SOURCE: "Rosario Ferré's 'La muñeca menor' and Caribbean Myth," in Chasqui, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, November, 1994, pp. 102-10.

In the following essay, Zee examines the abundant "indigenous cultural and mythological references and allusions" in Ferré's story "La muñeca menor."

There have been numerous studies of Rosario Ferré's short story "La muñeca menor," the first piece in Papeles de Pandora (1976). While many of these studies are insightful as regards both the fantastic aspects of the work and the feminist quality which underlies it, to date no examination has been made of the indigenous cultural and mythological references and allusions which are pervasive throughout. I should like to investigate Ferré's use of Caribbean/Greater Antilles traditions, customs and mythology, which will serve to contextualize and further elucidate one of the finest stories of the fantastic mode in the Spanish language.

Lucia Guerra-Cunningham explains Ferr...