SOURCE: Boschetto, Sandra. “Romancing the Stone in Elena Garro's Los recuerdos del porvenir.” Midwest Modern Language Association 22, no. 2 (fall 1989): 1-11.

In the following essay, Boschetto discusses the meaning and implications of the protagonist's petrification at the end of Recollections of Things to Come.

Elena Garro's first published novel, Los recuerdos del porvenir (1963), has in recent years captured the attention of readers who recognize in its ambivalent discourse a notable contribution to “escritura femenina.” Borrowing terminology from Heléne Cixous, Adriana Méndez Rodenas has termed the novel, “un ejemplo de ‘sexto’ femenino” (845). Her study focuses primarily on the imaginary time populated by the women characters, a time Garro herself describes as “un tiempo circular e idéntico a sí mismo, como un espejo reflejado a otro espejo que nos repite” (La casa junto al río, 7). While Robert Anderson concludes that Isabel Moncada's petrification is the “deserved” result...