Overview
«Se dice que un libro te cambia cuando es bueno y, prepárense, porque el acto rutinario de tirar la basura ya nunca será igual después de leer el de Sylvia Aguilar.» —Berna González Harbour, El País
En la frontera entre Ciudad Juárez y El Paso habitan tres mujeres cuyas vidas tienen aparentemente poco en común, más que el basurero municipal. Alicia fue abandonada de pequeña en ese vertedero y ha tenido que ganarse la vida entre los desechos ajenos. Reyna dirige con orgullo un prostíbulo que da alegría a los hombres del rumbo y refugio a las mujeres que lo habitan. Griselda, al otro lado de la frontera, es una médica exitosa que investiga el basurero municipal, al tiempo que sobrepasa la enfermedad de la mujer que la crio. La sutil pero puntual escritura de Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny nos deja entrever la violencia, el abandono y la marginalidad que supone vivir en la periferia tal y como si se fuera un montón de basura.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
“They say a book changes you when it’s good, and get ready— because the routine act of taking out the trash will never be the same after reading Sylvia Aguilar’s.” —Berna González Harbour, El País
Along the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso live three women whose lives seem to have little in common—except for the municipal dump. Alicia was abandoned there as a child and has had to make a living among other people’s refuse. Reyna proudly runs a brothel that brings joy to the men of the area and refuge to the women who inhabit it. Griselda, on the other side of the border, is a successful physician who studies the landfill while also caring for the woman who raised her as she declines in illness. Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny’s subtle yet precise prose allows us to glimpse the violence, abandonment, and marginalization inherent in living at the periphery—as though one were nothing more than a heap of discarded trash.
En la frontera entre Ciudad Juárez y El Paso habitan tres mujeres cuyas vidas tienen aparentemente poco en común, más que el basurero municipal. Alicia fue abandonada de pequeña en ese vertedero y ha tenido que ganarse la vida entre los desechos ajenos. Reyna dirige con orgullo un prostíbulo que da alegría a los hombres del rumbo y refugio a las mujeres que lo habitan. Griselda, al otro lado de la frontera, es una médica exitosa que investiga el basurero municipal, al tiempo que sobrepasa la enfermedad de la mujer que la crio. La sutil pero puntual escritura de Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny nos deja entrever la violencia, el abandono y la marginalidad que supone vivir en la periferia tal y como si se fuera un montón de basura.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
“They say a book changes you when it’s good, and get ready— because the routine act of taking out the trash will never be the same after reading Sylvia Aguilar’s.” —Berna González Harbour, El País
Along the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso live three women whose lives seem to have little in common—except for the municipal dump. Alicia was abandoned there as a child and has had to make a living among other people’s refuse. Reyna proudly runs a brothel that brings joy to the men of the area and refuge to the women who inhabit it. Griselda, on the other side of the border, is a successful physician who studies the landfill while also caring for the woman who raised her as she declines in illness. Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny’s subtle yet precise prose allows us to glimpse the violence, abandonment, and marginalization inherent in living at the periphery—as though one were nothing more than a heap of discarded trash.
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