"A veces quisiera volver": Racialization, Ruins, and Migrant Tactics in Oswaldo Estrada's Short Stories

Abstract

"A veces quisiera volver":Racialization, Ruins, and Migrant Tactics in Oswaldo Estrada's Short Stories Christian Elguera Estoy como las aves que no hallan dónde hacer el nido —Oswaldo Estrada, Las guerras perdidas (109) Peruvian migrant writing continues to grow in the United States today. Anthologies, literary competitions, and publishing houses such as Sudaquia or Suburbano Ediciones have forged a literary system beyond the geographic limits of Peru.1 Time and again, authors such as Melissa Rivero, in The Affairs of the Falcón's (2019), describe the cultural experiences and economic struggles of Peruvian migrant characters in American neighborhoods. Peruvian-American author Daniel Alarcón is known for his treatment of Peruvian migration in several of his works. His recent short-story collection, The King is Always Above the People (2017), presents migrants from various sociopolitical angles: at times depicted as marginal subjects, as in "The Ballad of Rocky Rontal," or as a means to reflect on universal matters such as solitude and melancholy, as we see in "The Auroras." Other Peruvian writers prefer to depict one specific type of migrant: the intellectual who travels to the United States to pursue a graduate degree or to continue a literary career. This is something [End Page 177] that we see in several works, including the recent anthology Cuentos de ida y vuelta. 17 narradores peruanos en Estados Unidos (2019), edited by Luis Hernán Castañeda and Carlos Villacorta, where most of the texts focus on Peruvian migrants from middle or upper social classes. Within this context, I consider that Peruvian-American writer Oswaldo Estrada represents migration from below, describing the racialization, ruination, and survival tactics of Peruvian, Mexican, and Central American migrants in their new environments. Estrada's short stories reveal the numerous difficulties and abuses that these newcomers experience in the United States. He also examines how migrants employ day-to-day resistance to affirm their presence in a society that refuses to recognize their cultures and identities. Between the ruins and the illusions of migration, the author portrays migrant scenes from the inside rather than as defined by intellectual or exotic predicates. Two of Estrada's short-story collections, Luces de emergencia (2019) and Las locas ilusiones (2020), shift our attention to the migrant struggles for dignity and respect, describing their practices of solidarity, their use of humor to heal wounds, and their tactics (à la de Certeau) for negotiating rights in contexts of racial prejudice and social inequality. Estrada has acknowledged his migrant origins throughout his extensive academic production. His edited volume, Senderos de violencia (2015), for example, is dedicated to his family: "Para mi hermano Omar, porque juntos vivimos estas y otras violencias … Y para nuestra madre, por librarnos de ellas …" (7). Along these lines, in an essay titled "Traducir la violencia: soñadores e inmigrantes en la narrativa fronteriza de Daniel Alarcón", he states: por pertenecer a la ola migratoria de los ochenta y los noventa causada en parte por el conflicto armado entre Sendero Luminoso y el Ejército Peruano, reconozco en los personajes de Alarcón las ganas de llegar a un mundo 'mejor', lejos de la violencia, la hiperinflación, el desempleo y la inestabilidad política, aunque el costo sea habitar un espacio de perenne extranjería y extrañamiento. (218–19) These and other statements help us recognize recurrent topics in Estrada's literary universe: migration, violence, the challenges faced by Latin American women within patriarchal societies, and the detrimental consequences of Peru's internal armed conflict.2 The titles of these books of fiction a priori connect to the atmosphere of Estrada's short stories. Luces de emergencia explores how migrants and other characters live in a world of constant danger and ongoing atrocities. Las locas ilusiones, on the other hand, evokes the famous Peruvian song "El provinciano", by Luis Abanto Morales. The first line of the song states: "Las locas ilusiones me sacaron de mi pueblo", referring to the nostalgia experienced by Andean migrants in the city [End Page 178] of Lima. Following Gérard Genette's ideas on intertextuality (10), I would argue that Estrada's work reflects the migrant journey described in the...