A true story

This book is undoubtedly an autobiography of sorts. Through each of her stories in “and a body to remember with”, Rodriguez, in one shape or form, infuses her own, non-fictional experiences into her fictional characters.

I’ve read this book twice. Once before Max and I interviewed Carmen Rodriguez for our Wikipedia project, and now, two months later. The deeper I delve into this book of short stories, the more I find flickers of Rodriguez’s own life, her own experiences, some an exact parallel to her life but with the altering of names.

I actually realized that I could rebuild Rodriguez’s biography just from phrases in “and a body to remember with”. Here goes…(I don’t know if I can include it all though!)


“I am from Chile…I came twenty years ago with my Chilean husband and my five-year-old daughter” (111). Later, Rodriguez writes that she arrived in Buenos Aires on December 13,1973 (157). She also mentions she lived outside of Chile “until we got the permit to come to Canada as refugees” (157). ------------------Rodriguez left Chile with her husband at the time and their five and six year old daughters. She left Chile on December 15th, 1973, only days after her fictional character did.

In the first story, Rodriguez talks about moving to Canada, and mentions she has two (young) daughters, Natalia and Panchi--------------------in real life, they are Carmen and Alejandra.

In a balanced diet, Rodriguez describes the execution of those close to her---------this also occurred in her life.

She and her husband, in this story, then separated (112). ---------------------------This occurred in Rodriguez’s life.

“When Carmen Rodriguez was told that she could go back to Chile, she was invaded by a mixture of excitement and terror, anxiety and nostalgia” (32). She also mentions, later, “Santiago has become a clean city. As clean as oblivion” (153). -------------------In her interview, Rodriguez told us that she returned many many years later, also mentioning that Chileans, when she came back, were “suffering from Collective Amnesia”, and that the country had changed.


Carmen Rodriguez “was one of those members of the Chilean Resistance to the Pinochet regime” (48). --------------------She spent time doing “underground work of a disclosed type” in Bolivia and Chile, such as seen in “I sing, therefore I am”.

Rodriguez mentions the “hills of Valparaiso” (61), “Macul in the fall, Valdivia river” (129), “her childhood in Valdivia and her life as a university student in Santiago” (121), and in the story “breaking the ice”, mentions the train ride “between Antilhue and Valdivia” (109), and in “bodily yearnings” mentions some of the phantoms of places she grew up “Valdivia river” “Valdivia river boulevard” “Plaza de Armas” (132), “Valparaiso” (152), “Madness of Santiago” (151).------------------ Valdivia and Valparaiso were two places where Carmen spent a majority of her early life. She attended school at the University of Chile in Santiago.

“…the five hundred year anniversary of the foundation of Valdivia, the resistance of the Mapuche”(144)---------Rodriguez actually told the story about the Mapuche and Valdivia to Max and me during the interview.

“My mom, arriving at the Vancouver airport with a huge package in her hands...all the way from Quillota, Chile”(142), “…tell the children about Chile” (144). “Twenty years without her children and grandchildren”(143), “…since I am the only daughter” (145).-----------------This describes Rodriguez’s mother, who visited her family in Canada though she could not speak English. Rodriguez is the only daughter.

“Tony, my Canadian companion” (145)-------------------Rodriguez herself had a “Canadian Companion” by the name of Bob, whom she married and then divorced”.
In “trespass” she alludes that she traveled Canada to spread ( and sing ) her revolutionary thoughts, which she did.

Carmen Rodriguez “concluded that a computer would have been useful to cut and paste, edit, change spaces, times” (54).-----------------This is what she did years later, when she wrote this book.


I think that’s enough! I can’t get through it all.