One Woman's Experience of Migratory Grief: The ‘Woggy Girl’ Crónicas in Spanish-language Newspapers in Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the phenomenon of migratory grief through an analysis of crónicas by Bolivian-born medical doctor Clara Espinosa, who migrated to Australia in 1988 and wrote under the pseudonym ‘Woggy Girl’. Crónicas are newspaper columns that comment on aspects of daily life, social habits and the concerns of communities. They have appeared in Spanish-language newspapers in Australia since the late 1970s. A selection of Woggy Girl's crónicas are examined to determine what these narratives reveal about Espinosa's migratory journey and her process of adaptation to the host language and culture – which involved relinquishing her primary identity as a senior medical specialist. Espinosa identified this process as being one of grief, which she chronicled through the newspaper columns that are the focus of this study. Drawing on migratory grief theories from psychological and psychiatric disciplines, this article analyses Woggy Girl's crónicas to determine what they reveal about the author's self-diagnosed journey through migratory grief. I conclude that crónica writing provided Espinosa with a mechanism through which to process the myriad of emotions that accompanied her migratory grief journey, until such time as she was able to carve out a new identity, positioned closer to that of Australian mainstream society.