Untitled - Centre for Comparative Literature - University of Toronto

The new sign, as already suggested, lacks the original syllables and it has become a
monosyllabic word; this fact becomes important for the reader dealing in these questions
of gender precisely because the word now seems to lack an apparent gender. The vowel
that more often than not determines the gender has been excised. Further to this, the
article which is used has been inverted to “le” which does not specify a masculine or
feminine understanding of the sign. 22 The reader is also permitted to encounter his or her
own interpretations of this refi guration: “La pura transición, no se lo puede califi car con
género defi nido alguno y hay que crearle nuevos adjetivos. No neutros porque de neutro
nada tiene le Bruj, sino adjetivos ambiguos, mutantes” (265). 23 This ambiguous nature
of gender also evokes the queer interpretations that deny the rigid, essentialist notions of
sex.
Visually, the dictator maintains, to a certain degree, his maleness (the biological
condition of being male) in the fi gure of Estrella, his third testicle: “Crecida, ahora, Estrella
de primera magnitud ocupando todo el espacio visible, y sobre todo plenamente a sus
anchas en el otro espacio” (274). 24 The testicle maintains its position; and the reader will
understand precisely how the testicle takes on the de facto role of womb:
Mientras, el Garza prepara los elementos que poseen el esplendor de la
simpleza. Tan sólo una jeringa de vacunar ganado con chorro a presión
y la compuesta inodora, incolora, insípida a la que hace más de mil años
de dedicó el exbrujo . Era un líquido hermano del agua destilada que falló
como solvente de úteros ajenos pero que ahora cumplirá la nueva misión
de ablandarla a Estrella y volverla proclive. [...] Y los espermatozoides
deben sentirse alegres coleteando en el líquido, [...] La inyección ya ha sido
aplicada. (275) 25
In these paragraphs, the reader comes to understand the manner in which the dictator
is able to become pregnant, via his own sperm; a syringe penetrates his testicle, and
eventually, he becomes pregnant.
The reader must constantly negotiate the juxtaposition between gender and sex, and
must also become aware of the weakness of any attempt at an anti-feminist reading.
The text continually returns to the question of gender and in so doing reinfoces notions
of masculinity, as in le bruj’s statement, “[a]hora seré mi propio hijo como una vez fue
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