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Clothing the Body in Otherness
American audiences, they responded with comments that focused on
gender relations: “a woman’s desire for autonomy but apparent lack
of control over the consequences of her actions and a man’s anger and
violence towards a woman” (Warren 1998 , 105 ). But when Warren
conveyed this response to her talebearers, they were surprised, and
denied such implications, stating rather that these narratives were one
way to speak about the pervasive fear and trauma generated during
la violencia. With the people gathered, often at wakes for those who
had been caught in the crossfire between the army and the guerillas,
the teller, without naming any one person (for that might bring fur-
ther repercussions) nevertheless evoked the dilemma with which they
all lived. Framing the larger social betrayal of people trapped by civil
conflict as actions within the idealized bond of marriage emphasized
the depths of the uncertainty and distrust that state violence had cre-
ated. The tale performance itself served as a ritual to unify a commu-
nity, reinforcing the norms of what it is to be human and social, to
have standards of behavior and movement to regularize relations be-
tween people. These were essential in a time when movement in the
night, outside the fragile houses that sheltered families, might be the
army or the passage of guerilla forces.
The tale performance created a parallel between marriage as the ba-
sic unit of social order and the town and its relations with surrounding
pueblos, symbolizing rings of commitment, all vulnerable to possible
betrayal. At this level, one town might direct the army to the pueblo
down the road, stating that the guerillas operated from there, thus
hoping to deflect military attention from their own community. And
at another level, the tales raised questions of existential doubt, as in-
dividuals, faced with brutal violence, pondered their ability to make
ethical choices or the limits of their resistance to torture and pain.
Asked for names, under torture, what might one utter? If, to live, one
betrayed others, she or he would ultimately betray a self that is con-
structed within a communal whole (Warren 1998 , 101 – 104 ). While
these are vital metaphoric trajectories for the tales, the image of the
fleshly body, dressing and undressing, also has a physical materiality
that is significant against the backdrop of violence.
Warren states that Trixanos particularly focused on the moment
