TRANSGREDINDO AS FRONTEIRAS: NEM VIRGEM, NEM LA LLORONA, NEM LA CHINGADA. LITERATURA LATINA DE JOVENS ADULTOS

TRANSGRESSING THE BORDERS: NOT VIRGEN, NOT LA LLORONA, NOT LA CHINGADA. YOUNG ADULT LATINA LITERATURE

Abstract

This research analyzes the protagonists of the novels I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017), by Erika Sánchez, and Gabi, a Girl in Pieces (2014), by Isabel Quintero, in two fictional narratives about young first-generation Latinas born in the United States to Mexican immigrants. The two characters, Julia Reyes and Gabi Hernandez, narrate their experiences in their final year of High School, a period of transition that forces them to face a double standard of expectations, demanded by American society and Mexican culture. We will use the Chicano maternal triad mentioned by Gloria Anzaldúa in her book Borderlands (1987) to understand how the characters break with the pre-defined image of women in Mexican culture. The research analyzes Young Adult Literature as a form of a counter-canon (Aldama, 2018) for new narratives of the growth of the diverse populations that exist in the United States, with a focus on the narrative of young Latinas.