"Because there's no death only life
on that side of song, on that side of flight
on that side of time."
{Fernando Paz Castillo, "El muro: XI," 1964}

*

"But repetition is the basis of identification. Thus, if repetition alters, it has to be faced that alteration identifies and identity is always impure. Thus iterability--like the trace structure--is the positive condition of possibility of identification, the very thing whose absolute rigor it renders impossible. It is in terms of iterable (rather than repeatable) identities that communication and consensus are established:[...]"
{Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Revolutions That As Yet Have No Model," 1980}

*

Preface


Salvadoranness : that second : reclamation : that (distant) act, experience : Latin American imperfection : condition amplifying the particular, transferable meanings of El Salvador within and beyond Central America : that (imminent--) serviceable abstraction by El Salvadoreans, Salvadorans, Salvadorians, Salvadoreans--understood solely through violence, poverty, natural disasters, illegality, smallness : that (lingering) ambiguity that mirrors Latinness, Latina/o, Latin@ : that impermanent (yet seemingly static) state of being an other Latina and Latino current--, of arriving too late to historically situate : this pretext : lateness which intentionally precedes Salvadoran : untimely entrance : this second thought : inventory : sight of continuous clarification : this augmentative, incautious non-fiction : portrait : undigital North and Central American present, pausing, tracking, forwarding fragments : this transitionless geography : dissent : unignorable collection of short stories : these scattered consequences, with continuance : Salvadorans relate lately, Salvadorans lately relate : late arrival does not equal death

(CM)