latin american essays maclas

plays itself out in the personal lives of the protagonists, who, like their authors,
have already crossed-over into the U.S. cultural mindset, and yet maintain a very
strong attachment to family and original culture. The young protagonists who
populate the works of many of these authors find themselves pressured by both
the traditional values and ways of the older generation and by the modern
pressures of the market-driven and individualistic U.S. contemporary society. The
conundrum is problematized even further by the experience of exile, which
leaves the older generation stuck within a narrow and unyielding frame of mind.
The one-and-a-half generation children of Cuban exiles belong to both worlds,
and they must find their place in the complex interstices between them. The
search for personal authenticity is paramount in the work of this group. The
quest shared by these writers, which plays itself out among the characters in
their work, is particularly interesting because it puts into question both the
Cuban exile mentality and U.S. mainstream assumptions regarding the basic
components of identity: gender, race, class, language, nationality, community,
and family. The perspective displayed by the protagonists is often one of
ambivalence towards both worlds, a view from the margins. Moreover, the quest
is played out within a temporal contest between the past and the present, giving
memory a pivotal role in navigating the complexities of identity. 2
Elías Miguel Muñoz was born in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, in 1954. In 1968 he
and his younger brother were sent to Spain, and a year later the family was
reunited and moved to California. He finished high school and went on to receive
his undergraduate degree, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of
California, Irvine. This transition to California, rather than to Miami or Union City,
New Jersey, where there are very large Cuban exile communities, allowed Muñoz
to develop an independent multi-dimensional perspective, one of a minority
among many minorities. 3 Critic Antonio Prieto Taboada (95) points to the fact
that, unlike Roberto Fernández, who “draws on the Cuban novelist Guillermo
Cabrera Infantes’ linguistic carnival for his satirical portrayal of the Miami exile
community, Elías Miguel Muñoz, for his part, turns to the works of U.S. Hispanic
writers Rolando Hinojosa and Nicolasa Mohr.” Muñoz is at home within the larger
U.S. Hispanic scene, another indication of his distanced stance vis-à-vis the more
conservative Cuban enclaves in the eastern part of the United States.
Los viajes de Orlando Cachunbambé (Orlando’s Seasaw) (1984) was
Muñoz’s first novel, and the only one written in Spanish. His subsequent novels
include Crazy Love (1989), The Greatest Performance (1991), and Brand New
Memory (1998). He has also written two books of poetry, En estas tierras/ In
This Land (1989) and No fue posible el sol (1989; The Impossible Sun). Desde
esta orilla: Poesía cubana en el exilio (1988) is a scholarly work on Cuban exile
poetry. He also wrote theatrical works, among them The LA Scene, which is a
theatrical adaptation of his novel, Crazy Love. He has written 3 Spanishinstruction
novels through McGraw-Hill’s StoryTeller’s Series: Viajes fantásticos
111