Milli mála - 01.06.2016, Blaðsíða 131

HÓLMFRÍÐUR GARÐARSDÓTTIR
Milli mála 8/2016 131
terms with her vanishing sense of belonging and her powerless-
ness.38 The decisive moment presents itself when:
They came across human scrap that appeared to be her little boy. The
soldiers had broken his skull and cut his feet. At first Aisha didn´t feel
any grief. A cynical and incredulous indifference came over her. Then the
numbness. When the military operations reduced they escaped to a cold
mountain forest. That´s where she collapsed. [ ] The weight of her loss
detracted her. [ ] She didn´t go back.39
Laura decides to withdraw from the guerrillas and return home to
her family in Limón: “Hi Mom, Aunt Maroz, I need a hug from
both of you, yes, I have come back, flaccid”.40 She suffers the conse-
quences of war and explains to her mother: “I’m in pain over so
many things. I am in pain because of a child. No Mom, I didn’t get
married, I didn’t give birth to him, he came to me, no, he wasn’t
pretty, he was ugly […] when he died at eight he was the size of a
four year old”.41 She is disillusioned, exhausted and depressed. Two
years go by until “one day Aisha is back on her feet”.42 In Limón she
discovers that the discord amongst the hybrid ethnic groups, due to
lack of common denominators and linked to centuries of multifac-
eted subordination, continues to perpetrate marginality. Blacks,
Whites, Mulattos, Mestizos, Indians, Chinese, Arabs and other
minorities continue living in segregation, suspicious of one another.
The different ethnic groups are in the process of redefining them-
selves: “No, we are not Negros, we are Afro descendants” […] “No,
38 Acebo Ibáñez, in Félagsfræði rótfestunnar, Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2007, discusses the issue of
belonging and argues its three basic requirements as including belonging to a group, a system of
values and a cause or a role. Acebo emphasizes particularly the need for both sociological and
physiological basic conditions for a successful sense of belonging.
39 Rossi, same text, “Encontraron un desecho que parecía ser su hijo diminuto. Los soldados le
habían destrozado la cabeza y cortado los pies. Al principio Aisha no sintió dolor. Le cayó una
indiferencia sarcástica e incrédula. Después una indiferencia de persona anestesiada. Cuando bajo
la actividad del ejército, subieron a un bosque frío. En ese bosque Aisha se desmoronó. [ ] El peso
de la pérdida la lastró. [ ] No regresó” p. 190.
40 Rossi, same text, “Hola mami, tía Maroz, necesito abrazarlas, sí, me ven llegada, fláccida”, p. 191.
41 Rossi, same text, “Me duelen tanto las cosas. Me duele un hijo. No mami, no me he casado, no lo
tuve, me llegó, no, no era bonito, era feo, [ ] cuando murió a sus ocho años tenía el tamaño de un
chiquito de cuatro”, p. 191.
42 Rossi, same text, “un día Aisha se levanta”, p. 192.