35th Annual Student Research Conference
Trauma and Disability in Mexico City's Public Transport in El huésped by Guadalupe Nettel
Emma R. Guenther
Dr. Jose Carreno-Medina, Faculty Mentor
In El huésped (2006), Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel follows Ana, a young girl plagued by impending blindness, tragedy, and the manifestation of a voice called La Cosa (the thing). After being dealt the blow of her brother's death, she goes to work in a school for the blind where she meets a group of inesperados (people with disabilities) that beg for money in the underground transport system. The reader is shown the two sides of Mexico City's transportation system and the invisibility of people with disabilities throughout the novel. Utilizing The Matter of Disability: Materiality, Biopolitics, Crip Affect by David T. Mitchell and Mexican Literature in Theory by Ignacio M. Sánchez-Prado, this paper analyzes the effects of Mexican laws regarding disabilities and the protagonist's trauma on the development of the transport system being used by the author as both a symbol of pain and liberation.
Keywords: Spanish, Disability, Literature, Mexican Transportation
Topic(s):Spanish
Presentation Type: Asynchronous Virtual Presentation
Session: 1-3
Location: https://flipgrid.com/85d2b4df
Time: 0:00