Overview
Un secreto ancestral, la vida de dos mujeres que se entrecruzan, la historia de un país y sus guerras.
Desde la oscuridad del desierto, una mujer rarámuri anuncia a Helena que su hija, desaparecida años atrás, regresará. Por otro lado, esa misma mañana Julia, absorta en una serie de destierros personales, sufre un accidente automovilístico sobre la carretera. Mientras su esposo recibe los restos de quien cree que es su mujer, Julia es escondida a la orilla de la carretera en un jacal. A partir de jirones de memoria, de un cuerpo que oscila entre la vida y la muerte, ella deambula inconsciente entre una serie de voces e historias que la conforman, de decisiones que distorsionaron el sentido de su vida.
Por su parte, Helena encarna los destierros de la historia del siglo XX mexicano, sucesos que quedaron al margen de la historia oficial. A través del delirante recuento de sus relatos, cobran vida cuatro generaciones de mujeres, las otras revoluciones mexicanas, los migrantes, la violencia, el país de los desaparecidos, la impunidad y la demencia.
Destierros es un cruce de narrativas, pero también de esos otros cuerpos que somos nosotros. Gabriela Riveros nos sube a la barca con su estilo poético y su maravillosa pluma, para que recorramos nuestros propios exilios y geografías al lado de sus personajes.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
An ancestral secret, the intertwined lives of two women, and the history of a country marked by war.
From the darkness of the desert, a Rarámuri woman tells Helena that her daughter—missing for years—will return. That same morning, Julia, adrift in a series of personal exiles, is involved in a car accident on the highway.
While her husband is handed the remains of the woman he believes to be his wife, Julia is hidden at the roadside in a jacal. From fragments of memory, from a body suspended between life and death, she wanders in and out of consciousness, moving through a chorus of voices and stories that have shaped her—through decisions that distorted the meaning of her life.
Helena, for her part, embodies the exiles of twentieth-century Mexican history: events left on the margins of the official narrative. Through the delirious recounting of her stories, four generations of women come alive—the other Mexican revolutions, migrants, violence, a country of the disappeared, impunity, and madness.
Exiles is a crossing of narratives, but also of those other bodies that we ourselves are. With her poetic style and remarkable prose, Gabriela Riveros invites us aboard her boat to journey through our own exiles and geographies alongside her characters.
Desde la oscuridad del desierto, una mujer rarámuri anuncia a Helena que su hija, desaparecida años atrás, regresará. Por otro lado, esa misma mañana Julia, absorta en una serie de destierros personales, sufre un accidente automovilístico sobre la carretera. Mientras su esposo recibe los restos de quien cree que es su mujer, Julia es escondida a la orilla de la carretera en un jacal. A partir de jirones de memoria, de un cuerpo que oscila entre la vida y la muerte, ella deambula inconsciente entre una serie de voces e historias que la conforman, de decisiones que distorsionaron el sentido de su vida.
Por su parte, Helena encarna los destierros de la historia del siglo XX mexicano, sucesos que quedaron al margen de la historia oficial. A través del delirante recuento de sus relatos, cobran vida cuatro generaciones de mujeres, las otras revoluciones mexicanas, los migrantes, la violencia, el país de los desaparecidos, la impunidad y la demencia.
Destierros es un cruce de narrativas, pero también de esos otros cuerpos que somos nosotros. Gabriela Riveros nos sube a la barca con su estilo poético y su maravillosa pluma, para que recorramos nuestros propios exilios y geografías al lado de sus personajes.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
An ancestral secret, the intertwined lives of two women, and the history of a country marked by war.
From the darkness of the desert, a Rarámuri woman tells Helena that her daughter—missing for years—will return. That same morning, Julia, adrift in a series of personal exiles, is involved in a car accident on the highway.
While her husband is handed the remains of the woman he believes to be his wife, Julia is hidden at the roadside in a jacal. From fragments of memory, from a body suspended between life and death, she wanders in and out of consciousness, moving through a chorus of voices and stories that have shaped her—through decisions that distorted the meaning of her life.
Helena, for her part, embodies the exiles of twentieth-century Mexican history: events left on the margins of the official narrative. Through the delirious recounting of her stories, four generations of women come alive—the other Mexican revolutions, migrants, violence, a country of the disappeared, impunity, and madness.
Exiles is a crossing of narratives, but also of those other bodies that we ourselves are. With her poetic style and remarkable prose, Gabriela Riveros invites us aboard her boat to journey through our own exiles and geographies alongside her characters.
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