Chile

The majority of Cowboy Graves takes place in Chile during the twentieth century. While the narrator of the first novella, Arturo Belano, leaves Chile to live in Mexico City he ultimately returns to the country where he was born. As the first person narrator shifts, Chile continues to be a constant backdrop for Arturo, Diodorus, and Rigoberto’s struggles to solidify their identities, pursue poetry, and reconcile heartbreak. The author makes repeated allusions to the Chilean revolution in order to center his narrative claim that art is a form of rebellion that is vital to successful revolution.

The Paris Sewer

In “French Comedy of Horrors” the young surrealist artists live in the sewer system of Paris. They agree to live there for ten years in order to protect their art from political and social rebuke. Each week an envelope of cash appears in the sewer, to finance the...