The voice of blood La voz de la sangre

Gabriela Rábago Palafox

Book - 2025

"The Voice of Blood by Gabriela Rábago Palafox is a groundbreaking collection of short stories that intertwines themes of identity, desire, trauma, and transformation with a haunting gothic sensibility. Published after the critical success of her short story "Pandemia," [Pandemic] which won the Puebla 1988 National Science Fiction Short Story Award, this collection solidifies Rábago Palafox's reputation as a visionary and innovative literary voice in the field of speculative fiction. The stories in The Voice of Blood explore deeply personal and globally resonant themes, from gender-based violence and ecological precarity to social taboos and the vulnerability of marginalized identities. Through her evocative prose, Rá...bago Palafox reimagines gothic traditions through a feminist lens, portraying using the vampire to show women as empowered rather than victimized-a hallmark of what critics now identify as gothic feminism. Her fascination with vampires stemmed from the sensuality inherent in vampirism. One of her favorite characters was Clarimonde from the short story "La Morte Amoureuse" (1836) [The Dead Woman in Love] by Theophile Gautier, a figure whose blend of desire and supernatural mystery deeply influenced her own writing. Her pioneering use of horror, speculative elements, and queer narratives positions her as a precursor to the new wave of Latin American women writers who have revitalized the genre of literary horror to confront contemporary political and environmental crises. Rábago Palafox's imaginative virtuosity in the gothic mode anticipates the work of writers like Mariana Enríquez, Samanta Schweblin, Guadalupe Nettel, and Mónica Ojeda, who have since gained prominence as exponents of a new Latin American gothic. Her stories are steeped in gothic tropes, such as metaphorical and literal vampires, to explore themes of desire, consumption, and power, further enriching her complex narratives. Similar to the story "Pandemia," mentioned above, several of Rábago Palafox vampire stories represent queer world, an aspect of her work that illustrates that she was writer ahead of her time. Beyond gothic fiction, Rábago Palafox's work also resonates deeply with Mexican cultural history. One of her stories draws on the legend of El Niño de Momoxpán, a haunting tale of an indigenous child's ghost who digs into the earth, claiming his family is buried nearby. Without internet access in the 1980s, she relied on oral storytelling and local knowledge to document this legend, making multiple trips to Puebla, where someone first explained the story to her. Such firsthand research, gathered through travel and direct encounters, was a hallmark of her creative process. Rábago Palafox's research and writing methods were deeply rooted in observation and meticulous notetaking. She always carried a notebook in her bag, ready to jot down striking architectural details or memorable phrases from conversations with locals. She believed these fragments of reality could later serve as the foundation for a specific novel or short story. In addition to her constant reading, much of her inspiration came from these travels and encounters. For interviews, she often used a tape recorder-such as those with Lola Álvarez Bravo, Elena Poniatowska, and Fernando de la Mora, still unpublished. In addition to her gothic contributions, Rábago Palafox's work also resonates on an international literary scene, foreshadowing the narrative experimentation and globalized themes later embraced by the "Crack" movement in Mexican literature. Her stories deftly balance the gothic, the speculative, and the deeply human, offering readers a chilling yet thought-provoking exploration of societal anxieties, the fluidity of identity, and the persistence of memory. The publication of this translation in 2025, the 30th anniversary of Rábago Palafox's death, by University of Tampa Press, alongside the upcoming reedition of La voz de la sangre by Corda Ediciones in Mexico, provides a fantastic opportunity to honor an author who remains understudied by critics. With this collection, Rábago Palafox's enduring influence on Latin American literature becomes undeniable, establishing her place among the most innovative authors of speculative fiction in the region"-- more