Guayaquil de mis horrores

The Mangrove Gothic and Contemporary Literature in Ecuador’s Fear Capital

Bibliographic Data

ID24225281
AuthorsLuis A Medina Córdova (0000-0002-7763-6811, University of Birmingham)
Year2026
Pages1-17
Publication date2026-04-23
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Research Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8791 • E-ISSN: 1542-4278
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/lar.2026.10129
OpenAlexW7155376287
LanguageEN
References cited21

This article explores the relationship between urban violence in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s economic capital, and two works of contemporary Ecuadorian literature. I introduce the term mangrove gothic to analyze how María Fernanda Ampuero’s short-story collection Pelea de gallos (2018) and Mónica Ojeda’s novel Mandíbula (2018) appropriate gothic tropes to depict the violent realities of twenty-first-century Guayaquil. The mangrove gothic encompasses the narrative strategies through which these authors inscribe fear into the experience of living in—or having lived in—Guayaquil, where oppressive humidity and heat, social hierarchies, and violence haunt the urban space. At the same time, the term offers geographic, social, and cultural specificity to the broader category of the “new Latin American female gothic.” In doing so, it counters the risk of homogenizing Latin American literature under a single transnational trend tailored for global consumption.

Gothic fiction · Guayaquil · Latin American literature · mandible · María Fernanda Ampuero · Mónica Ojeda · Social hierarchy · Transnationalism · Urban space · Urban violence · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Latin American Literature Analysis · Latin American Literature Studies

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