LA IDENTIDAD FEMENINA EN LA NARRATIVA DE IRENE VILAR: Impossible Motherhood: A Testimony of an Abortion Addict

Testimony and memoir are avenues for Puerto Rican Irene Vilar as she reveals three generations of females—herself, her mother, and famous nationalist grandmother Lolita Lebrón—and their individual identity struggle. In Vilar's Impossible Motherhood: A Testimony of an Abortion Addict (2009) the analysis of gender relationships, and the women's personal, public and political life, supports the "papelitos guardados" concept in constructing the female identity through painful writing and establishes a poignant space in contributing to Chicana/Latina studies concerning Puerto Rican political story, and women's role as lover, resistant self-lover and obedient hysteric. The intertwining of all three reflects a connection between autonomy, addiction and aplomb. The female identity obstacles detailed in the work relate to the experience of migration, suicide, abortions a abandonment. Themes of nation, death, and body are explored via a theoretical framework that includes: The Puerto Rican Syndrome (2003) by Patricia Gherovid, ¡Chicana Power!: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement (2011) by Maylei Blackwell, Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (2001) by The Latina Feminist Group and A la sombra de tu nombre (2000) by Rosario Ferré. The feminine genealogies analysis defines, develops and incorporates the "papelitos guardados" narrative strategies and female cultural nationalist identity.