García-Santiago: mujeres atravesando fronteras

Abstract

Discussions of the concept of identity developed by Stuart Hall in the text Questions of Cultural Identity (1996) define identity as a meeting point, a point of suture between discourses and practices which interpellate us as social subjects. Hall maintains that identity is a position which the subject adopts and as such, it is a representation, a construct which stems from a lack or a division. In this paper we would like to explore what happens with the identity of the migrant subject and which discourses and practices impact on them. To answer such a question, we will focus on two texts: in the first place, Almost a Woman (1998), a memoir written by Esmeralda Santiago, and then the novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992) by Cristina García. We will focus on the characters of Monin, mother of the protagonist in Santiago´s text, and Lourdes, mother of one of the main characters, in Garcia´s novel. Both characters leave their home countries, Puerto -Rico and Cuba, and for different reasons migrate to the United States in the early sixties. As far as Monin is concerned, poverty and the lack of opportunities for progress push her abroad. As for Lourdes, it is a political problem, the Cuban Revolution, that drives her away. Both characters have to cope with a community which interpellates them and makes a representation of them that responds to discourses of discrimination.