Entre Fantasmas Link
: Bencomo argues that the chronicler (the writer) acts as a witness who must navigate a reality populated by "ghosts"—those who have been erased by violence or political corruption.
In the context of Valeria Luiselli's novel Los ingrávidos (Faces in the Crowd), the idea of living "entre fantasmas" serves as a central poetic of memory . Luiselli uses the "ghost" not as a supernatural element, but as a structural device to link different timelines and geographies—specifically contemporary New York and the Mexico City of the past.
: The ghostly representation of the desaparecidos serves as a way for survivors to process trauma. These "ghosts" lurk in obsessive thoughts and dreams, evidencing the lack of closure in a state where a body is never found. Entre Fantasmas
: In this framework, "fantasmas" represent the marginalized populations and the "disappeared." The city itself becomes a spectral archive where the writer must find the "witnesses" among the ruins of the Mexican landscape. Socio-Political Haunting in the Spanish Context
: The protagonist exists in a state of constant recollection, where her own identity becomes "weightless" (ingrávido). She is haunted by the literary ghost of Gilberto Owen, a real-life Mexican poet. : Bencomo argues that the chronicler (the writer)
: By placing the narrator "among ghosts," Luiselli suggests that memory is not a linear history but a spatial experience where the past and present occupy the same room. The characters are not haunted by spirits, but by the echoes of their own lives and the literary figures they obsess over. Landscapes of the Disappeared: Anadeli Bencomo
In her critical work Entre héroes, fantasmas y apocalípticos (Between Heroes, Ghosts, and Apocalyptics), Anadeli Bencomo examines how the Mexican chronicle uses these archetypes to describe a landscape of social and political crisis. : The ghostly representation of the desaparecidos serves
To exist "entre fantasmas" in modern Spanish literature is to live in the intersection of what is present and what is remembered. Whether through Luiselli’s weightless poetry, Bencomo’s political chronicles, or the feminist reclamation of history, the ghost serves as a vital tool for understanding identity. It bridges the gap between the individual and a collective past that refuses to stay buried.