Representations of exile: from "El canto del peregrino" (1999) to "El sefardí romántico" (2005)

Abstract

Exile is a recurrent theme in the work of Angelina Muñiz-Huberman, a member of the socalled hispanomexicanos group. What sets her writings apart is that her vision of exile includes not only Republican exile but also that of the Jewish people. Thus, different historical Diasporas supersede one another, enriching the meaning of the experience. In her essay El canto del peregrino: hacia una poética del exilio (1999), she develops her thoughts on exile and analyzes the work of different exiled writers (Jewish and Spanish Republicans) focusing on how each one dealt with the experience and how it is reflected in their writings.

My contention is that the thoughts developed in the essay can also be found in her novel El sefardí romántico: la azarosa vida de Mateo Alemán II (2005). The title of the novel links the picaresque novel and Jewish history by alluding directly to the converso author of Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604). Following the picaresque pattern, Muñiz-Huberman’s protagonist travels through Spain and Europe denouncing the intolerance that lead to Spanish Civil War and World War II. Circumstances take him to Mexico, much as in Mateo Aleman’s case, as an exile. Ulrich Wicks establishes that pícaros and exiles have very much in common since both are in constant search of freedom, freedom that, according to Muñiz- Huberman’s essay, the exiled can find only in language.