Citation

M. MAA. Asian J. Latinam. Stud. 2008; 21(4): 193-215.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Why has the study of "colonial subject" acquired importance in recent years for the analysis of "mentalities"? Like in the rest of the world, the dilemma of the "Other" has motivated many Latin American writers to reevaluate the cultural and intellectual history. The Mexican writer Antonio Sarabia, with his work El cielo a dentelladas (2000), belongs to this tendency: he delves into the ideological mechanisms with which the Hispanic mentality has approached the indigenous inhabitants and the American territory, revealing to us through literary realism the dark corners of intolerance. Nevertheless, with this work, Sarabia compels us to analyze the historical representations of "being-other" in a more positive way, reflecting on alterity in a more rational way. And this is what the works of other Latin American thinkers aim at, where we can see a clear link between alterity, ethics and sense. It is a topic quite important, especially these days when we are dealing with the destiny of many cultures and people, given the unilateralist policies that threaten to discredit and annihilate these cultures and people because they are perceived to have a low moral level. In the same way, today, as in the past, the problematic of the "Other" has become a crucial topic due to the great mass of immigrants that finds itself in the middle of a labor market set adrift by the phenomenon of globalization, those displaced by wars and internal conflicts, those displaced by the networks of human trafficking (sex slavery and organ trade) that remind us of the wave of slavery and objectification of the "Other" (African and indigenous inhabitants of America) that was arose from the discovery of the New World. This present research specifically emphasizes on a latent aspect that clearly articulate the plot of the work: the vision of the code of chivalry in El cielo a dentelladas in relation with the future of Latin America.

Keywords: Human trafficking

Language: es