The Novel in Zapotec and Maya Lands

Abstract

Chapter 5 examines the first novel published by a Maya woman, X-Teya, U puksi’ik’al ko’olel/Teya, un corazón de mujer (Teya, heart of a woman), and the first published Zapotec novel, Wila che be ze lhao / Cantares de los vientos primerizos (Songs of the first winds), as a rejection of first and second world- system alignments. This final chapter argues that the novelists transgress the political landscapes sketched by political ideologies, beginning a contemplation and imagining of what autonomy involves. I propose that the authors reject the nationalist liberal emphasis of integration as well as Marxist discourses as answers to the so-poorly termed “Indian problem.”