Remembering Rosario Castellanos

One of the original Mexican literary independents, Rosario Castellanos left behind a broad body of literary work in multiple genres that, in my view (and anticipating the dynami French duo of Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva), ushered in, along with Luisa Valenzuela, a Latin American new-wave of feminist critical theory.

I was looking for a good picture of Castellanos (click the cool poster, opposite, from a conference in Chiapas last month) and stumbled upon a New York City based artist, Alicette Torres, who recently incorporated Castellanos into a photographic series that muses upon Latin American literary suicides--I always thought Castellanos died accidentally, electrocuted in Israel with the less-than-fortuitous combination of a bathtub and an electric appliance; regardless, Torres's photos are well done, and the series concept breathlessly clever!


Find more photos like this on Brooklyn Art Project


Here's another recent gallery show with xicanosmotic brilliance that I scooped off of Torres's postings! Gracias, gracias.



Castellanos's ghost and legacy looms large in Tex[t]-Mex--in particular, the key Lupe Vélez chapter, "Lupe Vélez Regurgitated; or, Jesus's Kleenex: Cautionary, Indigestion-Inspiring Ruminations on 'Mexicans' in 'American' Toilets."