This chapter reconsiders midcentury Mexican literary history through the lens of the concept of bearing witness (“dar testimonio”). Taking speeches by Rosario Castellanos and Miguel Angel Asturias as its starting point, the chapter argues that the idea of bearing witness and expressing solidarity with marginalized groups shaped Latin American and specifically Mexican literature in the period 1930-80. Looking again at the Mexican canon in this period from this fresh perspective, an overlooked tradition of women authors emerges. These women write out of solidarity with and to bear witness to the experiences and sufferings of less privileged others. Women authors are often grouped together on the basis of their gender. Yet, this chapter identifies alternative connections between better-known Mexican women authors such as Elena Poniatowska, Nellie Campobello, and Rosario Castellanos and others who are less often the focus of critical attention, including Benita Galeana, Carlota O’Neill, Ascensión Hernández de León-Portilla, and Elvira Vargas. Focusing on the act of bearing witness brings to the fore the contributions of women authors and the connections between them, as well as encouraging us to consider alternative ways of writing literary history based on new categories and periodizations.

Pablo Neruda’s Macchu Picchu and Octavio Paz’s Tenochtitlán determine how the modern city in twentieth-century Latin American poetry is conceptualized as one shaped by its ruins. This chapter explores how these earlier visions of the city are reconsidered in Latin American poetry from the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes Rosario Castellanos’ Poesía no eres tú (1948-71) and José Emilio Pacheco’s Irás y no volverás (1973), and how their poems about the Tlatelolco massacre shed light on how Neruda’s Macchu Picchu and Paz’s Tenochtitlán shape modern poetics and their political critique to contemporary violence. Pacheco’s allusions to the icnocuícatl in “La visión de los vencidos” and the use of multiple voices in “Manuscrito de Tlatelolco” link the political ruins of the Mexican state after the massacre to the violent legacy of its colonial past. Castellanos’ defiant response to the massacre in “Memorial de Tlatelolco” problematizes the Aztec historical past and the moral decay of the Mexican state. These poems underscore an ethical and political critique of modernity through a representation of economic, ecological, and political disasters. The urban space in ruins stirs a poetic meditation on the torn self, shaped by a society in crisis.

This chapter reconsiders midcentury Mexican literary history through the lens of the concept of bearing witness (“dar testimonio”). Taking speeches by Rosario Castellanos and Miguel Angel Asturias as its starting point, the chapter argues that the idea of bearing witness and expressing solidarity with marginalized groups shaped Latin American and specifically Mexican literature in the period 1930-80. Looking again at the Mexican canon in this period from this fresh perspective, an overlooked tradition of women authors emerges. These women write out of solidarity with and to bear witness to the experiences and sufferings of less privileged others. Women authors are often grouped together on the basis of their gender. Yet, this chapter identifies alternative connections between better-known Mexican women authors such as Elena Poniatowska, Nellie Campobello, and Rosario Castellanos and others who are less often the focus of critical attention, including Benita Galeana, Carlota O’Neill, Ascensión Hernández de León-Portilla, and Elvira Vargas. Focusing on the act of bearing witness brings to the fore the contributions of women authors and the connections between them, as well as encouraging us to consider alternative ways of writing literary history based on new categories and periodizations.

Pablo Neruda’s Macchu Picchu and Octavio Paz’s Tenochtitlán determine how the modern city in twentieth-century Latin American poetry is conceptualized as one shaped by its ruins. This chapter explores how these earlier visions of the city are reconsidered in Latin American poetry from the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes Rosario Castellanos’ Poesía no eres tú (1948-71) and José Emilio Pacheco’s Irás y no volverás (1973), and how their poems about the Tlatelolco massacre shed light on how Neruda’s Macchu Picchu and Paz’s Tenochtitlán shape modern poetics and their political critique to contemporary violence. Pacheco’s allusions to the icnocuícatl in “La visión de los vencidos” and the use of multiple voices in “Manuscrito de Tlatelolco” link the political ruins of the Mexican state after the massacre to the violent legacy of its colonial past. Castellanos’ defiant response to the massacre in “Memorial de Tlatelolco” problematizes the Aztec historical past and the moral decay of the Mexican state. These poems underscore an ethical and political critique of modernity through a representation of economic, ecological, and political disasters. The urban space in ruins stirs a poetic meditation on the torn self, shaped by a society in crisis.