From Cuchitambo to Otavalo to New York City

Border-crossing in Carlos Arcos’s Memorias de Andrés Chiliquinga

Bibliographic Data

ID21724911
AuthorsLuis A Medina Córdova (0000-0002-7763-6811, University of Birmingham, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume22
Issue2
Pages257-276
Publication date2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Romance Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1473-3536 • E-ISSN: 1752-2331
PublisherLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3828/jrs.2022.14
OpenAlexW4283373405
LanguageEN
References cited9

This paper analyses Carlos Arcos’s novel Memorias de Andrés Chiliquinga (2013) from a transnational perspective. I propose that, by reimagining the indigenous hero of Jorge Icaza’s Huasipungo (1934) and placing him in New York City in the twenty-first century, Arcos delivers a novel that not only challenges the Ecuadorian literary tradition but also defies limited views about the Ecuadorian nation. I focus on the multiple borders the story identifies and crosses to argue that, in his travels, his multilingualism, and his blend of foreign and indigenous cultural traits, the contemporary Andrés Chiliquinga created by Arcos counters purity and homogeneity with mixture and hybridity. In doing so, he lays bare that a key part of what defines the ‘national’ in contemporary Ecuador is precisely its transnationality

Art · Art history · Ethnology · HERO · Hybridity · Indigenous · Janus · Literature · Sociology · Transnationality · Anthropology · Cultural Studies and Colonialism · Gender Studies · History · Latin American Literature Studies · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez

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