Tatuajes sobre la ciudad invisible. Acerca de la ‘geografía’ literaria de Eduardo Lalo

Abstract

In the books of the Puerto Rican artist and writer Eduardo Lalo (Cuba, 1960) a ‘counter‑geography’ is formed of his country and his city, San Juan de Puerto Rico, which, having been colonized by the United States, has become an urban mirror of North American cities. As the observer-­narrator moves through its streets, writing, drawing, taking photographs, freeing it from its status as a tourist image, the city gains depth and solidity, and through an iconotextual mix of forms of identity becomes a complex image showing the marks and scars of the true San Juan: its genius loci.