WHITE PINE PRESS
an independent literary publisher
Until She Goes No More - Beatriz García Huidobro - translated by Jacqueline Nanfito
$18.00, ISBN 978-1-945680-56-4
In Until She Goes No More, Beatriz García Huidobro simultaneously maps the coordinates of the intimate story of a female teenager and the broader historical and socioeconomic reality of Chile in the early 70’s. The story is narrated in the form of a monologue, through the eyes of a young female protagonist who resides in desolate town in the mountainous region where the landscape is bleak and barren, and men futilely toil in unproductive fields. The aridness of the land mirrors the hopeless and hapless lives of the characters whose dreams are futile and futures are compromised. Like silhouettes in sepia, the protagonist and others are sketched as characters that live out a wearisome, tenuous existence, shrouded in ambiguity, in a circular time that is based upon the repetition of daily chores and the changing of the seasons, marked by the events in the life cycle.
“The texts in Until She Goes No More are characterized by an extreme sobriety and concision, in which suggestion and ellipsis predominate. The nucleus of the narration is precisely that of concentration, concentration in the sentence, in the paragraph, in the entire composition. Rather than delving in psychological or social realism, the author submerges the reader in a phantasmal reality, where the characters emerge as murky shadows that hover and dissolve in a common background of anonymity. Women with their backs turned, colorless portraits, always painted in shades of grey, rather than fully sketched individuals, as if weightlessness chained them to their impoverished lives. A spectral texture, as if from a dream, with desperate tonalities, in which hope is merely an illusion of an inevitable defeat. Dreams and hopelessness coincide in this narrative, conferring upon it a dark authenticity and a tone of rare and emotionless intensity”
—Jaime Concha, literary critic
“Until She Goes No More presents a history of defenselessness and ulcerated solitude through cowardly and silent humiliation, dissolved in arid lands swept away by dust and the wind, where the hopeless futures, afflictions and impossible desires of the inhabitants come to nest, narrated by the infantile gaze of the protagonist and victim. This narrative offers a perfect balance between the moving content that endeavors to communicate and the innocent, intimate language that transmits a conscience that still has not been strangulated by the malice of adults. The construction of language is impeccable and responds perfectly to the purposes of the narrative.”
—José Promis, literary critic
Beatriz García Huidobro Moroder studied pedagogy at the University of Chile and was employed as a professor for 13 years. She then earned a post-graduate degree in psychopedagogy. She served as Director of the Cultural Heritage Corporation of Chile for many years, overseeing projects such as congresses and conferences, and books on the investigation and dissemination of culture. She is Executive Editor of Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado. For years Beatriz has been a literary critic, recommending a book each week on the radio program, “Vuelan las plumas “ (“Pens fly”) at the University of Chile; she also writes literary criticism for the periodical, Mensaje. She has published novels for children and adolescents with the editorial SM – Barco de Vapor, including Misterio en La Tirana and Septiembre. She won the contest “Santiago en 100 palabras” (“Santiago in 100 words”), which consisted in writing a short story with no more than 100 words. She has published novels with the editorial, Lom, including Hasta ya no ir, which was a finalist in the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Mexican literary competition, open to women novelists throughout Latin America, Nadar a oscuras, El espejo roto, among others.
Jacqueline Nanfito, Associate Professor of Spanish (Latin American Literature and Culture) is also a faculty member of the interdisciplinary programs of Women's and Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. She is the author of several articles in Latin American literary journals, and has published several books on Latin American women writers: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, El sueño: Cartographies of Knowledge and the Self; Gabriela Mistral: On Women, a compilation and translation of selected prose writings about women by the Chilean Nobel Prize Poet, Gabriela Mistral; the translation of the short short stories (microcuentos) by award winning Chilean female author, Pía Barros, Marks Beneath the Skin/Signos bajo la piel; the translation of an anthology of short short fiction (microcuentos) by Chilean female authors denouncing violence towards women, edited by Pía Barros, ¡BASTA! + de 100 mujeres contra la violencia de genero/ENOUGH! 100+ Women Against Gender Violence; the translation of 70 poems by the Chilean Jewish author and human rights activist, Marjorie Agosín, The White Islands / Las Islas Blancas the translation of Agosin's prose poems about Anne Frank, Anne: An Imagining of the Life of Anne Frank; and the novel, Fish Hair Woman, from English into Spanish, Mujer Pelo Pez, by the award winning Filipina female author, Merlinda Bobis.