Testimony and chronicle in Elena Poniatowska's Las mil y una... La herida de Paulina (original) (raw)

Providing background on the history and nature of chronicle and testimonio writing, this chapter explores an important facet of Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska’s oeuvre: her chronicle or non-fiction narratives. Discusses critical theory on chronicle writing, Mexican federal and state laws on abortion, and journalistic accounts of the late 20th century era, to explicate Poniatowska’s account on the rape of a young girl, who endures additional abuse from the legal system. The paper places Poniatowska’s book _Las mil y una... La herida de Paulina_ in the context of post-Nafta social and political changes and within the presidential campaign of 2000. The debates around the violation of Paulina’s rights preceded and foreshadowed the large-scale collapse of the rule of law and juridical guarantees in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.