Not only a muse: María Luisa Elío’s creative network during her exile in Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars have mainly studied the work of María Luisa Elío (Pamplona, 1926 – Mexico City, 2009) by examining the influence exile had on her writing. But her fruitful cultural life outside of her own writing has been overshadowed. In order to fill this research gap, the present article focuses on the impact that Elío has had on various forms of cultural production, including novels, short stories, poetry and a film. It gauges her sociocultural resonance through an analysis of her private relational sphere and the public influence she had on the cultural production of those surrounding her, for she was not only a muse but a crucial member of a transnational community. This article first discusses network theory. Second, it presents Elío’s work as a case study to reevaluate the experiences of exile through an interconnected analytical framework. It examines the ways in which her contributions and creative influence transcend the exile community and reach a wider creative network of friends that included Eliseo Diego, Salvador Elizondo, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez, among others. Finally, this study shows how Elío has been kept alive over the years in different cultural forms and evaluates her cultural legacy and artistic relevance within her sociocultural milieu.