Grounding oneself at the crossroads: Getting home alive by Aurora Levins Morales and Rosario Morales

Abstract

This article analyzes some of the multiple dimensions of hybridity in Getting Home Alive (1986) by Puerto Ricans Aurora Levins Morales and Rosario Morales. This revolutionary autobiography is experimental in both form and content, containing poems, stories, journals, reportage and so forth. It is not clearly categorized in terms of genre, it does not defy any one culture or language and it presents a sense of place rooted in multiple places. The voices of mother and daughter fuse into one, together with the voices of all their ancestors. The multiple sensitivities of both women, products of multidirectional migrations, ethnicities, cultures, languages and classes are symbolized in their grounding of themselves at a crossroads which embraces a relational collective identity, wholeness and choice, while rejecting fragmentation or alienation.