Host and guest in the 'Latino contact zone':Narrating solidarity and hospitalityin Mother Tongue

Abstract

This article analyzes the representation of solidarity and hospitality in Latino-Latin American relationships and of transnational identities in Demetria Martínez's novel Mother Tongue. Through what is called a 'transnational romance', the novel explores the difficulties that unequal gender relations pose to transnational Latino solidarity, hospitality and identity. Drawing on the work of Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida among others, this article, through an analysis of the representation of the Salvadoran refugee, Chicana cultural identity and what is seen as a gendered narrative sphere, explores how and why the transnational romance fails to represent solidarity and hospitality convincingly. It is argued that in a transnational Latino context, it might be more fruitful to base solidarity and hospitality not exclusively on similarity and pre-determined Latino identities but on 'asymmetrical reciprocity' (Iris Marion Young), partial knowledge and mutual recognition between Latinos whose cultures, origins and identifications vary widely. The acknowledgment of such difference, the article emphasizes, does not prevent but enhance the possibilities for representing the key practices of solidarity and hospitality in trans-American contexts.

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