8th Fenix Congress: Publications

The 8th Fenix-congress (2022) zooms in on Jewish-Latin American and Spanish-Latin American women writers and their search for
identity. The results of this congress are published in three Special Issues, the 11th, 12th, and 13th Special Issue of the Fenix Network.
The 13th Special Issue, Women’s perspectives on the Jewish and Spanish exiles that Mexico brought together (Miradas femeninas sobre los exilios judío y español que México reunió), are published in the journal Mexican Literature (Open Access, Web of Science ESCI, UNAM, vol 34 N° 2, 2023) and focus on the women writers (descendants) of two emblematic exiles –the Jewish and the Spanish– in Mexico. The studies compiled in this Special Issue put into dialogue the literary texts published in the last fifty years (1972-2022) by two different groups of exiled writers, who were united in Mexico. The set of studies proposes a possible new way to address these exiles, not on the basis of ethnic, political, cultural, religious or linguistic differences that separate them, but on the basis of the Mexican context of reception and the feminine identity they have in common. The introduction of the Special Issue “Women’s Perspectives on Jewish and Spanish Exile in Mexico” (Houvenaghel 2023) elaborates on its intergenerational approach, which centers on two prominent exodus groups: the Jewish and Spanish communities in Mexico. The compiled studies in this Special Issue encompass research on the descendants, specifically daughters and granddaughters, of these exiles. These descendants bring fresh perspectives to the subject of exile, shedding light on the experiences of their forebears.

The 11th and 12th Special issues, Routes of Jewish Latin American Women Writers (1980-2020) toward a sense belonging/ Rutas de autoras judeo-latinoamericanas (1980-2020) hacia un sentido de pertenencia and Spatial Identity: Interviews with Jewish Latin American women writers/ Identidad espacial: Entrevistas con autoras judeo-latinoamericanas are published in América Sin Nombre (Open Access, Web of Science ESC). This Special Issue juxtaposes different itineraries constructed by Jewish-Latin American writers toward the roots and aims at understanding the diversity and unity of these routes and journeys. The 12^th Special Issue includes interviews with  Jewish Latin American women writers on spatial identity negotiation across generations The Special Issue focuses primarily on three dimensions of this diversity/unity: the spatial dimension (1), the temporal dimension (2), and the imaginative dimension (3). In what way(s) do the routes traced between the territories of the ancestors and the new host territories relate to the geopolitical map in which the boundaries of the nation-state predominate? How do the past and the presen dialogue in these journeys towards a sense of belonging? How do reality and imagination interact in the depiction of the place of origin? These are the questions that guide our exploration.