“We are force”: Border Crossings and Intergenerational Trauma in Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt (2021)

Abstract

Gabriela Garcia’s debut novel Of Women and Salt (2021) is a multigenerational Cuban family saga intertwining with the story of a lone Salvadoran mother and her daughter. The book’s broad setting combines four countries: El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, the American state of Florida, and Texan borderlands. The novel offers an extensive view of Latinx immigration and articulates how leaving a homeland affects not only the migrants themselves but also the generations to follow. The article discusses the complexities of remembering, inheriting, and transmitting trauma by exploring the different experiences of Cuban refugees and Salvadoran migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Secondly, the analysis focuses on the complex themes combining physical and sexual abuse, fractured mother-daughter relationships, drug addiction, state violence, and displacement, which produce intergenerational trauma inherited by matrilineal descendants in the Cuban family. Subsequently, the article discusses the issues of unauthorized immigration, border crossings, detention, family separation, and deportation, which function in the novel to express the Salvadoran characters’ individual trauma. However, they also represent the collective trauma of other detained migrants. The phrase “We are force” resonates through both intertwining storylines, denoting inherent strength that prevails against traumatic experiences.