An Abyss of Movement: The Desert in Porque parece mentira la verdad nunca se sabe
No. 34 (2025-01-06)Author(s)
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Andrea Garcés FarfánFreie Universität Berlin, Alemania
Abstract
The portrayal of North American deserts as empty, timeless, dangerous, marginal, and
infertile has been crucial in the consolidation of the United States, Mexico, and their
borderlands. Since the nineteenth century, the vastness and aridity of the desert have justified the appropriation of new territories, mechanisms of state control, and modernizing
projects on both sides of the border. In order to explore the representation of the desert in the local literature of arid regions, this article presents an ecocritical analysis of Daniel Sada’s Porque parece mentira la verdad nunca se sabe. I propose that by narrating the movement of its human and non-human characters, Sada’s novel not only gives back historical depth and (bio)diversity to a supposedly empty and timeless territory but also criticizes the Western conception of the desert and its effects on the Chihuahuan desert.
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