Notes from Latin America

kachchi miTTi,

i like isabel allende`s writing. i liked house of the spirits and eva luna. it seems like gazillion years since i`ve read those though, but i had to read la casa de los espiritus for a latin american history class towards the end of my undergrad days. hated what did they did to it in the movie version. i have not had a chance to read the book she wrote about, was it her daughter?

mirmir:

not that i`ve lost patience. :) let me know what you think of fantasia. it is not the easiest of reads! i taught a class where i had my students read it, and they were not very pleased with me. nor were all of them impressed by her writing. i think it may have been too ``deep`` for them.

and i can understand your puzzlement. there are ``arabs`` who are just as puzzled about being a part of the ``arab world.`` many of us refer to all lebanese as arabs. some lebanese refer to themselves as phoenecians. and it is sometimes difficult for me to place egypt and algeria in the ``arab world``, when they are in africa. . . .

Re: # 24
Raw Dust...
Sorry, I have to plead ignorance here and check with my wife, who`s smarter than I am!
mirmir

mirmir:
isabel allende? good ? bad? half-decent? what do you say.. one of my friend been talking about it....

cheers.

Re: # 21
Ana
I`ve ordered ``Fantasia`` by Assia Djebar and also ``Naphtalene`` by Alia Mamdouh. I`m looking forward to reading both. Thanks for the note on Assia Djebar. Yes, after looking in my handy dictionary I see that Arab, in its broad sense, refers to all people who live in Arab-speaking nations. I`m learning, be patient, please!
mirmir

Re: # 21
Yes, partly the expatriate status, but mostly my ignorance. Are Iraqis considered Arab? mirmir

mirmir:

i went to the website you posted re: the ``women of the arab world`` bios. what puzzles you about them being billed as such. is it the expatriate status of some of them? is it where some of them are from? i`m not always comfortable with these umbrellas either, and having read suheir`s poetry, i know she writes about more than just the arab world.

and while we`re still straying and recommending. . . if you haven`t read assia djebar`s ``fantasia: an algerian cavalcade``, or ``women from algiers in their apartment.`` i recommend them. she`s billed as an arab writer as well, but i know that in ``fantasia. . .`` there`s this dialogue about being arab, or being french, this struggle for identity.

saludos!

mirmir:
to stray a little further and furthermore, i think latin girls that carry strong mayan features look mystical and out of this world... like the ones in mayan hieroglyphs...

thanks for mentioning that writer, i will definitely check him out...

you probably have read more from south asian literature than me.. all i can think of is Imtiaz Ali Taj`s play AnaarKali which i like alot... it is about a legend of a Mughal Prince falling in love with a courtesan.. i am not sure if anyone has undertaken the near-impossible task of translating this masterpiece but you can put it on your radar....

cheers.

Rezwan...

``The Amerindian population of South America is marching and I glorify it in the tradition that was the glory of the Inca, the Maya and the Aztec many centuries ago.``

I meant to comment on this but somehow didn`t get around to it in my earlier posts. I do hope that today`s Amerindians reject totally the tradition (that was the glory???) of their cannibal ancestors who participated in ritual human sacrifice. The Aztec theocratic culture was particularly bloody. Cortez may have been a butcher himself, but he did put an end to the Aztec practices of human sacrifice, cannibalism (human flesh was even sold in the market) and flagrant sodomy. Accounts of these practices are easy enough to find on Internet, but here`s an especially graphic description of Mayan rituals:

http://www.ambergriscaye.com/museum/digit14.html

mirmir

Re: # 16
OK, Ana, so I`ll risk straying a little further. These women writers have been billed as Women of the Arab World (but that puzzles me a little): Raja Alem (Saudi Arabia), Fadia Faquir (Jordan/U.K.), Suheir Hammad (Palestine/U.S.), Choman Hardi (Iraqi Kurdistan/UK), Alia Mamdouh (Iraq/France), Somaya Ramadan (Egypt), and Ibtihal Salem (Egypt). You can find a short bio of each here:

http://www.hedgebrook.org/womenwriters.htm

mirmir

:)

mirmir:

you really aren`t straying too far off the subject, we have been talking about literature (well, some of us have). and we tend to always stray from topic anyway on chowk. i will check out alia mamdouh. i haven`t had the chance to read many iraqi women writers - one is daisy al-amir and the other one i forget. thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Re: # 14

Si Srta Ana, I did see it, a few times actually. Esta in mi coleccion. es excelente.

kulharee,

you had better not be saying that about my mother because i will turn you, kulharee, into a molten mess if you are!!! did you see that movie by the way? what didja think of it?

and chimichangas are good. do not knock them!

Queridos Amigos...

I`m straying far off the subject, I know, but I thought some of you might be interested. This book, ``Naphtalene,`` isn`t by a south Asian author but by one from Iraq, Alia Mamdouh. I haven`t been able to find the book here in Mexico so I can`t give you a first hand opinion. Here, though, is a short excerpt from a review by Megan Marz - a review that has set me looking for the novel. Any of you who are interested can read the entire review here:

http://www.alternet.org/story/26501/

``Naphtalene,`` the first novel by an Iraqi woman to be
published in the United States, has taken a long time
to arrive here.

A small Cairo press first published Alia Mamdouh`s
second novel in 1986, just a few years after her
controversial first novel, ``Leila and the Wolf,``
provoked the Iraqi government to prohibit her from
publishing her work there. For the next decade,
``Naphtalene`` was largely ignored. Then, in 1996,
Jordanian scholar Fadia Faqir rescued it from
obscurity by choosing it as part of Garnet
Publishing`s Arab Women Writers, a series of five
novels translated into English and published in the
United Kingdom. But not until this summer did a
publisher -- the Feminist Press at CUNY -- bring
``Naphtalene`` to the United States.
from a review by Megan Marz

Re: # 12

Ana, Gracias, Chimi Changas

Y Tu Mama Tambien

#10. i don`t either. which is why i had problems with this article. and i agree with both you and mirmir on borges and marquez. thanks for the continuing recommendations, mirmir.
kachchi dhool (raw dust), perhaps you could reciprocate by recommending some south asian writers to mirmir?

and kulharee. . . at least you know what chinge de madre is (even though it doesn`t quite look correct). perhaps there is hope for you yet!!! *rolls eyes*