The Language of Female Violence in Jorge Ibargüengoitia's Las muertas

Abstract

century Latin American fic tion, gender studies, popular culture, and visual arts. IN the early 1960s in Mexico, accounts of three notorious sisters inundated newspapers. Delfina, Maria de Jesus and Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela, known as Poquianchis,2 were accused of crimes including mass murder, torture, the kidnapping of women for prostitution, and the clandestine operation of a brothel. Due to the extensive coverage of the case by the Mexican media, the Poquianchis became an infamous sensation, captivating the interest of the Mexican people and even drawing in international press.3 With his novel Las muertas (1977), Jorge Ibarg?engoitia responds to the overzealous media damnation of the women by providing an alternative narrative of the crimes of the Poquianchis. This article examines language used in the 1960s me dia coverage of the case and in parallel instances of violence perpetrated by the fictional women of Jorge Ibargiiengoitias novel Las muertas.A My analysis begins by demonstrating how contemporary Mexican media, particularly the tabloid AlarmaU sensationalized the Poquianchis' crimes and demon ized the sisters, transforming them into a pervasive, inhuman threat and flattening reality into black and white extremes. Ibargiiengoitias novel, in contrast, attempts to recontextualize these lower class women and their acts, conveying a more nu anced understanding of the events. By examining the rhetoric surrounding the fictional women's relationship with violence, I aim to show that in particular Ibarg?engoitia relies on con notations of domesticity to add depth to his characters and make them and their actions more familiar to the reader. He