Retratos Vivos de Mamá
Before discussing the work itself, I must say that when I read carolina lópez jiménez’s biography and saw she was Colombian, my excitement level grew rapidly. It’s really awesome to see such intricate and purposeful work by someone who shares the same sort of background as you, and has similar ancestral ties to a specific region. ¡Viva Colombia!
Okay, now onto the work itself. The first thing that caught my eye in the introductory section was the second page. Her statement of purpose, what it felt like, really brings the reader in. Because this is still a work-in-progress, it serves as a sort of time capsule. I really liked the comparison to Pedro Paramo, and how he went about finding information about his father—he had to go to a town filled with the ghosts of people to get closer than he ever was while alive. That is not what jiménez is doing here. She wants to connect to her mother through living facets, whether that be tangible artifacts like pictures, or even recordings of a voice. I think this is a beautiful distinction, as we place such an intense emphasis on someone no longer being with us. This change in perspective, seeing that we are truly the living artifact of this person’s existence because we can assign meaning to such photos or recordings, is quite consoling.
Staying with this idea, a few pages after that, jiménez dedicates a section to the qualities she has that her mother had. Whether it be her pronounced clavicles that resemble much of her mother’s, or un corazón abierto al mundo (such a beautiful sentiment), she continues to “carry the torch her mother lit on her chest”. This section ends with, “Es hora de dejarla descansar,” or, it is time to let her rest. This was truly a standout section for me and does a fantastic job of laying out the intentions behind this piece in a personal way.
I spent a great deal of time in el soplo combing through all of the documents. This was really special to me, too, as my family also keeps so many documents from past generations. On my mom’s side, we have documentation from when her great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Italy via Ellis Island, to my father’s own naturalization documents from the early 2000s, and everything that could possibly be in between. I’m not sure what exactly it is about having all of this stuff. I can’t imagine never seeing these sorts of things because I think it has given me quite the idea of where my family came from, but it also produces this odd, sterile feeling that keeps memory locked in documentation. I’m not sure if this makes sense, but I will continue to think about this. I suppose this is why jiménez calls this section soplo, because it is a quick moment, a flash even, of who her mother was—everything included here only gives small insight into who she was… All of these documents do not account for other aspects mentioned throughout the work, like how she looked and what she was like.
Writers Are Not Strangers
Okay, I’m not entirely sure if we all start with the same excerpt or if the bag automatically mixes itself, but the first one gave me very much Kafka vibes, what with the slithering of the centipede and all. I will say that I didn’t know what really was going on, but the within the excerpt itself, I understood the story. I rated that a 6… a little more than halfway sensical. For the next story, I of course picked the choice that went along the lines of, “Y’know… but I’m really a writer.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the class picked this answer because we’re all writers! It made me laugh a little bit, this scenario, because I feel the question of, “so, what are you doing with that degree?” never ceases to come up when I discuss school with family. They just don’t get it! I’m a writer, naturally.
Okay, oddly enough, I also have an Aunt Serita. Well, Tia Sarita, but same difference really. And, one of my childhood cat’s names was Simon! Understandably freaky coincidences, but funny nonetheless. In any case, I really enjoyed the switch from choosing answers to just being told what is happening next, like “left the party” and “go inside”. I think that this is what makes it more akin to the literature we are used to than any of the other works we have looked at so far. This aspect being that we move from point A to point B without so much unknown. I also feel with these sorts of works, when you have to pick an answer that tailors your experience, I don’t like any of the choices. I felt that with this one a little bit. Though, I don’t know how this can be amended, as even in a hard-copy story, there’s only one way to go about things… so even LESS choices. I think this introduction of choice-based narrative has spoiled me a bit…
No way. I rated her writing??? She thinks there’s room for improvement, and that it wasn’t terrible. Honestly, I don’t feel so bad about my rating because I gave her a pretty good number, and it was honest. I would hope that if someone did that for me, they would be honest and not just say a number because of my feelings. Now, I’m really in this story. Moving onto the whole procrastination section, and doing random things before actually writing, I sincerely cannot relate to. I usually just sit down and make myself write. But, I do appreciate the sentiment and technique of storytelling here.
Okay so now, I don’t even know if what happened even happened in this fictional world. Because we know Alix was writing and we had to rate it, who’s to say that all of it wasn’t just some writing, and all of the doomsday proclivities were written, and the intricacies of Alix’s family weren’t just written? This was quite the uproot. Just when you think you know what’s going on, you really don’t.
