Para que no se me olvide. (So I Won’t Forget)
Reviewed by Ana Katherine Bonfante, Berwyn, IL -- Críticas, 1/15/2008
Suárez Coalla, Paquita, ed.
U.S.: Editorial Campana. 2007. 117p. ISBN 978-0-9725611-3-6. pap. $14.95. FICTION
Suárez Coalla (La mio vida ye una novella and Aquí me tocó escribir. Antología de escritores latinos en Nueva York) is a Spanish writer and professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and one of the founders of the Latino Artists Round Table (LART). Originally published in 2003 in Asturian, Suárez Coalla’s native language, this short collection gathers 18 stories, each a fictionalized first-person account of the experiences of different Asturian women, from virginity and infidelity to family issues and economic hardships. The colloquial language throughout transports readers to the colonial era in which the stories take place, while phrases such as chavala, enfriar a la helada, and pendanga add a comical tone. These stories are quick reads, thought they can be difficult to follow given the scant education most of the narrators possess. (The narrators, who each tell a little about themselves, come mostly from large families, were older siblings, or grandparents helped raise them because the parents either worked all day in the fields, abandoned them, or died at a young age.) Though the stories are of different women, the stories all have the same narrative tone and style, making it difficult to differentiate them; also, you never learn the narrator’s name. Sandwiched between stories is a short freestyle, poemlike anecdote revealing more disturbing details: the narrator’s father was a drunk, how women were expected to stay virgins until married and only date the man they would marry. A somewhat enjoyable read, this title is cautiously recommended for secondary collections or academic library collections with folkloric tales.
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