Untitled - Centre for Comparative Literature - University of Toronto

including Hollywood cinema from the 1990s, such as, Junior (1994) which starred Arnold
Schwarzenegger as a pregnant man.
9 “they tell me that, before anything else, they are going to the sanctuary of the Dead
Woman to express their devotion.” (113)
10 “She is our Sacred Mother […] We will march to Her with our heads held high, facing
the enemy wherever he may be crouching and trying to stop us. We will cross the river
of blood that the ancient prophecy speaks of, we will wait by Her side for the peace we
deserve.” (118)
11 “The absence of blood is important. That body so dead, so forever dead, did not shed
a drop. With all the blood women use, all they overfl ow, squander, waste! That’s why I
look down on them—[save this one]—because they don’t appreciated the sacred liquid,
because they are not impressed by its scarlet presence.” (85-6)
12 “They say that my mother menstruated all through her pregnancy, I didn’t give her a
moment’s respite. That blood so thick, unstimulating.” (100)
13 “I, Luisa Valenzuela, swear by these writings that I will try to do something about all of
this, become involved as much as possible, plunge in head-fi rst, aware of how little can
be done but with a desire to handle at least a small thread and assume responsibility for
the story.” (125)
14 “I believe in the virtue of reading between the lines.” (179)
15 “It was around eleven o’clock, I’d been trying to write in spite of everything, trying to
imagine what the Sorcerer [brujo] could be plotting at that hour. I’d hit upon the idea of a
father; no matter how great a witch doctor he was, that business of having been born from
himself, right? nothing but man’s fantasy, dreams of self-suffi ciency.” (186)
16 “We’ll bring him inside the pyramid, even if it isn’t fi nished. He’ll be cooler there, he
won’t get sunstroke there, he won’t dehydrate. Besides, he says the bad vibrations won’t
46 transverse