Guerra Prolongada/Protracted Wars

Bob Lincoln is the director of acquisitions at the University of
Manitoba Libraries.

The poems in this collection record the memories of a woman who has
remade herself. Most of the poems were originally written in Spanish,
and both Spanish and English versions appear in this clearly laid-out
book.

While the repercussions of the 1973 coup in Chile continue to be felt,
Guerra Prolongada is less political than it is a celebration of life in
all of its manifestations. Rodrнguez debates the events that led to her
exile, and juxtaposes commonplace events against metaphorical ones, as
in “Destiny.”

The poems work toward a definition of two cultures and two languages,
although the effect of the writing itself is flat, as when the author
sees herself as a southern child and northern woman; the image could
have been more fully developed. The political message is that socialist
workers will make the difference. As both political philosophy and
feminist rejection of the male supremacist lineage, these poems are weak
and undeveloped. As an individual record of one person’s struggle
against injustice, the poems succeed. Guerra Prolongada is not a
celebration, but rather a personal exorcism.