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"Undiscovered" by Gabriela Wiener speaks about her identity (and, by extension, the identity of Latin America) through her reflections on her great-great-grandfather Charles Wiener. This essay (or autofiction novel?) deals with the influences of her origins (Indigenous and European) on how she sees herself and how she is seen and treated by society.
When lost, we look toward our identity and ancestors to find our path or, at least, a direction again. However, what happens when the surname we carry belongs to our persecutors?
Under the influence of her father's death and an exhibition about the Incas in a French gallery, Gabriela delves into the narratives created by her scientist explorer ancestor, or as she calls him, the huaquero (robbers of sacred areas of the Inca people who stole objects and bodies to be taken to Europe). She brings up subjects such as self-image, racism, sexuality, and desire, abuses disguised as science, and all the byproducts of colonization that continue to reverberate to this day.
It's not hard to recognize ourselves. I grew up in a time when school taught kids that we Brazilians were the perfect mixture of 3 peoples: Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. However, the truth was implicit, and everyone knew that the pride of their origin could only be exposed if the European percentage was higher and revealed on the skin. Despite being uncomfortable, this book matches with some of my questions.
The book title in the 3 languages it was published recalls the book as a whole. In Spanish, Huaco Retrato refers to sculptures of indigenous faces from the Inca empire. The author compares her face to these portraits as if they were a mirror. The portraits were stolen by her great-great-grandfather (from sacred ground) in the name of science.
In Portuguese, Exploração (Exploration/ Exploitation) displayed the tenue line connecting the Adventurer Explorer and the Exploitation. It starts with the exploitation of the Spanish in American territory, reaching the Spanish prejudice against immigrants as simply cheap labor. Likewise, the adventurers took sacred and valuable objects to European museums or human beings from different locations to human zoos
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In English, Undiscovered translates the author's deliberations on herself. In a search for her personality, tastes, and feelings beyond her racialized body. Or exactly understanding who she is and how she relates to being brown, chola, and sudaca.
The contrast of violence and subtlety of racism is present in several scenes. For example, when Lucre were a child, or Gabriela when she met her wife's grandmother. Starting somewhat in a distracting tone or as a "light joke" (almost like absent-minded style). That tone of racism that leaves the victim embarrassed to react.
Gabriela Wiener is known for her self-exploratory subjects such as monogamous and polyamorous relationships, sex, and motherhood. In this book, she brings the colonization bias to these topics. Her writing is immersing, frank, and strong. It instigates thoughts on a perspective set aside from books for a long-lasting period..
But a rejected body, a brown one, is static. It lived in hiding for a long time, and every day feels like the body of the girl from the past in the eyes of racists again.
It is a book overflowing with thoughts on how the long process of colonization affects people from Latin America up to this day, even on the most subtle levels. Gabriela is not afraid to expose her life and views in this wonderful book, which certainly is unsettling in some points.
In short, it's a great personal essay, with spicy and distressing hints of autofiction, with remarkable reflections stitched together with the writer's talent.
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*English translation of the quotes is a loose translation from the Portuguese version of the book.
About the Writer
Gabriela Wiener (1975) is an award-winning journalist and writer from Lima, Peru. Author of several books and one of the new Latin American chroniclers, her works have a deep influence from her life and experiences. The main themes are motherhood, relationships, sexuality, gender violence, and racism.
Other Books: Nine Moons (2020), Llamadas perdidas (2014), Sexographies (2018), Exercises for the Hardening of the Spirit (2016)
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