Cristina Rivera Garza

«En los poemas de Cristina Rivera Garza hay sopas instantáneas, sillas de plástico color naranja, mandarinas desgajadas, batas de franela, lentejuelas, rímel y risas, una cajera cuando devuelve el cambio, papas fritas, té de menta o té de naranja o té de jazmín, Valium, dos cajas de Marlboro light, trescientas aspirinas, vasos de leche, flores de plástico, botes de basura, escritorios de metal, latas de sardinas, cables de teléfono, ambulancias, rocolas. También hay personajes como la Mujer Enorme, la Ex-durmiente, laEx-Muerta, la Diabla, la Bestia, Los Sumergidos, los Desamparados y los Solos y los de Tres Corazones Bajo el Pecho. Además de algunas de las frases con las que suelen iniciar los cuentos infantiles —para sumergirnos en una suerte de ensoñación o enrarecimiento, propicios de la clase de historias que estamos a punto de leer—: Había una vez. O dos. Érase que se era. Érase que fueo que habría sido. La poesía de Cristina Rivera Garza es una carretera bífida: un camino que se bifurca entre la materialidad más tangible y rotunda y la posibilidad de lo contingente, de lo que podría o no suceder. Sus poemas son un lugar donde es viable que lo que es sea; pero, sobre todo, y como anhelaba Alejandra Pizarnik: que sea lo que no es.» Del prólogo de Sara Uribe.… (meer)

This is a woman's testament to her sister who was murdered thirty years ago when she (Liliana) was a student in Mexico City. The author starts the book by going back and researching the police investigation and news coverage of her sister's death. This all centers on a man she had an on and off relationship since high school. (He becomes a stalker.) We learn about how smart and creative Liliana is through her writings and the words of her friends and relatives. This is a wonderful homage to a sister who was dearly loved.… (meer)

“I seek justice for my sister.”

In Liliana’s Invincible Summer, Christina Rivera Garza pays tribute to her younger sister, Liliana Rivera Garza who was a 20 year old university student in 1990 when she was murdered in her own home.

Drawing from paraphernalia that belonged to Liliana, including notebooks, letters, notes, photographs, and postcards, conversations and interviews with friends and family, and Cristina’s own memories, Garza shares an affecting portrait of her beloved sister and her too brief life.

“…it was so clear, that we knew very little. A naïve girl, prey to the daily abuse of a manipulator. A woman perhaps too free. A disciplined swimmer. A confused young woman ready to try everything. A good and docile youngster, exceptionally blind to danger. A customary liar. An outstanding student. An all too innocent teenager. A friend for life. A woman full of love. A sloppy kid. Someone with a past. The pictures painted by these stories, and even by my own memory, multiplied exponentially, contradicting each without so much as a blush.”

Liliana first met her killer when she was in middle school, and though he pursued her immediately, she was fifteen, and he seventeen, before she agreed to date him. Over the next four years theirs was an off and on relationship, Liliana struggled to seperate from him completely, and he, reportedly possessive and aggressive, refused to let her go. Just weeks before her murder it seems she had made the resolution to cut him from her life for good.

Sadly, Liliana is one of many women murdered in Mexico by an intimate partner. Garza discusses how the ‘machismo’ culture of the country, along with law enforcement corruption, has historically failed to protect women. Femicide was not incorporated as a federal crime until 2012.

Liliana’s killer, though identified as Ángel González Ramos, evaded the police in the days following her murder, and has yet to be brought to justice.

An eloquent, impassioned and poignant memoir, Liliana’s Invincible Summer is a powerful read.… (meer)