Making visible the invisible through the literary discourse: the example of El espejo y la ventana (1967)

Abstract

For academia and critics, Adalberto Ortiz (1914-2003) contributed to “make the invisible visible”, i.e. to make visible the Afro component in Ecuadorian society, which, historically, in the process of building a national imaginary, have been hidden by the indigenous component, above all because during the 20th century when the indigenous movement and the so-called ideology of mestizaje cultural (cultural cross-breeding) were imposed. However, the novel El espejo y la ventana, written between 1954 and 1956 and published in 1967, differs from the novel to which Adalberto Ortiz owed his fame as a Negro writer, Juyungo (1942). Indeed, far from narrating the virile struggle of a black protagonist proud of his African background, El espejo y la ventana relate the story of a young mulato, Mauro, who seeks anguishedly his identity, described as a series of failures. He finally discovers that he is nothing more than a "tentenelaire". This paper will analyze how the narrative creates and unfolds the figure of the “tentenelaire”. He is neither black nor white -away from the Afro-Ecuadorian cultural universe, with which he cannot identify- and despised by an elite that defines itself by its white component. He never manages to take root and remains in suspense, "in the air". It will be observed how and to what extent the figure of the “tentenelaire” allows the author to explore the “cross-breeding” from an Afro-descendant perspective, seeking to give this part of a population a greater visibility, through the literary and linguistic domains.