Yo soy la Rumba.

AuthorMujica, Barbara
PositionI am the Rumba

In Yo soy la rumba Venezuelan writer Angel Gustavo Infante recreates the past several decades of his nation's history through its popular culture, in particular, the music. The adolescent narrator Sebastian dreams of learning to play percussion and forming a rock band, but his hopes seem dashed when his hippie brother, Alfi, arrives from San Francisco, where he traveled with the Venezuelan Navy, without the promised battery of drums.

Sebastian is not all that surprised. Alfi has disappointed his family before. As a child he was a rebellious, unruly troublemaker and now that he is back home, nothing has changed. Through his association with Alfi and Alfi's far-out friends, Sebastian comes to know the sex and drug scene of the 1960s, which finds expression in the music of Janis Joplin and other culture heroes, but his youthful exuberance, his propensity to fanatisize, and his attachment to his mother help him to maintain a certain distance from this group of dangerously self-destructive youths.

Sebastian's mother, Virginia, finds refuge in the myth of Alfi's ruination in the Navy. According to her, the boy's bizarre behavior is due to an accident he had in the service. She shares her grief with her neighbor La Gorda Elisa ("Fat Elisa"), whose penchant for uniforms once turned her into a sexual demon who actually swallowed up three sailors. After serving time in jail, Elisa returned to her husband, and now the couple and Virginia pass the hours pouring over the newspapers in search of a spiritualist capable of solving their problems. Infante has incorporated into his novel actual ads from Caracas newspapers in which psychics and fortunetellers advertise their wares.

Although Sebastian's observations and the ads promising to "take away all curses, distance your evil neighbor, and bring your loved one to you, no matter how far away he or she is" inject humor into the tale, Infante conveys powerfully the desperation that permeates the sordid lives of the inhabitants of Sebastian's lower-class Caracas neighborhood. The adults, raised on boleros and sentimental radio soap operas, struggle to understand their...

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