In reading excerpts of Cristina Rivera Garza’s Grieving, I was drawn to the essay entitled “The Visceraless State”. Admittedly, I had to look up the word “visceraless” or “viscera” to ensure I was understanding Rivera Garza’s commentary properly. Viscera, by definition, refers to the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, like the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines. This got me thinking more critically about the content of “The Visceraless State”. In titling her essay in this manner, Rivera Garza is alluding to the fact that Mexico is a body, but it lacks the necessary parts to allow it to function properly. Mexico is operating without heart, without lungs, without its liver. Anatomically, the heart pumps blood throughout the body, allowing your body to function as intended. Your lungs provide oxygen to your brain, allowing it to work properly, and your liver helps filter toxins from your body and keep you healthy. If Mexico is a visceraless state, it lacks everything it needs to function properly, and therefore doesn’t.
Senorita Signatory’s medical distress being unanswered and unassisted is an allegory for the function of the country of Mexico. The government cannot function properly due to its corruption and it being overwhelmed by the so-called war on drugs, that it lacks its ability to care for its population properly- its human body population. Without heart, a government which believes in its ability to solve this crisis, without lungs, the tools which can combat the guerilla warfare that is endemic to the country, and without liver, the dismantling of toxic and dangerous entities that prevent the body of Mexico from governing as it should, the body is doomed to be a visceraless state. This analogy is so profound, and I have to wonder if I was the only one who didn’t catch the full effect of the title at first. Like her other excerpts, Rivera Garza’s masterful choice of words leads her to comment on not only a single entity, but a collective state. Rivera Garza’s sister’s femicide is deeply personal to her, but is also widespread and relatable. Senorita Signatory’s medical wishes for her organs is intimately her own, but also a symptom is a more widely-spread issue.
Hi Danielle! I really like the parallel of Señorita Signatory as an allegory to the function of Mexico. I had not thought about it, but it makes so much sense. If the State’s structures are sick, that sickness will continue to spread to the extent the State will decay. Just like Señorita Signatory, who seems to be in increasing pain as the letters go on. Both Mexico and Señorita Signatory have been neglected, and this has led to their inability to function. At the same time, they are trying to hold on to the last bit of life they have by pleading for life and care. Mexican citizens are in a state of survival for which they protest injustices hoping someone will listen, just like Señorita Signatory, who is writing for healthcare hoping someone will care. I hope, in the end, Señorita Signatory did get the care she needed and that the Mexican State is not doomed to a cyclical inability to function.
I think you are right about the title being something that most people don’t catch on their first read of the story, I know I didn’t. You make a very interesting observation about the ways that Garza shows how broken the government system in Mexico is, by comparing it to a body without its organs. I also find it interesting how its Visceraless and not visceral, such as the phrase a visceral reaction, I think this is do to the fact that the government does not react to the violence the way that it should anymore, it is just accepted.