"CLARA" - A book by Luisa Valenzuela

Well, since books are my obsession. I think it's about time to post a reading response about "CLARA" - a narrative fiction about a very naïve lady. It sometimes reminds me "A HORA DA ESTRELA" by Clarice Lispector. It's a must-read work.

I. PRESENTATIONLuisa Valenzuela’s novel “Clara” is an interesting literary work, which was developed during the sixties. The author was twenty-one years old when she finished it. Clara (the title) is the main character’s name. The word clara in Spanish, besides being a proper name, is an adjective that means enlightened, clear, pure, and well understood. The magic of this novel lies on these points: Clara’s life is brutally dark, and her dreams are not understood at all. Valenzuela’s techniques of playing with opposite ideas will be the focus of the discussion in this paper.

It is almost impossible to define what Latin American literature represents, since it is a combination of different tendencies, and made of a spectrum of materials. Although, Valenzuela’s literary work is essentially Latin American (qualifying it) because it tells stories of her people. The author’s background (she is Argentinean) helps molding characters, settings, time frame, and the plot. In “Clara”, Luisa Valenzuela does not escape from that. Moreover, she brings about a relationship towards her characters.
The 60's were the time when women became more evident, and her role more important, in the process of mobility of the social classes. That was also the time of massive political reaction in South American countries. Censorship and lack of democracy boost creativity in arts, generally speaking. Writers, musicians, poets, journalists had to develop new codes (metaphors, metonymies, or symbolism) in order to express their minds. In this novel, the author’s literary strategies will be seen as a game where opposites play. The historical facts and information of her personal life will be fundamental for this comprehension.
II. LUISA VALENZUELA
Argentina is located in South America (see appendix) with approximately 40 million habitants. Its economy is considerably based on agricultural produce (cereals and meat), and mineral extraction. The capital is Buenos Aires. Facing the Atlantic Ocean only, its seacoast is not so extensive and does not present a tropical climate.

Clara is an Argentinean woman who leaves her parent’s home when still young. She seeks a dream. Luisa Valenzuela is a famous writer for creating simple characters full of dreams and expectations. Clara’s ultimate dream: to know the ocean. Her father promises to take her to the beach since her childhood.
Luisa Valenzuela writes novels and short stories. Her favorite topics are tales of simple people from the low classes, death, and prostitution. Ironically (or not), Valenzuela is anything but poor. “Since childhood, Luisa Valenzuela has been exposed to literature. Her mother, Luisa Mercedes Levinson, was a well-known writer; her father, was a physician. Among the close friends who visited their home was Jorge Luis Borges”. (Gautier 295) She started working as a journalist at the age of fifteen. She gave up the press later in her life for not being allowed to free her writing during Argentina Peronista.
She moves then to Iowa (US) to attend a creative writing course. Later, she gets married and lives in Paris for four years, mostly housekeeping and writing journals, which became this and two more novels “Lizard’s Tail” and “The book that does not bite”.
“Clara” is Luisa’s very first novel. While interviewed by Magdalena G. Pinto, the writer confesses being very young when she wrote it. Therefore, she lacked some literary techniques, which made it a bit repetitive with irrelevant circumstances. (201) The labor of prostitutes is a repetition of circumstances in itself. Some circumstances might be irrelevant; some might not. Observe this piece of Valenzuela’s novel:

"It would be nicer to go to the zoo, or to the movies. Right near the hotel there was a cinema with continuous shows where you could see the same movie three times in a row. Exactly what she needed: that way, there wasn’t a single detail left out. The first time she looked at the pictures; the second time she read the subtitles; and the third time she tried to do everything at once and figure out what the story was about." (Valenzuela 23)
“Clara” is brilliant because it presents a powerful story with a well-constructed ending. It tells about the crude reality of the Argentinean underground. Its engine functions through a tension between opposites: women Vs men, vast Vs uptight, freedom Vs prison, warm Vs cold, etc.

III. CLARA
Clara left home at the age of eighteen. She runs away and can not afford to travel to the closest beach. So, she finds herself lonely in a larger city somewhere in Argentina with absolutely no skills, nor protection against life’s danger. She awoken dreams of how majestically the ocean might be. And as the waves of the sea swings objects on the water, she is taken to the prostitution world. So many men who promise to drive her to the ocean exploit Clara. At this point, Valenzuela promotes a change of setting, but does not offer a change of state.

The young woman moves out of her house for not accepting her father’s cheating ways, but in the streets, she is continuously dominated and humiliated by male figures: Victor, Carlos, Tono Cruz, Don Mario, Cacho, Alejandro (a magician/fortune teller). She marries Alejandro though, the only male character who directs her to a different life style. He marries her so she may work as his partner for magic tricks. They become known with the box trick, where large razors are inserted giving the impression of cutting three layers of the person’s body, who is in the box.
Again it is possible to see the confrontation between two opposites. Clara seeks the ocean, which is vast and symbolizes freedom. Nevertheless, she is kept locked in hotel rooms or in magic boxes, where she is metaphorically exploited by pieces. Even though she reaches the ocean, it was at a cold rainy night, while she cries for having had a fight with her husband.
"Dark, lonely, cold. Dark, lonely, cold. Each step was a painful echo that repeated the litany. Rain had soaked her clothing and was running down her back. The only warmth came from her own tears, streaming abundantly and blocking her vision; even her own tears were conspiring against her. They grew cold, making frigid tracks down her cheeks." (Valenzuela 157)

The author divides Clara’s story in three parts called: The Body, Transition, and The Head, as in the magician’s box trick. The final part is absurdly named “The Head” because this is how it ends. She dramatically tries to kill Alejandro during his sleep with a razor. But, as in a trick, she falls asleep and he becomes the slaughter instead of the victim. Her head is being cut off on her throat while she wanders: “It’s my destiny, after all. It’s no use trying to escape it any more, or trying to scream or defend myself. I’m going to be the head without a body, without tricks or mirrors.” (Valenzuela 159)
IV. THE HEAD
History has shown that women had been dominated by the male figure since the earliest days. The 20th Century changed this reality in a general sense. There are still obstacles that seem to be impossible to get over, the glass ceiling for instance. Some Marxist-feminists say that women fought all these years to become as exploited as their opposite figures. Is there any seen progress by having more women sharing the power? Or, are women struggling to become the same thing and not really making the difference?
These questions were not asked in “Clara” explicitly. However, Luisa Valenzuela wrote this novel during her housekeeping years (mid 60s.) During a whole period of history means had been sought to free women from domestic bonds. Luisa was young, had traveled, and all of a sudden found herself enclosed in one of the most famous cities in the world: Paris – the city lights (Clara.) The author must let her main character have her head decapitated literally in a desperate ending. Clara’s husband cuts off her only possession. He takes from her not only her life but also her capacity of changes. The only instrument that no men (Victor, Carlos, etc) could exploit. Even more absurdly, all that happened right after she had seen the ocean, her ultimate dream, which was stimulated by her father.
This dream/obsession of knowing the sea can be read as an intense search for identity. Clara knows the ocean as much as she knows about her world, her condition, herself. She does not actually play in Valenzuela’s game; she is unconsciously forced to it. “Clara” will be always a recent literary work because it is true light, a true life, and a true condition of life.
Alejandro, the slaughter, is her husband. No men treated her so violently as he did. Yes, Clara had suffered all kind of abuses, but he goes beyond our acceptance. He kills the magic. He ends the story. Furthermore, Alejandro had killed her long time before the actual assassination. Because he betrayed her, like her father did to her mother. Her marriage represented an end to her “sexual freedom”. Living a prostitute life introduced Clara to a different, adventurous, and false happy life. Every man she encountered, she believed having loved each one of him.

V. CONCLUSION
According to Simone de Beauvoir in her philosophical book “The Second Sex”, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women demanded that equality in rights of the two sexes be recognized in all countries. It would seem that the game is won: the game of the opposites. The future can only lead to a more and more assimilation of woman into our once masculine society. (135) Or the female figure would have become more and more masculine into this still masculine society since many women are to face difficult machismo barriers, for instance the role of pimps in the prostitution world.
In Luisa Valenzuela’s game there were not winners. For her, there was not even an end. In the preface of “Clara”, in the edition I have read, she wrote: “When I was twenty-one I knew nothing about the open ending as a literary technique, but no doubt that’s what I wrote. Each reader has the right to finish the novel as he sees fit, although even today I still believe (as I did yesterday) that Clara doesn’t die: there’s no more effective weapon than confusion against someone who thinks he’s the sole possessor of all truths.”
Following this opinion, another possibility of comprehension of “Clara” is that Luisa works with ambiguities, not opposites. “I am always trying to present different possibilities and sufficient ambiguity in writing, so that the reader can add his own level of reading to the work.” (Gautier 298) Her text perfectly opens many windows. Latin American literature, as I mentioned in the beginning of this discussion, is a combination of different tendencies. It has suffered influences from old literary works as well as it has influenced new ones. It can’t be defined, as it would represent a big mass of the same thing. The term Latin American literature just represents the geographic area or the culture from where it is originated or from whom it is created.
Valenzuela had not developed “Clara” in Argentina, although the story happens there. That is why it is considered Latin, and also absurd, and for some critics - surreal. The spectrum of interpretations is given through the language. Because our author follows the basic principals of the creative writing, which is write what you don’t know you know. She has never experienced the life of a prostitute, but she can easily create one with language. During an interview for a television program she quotes Martin Buber and completes: “In creation, I discover. The conscious carries many secrets and the language unveils them for you – so live in the unconscious. It’s the muse. One minute we know what the unconscious is, something very intelligent.”
Not only she writes creatively, but also she engages with her characters. They obviously can’t die because they are part of her. Clara is not only a naïve young woman from the country who is unconsciously forced to exchange sex for money. She is the symbol of the fragility, something that feminist women would never have the courage to discus about.
Clara is dark and misunderstood. She is full of expectations, but she does not live long enough. She seeks freedom, however spent most of her life in kitchens, cheap hotel rooms or magic boxes. Valenzuela placed Clara in a game. This game had two competitors: men Vs women. It was the game of opposites. Clara never noticed it.

WORKS CITED

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 1953. 447-628.
Gautier, Marie-Lise G. Interviews with Latin American Writers. Elmwood Park: The Dalkey Archive Press, 1989. 295-322.
Pinto Magdalena G. Women Writers of Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. 194-221.
Valenzuela, Luisa. Clara. Translated by Andrea Labinger. Pittsburg: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1999.Home Video “Luisa Valenzuela, su vida y trabajo”, 1992