un papel en su primera película, women. Etxebarria self-critically approaches que ella rechazó” (375), also demonstrate the voice, authorship, representation, subalternity, ambiguity that Etxebarria creates between the and uneven power geometries in feminist part- fictional and non-fictional realms. Etxebarria, nerships.8 The blurring of generic boundaries as narrator in the introductory chapter that and multiplicity of narrative voices in Cosmofo- follows the “Nota de la autora,” identifies bia place in doubt the verisimilitude of the text, Mónica as a personal friend and recounts a disperse the power of storytelling, and thus story that Mónica supposedly told her about mitigate the colonizing potential of a Spaniard an encounter with Almodóvar in a bar in authoring and narrating immigrant experienc- Chueca in the early 1980s, during which he es. Etxebarria begins Cosmofobia with a “Nota offered her the role of Bom inPepi, Luci, Bom 52 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013 y otras chicas del montón. The implied reader versions of a story spread the narrating power recognizes these cultural references and en- among the web of characters in the geometry ters into the illusion that Etxebarria is telling of Lavapiés, creating both tension and con- a true story, until Extebarria reminds us to be vergence among the perspectives in the field. wary of assuming that the stories accurately To illustrate, I will return to Etxebarria’s represent reality. “Puede que la historia sea “friend” Mónica, who appears on multiple cierta o no” (10), she says of the encounter occasions. She is the object of the narrating between Mónica and Almodóvar. Etxebarria author’s story, told in the introductory sec- plays with the novelistic expectations that she tion, of Almodóvar offering Mónica a role sets up to draw attention to ambiguity be- in his first film. She also is a character in two tween fiction and reality, the author’s role in different narrators’ narrations in the chapter creating the text that we read, and unlimited “Los molinos de viento.” And finally, Mónica perspectives on a story.9 In this way, Etxe- is the sole narrator of “El rastro de tus labios.” barria’s Cosmofobia differs from narratives From her girlfriend and lover Cristina’s per- in which Spanish authors leave unaddressed spective, we learn that Mónica is reserved and issues of authority, representation, and voice distant and that she hypocritically encourages when writing collective and individual stories Cristina to eat but does not want her to gain about immigrant experiences. weight. Mónica herself tells of desire, jeal- Etxebarria attends to the critique of ousy, and depression she experienced until post-colonial scholars such as Chandra recently because of a past relationship with Talpade Mohanty that the perspectives of Emma, a singer-songwriter who was her first first-world feminists often have dominated female lover, and confides that in her rela- projects that involve “Third World Women” tionship with Cristina, she feels wanted for and homogenize women’s experiences (17). the first time. The various angles from which While on the one hand Etxebarria’s novel the reader learns of this character signal a di- presents similarities between Spanish women verse experience of place and the instability and women who have immigrated from so- of identity, in the way that Massey conceives called Third World and developing nations, of space. In this cacophony, no one voice is her text self-consciously reflects on her own the authoritative speaker of another’s story power as author and power variances among and no one view is unequivocal. Etxebarria women who share similar concerns and oc- leads the reader to consider her text and its cupy a shared space, yet differ in economic multiple versions of the characters’ stories, status, ethnicity, age, or other facets of iden- indefinite and subjective. tity. A key strategy that Etxebarria employs in Although the text highlights multiple Cosmofobia is a shifting narrative voice. Of voices, this dispersion of narrative authority the eighteen titled chapters plus the implied simultaneously is in tension with Etxebarria’s author’s untitled introduction, eleven have voice, which holds a key position as the nar- a heterodiegetic voice and nine have homo- rator of the opening and closing sections, a diegetic narrators, with one of the chapters listener and recorder of others’ stories, friend switching among several different charac- or acquaintance of some characters, witness, ters.10 Reiteration traverses the narrative as and recipient of second hand information. well; a character will narrate his or her own The narrating author voices her belonging story, or an outside narrative voice will tell and comfort in the habitus of Lavapiés and of a character, and then another character Madrid while the bookend narration and will include the story of that character in his intervening presence throughout the novel or her own narration, and so on, so that we evidences not only a strong ego but, more im- learn of characters from diverse perspectives. portantly for this study, resistance to losing These vacillating perspectives and multiple control of her neighborhood and narrative Maryanne L. Leone 53 space. Referring to the impact of globaliza- immigrants in her shared social space. Yet the tion on notions of space, Leonie Sandercock lack of irony in this passage and others sug- states: gests that Etxebarria may not be conscious of the “Western eyes” from which she also views The national issue of migration be- women from non-Western countries. The comes a struggle which is played out narrating author’s description of the women’s at the level of the locality in terms of dress reveals imperialist perspectives of supe- an experience of threat and loss, and riority towards people of non-European na- the desire to reassert control over tionalities and ignorance in Spanish society one’s territory, one’s spatial habitus. (208) about the culture of the other. Everly points out, citing Henseler, that Etxebarria’s writ- A sign of the insecurity that arises when lo- ing and her self-presentation to the media cal experience does not match the imagined and on her website send mixed signals about community, Extebarria expresses superiority her feminism (“Textual Violence,” 134). In a along with racism and prejudice when de- similar vein, the cited passage on immigrant scribing the immigrant women she observes women’s dress contradicts her self-presen- with their children at the small playground tation in Cosmofobia as a person without adjacent to the community center: prejudices who fully accepts immigrants in Spanish society. Although the cited passage Hay madres marroquíes y egipcias does not adhere fully to Talpade Mohanty’s con velo y yilaba, ecuatorianas con characterization of typical Western assump- vaqueros ceñidísimos, senegalesas tions, Etxebarria’s narration communicates a con túnicas estampadas, y alguna view of greater sophistication among Spanish española—las menos—vestida con women as compared to South Americans that vaqueros de su talla. Eso de llevar reinforces the paternalistic stance that Tal- pantalones dos tallas por debajo de la pade Mohanty condemns and that Etxebarria propia sólo se estila entre las sudame- may mean to critique as well. ricanas, porque las españolas jamás “Western eyes” and simplified notions lucirán con orgullo unos michelines y unas caderas amplias que para unas of the other abound in Cosmofobia as charac- son sexys y, para otras, motivo de ver- ters of all ethnic backgrounds speak negative- güenza. (12) ly about the other. One might argue, there- fore, that the text perpetuates the stereotyped Slippages such as the previous example sug- views that the characters express. In the nov- gest that the implied author is unaware of el’s complex social network, however, points her own “Western eyes.” Talpade Mohanty in common emerge from the chaos of seem- uses the term to characterize a “paternalistic ingly disparate stories to complicate singu- attitude toward women in the Third World” lar, Western-imposed notions of the “other” (40) and the assumption by feminists in the and contest the notion that the other is com- first-world that all women of the third-world pletely different. Greater similarities among are “religious,” “traditional,” “backward,” and individuals from distinct realms emerge than “ignorant,” yet sometimes revolutionary out the characters themselves realize. Naming of necessity. The Etxebarria figure’s comment contributes to this effect.11 The many differ- about South American women may aim, in ent names emphasize individualized experi- its repetition of a commonly held view, to cri- ences and perspectives while also suggesting tique the stereotype. Or perhaps the narrating a broader social experience, in that one wom- author is critiquing the self-view that she ex- an’s story, while distinct, also speaks to the pressed earlier in the same chapter that she is concerns of many women. The amalgamation more comfortable than most Spaniards with of women’s voices in Cosmofobia presents the 54 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013 potential for transnational feminist solidari- into the neighborhood creates the impression ties to advance better conditions for women that she is sharing a secret and extending ac- and ameliorate anxiety about social change in cess to an insider’s view. Insofar as feelings of the habitus of contemporary Spanish society. “insecurity” and “vulnerability” arise in this Etxebarria’s liminal position in Cosmo- era of global migration when people seen as fobia, straddling the fictional world of the outside the national or local imaginary move novel and the real-world referent that she in (Massey 151), the author’s offer to hold the actually inhabits, emphasizes from the nar- reader’s hand suggests not only the attempt rative’s start, borders and the significance of to foster intimacy but also an offer of protec- place in the construction of identity. Read tion to an apprehensive reader for whom this favorably, the author as narrator makes the familiar neighborhood has been transformed reader aware of her relation to the text, char- into an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar peo- acters, and location she fictionalizes, which ple. Apprehension is not limited to the reader suggests that she recognizes the positions she however. Etxebarria’s interwoven presence occupies when engaging in global feminism. in the text and her self-appointed position Assuming the narrative voice in the introduc- as guide also evidence her trepidation about tory chapter, the author emphasizes that she losing control in the neighborhood’s social belongs to this urban, intercultural location, geometry despite the comfort she outwardly and that she orchestrates the tale we are about expresses with the ethnic transformation that to read and thus what we will know of the global migration has brought to Lavapiés and characters, who approximate real individu- by extension Spain. als living in Madrid and Lavapiés. “Ahora, Extebarria’s account of her relationship permíteme que te hable de mi barrio” (11), with the neighborhood children exemplifies the Extebarria in the novel states before she the counter-hegemonic, critical viewpoint describes the community center, and chil- she presumes to embody, yet does not al- dren and mothers in the neighborhood. By ways fulfill. Etxebarria’s playful dog joins in concluding the introduction with “Y como ya the soccer games at the playground next to conoces el parque y La Casita, déjame que te “La Casita” and thus facilitates a relationship lleve de la mano hasta allí” (14), the narrat- with the children. The dog and her daughter’s ing author creates the sensation that she, the spontaneous play with the Chinese, Paki- author, is physically leading the reader into stani, Moroccan, Bangladeshi, Ecuadorian, the text and accompanying her throughout Colombian, Senegalese, and Nigerian chil- this narrative journey.12 Her possession of dren suggest the unfettered acceptance of the the neighborhood, suggested by “mi barrio,” other that Etxebarria espouses, where ethnic points to the larger issue in this novel and in differences do not shape advantages and dis- narratives that address immigration to Spain advantages: “el chucho no sabe de equipos y of who speaks and for whom. Etxebarria’s au- no juega a favor o en contra de unos u otros” to-referentiality throughout the text presents (13). The observation that Etxebarria as nar- a consciousness of her authorial position, rator makes that “ningún padre pudiente in- absent in the majority of Spanish immigrant scribe a sus hijos en las listas de niños a cargo narratives, and suggests the intention to ad- de Claudia, la supervisora de la ludoteca” (14) dress this problematic situation. read against her daughter’s occasional partici- At the same time, the narrating voice pation in the center’s art activities is congru- also presumes that a shared home location ent with the author’s pattern of positioning translates to her privileged access and knowl- and promoting herself as a progressive voice, edge about the other. The intimate tone that outside the boundaries of convention and in- the implied author assumes by using the tú side the minority, be it sexual, gendered, or form and inviting the reader to follow her ethnic. Maryanne L. Leone 55

Nonetheless, Talpade Mohanty and the park. At one level, by characterizing the other transnational feminists have critiqued relationship as friendship, the implied author presumptions of equity on the part of people asserts her progressive voice and unusual from economically developed countries in position as a Spaniard accepted in this im- alliances with people from developing ones. migrant community, and thus invests herself Although Etxebarria assumes an empathic with more authority to tell a story about the posture, her narration makes clear from the people who live there than writers without novel’s commencement that her subject posi- these credentials. At another level, although tion differs from her immigrant neighbors for the children are happy to receive Etxebarria’s as Massey explains, “different social groups, gift, the association between buying candy and different individuals, are placed in very and befriending the children hints at coer- distinct ways in relation to these flows and in- cion and draws attention to the one-sided terconnections [of global migration]” (149). nature of Etxebarria’s assertion of friendship. The narrating author situates her family in- Moreover, while it seems that the dog, candy, side Lavapiés, yet alludes to the greater pos- and effort to remember names reduce the dis- sibility that she and her daughter possess to tance between the narrating Etxebarria and move in and out of this social space in con- the children of “La Casita,” the author’s dis- trast to the immigrant characters immobility. missal of the cost of the candy alludes to eco- She distinguishes her daughter’s blond hair nomic disparity between herself and the chil- from the dark-hair and complexion of the dren, and suggests that she uses her economic immigrant children and her daughter’s volun- advantage to buy temporary entrance to the tary presence from the children whose family immigrant group. By placing the playground situation requires their daily attendance at the story in the introductory chapter, the author center: “no se la considera parte «oficial» del as narrator highlights her subject position in grupo” (14). These differences highlight the Lavapiés and suggests that her perspective error of assuming that Extebarria’s Lavapies may not reflect accurately the experience of is the same as her immigrant neighbors’ La- others whose background and circumstances vapiés. The narration suggests that economic differ from her own. In the context of “time- status, nationality, ethnicity, gender, educa- space compression,” or globalization, we need tional level and other social factors influence to think about how each group’s or person’s the mobility in and experience of a place. mobility weakens or strengthens another’s Etxebarria posits a diminution of power (Massey 149-51). Etxebarria’s text does boundaries between herself and the children, not acknowledge that the children’s friend- facilitated not only by her dog but also by ship benefits Etxebarria more than the chil- learning the children’s names; however, she dren: she promotes her public and self-image also alludes to the partial view of the friend- as a progressive cultural figure. ship that she imagines: In Cosmofobia, Etxebarria’s play with testimonial writing constitutes a further La bolsa de chuches la compro a dos strategy to address the issue of narrative con- euros en el Día y trae gominolas o trol rather than simply hide the influence of piruletas en cantidad suficiente para 13 que ningún niño o niña se quede sin the author. In contrast to this pretension of la suya [...]. Con el tiempo me hice truth, Etxebarria highlights from within her amiga de ese grupo y me aprendí los text the problematic nature of representing nombres de todos los futbolistas. (13) others’ voices. Various characters throughout the novel refer to the presence of the implied This seemingly innocuous description of her author and a recording device as they nar- interaction with the children reveals uneven rate their story. In the chapter “Molinos de power in the social relation that unfolds in viento,” about women in a support group at 56 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013 the community center, the character Esther demonstration that these feminist and social remarks on the implied author’s motives and justice issues constitute the norm in contem- hand in shaping the work we are reading: porary Madrid, for as Esther herself asserts, “mi vida es muy normal” (130). Although Verá usted, yo creo que para su libro Esther rejects a personal connection to La- yo no le voy a servir de nada. Porque vapiés, her social condition of abuse implies a usted está escribiendo un libro sobre shared habitus with some of the characters of el barrio, ¿no? Pues eso, que yo le immigrant origin in the story. cuento lo que usted quiera, que ya les he dicho en el Centro que colaboraría With the testimonial device, Etxebarria [...] (130) toys with the expectation of intimacy cre- ated when offering to serve as the reader’s Esther’s observation as well that “A Cristina la personal guide to Lavapiés and with the no- ha entrevistado ya, ¿no?” (130), yet the place- tion of a trustworthy author. The chapter “La ment of Cristina’s narration after Esther’s, actriz” demonstrates the implied Etxebarria’s calls attention to the implied Etxebarria’s or- betrayal of a subject’s trust in order to give ganization and manipulation of the text that the reader an insider’s scoop. The narrating we read. character Leonor begins with “Ahora que has While it is not clear if Esther lives in La- apagado el micrófono [...] ya me puedo rela- vapiés or only attends the support group, it is jar, ya podemos hablar como amigas, cielo, starkly clear that the Spanish Esther does not que amigas es lo que somos [...] y yo ya pu- believe she belongs in a narrative about the edo dejar de decir tonterías” (249) and indi- Lavapiés neighborhood, a space with an im- cates throughout the chapter, “entre tú y yo” migrant identity. For those who think of place (249), that the information she shares about as fixed and who possess greater power in a her intimate relationships, aging, and the dis- place, in this case a native-born Spaniard in crimination she faces as an older actress is for Madrid, the realization that the identity of a Extebarria only: “Doy por hecho que todo place is multiple produces disorientation: esto que te cuento no va a salir de aquí, que te lo cuento como amiga, no como periodista” (250). This interaction at first suggests that Who is it who is so troubled by time- space compression and a newly ex- the interviewer has special access to a more perienced fracturing of identity? [...]. intimate story, but upon closer consideration Who is it that is worrying about the makes evident that no one version of a story is breakdown of barriers supposedly more authentic than another. Leonor alludes containing an identity? (Massey 122) to the uncertain boundaries of truth and the agency that the characters exercise through While the hegemony tends to think of place decisions about what to narrate: “Vaya, que as stable, for colonized peoples and people in no te he mentido, amore, pero tampoco he the minority, dislocation already forms part dicho toda la verdad” (249). Deteriorating of their experience of place. The global era further the reader’s sense that Leonor is tell- makes more noticeable that place has no au- ing the truth, the narrating subject later in- thentic character, but rather its composition as dicates her certainty that Etxebarria will use a dynamic web of social relations means that the information told in confidence for her place, just as people, have multiple identities novel. She asks that Etxebarria change her that co-exist (153-54). Esther’s narration of an name and lower her age, the latter pointing abusive brother and her expression of racism to societal pressure on women to appear and towards people of color suggest not only her stay impossibly young. Although the implied rightful place in the novel that Etxebarria is author remains silent in this chapter and in constructing, but also the implied Etxebarria’s others that signal an interview, talk directed Maryanne L. Leone 57 to the implied author about the interview as la casa está bien arreglada” (52), reveals dis- it is taking place breaks the narrative rhythm comfort with the addressee’s presence in her to caution the reader about falling prey to an home and alludes to disparity in the women’s illusion of truth in testimonial writing. economic status. Despite the differential, the In Etxebarria’s novel, a character of encounter, with Susana as speaker and Etxe- Equatorial Guinean origin named Susana barria as listener, represents to Susana a safe fractures the coherent concept of space and place in which to speak about her situation of a Spanish national body that characters in of domestic abuse and her eating disorder the ethnic hegemony hold. As Susana nar- and, in doing so, move toward a healthier rates her story from her home, an apartment socio-spatial situation. Susana adopts an air shared with her boyfriend Silvio, who is of of confidence in this monologue directed at Spanish origin, she recounts connections to the implied author, while partial information approximately twenty individuals and fifteen in Susana’s testimony communicates that she sites. While the chapter’s title “La negra” al- decides what she tells about herself and that ludes to the dominance of a white majority the author and reader cannot fully know her. in Spain, Susana shifts the balance of social For example, Susana leaves unclear whether and racial relations through contact in the she had experienced physical abuse as a child. intimate space of her home with the fiction- Incomplete information and silences recall alized Etxebarria and through interactions in Doris Sommer’s argument in Proceed with an upscale clothing store with the manager Caution: When Engaged by Minority Writing and a wealthy client named Poppy, charac- in the Americas that gaps in a story may con- ters whose power in the spatial geometry of stitute resistance, especially when a minority contemporary Madrid presumably would be writer or speaker directs him or herself to a greater than Susana’s. person in a dominant position. Similar to other chapters in which the A significant aspect of the attention to testimonial device is made patent, Susana’s space in Cosmofobia is its gendered implica- references to a recorder and to the interview tions, and the chapter “La negra” is no ex- itself disclose the implied author’s influence ception. Throughout the novel, boyfriends on her narration. The interviewer’s words or husbands expect girlfriends, wives, or do- are absent in this chapter as well, yet Susana mestic help to take care of them and the home also makes us aware of the author’s presence: while the men go out with their friends and “Usted quiere que hable, ¿no? ¿eso es todo? party. Many women in the text experience [...] sí, puede usted poner la grabadora, me da violence at home, but Susana’s narration most igual” (52). Susana’s remarks point to narra- vividly portrays home as a place of physical tive freedom, yet also break the illusion of an and emotional stress and violence associated unmitigated immigrant voice. The thematic with a domestic role for women. Disagree- congruence of her narration with the narra- ments between Susana and Silvio begin after tions of other women in the novel suggests they move in together, she asks him to help as well the implied author’s hand in creating with the housework, and Silvio refuses, argu- the novel. Additionally, Susana’s comment ing that because he earns more money she alludes to unequal power in the relationship should clean the house. Susana seeks comfort with the author. The “usted” form indicates in chocolate and pastries, and then enters into distance and the implied author’s greater a cycle of vomiting, abstinence from food, power in this situation. Small talk that she and binging again. The opportunity to talk directs to the addressee at the beginning of about her habitus to the implied author, how- the monologue, commenting that maybe ever, creates a reflective space in which Susa- they should have met elsewhere because na challenges Silvio’s assertions and identifies her apartment is small, “pero por lo menos his and others’ behavior as abusive instead of 58 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013 assuming fault herself. In confidence to the Silvio and finds that this woman, of a differ- implied Etxebarria, Susana suggests that Sil- ent economic status, age, and color, leads her vio expects her to clean because he believes it to think more critically about the abuse she is woman’s role, one that his mother had ful- suffers and to imagine herself in a new place, filled. Susana also recalls her father’s yelling without Silvio, a changed habitus: “Porque when she was a child and speaks of the rac- sin esta chica, o esta señora, o lo que fuera la ism that Silvio’s family expresses towards her Poppy, yo ni me habría planteado dudas, hu- now. She describes, too, hitting Silvio in re- biera seguido pensando que qué suerte tenía sponse to his insults and her fear of ending up yo de estar con Silvio” (63); “Me impresionó a alone. Susana has not disclosed the abuse and mí aquella mujer, me hizo pensar” (64). This these feelings to her family or best friend, yet portrayal of a European woman who helps she opens up in a conversation in which the and serves as a model for a woman of lesser implied author remains silent. Susana also financial status and education with origins in draws connections in her narrative to other Africa falls into the paradigm of discursive women in abusive or unhealthy relationships, colonization that Talpade Mohanty critiques including her best friend’s mother, who expe- in Western feminism. riences domestic violence and stays with her Strains of first-world superiority appear husband. This situation in common, albeit throughout Etxebarria’s text, and I have noted negative, highlights that abuse has no color some already, yet the narrative also attends to and crosses ethnic divides. Susana’s narration some of the requirements that Talpade Mo- contests the sharp differences among ethnici- hanty posits for a decolonizing feminist soli- ties that characters in her story express: her darity. Mohanty cites a study that “illustrates friend’s mother’s prejudices against women of how the category of women is constructed in color, Susana’s own racial stereotypes, and her a variety of political contexts that often exist sister’s racial attribution of Silvio’s abuse. simultaneously and overlaid on top of one an- Talpade Mohanty critiques feminist other. There is no easy generalization” (32). To texts that portray Western women as the sav- actualize a feminist text and project, one must iors of third world women, and Etxebarria’s study the relationships that create specific sit- Cosmofobia is guilty in part of this dichotomy uations for women, how women act in these and hegemonic view. Etxebarria as implied relationships, and where they challenge hege- author and interlocutor of Susana’s narra- monies and norms, and resist; in other words, tion provides a platform for her to express feminist studies must represent women as her emotions, assess her situation, and re- subjects rather than as powerless victims. ceive validation that her experience matters. Susana’s narrative depicts the complexities of A wealthy Spanish client in the store where her persona, the specificity and multiplicity Susana works also prompts her to critically of her background, and a fluctuating subject view her domestic situation. Susana worked position that depends on with whom she is at MANGO until she turned to sweets to al- interacting. The novel does not portray that leviate the stress provoked by her relationship all women of the so-called third world are the with Silvio and knew that MANGO would same or that they share certain characteristics not renew her contract because she no longer that Western women do not share, nor are fit into the clothes. At Superwoman, her new women of Spanish origin singular. Susana’s place of employment, Susana meets Poppy, narration presents connections between her an attractive, wealthy working woman who experience and other women, Spanish and expresses to Susana her frustration with the immigrant, while also attending to the par- skinny standards to which women are held, ticularities of her situation. Susana’s discus- sentiments Susana shares. Susana progres- sion of her friend’s mother’s violent domestic sively tells Poppy about her relationship with situation in tandem with the same woman’s Maryanne L. Leone 59 racist views cautions against assuming that solidarity she feels with her neighbors, infuse Spanish men are less violent and Spanish her outlook and suggest hope for a better sit- women more liberated than their counter- uation for herself. Susana’s story and others’ parts from non-Western countries. Susana’s suggest that just as women of many ethnici- narration furthermore portrays the compli- ties experience domestic violence, a diversity cated psychology of abusive relationships of women also represent models for a life free rather than a triumphant transformation of from abuse. This turn to the local recalls the her situation.14 Narrating the abuse to the im- view of transnational feminists that collabo- plied author, Poppy, and the novel’s presumed rations must attend to historical, social, and readers, Susana questions patriarchal norms political particulars rather than generalize and improves her sense of self-worth. She the category of women.15 resists her boyfriend’s victimization and also Susana’s relationship with Poppy and the white European body’s characterization the narrative project she shares with the im- of her as other, as I discuss below. The un- plied author suggest positive outcomes when certainty about her future suggests the com- women of first-world and third-world ori- plexity of her situation. Through telling her gins collaborate. Perhaps more significantly, story in the place where much of the abuse Etxebarria’s Cosmofobia proposes a multi- occurs, her home in Lavapiés, she modifies directional sphere of influence in the social not only her habitus, but also voices a larger relationships that constitute and transform protest against the attribution of domesticity place in contemporary, urban Spain. When to woman, gendered salary differentials, and the pressure to conform to a limited weight especially domestic violence. range requires Susana to seek an alternative While it first seems that Susana finds employment to MANGO, the places and in- positive support in Spanish women only and dividuals that form her social space shift. Ex- in this sense the text fails to challenge the changes between Susana and store manager tendency of first-world feminists to position Dora reveal prejudices and ethnic ghettos, yet themselves as models for the emancipation of also the potential to modify hegemonic views third-world women, Susana concludes with a of national identity. Other managers tell Su- focus on the neighbors in her building. At the sana that the job is filled once they see her, beginning of her narration, Susana observes but Dora is more direct and tells her that she that she feels stuck and at risk of losing her- will scare away clients. Dora insists on draw- self: “Yo cada vez me deprimo más y más y ing firm boundaries that place Susana outside me veo en un callejón sin salida. Porque si the all-white world of Superwoman, where me convierto en todo lo que él quiere, me her size fits the client profile but not her skin perderé a mí misma” (57). As she finishes her color: story however, Susana views her future more positively. She wistfully imagines peering «Pero, tú, ¿de dónde eres?». «De Al- into the window of a home with a happy fam- calá de Henares, señora.» «Ya, pero lo ily. Poppy’s family first comes to mind, but que quiero saber es que dónde has na- cido.» «Pues en Alcalá de Henares, se- then Susana turns her attention to the hap- ñora.» «Ya, pero tus padres de dónde piness that exists in her local realm. In her son.» «Pues han vivido toda su vida apartment building in Lavapiés, she hears a en Alcalá de Henares.» La señora ya mother singing a lullaby, a baby’s crying stop, estaba de los mismos nervios. «Pues, and neighbors cooking. Her narrations ends si son negros, no han podido nacer en as follows: “Y todos estos ruidos mezclados Alcalá de Henares.» «No, señora, mi como en un cocido, tan familiares, me re- padre nació en Guinea.» Y la seño- cuerdan que hoy es ya mañana y que la vida ra parecía aliviada ahora que por fin sigue” (78). These sounds of her habitus, the sabía de dónde viene el color de mi 60 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013

piel. «¿Y allí, qué se habla, francés o strategically determines that, to counter the indígena?» «Español, señora, se habla fright she stirs when clients hear her speak español.» (58) perfect Spanish, she will study the gossip of the day to gain knowledge the clients share In this exchange within a place dominated and lessen the cultural distance: “Yo me di by white Spanish women, Susana destabilizes cuenta de que, si sabía un poco de cotilleos the store manager’s conception of national de las estrellas de la tele, enseguida me iban space. Her repeated claims to Spanish iden- a aceptar [...]. que me veía masai y las masais tity and her native-Castilian tongue chal- no hablan castellano” (61). By gaining sym- lenge the borders of national identity that bolic capital, Susana secures a job and opens a Dora understands and the theoretical notion new habitus, where her interactions with the that liminality most satisfactorily counters store’s customers reduce the otherness they colonizing perspectives. Although Susana perceive. Susana’s move to establish a place eventually confirms parental origins outside for herself, the stranger, within the formerly peninsular Spain, alleviating Dora’s fear of all white world of Superwoman, where she unidentifiable ethnic borders, Susana locates experiences both racism and support, leads herself and her parents within a Spanish town to greater awareness of her human rights as and Spanish identity and thus resists Dora’s well. Although circumstances that threaten intention to label her as other. Susana brings Susana’s mental and physical health lead her to Dora’s attention that immigrants have inte- to interview at Superwoman, on the positive grated into local communities and consider side, interactions between Susana and Dora, themselves Spanish. Dora’s response, a two- Poppy, and other clients reduce perceptions day trial period and subsequent offer of work, of difference and separation. As seen in the suggests that Susana modifies Dora’s notion clothing store, enhanced mobility in the that a black woman has no place in her habi- global era creates new constellations of social tus, from the local retail space she manages to relations and infuses a place with the politi- her broader conception of Spain. cal possibility of altering existing hierarchies If Susana is to succeed, that is secure (Massey 268). the job, she must gain “symbolic capital” to Typical of Etxebarria’s writing, Cosmo- modify the power geometry in Superwoman. fobia presents inconsistencies that dilute the Bourdieu asserts that actors consider expecta- effectiveness of the author’s progressive stance tions, or rules, in a particular place and their on feminism and immigration, and the text as position of power relative to others in order a model ethical literary response to immigra- to assess what is possible and impossible, and tion. As one of the narrative voices, the implied gain prestige in a community.16 In principle, author at times expresses ethnic stereotypes Dora yields greater power for in her position without critical examination. The novel also as store manager she decides whether to give presents more situations in which a Spanish or deny Susana employment. The clients’ re- woman serves as a positive model for wom- sponse to Susana also will influence her hire en of non-European origin than the inverse. and her continued employment, and thus her While these failures to acknowledge “Western economic circumstances. Yet, Susana too ex- eyes” diminish the critical potential of Etxe- ercises power and occupies a subject position barria’s text, the representation of interethnic in the social web at the store. To start, Dora’s relationships among Spanish, immigrants, offer of a trial period suggests that Susana has and Spanish born of immigrant parents, and reshaped Dora’s conception of her habitus and of intimate and familial relationships, reflects of who belongs and does not belong in her on the power relations and changing habitus social space. Further, with two days to prove among Madrid’s diverse population in the first her effectiveness as a saleswoman, Susana decades of the twenty-first century. Numerous Maryanne L. Leone 61 narrative strategies address the concerns that Pero para los españoles ella es marroquí, por transnational feminists raise about the colo- cómo viste, por cómo luce, por cómo piensa” nizing potential of writing about the other (140). Etxebarria’s novel is attuned to Bene- and of feminist projects that bring together dict Anderson’s argument that as much as women of different social classes and ethnici- shared customs, the will to be a community ties. Repeated reminders of the author’s pres- is critical to forming a national imagination. ence in the text make patent her role in its Etxebarria’s Cosmofobia proposes that femi- creation. By making her voice and presence nist connections within spaces shared by di- visible, Etxebarria presents a consciousness verse ethnic and social groups in Spain just of her position of authorial and social pow- may reshape habitus and create new constel- er and opens a dialogue about the dilemma lations of community, despite anxiety of one’s Spanish authors face, and many do not seem changing place in the cosmos. to consider, of speaking about and creating voices for characters in ethnically minority positions in Spain. The text is messy. Multiple Notes 1Linhard also argues: narrators and the iteration of characters’ tales literature produced in response to the point to the impossibility of knowing the sto- earlier question—who has the right ry of another, while the blurring of borders and the responsibility to narrate the between fiction and reality contributes to this becoming of postnational Spain— end and calls attention to the power of narra- begins by assuming that ghosts are tive to shape and question reality. embedded in the fabric of literature. Along with Etxebarria’s treatment (406) of voice and subjectivity, the novel’s fore- Although my study does not focus specifically on grounding of space and its representation as ghosts and “critical melancholia” (405), it does speak of individual and social pain that remain an extensive social construction emphasize unresolved. Examples of studies addressing the the inseparability of Madrid’s host popula- usurpation or simplification of immigrant voices tion and the diverse ethnic groups who have in peninsular fiction and culture include Daniela immigrated to Spain, despite the assertion Flesler’s The Return of the Moor, Susan Martin- repeated throughout the novel that ethnic Márquez’s Disorientations, and Rosalía Cornejo- groups maintain firm social and cultural bor- Parriego’s edited Memoria colonial e inmigración, ders with the other.17 Massey has asserted that among others. the chaotic, which resides inherently in space 2Pilar Valero-Costa’s analysis of Cosmofobia conceived as an open social network, may emphasizes social confrontation and the negotia- transform not only existing social arrange- tion of cultural identity in global Spain. Our dis- cussion of some of the same passages focus on ments but also the future of a place (266-68). different though complimentary arguments, mine In Cosmofobia, the chaotic web of more than on narrative voice and transnational feminism and one hundred individuals and their stories Valero-Costa’s on racism, multiculturalism, and generates new points of social contact that hybridity. lead to racist sentiment but also to alliances, 3Along with the aforementioned critics who many unacknowledged. Shared feminist is- note the literary and cultural value of Etxebarria’s sues create points of contact among charac- narratives, Jorge Pérez contends that “en última ters of different ethnicities even though the instancia son productos que dialogan y problema- characters continue to see the other as differ- tizan esas condiciones históricas y encierran un punto de vista crítico acerca de esa misma lógica ent and often as inferior. As Mónica remarks cultural” (214). I do not pretend to provide an ex- about Amina, Spanish citizens born of immi- haustive study of critical reception of Etxebarria’s grant parents still are immigrants in the eyes works, but rather to have outlined the different of most Spanish: “ella nació aquí; tiene carnet angles from which her work has been studied and de identidad y todo. Vamos, que es española. the opposing evaluations of her work. 62 Letras Hispanas Volume 9.1, Spring 2013

4In his analysis of Cosmofobia and Lo verdade- urban space and immigration in twenty-first cen- ro es un momento de lo falso, Prádanos explains tury Spain. system theory’s emphasis on complexly intercon- 8See Amanda Lock Swarr and Richa Nagar for nected and interdependent human experience and a more detailed discussion of the challenges and knowledge. He argues that, among other narrative goals of transnational feminist collaborations, in- styles, Spanish narratives of the new millenium re- cluding acknowledging what is at stake for the par- flect this epistemology. ties involved and addressing gaps between theory 5The okupa movement of the 1980s and 1990s, and praxis. in which unemployed youth occupied abandoned 9As Kathryn Everly’s observes in relation to De apartments, centered on the partially abandoned todo lo visible y lo invisible, these strategies signal Lavapiés, but by the late 1990s young people with “the impossibility of re-creating or knowing the money interested in a bohemian environment ‘truth’” ( “Textual Violence,” 139). brought gentrification to sections of the neighbor- 10Gérard Genette explains that a heterodiegetic hood. Still, as home to Madrid’s Jewish Quarter in narrator is “absent from the story he tells” and a the Middle Ages and the working classes through homodiegetic narrator is “present as a character” today, it is no surprise that Lavapiés has became (244-45). a locus for contemporary Spain’s immigrant com- 11I would like to acknowledge the person at the munities. As described in a press release, the La- 2011 conference of the Asociación Internacional vapiés neighborhood association organized the de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica (AIL- first of an annual gastronomic event in Fall 2011: CFH) in Barcelona who urged me to consider the Tapapiés propone irse de tapas por el impact of the many names in the novel, but whose mundo sin salir de Lavapiés [...]. Chi- name I do not know. na, Bangladesh, Argelia, Tailandia, 12Everly has pointed out that it seems the real Pakistán, Senagal, Chile y Ecuador, author is “lurking behind the scenes” and speak- entre otras nacionalidades, se unirán ing to us intimately in De todo lo visible y lo in- a [...]. un amplio repertorio de tapas visible (“Textual Violenc,” 142). The same is true de nuestras comunidades autónomas, in Cosmofobia, in which Etxebarria takes us on a desde Galicia y Asturias hasta Castilla personal tour of “her” neighborhood. la Mancha, sin olvidar las típicamente 13Etxebarria’s self-conscious treatment of her castizas. (Díaz) position as author contrasts with works such as And, one could win an iPad by participating! Rafael Torres’s non-fictional Yo, Mohammed: Etxebarria’s attention to ethnic tensions and social Historias de inmigrantes en un país de emigrantes webs that extend the perimeters of Lavapiés belies (1995), which purports to deliver an unmitigated the promotion of this urban space as a harmonious picture of the lives of twenty-five immigrants. For gastronomic world tour into whose borders one an analysis of this testimonial work, see Daniela crosses and then leaves after a taste of its flavors. Flesler’s The Return of the Moor: Spanish Responses 6While Cosmofobia focuses on Madrid’s multi- to Moroccan Immigration, 168-72. ethnic fabric, Etxebarria’s subsequent Lo verdadero 14The characters’ low self-esteem, a pattern of es un momento de lo falso (2010) turns to Madrid’s escalating violence, separation, pardoning the per- entertainment world and the death of a 26 year- petrator, reconciliation, and then the reiteration of old singer. In this text that privilges the hyperreal, this cycle, conform to typical scenarios in abusive the author repeats many of the techniques in the relationships. See Geraldine Stahly, “Why Don’t earlier novel, including an interrelated, dense web They Just Leave?”. of characters and stories, an extradiegetic narrator, 15See Lock Swarr and Nagar 15-17 and Talpade and a writer who interviews characters, who nar- Mohanty 7. rate different versions of the same story. 16Bourdieu argues in “The Forms of Capital” 7The essays in Hiller and Rooksby’s Habitus: that one cannot understand societal relations with- A Sense of Place argue the relevance of Bourdieu’s out a consideration of non-economic capital, such ideas on the formation of one’s sense of place as education, knowledge, and practices, the value of and the place of others to urban transformation which a social group determines. See also his essay brought on by migration. Leonie Sandercock’s and “Symbolic Capital” in The Logic of Practice, 112-21. John Friedman’s essays were particularly influential 17Etxebarria’s Cosmofobia might be an exam- in my reading of Etxebarria’s narrative treatment of ple of the greater emphasis Cornejo-Parriego has Maryanne L. Leone 63 suggested should be placed on studying solidarity Genette, Gerard. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in among minority groups in Spain (35). Method. Ithaca [NY]: Cornell UP, 1980. Print. Henseler, Christine. “Acerca del ‘fenómeno’ Lucía Works Cited Etxebarria.” Revista de Literatura 67.134 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Re- (2005): 501-22. Print. flections on the Origin and Spread of National- Hiller, Jean, and Emma Rooksby, eds. Habitus: A Sense ism. 1991 Rev. ed. London: Verso, 2003. Print. of Place. Hants [England]: Ashgate, 2002. Print. Bermúdez, Silvia. “Let’s Talk About Sex?: From Linhard, Tabea Alexa. “Between Hostility and Almudena Grandes to Lucía Etxebarria, The Hospitality: Immigration in Contemporary Volatile Values of the Spanish Literary Mar- Spain.” MLN 122 (2007): 400-22. Print. ket.” Women’s Narrative and Film in 10th Lock Swarr, Amanda, and Richa Nagar, eds. “Intro- Century Spain: A World of Difference(s). Eds. duction: Theorizing Transnational Feminist Ofelia Ferrán and Kathleen Glenn. New York: Praxis.” Critical Transnational Feminist Practice. Routledge, 2002. 223-37. Print. Albany: State U of New York P, 2010. 1-20. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. “Habitus.” Habitus: A Sense of Martin-Márquez, Susan. Disorientations: Spanish Place. Hiller and Rooksby, 27-34. Print. Colonialism in Africa and the Performance of —. “The Forms of Capital.” Handbook of Theory Identity. New Haven: Yale UP, 2008. Print. and Research for the Sociology of Education. Massey, Doreen. Space, Place, and Gender. Minne- John G. 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