• 1 (Gardner 2003)

4In an interview Rosa Nissán explains one of the ironies of being Jewish in Mexico. She explains that in Mexico, she seems to be considered Jewish first and Mexican second ; whereas in Israel she and other of her Mexican friends are described as simply being ‘the Mexicans’ – a notion she also underlines in her novel Hisho que te vea1. It would appear that the desired identity of the individual is not given to the character in her desired location. Perhaps the inability to achieve the preferred acceptance of identity by the mainstream is why other characters are willing to remain in their subaltern group : because within the group they are accepted in as much as they fulfill the norm, whereas when they are on the outside of it they constantly appear to be subject to different classification due to their difference from the mainstream - be it religious (as in Mexico) or cultural (as in other foreign locations). The novels portray this marginalization causing a certain level of frustration for the protagonist and it does limit her ability to fully integrate in certain ways. Yet in her growing understanding of being Mexican, the character seems willing to accept these attitudes towards her and, far from being upset by the certain levels of marginalization she experiences while forming part of the mainstream, Oshinica is portrayed as being content with the advances with regard to integration that her character has experienced. She believes she is more a part of the greater mainstream Mexico and this fact brings satisfaction to this character.

• 3 In reality, Rosa Nissán has been one longest-standing students of the ‘Elena Poniatowska literary w (...)

8Aside from photography, the other work-related activity that fills Oshinica’s life is writing. A pursuit that began as a chance incident becomes an important element of her life and education. These classes become the only ones that she maintained on a continuous basis3. Its participants provide support and creative input as well as windows into other Mexican spheres – just as she provides them with a window into the Jewish Mexico. As Hisho que te nazca concludes we observe Oshinica begin to prepare the manuscript of Novia que te vea as a novel. In some ways this gives the narrative a stronger cyclical element as the reader views the beginning being created while we approach the end of the narrative on Oshinica. Likewise, aside from its circular nature, this section of the novel blurs the lines between autobiography and fiction as we observe the fictional character Oshinica prepare the novel which was published by Rosa Nissán. It is a metafictional twist in which she clearly reveals that the narrative we have been reading has been widely based on her own life experiences.

• 4 (Gardner 2003) Interview with Nissán 2003.
• 5 But then, perhaps, the question would be if the book would still have had the impact it did ?

11It is through her writings that Oshinica is able to maintain her role as a secret teller of tales. Indeed, this element of fiction is essential to her ability to write the novels. As she explained to me in an interview when I queried as to why she simply did not want to publish an autobiography, she responded that the fictional autobiography allowed the writer more freedom. Fiction enabled her to modify the past events and situations according to her own will and desire. She could eliminate characters and change scenarios as she saw fit. Ultimately, this method offered her freedom to tell the truth and or modify it without any of the consequences of the autobiography or the biography. As Nissán explained in her own words to me : ‘no me quería tener que pegar [a la verdad]’4. During that conversation Nissán explained that she had invented some things and eliminated others. However, mostly Nissán wanted to be able to write what she preferred without having to live up to the test of scrutiny. The author explained to me in the writing of her novel that she did not want to have the pressure of creating a text in which everything would have to be verifiable. Had Elizabeth Burgos followed a similar route with her famous book Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia she would have left David Stoll little to write about5. It is in the blending of fact and fiction that we see how Nissán has learned from her teacher Elena Poniatowska, who has mixed the two in several of her publications as well. It is a powerful combination as it is possible many will tend to believe that most of what is published is truth yet it affords the writer protection from factual criticisms.

• 6 There are many examples in which Nissán appeals to the autobiographical nature of her narrative ove (...)
• 7 She did mention a lone fictionalization of the narrative to me amidst her many truths of the novel  (...)

12Nissán appeals to the truth of her narrative in the creation of her novel6. Once I asked her to identify what was fiction in the novel and she only pointed to ways in which she modified the narrative to make it more factual. She explained to me, for example, that originally her second novel only gave the protagonist two children, but later she raised it to four so that none of her four children would feel left out of the novel7. So, we can see that while the writer appeals to fiction for literary protection if you like, she also seems to strongly support the notion that that this narrative is more autobiographical than fictional.

• 8 (38)
• 9 (Hisho 284)
• 10 (Hisho 290)
• 11 (Hisho 277)

13In each one of her novels Oshinica reveals to the reader many of the lesser-known aspects of Jewish culture in her community in Mexico and her own life. If one accepts the paradigm presented in Hisho que te nazca of Oshinica writing the novel Novia que te vea, it becomes significant to remember that according to the second novel none of what the reader discovers about Oshinica’s life is written until after she has decided to divorce Lalo and free herself of her custom of always trying to make compromises with her religion and community. This agrees with Oshinica’s dream about freeing the butterfly that this chapter discussed earlier. Michael Ferber explains the important symbolism of the butterfly in literature that tie into this notion of change brought on by that dream : “Sometimes a butterfly is a messenger, a kind of angel, that brings grace or a change of heart”8. Once the protagonist/butterfly feels she is free to act is when she finds herself able to write about her life and the Mexico she has experienced. Even so, this experience does not always come as an easy task : “Está resultando muy doloroso meterme en la novela. Revivir y descubrir dolores y envidias que parecían olvidados. Escribirla con las exigencias de seguir siendo honesta como quien me estimuló a escribir. Está canijo. Duele”9. As she refers to ‘the person who stimulates me to write’ this would refer to her writing teacher who incites her to be honest in the creation of the narrative ; from this we can assume that there is an effort to create an honest portrayal of Oshinica’s life experiences. Yet she is not free of fear of what this narrative might bring once it enters the public space in its public form : “¿ Cómo recibirá mi obra la comunidad ? ¿ Cómo los de fuera ? Estoy asustada”10. Oshinica even has nightmares about the negative consequences publishing her narrative could bring her : “Anoche soñé que el libro ya estaba publicado. Encima de mi escritorio había un altero de ejemplares. El teléfono sonaba para reclamarme, del deportivo, de la comunidad... Empecé a temblar de miedo. En eso tuve la fortuna de despertar’’11. Not only does this suggest the critical eye Novia que te vea offers as a narrative but additionally we also see another of the cyclical elements of the narrative : Oshinica is afraid of what might happen to her by sharing something she believes she should not. Nonetheless, the narrative is published and permits us to experience the results of the protagonist’s understandings and meditations on being a Mexican from her particular community.

• 13 (Israde 1)
• 14 (Hisho 282)

16Nissán’s novels view the support of the father as key for the protagonist’s entry into the public space. Nonetheless, the character’s entry into the public space adds new dimension to the character and her understanding of Mexican identity but does not equate to a happy ending. Rosa Nissán has noted : “No voy a hacer un cuento tipo Walt Disney : ‘Oshinica publicó su novela, se divorció y fue muy, muy feliz.’ Además ella tuvo que pagar un precio dolorosísimo”13. The Oshinica who enters the public arena must suffer many modifications to her life to enter this space and remain there. These have different effects on the character and the narrative. She is separated from both her husband and children. However, living alone allows Oshinica more opportunities she would not have otherwise. This isolation the character lives without her children allows the character to explore a new type of life as a single woman in Mexico. Her experiences in the public space open her eyes not only to mainstream Mexico but also to lives of other men in her community : “El libro del templo dice : ‘Gracias Dios mío por no haberme hecho mujer.’ Y cuando leo esto qué puedo decirle a Dios. ¿ Gracias ? ¡Sí, gracias ! Es maravilloso serlo si no me cierras las puertas como a mis antepasadas [...]”14. Oshinica comes to an understanding that women are not the only people faced with stereotypes. Ultimately, it is the exploration of these spaces and the discovery of the stereotypes as well as some of the elements behind them that make these narratives intriguing. As Oshinica questions her identity and location in Mexican society, not only is the reader able to see the viewpoint of a woman looking out onto wider Mexican society from within one of its subaltern cultures, but we the reader are also allowed to peer back into the window from which Nissán’s character is looking out on the world. It is this new glimpse of another Mexico and an new understanding of Mexican identity that composes one of the most unique elements of this narrative.

• 15 To acquire an idea about this series of public exchanges between Nissán, Hiriart and Schyfter on th (...)

17Nissán’s novels, especially Novia que te vea, were met with great success. One of the indicators of the Mexican and international interest in Nissán’s first novel is manifested by the appearance of a film by the same title soon after the novel was published. That film was produced by Guita Schyfter and her husband Hugo Hiriat. Hiriat, one of the writers affiliated with the literary workshop of which Nissán has been a part, came into contact with Nissán’s novel and showed it to his wife (a Costa Rican Jew of Eastern European heritage) who believed it would serve as a base for a film project. Indeed, from the initial credits of the novel at the beginning to the characters found within, one is easily able to perceive Nissán’s influence in the script. Schyfter’s movie makes use of Nissán’s narrative, but it also modifies it significantly - adding characters and experiences to her creative needs and telling the story of a new character Rifke (a character that might even be loosely based on the producer herself or someone from her community). It is this politically-active, and arguably liberally-minded, Ashkenazi character who ultimately takes the center stage in the film. The side-lining of Nissán’s character and many other modifications that Hugo and his wife Guita made to Nissán’s novel ultimately created a rift between the two groups to such an extent that Nissán abandoned the project and later publicly protested her treatment by the producers when they failed to mention her when the film won at the prestigious Ariel film awards. This led to several published responses between both parties which appeared in cultural mediums at that time15.

• 16 (Foster 15)

18However, in the case of Nissán and her narrative, it is significant to note that notwithstanding any changes or modifications made to the novel, it still provided the base for what has been identified as the first Jewish-themed film to be produced in Mexico16. Likewise, it might be the only film ever produced to feature characters who speak Ladino – an element which undeniably proves Nissán’s influence on the script and brings to point the contemporary interest that Jews and others have in their Hispano-Jewish heritage that is evidenced by this language.

• 17 That interview was placed in Youtube on the 12 of March 2012. Currently its link is http://www.yout (...)
• 18 One example of the trauma affecting her life is the fact that Nissán would stop driving altogether, (...)

20Even so, once Rosa Nissán began publishing, it seems that the taste for seeing her work in print stimulated her to create even more. Elena Poniatowska’s encouragement to her writing group to write every day and to view their work as a calling had taken root in the writer. Indeed, in 2004 Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez published an article on Nissán’s work in which she describes the author as a ‘prolific’ writer. What she may not have known was that about time she was writing her article, Rosa Nissán’s personal life suffered an event that would change the writer from that point forward. As detailed in an interview, Nissán explains that she was involved in a serious automobile accident that almost took her life17. Initially, due to physical damage resulting from the crash, her production all but stopped. Physical and emotional recovery would be slow and this would affect her in many ways18. Even so, this writer has not stopped working. Her interest and love for Mexico and its culture has grown even further with the years. Curiously, in a recent interview about this incident she shows the interviewer an example of an ex-voto painting which was create to give thanks to her Angel de la Guardia for miraculously preserving her life after the terrible car accident she experienced.

• 19 One example of this is the edition Ex-votos which was published in collaboration with Conaculta as (...)
• 20 (Ginzberg, 20)

21The use of this medium to give thanks for what she felt was divine intervention is telling of the author and offers an example of what could possibly be interpreted as religious syncretism on her part. She takes a medium which has been imported from Catholic Europe : the use of the ex-voto ; which was adopted, modified, and popularized in Mexico to such an extent so as to have become viewed as quintessentially Mexican art (helped in part by the fascination of famous Mexican painters such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo of these manifestations of popular paintings)19. So we have a Jewish writer and photographer who adopts what is considered by most to be a Catholic medium to give thanks for the preservation of her life. Yet, in her ex-voto she does not thank a specific saint but rather her guardian angel - a divine figure that can be seen as overlapping both belief systems as guardian angels are found in both Christianity and Judaism20. In many ways her ex-voto painting is symbolic of Nissán. In her attempt to navigate in both mainstream circles and preserving her own specific cultural heritage, Nissán finds unique ways of blending the two, creating bridges between what some might consider incompatible systems and showing us repeatedly that indeed it is possible to be both Mexican and Jewish.

• 21 (230)

22In Hisho que te nazca Oshinica finds her profession in photography. First she begins to take pictures for fun ; later, discovering she has talent, she begins to explore it as a hobby and finally as a profession. While in her character development we observe how she writes in order to be further involved in the world of art and to cultivate her writing skills, the truth is that professionally Oshinica is first a photographer and then a writer, mirroring the author Nissán in this aspect. This is evident as well when, on a trip Oshinica and Elena Poniatowska take together, Poniatowska introduces Oshinica as : ‘a photographer who also writes’21.

• 22 While this might be true, she is not the only one who could make this claim. In the archives of pho (...)
• 23 This reference is made on page 172.

23While Nissán is known in the academic world for her writing, she has lived professionally as a photographer for several decades. The quantity and quality of her photography is worth further study and merits some comment. When I met Rosa Nissán in 2002, I was impressed by the extent to which photography really was an active and important aspect of her creative work. She showed me an entire room of her spacious department in the colonia Condesa in the Mexican capital that was used as her personal photographic archive. On that occasion she spent several hours showing me many photographs from her collection. I noted the number of times that Elena Poniatowska appeared in them to which she responded that ‘she could be considered Elena’s personal photographer’22. Indeed, when I spoke to her of this project and proposed that she sent a sampling of her work to include in this study she was happy to oblige. The small collection of photographs she gave me to illustrate her work is telling. It consists of eight photos : two portraits, a picture of subaltern women who are protesting in the Zócalo, and five that deal with the theme of the market. One interpretation of this small collection of photographs allows us to draw parallels between the early narrative of the author and her photographs. Consider the self-portraits. In the first (Fig. 2 - used also as the cover for this book) we see what appears to be a younger Nissán looking out onto the outside world from behind a door with bars on it. Though this type of door is easily found in the Mexican capital (designed to allow sunlight and warmth in but keep unwanted guests out), here it adds to the sense of barrier between a young woman and the outer world by the fact that the woman is holding onto its prison-like bars. She seems to be contemplating what the quotidian public space might hold for her yet having her access blocked by the closed door of her home. Her wilted rose seems symbolic of the demise of her spousal relationship that she viewed as the future hope as portrayed in the first novel as the lady peers onto the public space from behind closed doors. There is a reference to dead roses in Hisho que te nazca as well that suggests a relationship between the dead flowers and the demise of the spousal relationship caused by marital strife23.

• 24 Kent Klich has captured street children in the Mexican capital working in this job in his book El N (...)
• 25 See Tina Modotti’s photograph Misery and an example of this. The negative of this photograph is hel (...)
• 26 (Sheridan 2007)
• 27 Francis Alÿs is a Belgian-born artist and architect who has resided in Mexico since the 1980s. Alÿs (...)

27The rest of the images come from scenes taken from Mexican markets. Two are of different cargadors, possibly the lowest strata of market workers (Figs 5 and 6). These characters are the ones who move the goods from one point of the market to another. It is hard physical labor with very poor remuneration and even less recognition. Indeed, many who are involved in this work are often street children looking for a way to fill their belly24. Yet their work has often viewed as poetic by photographers and when she photographs them she follows in the footsteps of Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Hector García, and Nacho López, all of whom have captured these ubiquitous characters of the Mexican market scene. While this imaging may fit thematically with the social imagery of Tina Modotti25, it was Modotti’s friend and colleague Manuel Álvarez Brazo whose image of Cargador con carretilla was printed in 193126. So, not only does her inclusion of this character show her sense of photographic history (and even recent trends as seen in the work of Francis Alÿs27) but it also allows us to see her photographic solidarity with the other subalterns of the market, again underlining her mentor’s work with the subaltern character in Mexico as well. The careful capturing of the two cargadores at rest (the first is eating whilst the second one is resting directly on his work instrument) underlines the human element of these workers as the other photographers have tended to capture these individuals while at work. Nissán’s photos answer the question of what these gentlemen do when at rest : se echan un taco o se echan una siesta. Finally, there is an interesting detail in the background of the figure five. The cargador is captured in front of a series of Christmas trees which are for sale. A quotidian element for sure during the December season, yet this Jewish photographer opts to capture it over other market elements that would have been available at that time : toys, foodstuffs, clothing, and so forth that would be widely available during the abundance of markets that appear all throughout Mexico during the Christmas season. This photographic choice to capture the Christmas trees for sale evidences Nissán’s interest in mainstream culture over that of her religious community. It is another example of the precedence of the mainstream public over the communal private.

• 28 (Blazer 2012)
• 29 Nissán is not the only to note the strong presence of color in everyday Mexican life. Many tomes ha (...)

29Following the strong theme of color in these final photographs, another (Fig. 8) is a collage of different fruits and vegetables ubiquitous in most Mexican markets. Yet another image underscores the effervescence of color in a collection of rope for sale (Fig. 9). The vivacious use of this element is obvious. Unlike many contemporary Mexican photographers such as Graciela Iturbide, Antonio Caballero, or Enrique Metinides (to name just a few) who often opt for black and white in order to oblige the viewer to underline the abstractness of an image instead of its vibrancy28, Nissán incorporates a large amount of color in her work. Indeed, her photograph celebrates it. This focus on color underlines the enthusiasm for the quotidian in Mexico by strongly underscoring it29.