Here's
to You, Jesusa!
by Elena Poniatowska
Reviewed by Lauro Flores
Here's to You, Jesusa! is the English-language
rendition of Elena Poniatowska's testimonial novel, Hasta
no verte Jesús mío. First published in 1969,
with numerous reprints since then, it is now a modern classic
and, along with La noche de Tlatelolco, Poniatowska's
other hugely celebrated book, one of the all-time bestsellers
of Mexican literature. This long overdue English translation
now makes it available to the English reading public.
Written within the framework of the testimonial
genre, which flourished in Latin America in the 1960s and
70s, Here's to You, Jesusa! is the fictionalized life
story of Josefina Bórquez, a destitute but staunchly
independent, defiant, and resilient working-class woman. Based
on a series of interviews Poniatowska conducted with Bórquez,
whom she met on a rooftop and subsequently befriended, impressed
as she was by Bórquez’s "capacity for indignation,"
the story becomes a picaresque tale of survival.
Born in southern Mexico, right before the turn
of the twentieth century, the protagonist (named Jesusa Palancares
in the book), a self-described tomboy whose mother dies very
early, grows under the tutelage of her father and, with him,
participates in the Mexican revolution as a child soldadera.
Eventually, at age 15, she is forced to marry Pedro Aguilar,
a violent, abusive, and misogynist captain. Three years later,
Aguilar is killed in combat and Jesusa becomes a very young
widow. From then on, she is left to fend for herself and accordingly
initiates the rest of her survival course, one that will carry
her through a series of diverse jobs. By turns, she is a waitress,
a maid, a nurse, and a factory worker.
Living in the shanty towns of Mexico City,
Jesusa is usually alone, often homeless, and grows increasingly
cantankerous. Her sporadic and ephemeral connections with
others invariably result in betrayal, disappointment, and
desertion. This becomes the pattern that frames Jesusa's entire
experience. The life of this amazing woman is presented as
a metaphor for the plight of Mexico's underdogs, especially
women, a mission that has occupied Poniatowska's life-long
writing labors. The misadventures of the protagonist serve
to bare the contradictions of Mexican society: the failure
of the revolution, the corruption of government authorities
and all official institutions, including church and state,
and the general prejudice that permeates the upper class sectors.
Here's to You, Jesusa! is the collaboration between
two Mexican women from very different social venues (a cult
writer and an illiterate, feisty subaltern) and stands as
an intense exploration of the intersections of culture, gender,
class, and ethnicity in a complex society that outsiders often
perceive as "homogeneous."
The tenderness that lies at the bottom of Jesusa's
otherwise tough and uncompromising stance is well complimented
by Poniatowska's introduction, where she sheds light, unapologetically
and with extreme frankness, on the nature and the details
of her conflicted relationship with Josefina Bórquez,
the real-life Jesusa.
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