The Implications and Dangers of Disappearing Borders in Daniel Alarcón’s Lost City Radio.
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Daniel Alarcón, a relatively new author among the growing presence of Latino authors in the United States, presents in his very first novel Lost City Radio (2007) the social and political reality of Peru, emerging from the Civil War between the Maoist guerilla group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the government forces. Alarcón emigrated from Peru with his family at the age of 3, to the United States. In spite of the distance in location, language, and formation he brings forth a Latin American reality convincingly to his target audience here in the United States. Alarcón does not believe he is an outsider either to Peru or the United States and sees the disappearance of borders as inevitability with writers like him. Yet, a Latino in the United States writing of Latin America raises many problems: first and foremost the problem of location. The exclusionary discourse in Latin America does not always see United States as part of their reality or a friendly neighbor, due to historical reasons of being the neo-colonial force in the past century. Even though Alarcón has roots in Peru, he was formed outside its reality, and therefore raises the question of reliability and authority to represent it. It also opens the path to a new trend of writing by the Latinos, who move away from the immigrant experience and write of the social realities of the worlds they or their ancestors came from. On the other hand such narratives brings to the US audience a whole new reality, which they have been unaware of in spite of being so close to it. This brings forth a new possibility of dialogue, between common people of both worlds, and a new method to negotiate foreign policy. This paper looks at the implications and dangers of narratives like Lost City Radio as they strive to break down borders and create a more global connection among people.
