Theºº novelistic work of Eduardo González Viaña

A literary attempt to break down the wall between the United States and Latin America

Abstract

The author and activist Eduardo González Viaña has already given with his novel El corrido de Dante (2006) a canonical testimony of the Mexican presence in the United States. What is particularly striking is the recent novelistic production of the aforementioned author. In the last five years he has published several works on Latin American migration to the U.S. Moreover, he illustrates the issue from various angles by creating characters from different parts of Latin America (Mexico, Central America and South America), such as an octogenarian Guatemalan lady and her son in La frontera del paraíso (2018) or two Peruvian men in El camino de Santiago (2017). It seems that he would thus like to tear down the physical and mental walls built by the last American president, or as González Viaña himself points out, “The work is dedicated to President Donald Trump [...] so that he can know us and realize that hating is an absurd thing”. This article tries to show how Eduardo González Viaña manages to overcome walls and cross borders with his novels by conducting transnational conversations, while advocating for better living conditions for the Hispanic population in the United States.