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June 2014 Volume 97 Number2

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A Postwar Perversion of Testimonio in Horado Castellanos Moya,s El asco

Megan Thornton John Carroll University

Abstract: Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya offers a provocative example of postwar cynicism in h1s 1997 novel El asco: 1homas Bernhard en San Salvador. By telling the story of Edgardo Vega. an emigran! who returns to El Salvador in the mid-1990s after living in Ca nada for eighteen years, El asco rcpresents the mass cxodus ofSalvadorans during and after the country's Civil War ( 1979- 92). Because Vega recounts his story in an oral monologue, his narration recalls the testimonial project of the revolutionary years; however, Vega's narcissistic story distorts the testimonio to capture the disillusion and contradiction of the postwar years. Through a perversion of the testimonio's form and content and also by parodying t he post-World War 11 Austrian wríter Thomas Bernhard, El asco, meaning dísgust or repulsión, criticizes El Salvador's postwar reality and imagines the Salvadoran transnational community. Furthermore. the use of fiction allows Castellanos Moya to denounce the testimonio's claim on authenticity without abandoni ng its social project.

Keywords: El asco, El Salvador. Horacio Castellanos Moya. postwar literature/literatura de posguerra, testimony/testimonio

W hile the testimonial form dominated much late twentieth-century Central American literature. since the 1990s Central America has also experienced a boom in fictional narrative. This in crease is due in part to the end of civil wars in El Salvador. Nica-

ragua, and Guatemala and the perceived failure of leftist po[itical agendas and social utopian projects. During the revolutionary years of the 1970s and 1980s, testimonial writing, as the privileged form of expression in Central America, was linked to idealistic grassroots move-ments, otfering an alternative to the "official" story and giving voice to the subaltern.1 Literary critic Beatriz Cortez explains that fiction sutfered in comparison: "[L]a ficción con frecuencia fue vista como un instrumento de evasión, como una forma de alienación de la urgencia de la realidad centroamericana" (26}.2 The postwar period. however, has allowed writers to explore how literature and politics may be connected in ways beyond the testimonial and to reevaluate the role of fictional narrative. Because human rights abuses, poverty, and política! corruption still abound in postwar Central America. new works of fiction continue to examine important social issues, such as violence, urban life, migration, and national identity, but the release from the testimonio's "truth telling" or "witnessing" allows authors to imagine the nation and its ci tizens in creative ways. Postwar litera tu re still otfers a critica! perspective on society. but it has exchanged revolutionary idealism for postwar cynicism, employing a style Cortez identifies as "una estética del cinismo" (23). This new aesthetic has allowed writers of fiction to rise from the ashes of the armed conflicts.

Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya otfers a provocative example of this crit ica! cynicism in his little-studied novel El asco: Thomas Bernhard en San Salvador ( 1997) . Because of its overt criticism of postwar El Salvador, Arturo Arias describes El ascoas the most representa-tive text of postwar disillusion (23). El asco, meaning disgust or repulston, represents Edgardo

. - Hispania 97 June 2014

Vega'snegativereactionstothepeoplepolitiics,and religion ofhisnativecnuntry u pon returning homeforhis mother's funeralafterhavinglivedinCAnadaforightce n years. Vega recounts in an oralmonologuehis atypical livedexperiencesasan educatedandaffluent Salvadoran immigrant whocarnsCanadiancitizenships1 k nlso giVl'S tcstinwny. a lbeit cynically. tcl the more traditional ('t\\1~1\II Í•>It ,,f tht• w••rl..m~ d uss. By ti.u·cgrounding the orality uf Vega's fictional narrative, the 11\Wd ~~·,ttls tlw lt'sll nwn inl p roit.•,·t uf t ht• n·volut iunary ycars, fo r im m igrants o ften told their sl\>r it•s ''' hdp ~.tnwr support ti.>r solidarity movcmcnts that worked to end t he violence in (. 't·nt ml :\ nwrk.1. \. ".tstd ht1ws f\ h>ya's liSl' of t he spokcn word to rcpresent Vega's narcissist ic story, "''"''-'''t'r, .tist•ll' ls tlw tt·stilllí'tlitl to l..'aptul'l' thl· disillusion ofthe postwar years and also to connect tv 1'\.'.lJas ~mpplin~ with tlw kg•ll'Y of thc Civi l War (1979- 92). Through a perversion of the tc'$tillh'"'•''s tl.,r m and ,.l>llll'l\1 ami also by cmploying graphic d escriptions of purgation , El asco ..:r itkius El Snlv:td,>r's P'>stwar r~·ality and imagines the Salvado ran tra ns national comrnunity. furth"·rnl\>1'\.'. thl· ust• ot' tk t iun allows Castellanos Moya to denounce the testimo'nio's daim on ~mtht•ntkity withl•ut rdinquishing its social project.

Tr~l,\i ti,,n.tlly ... ·\•nsi,krcd a nonfic tion genre. the test imonio has been defined by Jo hn 1\"•n•rlt•y .ts "a thwd l>r nuvdla-length narrntive ... told in the first person by a narrator who is ll iSl• th<.• r"·alpmta~,,nisl 1.>r witness of thc evcnts !he or she recounts" (30- 3 1 ). The distinguishing .:hl\m...-tt.•r ist k ,,f this Pl' rsonal tHtrn\lion is that the narrato r, who is a member of a marginalized grt,up. sp l'ltks t\l the upprt•ssiun of a .:ollectivity and also highlights an urgent need to com-munknt'-'llkwrlcy .\0- 32: Yudice 17). This urgency then translates into a call for solidarity and sodnl <t,: tit>n. Bc:•.:ause ofthe narrator's marginalized status, a testimonio is often a negotia ted text mt'dhttc:•d ))y an \>ut sidc intdle ... ·tual. such asan anthropologist or a translator, who records o r tmns ... · ~ihl•s th"' eyl' witnl·ss's uml account of an irnportant life experience, the n compiles and edits th"· wnttc n '"'XI ( ~"'''l·rl~·r .\2). As m y analysis will show, this mediation raises many questions 1\b\~UI r'-'l~rc:·senhtllon o t lhe subaltern. such as t ensions about authorial voice, articulations of selt <m d ltn·~ c:•xpc~ienct·: and discursive claims to lruth-telling.

El ti.~<'<. ' 1s thc hrst ot severa! of Castellanos Moya's novels to dialogue 'th th · · · · · L ¡· 11 ¡ · W1 e testrmonw, C(ll1tmmnR 111 111 w' ti t'll t' cspc¡o (2000) El arma en el hombre (2001) d ¡ . . ' . · ' • an nsensatez (2004) • l\hsha l\.(>k(liOVll..' a.:knowledges the similarities in all four novels re · · h . · . . . , cogmzmg t e1r oral con -versatton<ll style as renuntscent of the testimonio Her analys 1·s r- h ' · · 10cuses on t e three latt t xt and h~r studv ot I IISc?rlsMa is particularly relevant to my arg t 5 B e r e S. · umen . ecause the t f h 2004 mwd is reading and revising Guatemala's REM H I hu . h narra o ro t e . . man ng ts report Kok t . that the tcxt hml·ttons as a "m eta-testimonio or t estimon. ' o OVlc a rgues . . . . · •o o nce removed that hrsthand expent>nc~ (\f oppression communicated .1n te r· . ' represents not the . • s rmomo proper b t th th transtormati\'e exp~rienc~ of reading su eh acco unts" ("~ . . , • u ra er e potentially tht• possibilitv (\fa .:all tor collective social actt'on .

0 1 esttmomo 559). While Kokotovic sees ' • < 1 nsensate:z for 1 · M .

n(lvel comple~t'l}' n:jt'cls tht' testimonial paradigm of solidari ' . gnac1o · Sanc~ez Prad o the as a post-t"'sttmomal narrative that ex poses the inabilit ty. San~~ez Prado descnbes the novel soda! contli...'ts through writing. While these s tudies h Y of the pnvtleged intellectual to resolve otfers a unique perspective. B~cause it was th fi elp_ tease out rny own argume n t, El asco . e rst novel m th·s · b · m 1997. and becaus"' il was thl! o n ly one bl" h d b . . 1, senes to e wntten, appearing inR housc of the tc!stimonicJ ·11s r"lat· ph~ 15 e Y ArcOtn s Press, El Salvad or's main pubtt·sh ' • · ... tons tp with th ¡ · -seems to ha\'e sc:• t the s tag~ 1·0 r a d ' 1 e revo ut10nar y forrn merits attentio n f.or .1 - • ... ta ogue that e o 1 · . • ' 1 re t',;oren ec:· 10 the ''rovo,·ative . . n mues m Castella nos Moyas later works.6 Th

r • postwar Aust nan w ·1 Th B d . h , e lit k also s"·ts it an·1rt fr0111 th h n er o mas e rnhar 111 t e text s compi t • r • eot erworks. Wr' tt . d f . . e e " .:ham.:tl!nslk .:·mtank , 1 en as a paro y o Bernhards ve rbose styJe """ th - ' c:rous narrator the 11 d o h d . •• • C:lstellam>s !\hw" prohl • . . · . o t(l nern ar 1s central to understanding h

Th al . ·1 . , ~::matJzes the testtmnnial form in E/ asco. ow t' nr stv e 10 El c1 ~ ·o · . .

• ~t • rcmm1scent ot B h d' · 1 • • • l"(lnvers.ltion betwel!n Ve a . ern ar s mustca . re pet tttve prose, represents a n .1 111

.51

.1 1 1 h'. . . . g:l •. and the narrator Moya. m uch like an interaction between a test¡ ...... • . • 1 ~ 1s n.trralor -e, tto r TI . , d h . . .. o .

. · 1t: rt:a l'r cars Vegas story asan o ral outpouring oftho ught expenenc~s . .:omments and . · · · s, • '-r11tc1snts through long. verbost.'. and subordinated sentences that

·. ·. • ·· 11 f• 11 1f.l isulls l hl\Vtt n lpnsiWilf' Jl,l SAIV~tdnt·, repeat and. cirde back to the p rotagcuHst s cnet.t e<' ~~~ 1 . .,1 1' ttl ¡ttt' nrllllt v with " "

11 l. 1 t · • c'XC'IIIJ11ihc~ t IC 1111\'(' S ll l 1 lne following quotation, a parto une ~en ... , 'e· · · . . . l 1 1 · V ·. l · ·l'si•llllc•tdiMo\'•thisshll }' · repetitio n a nd verbosity a n c '' so exp ;uns q~as' '-' · ' ,

1.. f\.1 · " ·1 'ntl ·p ··m··l q tH' \ ' 11)' •1 h ,1hl•n·. Desde que te vi en el vd11rio de tni 111<111\il. 111<'' 1Jc': ~~~ 11 es 1 1 ' ' , . 1. 1 , 1 · '' · 1 f1 11 1C1'111'ÜI I IIHih' 11 11\S ~~ oiUIIl 11 '· 1 nadie rnás de mis .:ontpaikr·os ,k .:o <.'~1\.l •lpar·c,·H• 1'11 1 11 ' . . 1 . · , . , · j · · •\11 1 1 1111 \'i(ojol Sl' 111111111, 1<11 11 V III<, rní ninguno d~o·los que se d~o•d;lll 1\HS ;tllll¡.l.l1l< lll'illl< '' '"' '' 1 1 -1 • 1' 1 1 . I·IIIÍS<t>l1 11'•10t'fll)lll' <lll' ¡.\ 11

M ova, pero quiz<ÍS haya si de• nwi• n·, p•wqu<.' l' ll 1'\.';1 " "' 11111~1111" • ' · ' . · 1 · •1 · >1 •ujp 1111'1111' qtll' ltt• 1111}'•111 fue nti amigo. ninguno vc1lviú '' V<.'l'llll.' luq.l,ll l(\1<' ' ' "'' H\11111:< <. u 1 " •

1 11 1 ¡ U\11\\l de 1111~ CS\t>11111flf)t' I ' IIS, ap<lrecido, mejor que ;ti velorio de mi '"'"n'\ 111.1 lltya <'tl'" "" n,. · · excepto vos, Moya .... (Castdhtnos Moy•• l ,l - 1•1)

· · · 1" " 1 • ltl a· l tauhnut t ia· lhl l'l'ltimnll ttl )ltl While referr ing to Moya. the use o t the mlornHt vos wrc. nn' l \ re· . · ¡· h d · h. · 1 · tik • ., tc··l itl tllt ti•tl lcxt / ·. ltt.~~~ ·,, dt~rs 1n1p !Cates t e rea er tn t ts satn e .:otlvt•a·sataon; l\lWC\'c.'l, un l • " • • • . . .

not explicitly call tor solidar ity. In general, the nral tlnw ,,ftlw tc~x t snlkn~ Vq~11 s hilllll!. '- yn ic. lslll by facilitating the reading process a nd making it pnssibk lo rc.•.ad thc• tli1Vl'l's 1111<.:' hiiiHi r-t•d plus pages with in the san1e two-hour tirne franw during w h h.:h V(•gn a nd l'vlny•t's c·nnvc·rstll inn ll l'l' lll'~ ·

This conversation, however, is actually a m o nologtw hcnnesc.· tlu.- l'l';1dc.·1· 11\.'V\'1' hc.•tii'S IVh •yn ~ opinion, o nly Vega's occasional retcrt;;'tKes to him and thc n·pcatl'd phntsc.· "ml' dljn Vq(n throughout the narration.~ Th e ti rst f<.:·w lines of tlw 1\0\'CI lllitkc· this stnatc:•gy dcur: "Suc.•l' ll' qur viniste, Moya. tenía mis dudas que v inients, porque <.:'stc•lu ga r .,,, k ~ust11 a nnadw ~ente c·n t•s t.t ciudad, hay gente a la que no le gusta para naJa este lugar. /lvh ' Y''· pc11· <'so'"' C'slnhu sc'~lii'O s i vos ibas a venir, me dijo Vega" (Castellanos Moy;.t 1 1 ). 'l iH.' intcrjc:•d ion 1•f " Moy •L" 1 h c· ud\kd commas, and the circ ular nature ofthe scntencc "'r<.';tlc' an illusi,•n ,,r,,n tlil y and 11 sl ntuhtc:l'ltlll of a spoken dialogue. Adding "me dijo Vega" <lt thc c.•nd ~::·xplid tly m nrks Muy.,·~ prc'SII.'IIl' c.' in the conversation and makes clear h is role as th e t l'<ll tSlTihl·l· c~f Vc~;t's s tory. a prc·sc'l ll.'c.' 1 hnt 11

traditional editor o fthe testimonio may hide. Vega's monnlogu~o• .:nnt'inuc•s thnnaght~u l thc· 1\(.IVc.:l witho ut paragraph or chapter d ivisions. similar lo Bcnth;trd's styk. ,.l'l.'llting u s c·ns(' nf vc·rhnl spontane ity that reads as a strea rn o f cons..-iousn<.•ss. 'lhe n.:ad .. ·r lcarns lhat Vc.·gn h ns lttvltt•d Moya for drinks after spending fifteen days in San Salvador ill lH'<.kr tn '\·mttar 1 sus 1 lmpn·s inll l.:'l', las ideas horribles que [ha 1 ten ido estando nqu 1" ( 13 ). Moya il\ t lw on ly pt•rson 1 h t• pt·utn..,.on 1st trusts or even likes. He is a lso an intelle..::tual anda wrill.'r. W hilc th<:i r rdnti\lllShip ntay parnlld that of a testimon ia list and his narrator/editor, Vega is n ot a subaltc•rn and h is ~.:· y n k ni ll lt lludt• parodies the testimonio's perceived idealism and t•ptimism.

The use of such rhetorical strategics as repeti t ion and intc.•rjl'l'l ions alh1ws ( :1\stcllnaH,s M(' YII to si~ula_te orality in El asco and to n~gotia~c th t• r~~ion's ..::uh ural hl·tc·ro~<.·ndty. d ispluyin~ contmUit~es between past and presl'tn l dasc.u~save. t radat a on~. In Voi,·cs.Ji·ol /1 t l l l'}Úclllc' l'ia·a. An ly Nauss Mtllay traces an oral gene alogy ot Spam s h Amerao \n litl' n\lllrc. of w h kh test itnnnin l writing pla.ys an impor~ant par t, d<~ting ba.:k lo tl~e ~{•lonial p c riod. Sh c..• idc·ntl lic:•s untllly ¡11 such c?lomal works as ~1 Inca G(lrqla:;? de IH Vegas ~ . tmlctlla rio~ t<calc~ ( INl\1 1.\) lllh..l l:t·llpc· ?uaman P'oma de Ayala s ~u e va coró m ca y bu el'/ go/11cnw ( 1 60R-· I ~) wit h a parl k\llar illkn•sl m h~w these forr:'s negot1ate two.cultures: one tlra l and a uto.:hthntHlUS. and tlw olhc·r, oftc.·ll co~stdered s upenor, wntten and. Eu.ropean ( ll ). ~)ne could c.~xll'nd lwr 1 lnwliaw l'Vl'll lll tll'l.:' b y gomg back to th.e fol~tales and ~~~<ltgenous. cr<.:·at ton m yths liikl· tlw M ;\yan l'nf'nl \ 'u/1, w h ldt refl~c t the ~re_-_Haspa~1c o ral tradata~n asan amportant part nfcultu ral st111·y tl'l lin~ in thc.· l'l' •iun . Whtle orah ty as perceaved as authenl'tc, ..::ommunal. and autod1thunuus ·tll .¡1· •.. 11111.. •. 1 ·~ 1 . t d b , ' '' '· .~\. SC' 1 ~ 1\\('l lllll'l 111 errupte y our knowledge ot writing .:ulture. Nauss Milla v th .. ·rd')' sti•H-'•'sts tlt

11 ¡ . ·¡ . ' th 1 · · r · <'C"~ ' • 1 1\ ~l'l' l "'' ll\l! e ora m wntten texts 1nay be an attc mpt to s ubvl·rt vVc•sll.'rn iJc\1hwi • . . . · 1· . 11 . ~. cult h 1 " - · hf . . · C" ~.~ IUII l lt~o:·c·~ ' }' wr11i11u u re rat er t 1an a faat ul cxpress1on ol th~ <".~S~IICI' uf o r·\l c..:ult u r ; · ( ¡ ( 14) 1· . ....

rhetori · 1 t t · l'k · · · ' c. ' · · '"·'"'I 'PI'nl int-t ca s ra eg1es 1 e repet1tto n , 1nterje..::tions, cllipscs, and c.li grc.·s~it 1ns ~..-c.· · at . . . 1 . that linguistically manipulates read<.:·m·s (14 1 - 4 2) Tinas t~)' sa'l tttal· , ... : 1' • ~.:~lnn ~,, ,, llluslc•ll · 1 · · • · ·' a n~ c.11 n 1t v rnt wr 1 h 11 ·1 ¡ mg o ra a u thenticity, Caste llanos Moya mnrks knsion in tlw lc'xt '"' 1 i 1: lit ' l ' ~ 11 111 ·

· • ' ' l n a e~ 1 W ll n :nli 1 k s.

·a hu. tena-ton work.a w unravd che die~ ot onl*lylltt acy 8Dd lnllhlft.c:tioft.. e: ,. 1 1 a the (.on•ttU4t&-~ naturc o( the tnllmortiD aad che~ ~ ol pea«' martl.ed t., chao& ln p&HIIW•I I'J ~lvad<Jr. ~ .. uw thc- author and the narrMOt' .nu~ tJw ..me natne. thec.al abo ptay. with dw noticJa

of •uthun•l ~ontrol and uucribn Barthea'a ·reatity dfect"' - tht ~ ot vnisirnilirude. Thár 'ommon namC' and ~red biofvaphical ínlormatíon-bodt wn-e bonl in tiondu.ra. but ~ up in t.l Salv.u.lor ; both apent the rn-oluuonary yean nikd in~ MM! bolh are ~-may m•.ac-ad r~.edcn tu recogntu: the narrator-ulitor u an authentic .MM! aam:»biogJ aph.ical ~ ucuu-Uun uf e aaterllanul Moya. N(!vertMicu. one ihoukl not conhuc dv n.o. 1he novel S ~ tidc, El a .. s,·o: 'lhomas Bernhard en San Salvador, and the •Advertencia• al lhe bqpnnintl o( the text add another lay(!r to this perceived manipulation. 1he latter reads:

1:-dprdo V~ el per~ untral <k este rdato. ~ reside en Montreal bá;o un n.ombft d11tanto- un nombre sajón q~ tampoco es 'Iboma$ Bc:Tnhard. ~comunicó sus oplJÚOCX$ -1uramente con may~ énfas~ y descarno dd qut contienen en cstt texto. Qui.K ~-iz.ar aqudloa puntos de vista q~ hubin'an escandalizado a dn'tos lectores. (9)

With thls preface, the narrator daim.s to have changed certain rem.arlcs by Vega and thus makes c-xplici t his control as the editor of the text. His comment about •softening- Vega's words is ironlc considering the biting criticism and strong disillusion represented in the text. He also emphaslzes that Vega is a ~real" person, alJuding to the testimonial representation of lived expericnces, and raises questions about the protagonist's identity, for his name is neither Vega nor Thomas Bern hard as suggestedl by the title. Elzbieta Sklodowska draws u pon Foucault to !?ro~lcmatize the articulation of authorship and authority in testimonial "Titing, noting that ~aun Amer ican m~dia!ed testimonios are rife with naming. renaming, and refusing to name"

( Authur-(dys)functton 203). She also writes that prefaces by the editor show a need to both control t~e wit.ness and ~nfl~ence the reader (204). Castellanos Moya ironically employs these same tes t1momal strategtes 10 E/ asco to deconstruct the testimonio's daims to truth

The inter~lay between truth, cr~ativity, and doubt emphasizes a tenual perfor~ativity in El asco. The rcference to Bernhard ts central to this performativity for Bernh d al · -~

t b . h ' ¡ 1 • ar so mLXcu au o 10grap tea e ements and real - life characters and experien~es wt'th 1· · · bl · h · . .... c rea tve tnventto n s urrmg t e hne bet':een fact and fiction. In his memoir Gathering Evidence ( 1985), for exam le.

Bernhard problemattzes the notion of obJ'ectivity and (self- )represe t 1· H · p ' n a ton. e wntes:

Truth. it seems tome, is known only to the person who i.s affected b · . . communicate it to others, he automatically becomes a li Wh y·~· and tfhe chooSC'S to only ~ faJsehood and falsification ; hence it is only falseh~ an~~ve~ tS c<:>mmunicatcd can munacated. The aspiration for truth, like eve other . . . alsifications that are com -at fabehoods and falsifications with regard to~ . asptatt~n, 15 the quickest way to arri'•e o( one's life . .. means accumulating hundr ds yd S:te 0 affaars. And to write about a period falsi6cations .. .. ffis memory adheres pree . anl thousands and millions of falsehoods and b h Clse y to e events and th . . ut w at emerges is something quite .... ,... f err prectse chronology . uuaerent rom what thing • matters 1s whethn- we want to lie orto tell and writ he S were really like . . . . 'What truth and never is the truth. ( 160- 61 ) e t truth, even though it never can ~ the

As this quotation explains, the autobiographical and . . One can only approximate the truth beca ficttonal are tnterchangeable for Bernhard. acts but fo B h d use remembering and • r ern ar the s ignificance of h . . · communicating are both creative sBhowhs thde' verbose s tyle and use of repetiti~~cth:~tCs hesllwtth one's intentions. This passage al so

ern ar s memoir is . . aste anos Mo . . . wntten m the same styl h . ya un1tates in El asco. Beca~ gen re 10 both form and content, which agai e~ •sllnovels, he subverts traditional notions of

• n , te anos Moya seems to follow.

Bcrnhard's assertions about gen re and truth-tclling echo Hayden White's ideas about histori -cal narrative and also approach the debates about the testimonio's claim on authenticiry. The Culture Wars of the 1980s and 90s prompted re-readings of the testimonio and revisions of its definition. Critics concluded that, although a reader may be inclined to trust a personal narration as more authentic and real, the testimonio is still a re-creation and a re-presentation of a past expericnce that is inOuenced by memory, intcntion, ideology, and also elements of storytelling (Beverley xv; Sklodowska, "La forma" 379). Sklodowska, for example, identifies testimonial writing as a "palimpsest -like structure" and advocates taking into account its various textual interplays ("Afterthoughts" 92). She writes, "By establishing an explicit interplay between factual and fictional, between aesthetic aspirations to literarincss and scíentific claims to objectiviry, testimonio has consistently defied the critics by departure from a traditional system of assump-tions about truth and falsiry, history and fact, science and literature" (85). Ooris Sommer, in "No Secrets:· also addresses thc issue of truth in tcstimonialnarrative. She describes Rigoberta Menchú's famous testimonio as a discursivc performance that purposefully withholds informa-lion frorn the reader lo remind her of a foreignncss that locales meaning elsewhere (136-37). In a later cssay Sommer draws u pon Wittgenstein's notion of "language games" to identify Me.ochú's secrets as a s trategic "speech act" within the game ofhistory ("Las Casass Lies" 241-42). Beca use Wittgenstein was one of Bernhard's modcls, as shown through his fictionalization of the pltilosopher in his novels Correction ( 1975) and Wittgenstein's Nephew ( 1982). Sommer's use of Wittgenstein aligns nicely with Castellanos Moya's testimonia l games in El asco.

Castellanos Moya takes the debate on the testimonio one step further in his postwar essay Recuento de incertidumbres to validate the role of fiction when thinking critically about the nation . He writes:

Un $ igno de desarrollo cuhuraJ seria precisamente el hecho de que un;o. nación haya recu-perado y asumido su historia a tal grndo que a sus escritores les sirva paro la ficción . ... La ficción como ejercicio de libertad. como práctica de invención. asusta a quienes todo quieren conlrolarlo, a aquellos para quienes la imaginación debe "ajustarse a las necesidades de la revolució n .· Una izquierda que busque renovarse. que se plantee con1o proyecto libertario. debería entender que la ficción es una rica fuente de conocimiento y proyección na.cíonal. y que- como sostiene Mario Vargas Llosa- "la literatura no describe a los paises: los inventa." {67)

Here Castellanos Moya cmphasizes the creative power ofthe imagination in its abiliry to engage wríters and rcadcrs, and spccifically crilicizes the Left's privileging of testimonial writing. He addresses the longstanding debate that divides historicaltruth and literary fiction, a dichotomy that Nietzsche argues is false beca use of language's inabilit·y to affirm anything (Sommer. "No Secrets" 136). 'Dle textual perfo rmance in El asco. thcn. is used to criticizc a history told via the te5timonio that Castellanos Moya already perccives as fiction. The novel's aesthetic elements invite rcaders to investigate the complexities oflanguage and the constructed nature ofthe text and also to establish critica! distance from topics like migration, allowing for such techniques as parody lo prcscnl latgcr philosophical C)Ues:tions about meaning that the testi1no11in in lts urgency to tell a prcssing story may sidestep.

All of thesc strategies- simulated orality, parody, and doubt - call attention lo the act of represcntat ion and lead the rcader to question the boundaries between fact and ficlion. Castel-lanos Moya confronts thc reader with thc same questit>rl facing Central American writers in the postwar ycars: what are thc similarities and differcnces between testimonial and fictional narrative? By blurring and parodying elements associated with thc authenticity of testimonial ditc<:>urse, El asco offers a pervcrsion of the testimonio through the kns of fiction, rem.inding readcrs that histor itself is a construction and interpreta! ion of reality. The text plays with

...! 1 ·' 111•/••111 111 V '7 IIIH•• } O 1,1

' '"" 11 J/1111 ,JI,..,.,.. ... '""' s i ylt-s 11 • .•hnw t h~· ~· rit k ni val u~· nf' fi<.:t ion whcn n:flect ing on the nat ion and lo,.,.,,,.,,. ''"Y ldt·PIII!<(h ,,¡ d111111 lt> lh<· "uflkinl" story.

' llu· ~·kf•'••hit· dL"''"' l111illln c.: nl uf 1:1 11sco is c.: ~·nlral tn thc text's perversiün because .the l '' '"'''~"" f." t d•ws ""' •·xpn•ss sulidarity with El Salvador but rather openly criticizes the natJO~ ­Wldll' Ve~u·.~ 1'<' )<'<'111111 uf' ull thin~s Sulvadornn may be dinicult fnr the reader to digest, hls •·ynh. l.""'· n.~ wlll ¡,,. dls~·w•s •·•.l. is sl rutq.(k lo tht.· nnvcl's social project. Contrary to the typical llllllllt'l'll ll l lt.•sllrnoninllst whu fh-d tlw wn1· during the 191:!0s, Vega was notlooking for political moyltllll .. ,. lwllt'l' t't'ollot11k t.:ondil ion s lo mcel bask needs; he simply left El Salvador before the wur t.' l'llptnl lw n urse of h is t.'X l l't.' lllc dissatisf'ac.:tion with the country. He explains his reasoning tu Moyn : "'11u.· purt.·t.·lu la ~·osa tu;\s c;:rud e inhumana que habiendo tantos lugares en el planeta u 1111 nw hnyu lot.·ndo tHrc.:t.·r t.'ll t.•stc· sitio .... en el peor de todos, en el más estúpido, en el más t.'f'lrnlnul. ... ll lt.' fui P••rquc 11\.IIIC.:il n•:eptC:· la broma macabra del destino que me hizo nacer en t.•s tns 1 krrus" ( 17 ). Vt.·~n rcject:-o sud-1 nal ion al symbols as Pílsener beer and pupusas, stating that bo t h pn•\hK~: d inrrh~:n ( 1 1- 1 2, ó 1 ) , and seems to be asking the quest ion: why would anybody rclurn tu poslwar El Snlvador? H e had no dcsirc to visil but has done so on this occasion to collect t lll' inhcri1ann· from his molhcr's dcalh and also bccause he now has a Canadian passp ort that ~uarantl'l'S h is n.:tu rn lo Ca nada. Vega dcscribes th is documentas "lo más valioso que tengo en la vida .... m i vida dl'St.:ans<J en el hecho de que soy u n ciudadano canadiense" ( 115). His Canadian pnssporl i:s so i mportant thal Vcga's n a r ration ends with an anecdote about momentarily losing th t.· doc llllll'll l whil t.• out f'or lhc cvening wilh his brother lvo. He was so distraught about the pos-sih ility ofbcing trappcd in El Salvador that he describes the si.tuation as "una pesadilla siniestra" ( 11 5 ). 11 is in this monH~nt at the end of the novel when Vega also informs Moya and the reader l hal alo11g wilh hct.:oming a Can aüian citizen he also changed his name from Edgardo Vega to 'J h omas 1\crn h ard. Both of lhcse changes solidify Vega's rejection of all things Salvadoran, and by ending his story with lhis information he emphasizes their utmost im por tance to the reader.

Vcga':s Canadi<Jn c.:itizcnsh ip and the death ofhis mother otfer a path for (self) re-invention. With no molhcr and no mcntinn of a father, Vega is now an orphan, signifying the loss of t radit ion . H is mothl·r can al so h e understood as representative of the n ation, or madre patria, ami hcr dcath, thcrdóre. stands fo r the dcath ofthe Salvadoran nation, further emphasized by Vega's d t i zc nsh ip c hangl'. Castellanos Moya, then. secms to suggest that like Vega, El Salvador musl l'l~- invl·nl itsdf and re-imagine lh c nation. Perhaps confronting the country's perpetuated soda! prohlcms. Jikc emigrat ion. would be a step in the right dircction. With an estimated 25 pcrcent of the population flt.•t.•ing t h~:• nat~onal b?dy betwet>n the war-torn ~ears of 1979 and 1992 , Salvadorans have t.:ontin ucd lo t.'tlllgnttc SlllCl' the end of the war, w1th large numbers S\.'ltling in 1 he United Statt.·s .md <:ana,~a (Gammagt'). Th~ signing of the Peace Accords in 1992 and thc govnnrm.'nt's adoptit.H~ ol a~rdo.r~11 pro gram that m~luded lhe_2001 dollarization ofthe t.•conorny. thc 2006 approval nf th~;· Fret.• I radc Agreemcnt w1th the U m ted States, a ndan end to thc right - wing party's twenty-ycar politic.:al rcign in 2009 did n ot solve issues ofpoverty, social injustit.'t.'. ,111d gang viok ncc. Migr•ttion continues to serve as a safety valve for the countr y's postwar c c.:onomy. and the latest c.:c:·nsus data shows that Salvadorans now constitute the largest group ofCcntral Amcrit.'an immigrants in hoth thc United St ates and Canada.8

·¡ ht.· t llt.'matit.' similaritics b etwcen El asco and Bernhard's works, especially his 1986 novel l ix ti11ction. suggt.•st parallds ht'twecn postwar Austria and El Salvador. Much like Vega, the protagon ist of l:'x tinction sc:•t.·s his Austrian identity as a burden but must confront it when forced out of his sdf-impost.•d t:•xile to t.:ollt-ct his family inht'ritance upon the death ofhis parents. In th1.· s\\lll'-' rqwtitivl', oral styk. tlw protagonist ..:ynk;\lly r~.·sponds to the news about h is family: "Only two days aftcr rdurning from thc:· wedding l)f my sistoe'r Cacdlia . .. 1'11 have to repack my suitl' ilSl', . . . 1' 11 havl' f<) rl'lurn to \1\l,)lfsq~g. whit.'h has in recent years bc:•come more or Iess rt.•pugnant to nw- a11d thb timt.• not túr ¡\ ridiculous ••nd grotesque occasion but tór one that fiUs nw with drt.•ad" (5). fkrnhard oticn rc:•pt.•atc:·d thc:• orphan scc:·nar io in his works to bring up issues

Thornto n 1 Testimonio in Castellanos M oya's El tUco '-. 213

of identity, heritage, and family and to c r iticize in Austria what he perceived as "a climate of silence and conformity seemingly overcome by postwar reforms" ( Konzett 9). Similar to C astel-lanos Moya and other Central American postwar writers, Ber nhard captured the disillusio n of the postwar years in Austria, questioning national identity a nd the illusion of change. He used irony, exaggeration, and parody to play purposefully the devil's advocate and to criticize Austria both polit ically and socially, contr ibuting to what Mark M. Anderson describes as Bernhard's overall goal as a writer: "to denounce, scandalize, and just pl.ain get on people's nerves" ( 175). Castellanos Moya's stylistic and thematic parody of Bernhard in El asco is thus a purpose ful act to b ring the same type of social and political awareness to El Salvador. Edgardo Vega is Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador, and his purpose is to scandalize readers, to c r iticize both left- and right-wing politicians, and to denounce postwar social problems like emigration in an attempt to deconstruct the notion oftruth and to challenge readers.

Because Vega is a professor of art history at McGill University in Montreal, he represents the role of the intellectual, once again a departure from the testimono's representation of the subaltern. He is the opposite, however, of Moya and the more traditional intellectual committed to bettering the nation, for Vega is unable or unwilling to relate to El Salvador and its citizens. He even avoided Salvadorans in Canada who sympathized with the revolution: "no me metí ni ayudé a ninguno de esos tipos q ue se decían mis compatriotas, yo no tenía nada que ver con ellos, ... por eso los evité siempre, me parecían una peste, con sus comités de solida ridad y todas esas estupideces" (18). Aman who has dedicated his life to studying high cultu re, Vega feels disgust toward a country that, in his opinion, has been brainwashed by low-brow television programs and ignorant politicians. He is disillusioned by the lack of interest in literature a nd the arts: "No creo que exista otro pueblo con las energías c reativas tan atrofiadas para todo lo que tenga que ver con el arte y las manifestaciones del espíritu, me d ijo Vega" (75). H e c r iticizes two of the country's most celebrated writers, Salarrué and Roque Dalton, for being too committed ideologically, which is an implicit attack on the testimonio. In Vega's opinion, intellectuals like Moya and himself are better off leaving the country instead of trying to help it.

In general Vega equates being Salvadoran with violence, killing, and military power, all of which cau se him to feel asco or repulsion (22). In Vega's eyes, El Salvador is a grotesque nation that was horrible before the war and is now vomitiva (22). The country has only traded one type of violen ce for another : "Qué gusto el de la gente de este país de vivir ater rorizada, M oya, q ué gusto más mórbido vivir bajo el ter ror, qué gusto más perver tido pasar del terror de la g uerra al terror de la delincuencia" ( 1 08). With all of these criticisms, Vega sums up his visi.t to San Salvador in one phrase: "la degradación del gusto" (84). Moreover, he describes Salvadorans as "una raza podrida" with animal-like qualities (21 ), and his references to women are part icularly stereotypical and misogynistic. Thus, for Vega, El Salvador has no redeeming qualities. and his criticisms seem to echo the refrain of Bernhard's c:ontroversial drama Heldenplatz ( 1988 ), which states, " It's worse now than fifty years ago!" (qtd. in Dowden 52). C hanging nationalities and names was Vega's ticket to freedom and validation, and per haps the ultimate revenge on the country h e Jeft behind. His outpouring of criticisms and repetitions of words like "vomit" and "diarrhea." evoke bodily expulsions and reinforce the o ral style of the narration. With t h e theme of migration and the title meaning repulsion, Vega's o ral purgation of his experiences seems to represent his own (auto-)expulsion from the national body as well as those who have been forced to leave El Salvador for political or economic reasons.

Vega's positioning outside of the national body stands in sharp contrast to his brother lvo, who embodies everything that Vega detests. He states, "Mi hermano en realidad es peor que un energúmeno, Moya, es el típico negociante de clase m edia que a través de las llaves busca acumular cantidades de dinero para tener más autos, más casas y más mujeres" (37-38). lvo represents the obsessive consumerism that, in Vega's opinion, p lagues Salvadoran society, and his profession as a key maker speaks to the lack of security in El Salvador. As Vega notes, ' 'no creo

1 . llaves y las cerraduras" (38). lvo also 1 h ·-,,¡,\n por as . d . . h

'-t\t(" <''-l.St.t '""' l''"S ,t;'''"-t(~ la t.:'-~ntC' h-'''~" ta ,, ~e,; . 1. _ . , ... ·ual contldence: an promascu1ty. t_ at . ' _ . · h-·lu' 1 llf. ~c.: .... · ._ • • . t\~¡,,,,-s th<" Hhh'hlst., :'1-.. :npt ,,,,. nl~\k hd1a' hJr. 11 . _ 1 r brings together all of Vegas anx1etJes \ 1 ·tth hos brot '" · d 1 · d · ~·' '-'('h"~t~ ;Hht l'\'tt"\:~. ,,nd" tu~ lt ' '"' '' J . 1,.,11.sria. nausea. an repu srvo 0m1nate i . ·nh:" ,,·or ~ e .._ .. "~"'' Vh~<"n,~ .... ·tttn'nsl·u•' " ' 'nlc.'n. ¡nh .. :-ex. J ' . u ·t bv the bars and brothels they visit and

• • • • •1 · , 1\ll'lktC l:-g .:!o • • • h•~ '"'"'"1'1 '''" ,,, lhe <'"'"'· t••r h< t<'< ' ''' '}'}- l l-t). Because the phystcal act of vomoting <'n,l~ lh<' <'"-'""'-" lw '"""""!' '" th<' hathro•"'' ( · t'orce< Vega's expuls~on from the national . ,1 1 ·· .,.·ene re1n .,:1

l<tk~·s ¡'1!:~,..._, t\•wm\.1 1hc <'lid''' lh<' m"" · 1 "' : ' . 1• ·1k isms Vega's negativ~ reac lioñ also 1 . • • 1 .. ,un.., 1tataon o e n .... ·

"-"h ""'' l'r"~~ t\l" "''~<' '" '"·' n:l': ._, . . . d" describes asan "anxious and fragil tlh_t~t~t\."S what K,,k,,...h_,,~t .. · in·~ 1C.:"tun .. uud Oth.e rt!nto'e . . . e 1 l .. .1 .11." •0111 r.1st lo 1he conhdently mascuhne hero1cs of revo-

,,, ... t\\'l'-1' tna$\.·uluutv t l~\1 ~t .. uH. :-; tn s '- r- '- • . . .

1 1 . 1 . .. (~~O) R3 1her than p:trllcopale w11h hos brolher and perform uttt.\t\.arv ~"'"'n.:' , uru'S 1 h .' "~u .. · · · .

h . . ·' . ·.h . 1, , . , 1 1., •• • , t't'fu,¡e in lh<' balhroom. thus embodymg a tenuous postwar lS ""(."a-~ nHh ,, tn.a c.:. t'\!· • ... c.: , · .._ m«~·ulhlil\' lh.ll '"" !be un:krsl'""' :~s expres.sing anxiety about nalional idenlity in poslwar El ~""''''"· <.'.tsldlan<\S :'>k"' ' S<'<'lliS 1,, sug.g.<'SI 1ha1 neither lhe over-conñdenl and macho lvo nor lh<'¡'<tl"'..tt><•i,l ,111,tm·r•"l•us \·,·!'·' represent 1he ideal Salvadoran 10 enacl change for the nation.

y..,__,.:< ,·,·ni>al nmt is f'trti•ularly .:rilkal ot' 1he country's military and political leaders. mdu,li;~ 1h~ krtisl 1-.,lilki:ms. Th<' Ca1holk C hurch is no1 immune eilher, for il too represenls 31\ instttuli<'ll ,,f ''"lln•L By att.1.;king lhost• in power. Vega acknowledges those who died during lh(' ""'"

L-.'-S •"'hti..."\.'S ~l"<."St'.ln en k"-.itts partes.. i\toya. pero en este país los políticos apestan particu-l~nu<>nt-c. te l'U~"' .,_lSc.""S\11"-.tr ..:¡uc: nun..:-a habia ,·isto políticos tan apestosos como los de acá. ~uu:.ls Sc."'a l''r 1~~.."-S .. ·:o1 m il ú4(fd,'í'n:.' que t.: .. \rga cada uno de ellos. quizás la sangre de esos cien m 1l ,, ...._¡.J,Y't\"'$ <"S l .. t ~ue l~o.)S h.t...'c:"' .t¡.._)(',:;t.lr de c:"'Sa ma_n~ra tan particular. quizás el sufrimiento ,k t"':'''' . "ir~: nul tt:l'f'":\\.{ le.":' inlpf\~no C:$-.\ manc:ra panicular d~ ap~star. me dijo Vega. (2:6. t"m¡'~h.,~i$ .h.IJc.'d)

\'<~.is re¡-.·lili<'ll oi lh<' phmse ".: ien mil cad:h·eres" refuses 1he facile erasure of the trauma of " ' .\T. ,, lr.mm.• 1h.11 lh<' Pt'.l'-'<' A..:.:ords att,·mpled lo erase by granling asylum to the military .. u'h..i ~\,, .. t.'rtHllt.'tlt "'tll ... ·i.tl:-0 re~I'('nsible. Even thoug.h he t.:On:tiders it a sacrifice made in vain, ~,· .h.:kth''' .. h."\..l~in~ th,,s.c.• wh"' .. lic..'J. th." dc;"noun~es the atrodous acts that occurred during the r\'\'\}Ut\,,n,try r c.." .. U'S. \'c.."~,\ u:;c.."S thc..• phrase "1nt: d.l 1ástin1a .. to specifically desc ribe his feelings t\'r thc." kftbt ~uc.·rrill .. t ri~htt.·r~ " "lh' Jic.."J (29) . lt is o ne of the fe,,· titnes in the narration ,._rhe re h.~ c..'t¡'n.·~e;,':-> .\ t'c."í"'lin~ ~o.'thc."r th._ul Ji:o:gust or anxicty. p~rhaps $Uggesting an an1bivalent solidariry ""r .ul l.nhi~"rlyin~ .... ~.,n .. ·~rn t~'r c...'tht.·r!'. ·nlis ex.:.tntplt." ~tlso Hlustrates how post'' 'ar narrative, like thc." r,~,,rutJllHi~,. ~till .. tttc."llll't~ h.' Jc.."úHtstru.:t hc,;~gc."tlH.'nk dis..,.ourses and reveal the unt ruths of the ·\,rll.:i .. tl'" !'t,,rv.

\"~~.\s. -.:y~tk.tl .._ • .._,nunc."nts .tbc.,ut S..lh'!tdür:.tn enligra.nts serve to further dismantle the notion .._,f ..l }'c:.",\, .. t."t"ul..lnJ .Jenl"'"~ttk P'-'St\,';l.r n.ltional idc.••uity. Be;,~~ause the no,·el re-presents the fact that S'-' ntJ.ny S....tlv~h.i""'r..nt:oo Hvc.." ""'utslJe thc.:• .:ount ry"s borden:.. lt underscores the un resolved politicat c.·~~.'lrh'lnk . .tn ... i :-;.~,-...;ktl pn.'hknt!' th.u .:ontinu~ t() pl .. tgue the nation. Con:sidering his attitude .tnJ ..t~ti,"'ns Slll't.·rk,r. \ ·eg_ .. t ... i~·tinc.~s hintsdt in l.ll't' osition to o ther Sah·adorans lh·ing o utside the "'UI\try. Hi~ .:.l,l~$ ¡,l<'nl ily is .1 di$linguishing t',~.:lor. t'or he is wdl edu•att'd and comes from 3 w~·.1hhY t..,.l-.:.k~n.'un ... L ~lth < • .'t whi-.:h t.h.·ilit:.lte hb c.•ntr.tn.:~ into C anada . \ .\ rh ile his Canadian citi-z.en:.'.hi\-.. in ... ti.: .. .ltt::-o. that ht.• .1rriv~ in CanJ.d~t ,,·ith J'fl"'pt'r inlnligration.docurnents. it is inlportant "·' n .. ,te th:.tt c .. \l\,._\J.\ h.\:00 le..~~ st rin)::.c!'nt rule-s th.an thc..~ l'nited St~ltt"S. otlering ..:itizenship to anvone wh._, h:.\:00 h<en in the ""'lnttry k·~;lly fc.'lr at lea.:-Ot thr\."C: ye ... \rs."' Getting toCa nada.. howcver. does rt.'q\lirt."' "'"'re '""'"'-"Y· c.·xte-nd~'-d tr..\nsport;.Uion .• utd l_..ettt.·r ~Ot~t;,l.:t~. sin..:~" it is further ;n "·ay from El S .. \h~ .. ,J .. ,r anJ thu::. unattainJ.t-.le tOr ntany un ... h.""~ ... ~l nlc:-nt:d tnlnug.r~nts ,,~ho tll:\}' be t raveJing ~o.lll t\......,,t or h y frdg.ht. This susgt"Sts that Can..\J.t tltlc:-rc.."d \ eg. .. t J.n dtt1st stattus. whereas senling

Thornton 1 Testimonio in Castellan os Moya's El a.1co ............ 21 S

in the United States would have aligned him w>th working-class Salvadorans and signitied a s tep down economically.

Vega's attitude toward the country's migrant population becomcs clear during hís initial trip south when he is horrified and dismayed by other Salvadoran emígrants who board hís plane in Washington, DC and begin to share theír experiences as "jardineros" and ''empleadas domésticas" in the United. States (86). He cannot relate to their work situations orto their excitement about returning borne and describes the experience ofl;stening to theír stories as terrorlfica (87). Such words as confesiótJ, exhalar, escupir, and vociferar, used to describe the conversations, provide oral cues that re in force the notion of expulsion from the national body (85-86). U pon arriving in San Salvador, Vega is even more surpriscd by the "masas furibundas ... procedentes de Los Ángeles, de San Francisco, de Houston y quién sabe de qué otras ciudades, ... que se arremolinaba[ n i en la sala de migración en un agobiante caos" (89-90). Vega also expresses shock and disap-pointment by thc gloritication ofSalvadoran emigrants as families receive with codicia, or greed, thc gífts their loved ones bring from the United States (92) . for him, the ultimate disillusion is the Monumento al hermano lejano because of its tribute tO Salvadoran emigrants and their contributions to the national econo my. Vega explains to Moya, "[El Monumento) es la obra cumbre de la degradación del gusto: un gigantesco mingito rio construido en agradecimiento a los sombre rudos y las regordetas que vienen de Estados Unidos cargados de cajas repletas de los chunches más inusitados" (95). Por Vega, emigration, particularly that of working-class individuals, contributes to the larger social problems of chaos, corruption, and consumerism that haunt El Salvador, thereby causing him more repulsion.

Vegas cr·itical stance on El Salvador and its diasporic population problematizes the identity ofthe postwar nation. Because Vega specifically criticizes Salvadoran immigrants in the United $tates. he implicitly comments on thc nation's perceived class identity as a country of uneducated and uncultured, working-class individuals. For Vega, exporting this population and identity is humiliating and detrimental to El Salvador. His d ismay at their re turn "home" also speaks to the Americanization of El Salvador, for they are importing U.S. culture and products and further contributing to the country's postwar degradation. He even compares San Salvador to Los Angeles: "San Salvador es una versión grotesca, enana y estúpida de Los Angeles, poblada por gente estúpida que sólo quiere parecerse a los estúpidos que pueblan Los Ángeles, una ciudad que te demuestra la hipocresía congénita de esta raza. la hipocresía que los lleva a desear en lo más intimo de su alma convertirse en gringos_ .. :· (46). Vegas disapproval of imitating the gringos adds an ironic twist to his discourse, for· the Un ited States is partially responsible for the country's current situation after fueling its civil war. training n1embers ofthe military, using Central Ame.rica as a frontline defense against the Cold War, and insisting upon the adoption of neolibcral economic policies. His view that the United States has exacerbated El Salvador's problems further expla ins Vega's decisíon to settle in Canada. ••

Because Vega does not ídent ify with the traditional Salvadoran emigrant o r the nation's transnational community. he distances himself from the typical testimonialist who speaks for a marginalized and oppressed group. His refusal to serve as a representativc of the emigrant subaltern speaks to questions of fetishizing the "other" through testimonial writ ing. Castel -lanos Moya seems to heed the advice of Alberto Moreiras, who warns critics in "The Aura of Testimonio" of this tendency. He writes:

(T)he restimonial subject . .. has a tendcncy to become epistemologically fetishized prccisely through its (re)absorption into the literary sys1em ofreprcsentation. In o ther words. solidar-ity. which remains the essentia1 summons of thc testimonial text and that which radically distinguishes it from the literary text. is in perpetua! risk of being turned into a rhctorical tropology. But there can be no poetics of solidariry when it is the function of solidarity to produce a break away from poetic:s. (198)

!16 "'- HispQiwill 9 7 Ju ne lOH

Veg~is lack of S..'"llidarity with th~ subah~rn. then, ..:onfronts snany uf thl.' issul.'s nlised hy testi -monial representation and me-diation. . . .

A tO.:us on th~ individual rather than the ..:ommunity is ch ara..:ten st 1<.: ol postwar 11armt lvc trends. as s.rn.:hez Prado and Koko tovk both po int out in their analyses of lnsL'tJsatcz. Huwcvcr, Vegas individualism and non-..:onformism <\re perhaps evcn mor~ extreme in El tiS(o, for his reje.:tio.n ofthe Qother" and all things Salvadoran makes it difficult for re<ldt>rs to l.'mpat hi:~.c wit_h him. A reader mav ev~n feel disRust toward the protagonist in much thc samc way as Vega •s repulsed by post"~ El Salv .. ador. A n alternative reading, however. might see underlying con cern in h is disatle.:tion, as it is ditfi..:ult to express so much rage about an issue that does not matter. On some levd it reveals a sense o f commitment to the nation be..:ause disi llusion implies a prior feeling of hope and optimism. Beatriz Cortez suggests that the novel's strongest criticism is to"'-ard Salvadora.ns who do identify with Vega. those who also define themselves in opposition to the marginalized sectors of society and negate the heterogeneity of El Salvador (258-59). :!'vloremrer. Castellanos Mova stated in an interview in 2001 that the narrative originated with the Salvadora.n people. He said. "Digamos que era una síntesis d e todas las críticas al país, que había escuchado.. y mías, porque a veces el personaje hace comentarios con los que no estoy de acuerdo" (de la Fuente). The text is therefore rooted in oral criticism s. gossip. and hearsay, which helps to e.'q>lain the protagonisfs visceral and often ruthless reac tions to the country he lcft behind. By making publk the "hidden transc ript:' o r oftstage interactions. about El Salvador, t:l asco represents open res istance to the status quo and makes evident social problems overshadowed by government reforms and postwar memorials, otfer ing a critica! perspect ive through cynicisll1. 11

Although the text has been critidzed for being too pessimistic and cven anti-Salvadoran, in 2010 Arcoiris P ress published its eighth edition ofthe novel, confirming íts popularity and readership. Perhaps. then, the strength of El asco is its ability to produce disparate reac tions in diverse readers. \Vhatever the reader response, the text invites an (auto- )analysis of one's reaction to Vega and the postwar nation, suggesting the possibility of social action. In her study Can Literaturt: Promote justice? Trauma Narrative and Social Action in Lati11 American Testimonio, Kimberly Nan..:e (re)evaluates the extraliterary function of testimonial writing that critics ha ve either celebrated as a utopian dream o r mourned as a failed alternative. She concludcs that the testimorlio "demands ultirnately that we face ourselves. our action, and our inaction- not only in the text but in the world" ( 165). Nance also (re)d efines the testimonio as a "space of potential action" that calls readers to make concrete ..:hoices in everyday lifc, privileging a prosaics rather than a poetics of solidarity ( 1 58). Nance's view of testimonial discourse aligns nicely with Ana Patricia Rodríguez$ descriptio n of the new "f( r)ictions" of Centra l America, a term she coined to describe the discursive crossings of the region. as "productive sites of signification and interpretation" (235). Both suggest textual spaces of possibility and an opcning for social pro.iects. Cortez also sees a point of contact between testimonial and postwar narrative, affirming that both atternpt to "poner en evidencia la inexactitud de las versiones oficiales de la realidad centroamer icana" (27). In this view a shift from idealism to cynicism has not compromised a cultural and literary commitme nt to dismantle hegemonic discourses and to expose the reality of the postwar region.

Following this line of thinking. E/ asco does challenge the reader with a social project: to confront one's own attitude, to question postwar normalization in El Salvador. and to be suspect ofpower structures. whether ..:ontrolled by the Right, the Lcft, or the C hurch. C astellanos Moya thus ofters a difterent type ofwitnessing through Vega and E/ asco that is rcminisccnt of Bernhard. Vega, much like Bernhard's many protagonists, is an intellcctual anda social outcast who chooses not to conform to the status quo, as conformism and silence cqual inactivity and injusticc for Bernha.rd. 1\tatthias Konzett argues that Hernhard st r ivcs fnr ";m acsthet ics of witnessing," through irony. victímization. ólnd violence. that r~lkcts thl.' ills nf socícty amídst thc normaliza -tion and rehahilit•\lion pro.:csscs in post -vVurld War 11 Austria ( IJ- 15). BecattSl.' fur tkrnhan.J, readers had to be rcmindcd nfth~ nnt -so-distant past ofNazi .:ontrol so that hiswry wvuld not

1 f

'lhornton 1 Te1tlmonlo In Cattellanos Moya'• EI~Ua~ ""'- 217

repl'lll lts(·.lf .. Whilc many of Bcrnharc.l 's protagoni5ts die or comm it suicide, Vega remains in llmho In 1·.1 Salvador. suggcNiing a po~osible transformation. Castellanos Moya seems to offer a bit. ruorc hopc than Bcrnhard, forcíng thc rcac.ler to cometo her own conclusions. Refusing to ofkr· prod~ll: tlvc altc.:rnatlvcs fi>r thc pm.twar nation follow~ Nictzsche's argument that language cunnot afhrlll anythmg. A~o Bcrnhard would :.uggest, an attempt to ddine El Salvador's truth would only he a Iic.

Wílh IICI c~sy.solut inns, m asco thcreby rcpresents thc tensions of postwar El Salvado r: peace ami .:haos, optrn11sm and disillusi<m, national and transnational communit ies, home and host so.:ktics. li.:ticm and thc testimonio, writing and orality. The novel's parody of Bernhard and pervl'ts ron uf thc testímoni11 use fiction to criticizc a hístory that is itself an interpretation of real-ity amito show t he proc.luct ivc ways fictional discourse can retlect u pon the nation, encouraging rcadcrs te~ c~gagc such difficult socio-cultural issues as migration, violence, and corruptíon in postwar 1~1 Salvador. By rcfcrcncing Hcrnhard, Castellanos Moya thus problematizes testimonial dis.:oursc without abandoning its social project and reminds Salvadorans ofthe not-so-dístant past, e ven if it mcarns gctting on thcir nerves.

NOTES

' By addrcssing thc importancc of testimonial narrative and poetry during the revolutionary yeacs. Bcverlcy and Zlmmcr man offcr a detailcd discussion of the relationship between literature and politics in Central Amcrica.

' In 1966, Cuban writer Miguel Barnct announccd the death offiction andan end to elitist tendencies in Spanish American litcraturc with thc advent ofthe testimonio, which he defined as a new narrative based on the cxpcricnccs and scnsíbilitics of discnfranchised individuals (Nauss Millay 121 - 22).

'Castellanos Mo-ya was born in Honduras in 1957 but grew up in El Salvador. He lived in exile dur-ing the war, residing mainly in Mcxico City, and after publishing El asco in 1997, he left IEI Salvador once again duc to death threats he received for the text's bílíng criticism. Castellanos Moya currently lives in the Unitcd Statcs.

'Hcfore Bl asco, Castellanos Moya published La diáspora (1988) and Baile con serpientes (1996), as well as short stories, poctry, and essays.

' In "After thc Revolution: Central American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalismft Kokotovic describes La diabla en el espejo and El arma en el hombre as "a kind offrustrated mystery nover (33). She latcr charactcrizes L.a diabla en el espejo as "neoliberal noir,ft or detective fiction that crit icizes the socio-politíc:al effects of ncoliberal cconomic poli cíes in postwar Central Ame rica ("Neolibera! Noirft 15-16).

"Castellanos Moya's most rccent novcls Desmoronamiento (2006) and Tirana memoria (2008) secm to break thc pattcrn Marted with El asco. Desmoronamiento continues to tellthe story of the Aragón family, which bcgan with the novel Donde no estén ustedes (2003), with such narrative techniques as theatrical dia logue and epistolar y corrcspondcnce, whilc Tirana memoria adopts the diary formal with most of the action occurring in 1944.

' Padilla notes that other Central American writers. including the Salvadoran Jacinta Escudos and the Guatcmalan Rodrigo Rey Rosa, employ this same narrative technique ( 144).

•'lhc lates! census data shows that there are approximately 1.7 miUion Salvadora.ns in the United States and ahout 43,000 in Ca nada. According to Migration lnformation Source, over 25% of aU Salvadorans in the United Sta tes arrivcd in 2000 or later. and in 2009 remittances accounted for 16.5% of El Salvador's GDP.

'''1 he officia l websitc for Citizenship and lmmigration in Canada (www.cic.gc.ca) outlines the details for obtaining citizenship. In addition to the three-year requirement, an appli~ant must be at least ei~hteen ycars old, have knowlcdgc of English or French, and hold permanent resrdency status, whrch rs only obtainahlc for thosc who ha ve authorization to live and work in Canada or for those who have been granted refugl'C status. Undocumented individuals are not eligible for citizenship. For more information regarding immigration policics in Ca nada. Maria Cristina García's See~ing Refuge ~rovides a comparative analysis of thc US, Canadian, and Mcxican responses to Central Amencan mrgratron.

'" In contras! to thc Unitcd States, Ca nada took a more hands-off approach to the Central American civil wars. lnstcad c)f gt:lting directly involved in whatthey con~i?ered to ~e domestic issues, Canada offered suppnrt through thc Unitcd Nations, NGOs. and refu.gee ~olrcre~ (Garcta 124- 40). .

" 1 borrow thc tcrm "hidden transcript" from Scotts Domrnatron and the Arts of Re.srstance. Scott delinl.'s thc hiddcn transcript 35 offstagc íntcractions that are kept hidden from those in po wer whereas the

..... .._. .............. " ' IU.W"' .au"" ..

public trans.:ript describes 0 :>en interactions between subordinates and their superiors_<2-4). The frontier be · d bl ' 1 · ts ·5 always in tlux and thus essenualto understandmg evcryday fonns tween pnvate an pu K transcnp t . . . . 4 14 o( resistance and cultural patterns of dommauon and subordmauon ( • ).

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