Sexual Identity And Nation in Madre que estás en los cielos by Pablo Simonetti

Abstract

This essay interprets Pablo Simonetti’s novel Madre que estás en los cielos as a call for tolerance andsocial inclusion. Through the memoirs of the female protagonist, the author establishes a chain ofmarginalized identities harking back to the forced emigration of the protagonist’s Italian grandmotherto Chile at the end of the 19th century and continues with social exclusions based on gender roles andsexual preference. In the case of the woman, the novel calls attention on the one hand to the mostsignificant deprivations of an existence that unfolds in the periphery of patriarchy and, on the other, toher attempts to negotiate for herself a space that embraces her feminine identity. Homosexuality isformulated as a parallel normality within hegemonic Western parameters that are misapplied in LatinAmericaastheydonottakeintoaccountracialorclassdifferences.