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This dissertation examines the relationship between space, garden, motherhood, and writing in Esta parcela (2015) by Guadalupe Santa Cruz (Chile), El jardín de Nora (1998) by Blanca Wiethüchter (Bolivia), and Angélica furiosa (1994) by Marta Aponte Alsina (Puerto Rico). I engage with David Harvey’s concept of relational space, which views space as a dynamic and contested entity shaped by historical, social, and economic processes. I argue that in these texts, space is an active force profoundly related to the process of writing, identity, and memory, which is fragmented and unstable, reflecting personal and collective displacements. Here, I study the garden as a space with different meanings for the three authors. The garden embodies the tension between autonomy and restriction, serving as a metaphor for the body, memory, and language while functioning as a site of struggle between imposition and freedom and as a space for transmitting botanical knowledge. Additionally, I explore the connection between the garden, the writing process, and motherhood. To study the mother figure, I incorporate Adrienne Rich’s critique of the Institution of Motherhood, which differentiates between lived motherhood and its institutionalization as a control mechanism. I argue that motherhood is presented in diverse and subversive ways across these three texts, challenging traditional and normative roles. Ultimately, I examined how these works portray motherhood in complex ways, challenging idealized and conventional representations.
In the first chapter, I explore how Esta parcela creates a fragmented geography, intertwining spaces such as the garden, hospital, body, City of Santiago, and memory through language and writing. I analyze how these spaces are navigated through the protagonist’s illness, silence, and maternal evocation, deconstructing the narrative voice into three perspectives. In the second chapter, I examine El jardín de Nora, focusing on Nora’s rejection of traditional motherhood to prioritize her garden, and I argue this symbolizes autonomy and transgressive motherhood. I explore intertextual references to Eve, the silence of Nora’s children, and tensions between motherhood and territory. In the third chapter, I study communal motherhood and the witch figure in Angélica Furiosa, highlighting how intergenerational knowledge challenges institutionalized notions of motherhood.