Eugenia Muñoz
Dept. of Foreign Languages
Virginia Commonwealth University
In her latest novel, Se¤ora de la miel, the Colombian writer Fanny Buitrago demonstrates her solid mastery of the genre of parody. Moreover, she takes an independent stance in relation to the official social, cultural, religious or any other canonical norms. As she herself has stated, her personal commitment is to tell as many stories as possible which life and even literature reveal to her.
The characters in this novel do not embody any specific political agenda. They are what they are according to the social, religious contexts in which they appear and also because of the literary figures they are parodying. Consequently, depending on the ideological orientation and/or literary preferences of the readers of this novel, they could conclude that Se¤ora de la miel is either well written and humorous, or challenging, provocative and irreverent. And why not? the novel even has a romantic storyline despite its parody of fairy tale love stories. Despite the often ambiguous nature of parody, behind the mocking tone lies the desire to tell a love story. Buitrago's novel narrates the triumphant love between Doctor Manuel Amiel and Teodora Vencejos according to certain principles and beliefs established by the unidentified narrator: Transgressions, eroticism, struggles to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to reach the object of desire by using whatever possible means. This is the way that Doctor Amiel works in order to lure Teodora away from Galaor Ucr¢s. In order to have Teodora all for himself, the obsessed Manuel Amiel blackmails her by demanding that Galaor's debts be paid to him in full as stipulated by a contract between them. But Teodora does not show any signs of responding to the erotic, sexual and fervent love which Amiel serves up to her. She remains oblivious to the life of total pleasure because of the solemn pledge she made to her "godmother," Doña Ramonita C‚spedes de Ucrós, to take care of "helpless Galaor." But what keeps Teodora apathetic and passive is her subsequent falling in love and marriage to "her Prince Charming," because that is the way she sees Galaor. Just when it seems all of Amiel's efforts to arouse Teodora are doomed to failure, then the unexpected happens.
In this work, Fanny Buitrago not only parodies fairy tales in the main storyline, but she also metaparodies a wide variety of characters and literary styles from other works such as romantic heroes, knights, magical realism and feminine culinary power (in particular Laura Esquivel's popular novel, Like Water for Chocolate). While parody relates to other areas in the novel, it comes out strongly evident in the picaresque narrative structure. The novel contains twenty-five episodes, many of which have ludic titles, such as "S¡, s¡, s¡, Que s¡!," "Los pollitos," "El chico," "Maripipis," or "La dicha." These episodes alternate between the present in Madrid and the past in the small town of Real del Marqu‚s located on Colombia's Atlantic coast. In Madrid, Dr. Amiel, the resolute knight of the erotic, has taken Teodora with him to work as his helper. In the past, Teodora lived with her husband, Galaor, her Prince Charming, surrounded by her friends and enemies who included people from different social and religious classes as well as other women who were competing for Galaor like La Quintanilla. The novel opens with Teodora's firm decision to return once and for all to her beloved Galaor. The alternating episodes develop in such a way that at the close of the novel the beginning and the end of the story of Manuel Amiel and Teodora Vencejos merge.
Several other aspects which show the iconoclastic and independent stance of the author with respect to the established norms of social and religious morality include the amazing sexual and erotic transformation of other characters who come into contact with the power of the sexual energy generated by Teodora's imminent sexual awakening. For example, impotent men suddenly become sexually active, homosexuals become heterosexuals, sexually inhibited people dare to seek out erotic pleasures, and wives on the verge of being abandoned because of their sexual repressions recapture their husbands forever in the pleasure palaces. The most striking example of the incongruence and defamiliarization of the characters' behavior is found in the priest of the town, Imeldo Viilamar¡n. He interferes directly in Teodora's marital problems and her servile submission to Galaor.
Fanny Buitrago also demonstrates her independent position through the presentation of the fictional world of her novel; that is, despite her coste¤o cultural heritage, she is willing to portray a carnivalesque behavior which characterizes the relationships between the two sexes and which everybody accepts. She also presents the battle between different groups who vie for money and sex. I am referring to the kind of costeño male represented by Galaor Ucrós, who is always supported by his mother, and who lives and acts like a playboy and gigolo wasting all of Teodora's inheritance. He has sex with every type of woman, and he has children by his mistress, Clavel Quintanilla. She not only battles Teodora to have exclusive possession of Galaor, but she also sends her children to be raised by Teodora because Galaor is the real father.
Señora de la miel thus invites its readers to venture down
the varied paths of literary genres, familiar people and places,
to savor the ludic, joyous, riotous and daring linguistic pyrotechnics
which in the end undermines the established order and celebrates
life in its own inimitable way.
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