An Embodied Cartography: Spaces of Power and Female Border Transgressions in Nadie me verá llorar by Cristina Rivera Garza

Abstract

This study analyzes the spaces traversed by Matilda Burgos, the protagonist of Nadie me verá llorar (1999) by Cristina Rivera Garza, to explore the power relations between these spaces and the female body of the protagonist. First, domestic spaces, characterized by a univocal power, are examined, where attempts are made to monitor and control the body through discourses and knowledge that reinforce subjection. Then, Foucaultian “heterotopic spaces” such as the brothel and the asylum are analyzed, where marginal and transgressive voices converge, allowing for the expression of alternative and subversive power dynamics. Throughout the study, the relationship between the female body and spaces is explored, showing how the protagonist is not only in these places, but also reconfigures them, tracing her own cartography based on her bodily experience. In this sense, the body becomes a space of resistance that challenges the official cartography and emerges as a means to subvert hegemonic discourses. The research thus aims to highlight how the female body can be an agent of resistance against the impositions of power, drawing new routes and resignifying the places where the body moves and acts.