AVES SIN NIDO: IMMIGRANTS AND RACISM IN PABLO D. SHENG’S "CHARAPO"

Abstract

Pablo D. Sheng’s novel Charapo has been read in two contrary ways. On the one hand, some critics consider it a valuable contribution due to its topic. As Patricia Espinoza states, Charapo explores the experiences of Peruvian immigrants in Santiago, a theme sporadically examined in recent fictional writing. Certain elements that belong to literary realism in the novel support this reading. A social realist tone that portrays the violence and racism endured by migrants in contemporary Chile marks its first sections. In contrast, other commentators have warned about the novel’s controversial representation of the racial other. This view is alert to elements in the text that represent immigrants’ experiences excessively attached to images of poverty and brutality. This article will demonstrate how Charapo attempts to solve this problem in line with the anti-racist agenda that runs through the novel. Specifically, this paper studies the narrative and representational strategies that aim to dismantle the realism that structures the dominant discourse that racializes the other immigrant in present-day neoliberal Chile.