Lalo-Cura from the underworld: Key to constructing another Latin American ethos

Abstract

The article proposes that Roberto Bolaño’s story “Prefiguración de Lalo Cura” reveals, through its main character, the construction of a discursive figure of a subject, that coincides with the Latinamerican’s construction of identity at the ends of twentieth century. Lalo Cura shows a contextual reality that exceeds the strictly literary, integrating his own historical space. To achieve this objective, authors like Bajtín, Foucault, Giannini, Nietzsche and Paz, are considered, among others. The analysis will be complemented with the novel 2666 (Bolaño, 2004). Both texts will help to morally establish Olegario in relation to the latinamerican historical context at the ends of last century, where the appellative “Lalo Cura” acquires symbolic stains, offering himself as a constructive key for the same character in a tour through underworld.