Elena Poniatowska provided a fascinating and revealing overview of the literary work and lives of Latin American women in her lecture given on May 18, at the Seminar on Latin American Narrative in the 21st Century.

The seminar, organized by the University of Guadalajara at Los Angeles in collaboration the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), was brought to a formidable conclusion by Poniatowska, who turned 77 years old on the day of the lecture.

She began her lecture with a question: "Have you ever seen those lionesses in a zoo who hide in the back licking invisible thorns in their paws - the ones who look like alley cats, all skinny and suffering from rash and mange? Well that is what Latin American women writers are like, according to Maria Luisa "La China" Mendoza: ugly, gloomy, always shoved into the background, like empty sacks after carrying their last child."

She took the analogy one step further: "The lion, however, no matter where he is, imposes his own conditions. But never the lioness. Carlos Fuentes, like the Metro Goldwyn Mayer lion, raises his magnificent head, shakes his golden mane, and greets another lion king, Mario Vargas Llosa, who in turn shows off his pearly white teeth as if he were the Cheshire Cat, whose smile Alice from Alice in Wonderland saw whenever she turned out the light.”

"I remember reading in a French magazine a list of the Latin American Nobel prize winners where the only one missing was Gabriela Mistral. With the exception of Isabel Allende, an utter lack of encouragement discourages women writers from believing in themselves before they really get started. According to Rosario Castellanos, our finest female writer, the current situation is not much different than it was for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who 300 years ago decided that becoming a cloistered nun was the only way she could ply her trade," she stated.

"Just like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Rosario Castellanos had came face to face with a terrifying reality : women were not equal to men, they were inferior. For this reason they did not have the same ability to think, or even less to create. That is what she wrote in her thesis on feminine culture, in which she practically apologizes for venturing into a realm that was forbidden to her: the world of culture", she wrote. She then delivered a detailed review of the main works by the most distinguished female writers from the Americas, from liberated Chicanas to committed writers from the Southern Cone who after abandoning the literature   of confession committed themselves to “defeating racial and social prejudices and earning respect.” Writers who play with language, twist it all around and fashion from it a  sumptuous necklace,” she went on to say.

"Latin America women writers hail from countries which are poor and defenseless. However, our poverty stems not from destitution; the poverty of Latin America is one of indifference. We have nobody we can go up to and say, “I am hungry.” This hunger penetrates our writing and contaminates it. Because they are in the minority, female writers have allied themselves with other minority groups, which is why they are quick to condemn, complain and take risks.”

Elena Poniatowska concluded the Seminar on Latin American Narrative in the 21st Century amidst a warm round of applause from the pleased and participatory crowd that went to the UCLA campus to hear her speak.

www.udgla.com/seminarionarrativa