Milli mála - 01.06.2016, Page 138

CENTRAL AMERICAN COASTAL IDENTITY
138 Milli mála 8/2016
combining a range of options and forming an ethnically hybrid and
unruly ‘I’. She explores alternative and independent identities and
becomes confident enough to venture into unknown territories. She
assimilates the necessary skills and appropriate knowledge, so that
she does not remain in an imaginary utopian sphere, but moves on
to an alternative socio-cultural space still under construction.
Rossi’s female protagonists, therefore, can be seen as both private
and public agents who enjoy certain autonomy and an ever increas-
ing confidence in who they are and what they want in life. Irene
eventually moves to the capital San José, because she believes that
national educational policies need to be challenged. She actively
promotes more comprehensive identity integration at a national
level and resists following a policy that emphasizes that: “We must
peninsularize the colored race”.62 She opposes the institutionalized
system of racial subordination and praises the multicultural and
multiethnic character of the people of Costa Rica. Similarly, Limón
Reggae closes with Laura changing places. She travels to New York
City and takes a cab-ride through the city’s streets on September
11th, 2001. She listens to Bob Marley confirm that “every little
thing is gonna be all right” (291) and ponders the fact that she has
not taken up her mother’s Arabic surname, nor has she officially
adopted her popular and representative nick-name, Aisha.
Rossi’s novels confirm the observations I have previously made
about contemporary “women writers [that] write from within a
society that grants priority and privilege to patriarchal powers [as
well as Eurocentric here], while the protagonists resist, provoke and
attempt to transgress conventional values and behaviors to become
active subjects”.63 Rossi’s characters can be seen to represent the
characteristics of feminine and feminist principles that enable them
to survive and even flourish in their present. Her instrumentality in
the construction of identity takes center stage in both novels, and
62 Rossi, Limón Reggae; „Hay que españolizar a la raza de color”, p. 384.
63 Garðarsdóttir, Hólmfríður, La Reformulación de la Identidad Genérica en la Narrativa de Mujeres
Argentinas al Fin de Siglo XX. Buenos Aires: Corregidor. 2005; “[…] autoras [que] escriben desde
adentro de una sociedad que da prioridad y privilegio al poder patriarcal [y eurocéntrico aquí],
mientras las protagonistas se resisten, provocan e intentan transgredir los valores y las conductas
convencionales para hacerse sujetos activos”, p. 189.