SOURCE: Cypess, Sandra Messinger. “Dis(re)membered Bodies and Temporal Games in the Texts of Elena Garro.” In Studies in Honor of Myron Lichtblau, edited by Fernándo Burgos, pp. 65-78. Newark, N.J.: Juan de la Cuesta, 2000.

In the following essay, Cypess argues that Garro's use of temporal and physical subversions in Los recuerdos del porvenir and Benito Fernández undermine patriarchal historical control.

If Elena Garro has a place in the Latin American canon (as well she should), it is based primarily on her narrative masterpiece Los recuerdos del porvenir (1963). A number of her other narratives have also received careful scrutiny, while the theatrical pieces of the early sixties have received only selective appraisals from the critics. In this essay I would like to relate some aspects of Los recuerdos del porvenir with those found in a relatively unknown play, Benito Fernández. Although I will...