Transgressions of Space and Gender in Allende's "Hija de la fortuna"

Eliza herself travels only the route from Chile to San Francisco. [...]the map represents a circular amalgam of various itineraries depicted in the narrative, and rather than functioning as a concrete guide for the reader-the traditional function of an introductory map-its inclusion in the book serves a symbolic purpose. [...]what in one sense is transvestism is in another sense an accurate gendered representation of perceived identity. [...]Allende's primary categorical focus in these passages is not on gender identity at all, but rather on the fact that racial prejudice is even more difficult to eradicate; class distinctions may blur or disappear, but racial divisions remain insurmountable: "Los remilgos y prejuicios de clase se hacian humo en contacte con la realidad brutal de las minas, pero no así el odio de razas, que al menor pretexto explotaba en peleas" (281), and "[l]a hostilidad racial se convirtio en odio ciego" (353). [...]once freed from the spell of her attraction to her former lover, she decides to have her daguerreotype portrait made with the letters in hand-a textual symbol of her passing on to a new phase of life.