Milli mála - 01.06.2016, Page 128

CENTRAL AMERICAN COASTAL IDENTITY
128 Milli mála 8/2016
practiced secret rituals in places called lodges. Their religion was
Protestant and Queen Elizabeth of England was their authority […].
Their preferred activities were declamation, singing and dancing. Their
sports, cricket and horse racing.28
Rossi makes the character of Irene gradually take the central stage
and dominate the narrative voice of the text, while Orlandus moves
into the background, living in absence and becoming a distant
silence. He seeks recognition in political activism and finds refuge
within the pro-black movement in Limón. The women support and
participate in this same movement, but their goals appear as being
more realistic and down-to-earth, focused on what is achievable in
everyday life.
While depicting autonomous female protagonists, Rossi’s por-
trayal of Nanah, Leonor and Irene simultaneously confirms domi-
nant clichés and representative roles of women. First we meet the
omnipresent mother dedicated to the Santeria faith, then the exotic
sensual female who facilitates a young man’s rite of passage and
lastly the attractive but realistic wife, truthful and trustworthy.
Yet, the way in which Rossi portrays these women breaks with
conventions because each of them manages to create a psychological
and social place of her own. Together, they represent a female col-
lective, distinctly different from the masculine one, thus embody-
ing an alternative identity model that quite accurately reflects
Montabbio’s formulations regarding vertical and horizontal cul-
tural heritage.
3. Limón Reggae
In Limón Reggae, the reader encounters the same geographical real-
ity, but at a different historical moment and viewed from different
perspectives. At the start of the narration, the protagonist, Laura, is
a young girl, the daughter of a Lebanese mother and a mulatto
28 Rossi, Limón Blues, “En Limón vivía gente fascinante que hablaba un inglés exquisito, se vestía de
modo espectacular, cantaba cosas extraordinarias y tenía rituales secretos en unos sitios llamados
logias. Eran de religión protestante y su autoridad era la reina Isabel de Inglaterra [ ]. Sus acti-
vidades preferidas eran la declamación, el canto y el baile. Sus deportes, el cricket y las carreras de
caballos.”, p. 397.