INSURGENT POETICS: LITERATURE AND ALTERNATIVE TEXTUALITIES IN CONTEMPORARY ABYA YALA by Hannah Burdette BA, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 2005 MA, Vanderbilt University, 2008 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Hannah Aileen Burdette It was defended on September 25, 2013 and approved by Dr. John Beverley, Distinguished Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dr. Juan Duchesne Winter, Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dr. Gonzalo Lamana, Associate Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dr. Paul Eiss, Associate Professor, Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Monasterios, Associate Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures ii Copyright © by Hannah Burdette 2013 iii INSURGENT POETICS: INDIGENOUS LITERATURE AND ALTERNATIVE TEXTUALITIES IN CONTEMPORARY ABYA YALA Hannah Burdette, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 The last two decades of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st centuries have been marked by a notable increase in indigenous political action as well as an outpouring of texts produced by native authors and poets. Amerindians from Alaska to Chile are increasingly raising their voices and reclaiming the right to represent themselves, in both a political and a discursive sense. This boom in indigenous literature and social movements is arguably one of the most significant occurrences at the turn of the twenty-first century, yet it remains largely understudied on a comparative level. This dissertation seeks to address that gap by expanding the possibilities for North-South dialogue and exploring the commonalities and particularities of different movements across both continents. By critically adopting native activists’ use of the term Abya Yala—meaning “Continent of Plenitude and Maturity” in the Kuna language of Panama—I explore alternative conceptions of space and place that impart a powerful starting point for rethinking comparative, inter-American work through the lens of indigenous studies. Central to this inquiry is the concept of insurgent poetics, which I introduce to convey a mode of writing that narrates and/or performs acts of resistance and partakes in the struggle for political and iv intellectual sovereignty. Through an analysis of several novels, essays, and poetry collections from Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia/Venezuela, the Southwestern United States, and Bolivia, I demonstrate that literature constitutes a key weapon in indigenous social movements, as it provides a means of rendering subjugated knowledges visible (visibilizar) and of envisioning alternatives to modernity/coloniality (visualizar). Given that this process of revitalization represents a struggle for autonomy in what is ultimately a poetic (re)creation of the self, I contend that insurgency represents not only the negation of oppression, coloniality, neoliberalism, or the dominant classes (as the case may be), but also the affirmation of possible alternatives to the dominant power structures and systems of knowledge. Contemporary indigenous insurgency thus represents a form cultural resurgence, an emergence into the scene of global politics, and an in-surgence into the sphere of lettered culture and State power. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .……………………………………………………………………..ix INTRODUCTION From Political Protest to Poetic Awakening …………………………..……………………….....1 PART ONE: VISIBILIZAR CHAPTER ONE Verbal Art and the Insurrection of Maya Knowledge……………………………………….…..30 1.1 Poetics of the Rearguard …………………………………………………………….31 1.2 From “Civil” War to Civil Resistance ………………………………………………37 1.3 Kotz’ib’: Maya Language and Poetic Knowledge …………………………………..46 1.4 Unsettling the Permissible Indian ………………………………………………...…54 1.5 Breath on the Mirror and the Power of Partial Vision ………………………………66 1.6 Conquering the Rational Animal ……………………………………………………75 CHAPTER TWO Native (In)visibility and the Narrative Refusal to Write ………………………………………..84 2.1 Word as Weapon, Image as Ammunition ………………………………………….84 2.2 The Face that Hides Itself to Be Seen ……………………………………………...92 2.3 Through the Looking Glass ………………………………………………………102 2.4 If a Tree Falls in the Forest… ……………………………………………………112 2.5 Memory, Intoxication, and Revelation …………………………………………...121 2.6 Autoethnography and the Native (Non)informant ………………………………..129 2.7 Visibility and Its Discontents ……………………………………………………..139 PART TWO: VISUALIZAR CHAPTER THREE Literary Contraband and the Spatial Politics of Resistance ……………………………............143 3.1 In the Black Market of the Lettered City …………………………………………144 3.2 At the Crossroads of the Guajira ………………………………………………….148 3.3 Dreams of an Intimate Rebellion …………………………………………………159 3.4 A Burning Necklace of Revolutions ……………………………………………...166 3.5 Resurgence of a Living Almanac …………………………………………………175 3.6 Indigeneity Beyond Borders? …………………………………………………….185 CHAPTER FOUR Visions of the Future Present: Reprogramming Indigenismo ……………….………………..194 4.1 Moving Forward to the Ancient Future ………………………………………….194 4.2 Entrada of the Multiple-Real …………………………………………………….202 4.3 Awakening of a Gran Poder ……………………………………………………..209 4.4 An Oral History of the Future ……………………………………………………219 4.5 Double the Nightmare, Double the Awakening ………………………………….229 4.6 Prolonging the Pachakuti ………………………………………………………...237 CONCLUSION Against Counter-Contraband ………..…………………………………………………………246 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………..….261 Primary Texts …………….……………………………………………………….....…261 Secondary Texts …………….……………………………………………………….....263 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From its very inception, this dissertation has benefited from the input and support of many different people, in the form of specific critiques and recommendations as well as moral support and encouragement. In particular, I would like to thank my committee chair, Elizabeth Monasterios, whose suggestions throughout the process helped me to further refine my arguments and maneuver the twists and turns of dissertation writing. Thanks also to my other committee members: to John Beverley and Gonzalo Lamana, for always asking challenging questions and pushing me to dig deeper; to Juan Duchesne, for introducing me to several of the texts I have included here and for sharing his own thoughts and approaches to indigenous literature; and to Paul Eiss, for agreeing to serve on my committee despite knowing very little about me and for his insightful questions during my proposal defense. I also want to express my appreciation to other professors and colleagues who have influenced and encouraged me along the way: to Joshua Lund, for his support and encouragement during my job search; to Earl Fitz, for instilling in me his passion for inter- American studies; to Carlos Jáuregui, for helping me transition from my MA at Vanderbilt to the PhD at Pitt; and to Juana Suárez and Verónica Grossi for inspiring me early on to pursue my interest in Latin American literature and cultural studies at the graduate level. Thanks also to my colleagues and fellow graduate students, particularly Ximena Postigo and Emma Freeman, for the endless hours of conversation on indigenous politics and poetics, subaltern studies, and the nature of academia that helped me to formulate and refine my critical approach. It was often that viii kind of dialogue and exchange that helped to keep me going. I should also note that the financial support of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh has been instrumental to the development of this project; a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship in 2010 allowed me to spend six weeks in Nahualá, Guatemala studying Maya K’iche’, and a Summer Travel Grant in 2011 permitted me to conduct research in Bolivia for what would eventually become chapter four. Additionally, a Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences allowed me to focus my last year of the PhD on completing the dissertation. I am eternally grateful for the support of my parents, particularly my mother, who shared with me early on her love for languages, took me on her travels to Ecuador and Mexico, and inspired me to follow in her footsteps in pursuing a PhD. I would certainly not be where I am today were it not for her influence and the experiences we have shared. My greatest thanks, however, goes to my husband, Nathan Heggins Bryant, who has accompanied me through the process from beginning to end, providing moral support and critical insight when I needed it the most. He, of all people, has suffered the effects of the long hours and personal sacrifice that this project entailed. I couldn’t have done it without you, mi amor. ix INTRODUCTION FROM POLITICAL PROTEST TO POETIC AWAKENING Naya saparukiw jiwayapxitata, nayxarusti waranqa, waranqanakaw kut'anixa... ¡A mí solo me mataréis, pero mañana volveré y seré millones! —Aymara insurgent Túpac Katari just prior to his assassination, 1781 My people will sleep for 100 years. When they awaken, it will be the artists who will give them back their spirit. — Métis leader Louis Riel, 1885 From the Zapatista uprising in Mexico and the rise of the Pan-Maya Movement in Guatemala to the coup d’etat in Ecuador and the Water and Gas Wars in Bolivia, the last two decades of the 20th and the first decade of