{"id":117,"date":"2011-06-21T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-21T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=117"},"modified":"2015-07-19T21:41:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:41:27","slug":"leonela-an-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"LEONELA: AN OBSESSION"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/b><\/span>By Lida Prypchan<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cEach to his own,\u201d said Elio, who had a habit of creating a commotion in the city square at midnight\u2026 until one day they put him in jail because of it.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Elvira, Elio\u2019s wife, had a habit of talking to herself in the mirror when she got up in the morning. \u00a0In front of the mirror she had convinced herself that in addition to her recognized emotive abilities and command of language, she had theatrical talent too. \u00a0Nature and society had conspired together, it seemed, to make her an expert in dramatic performance. \u00a0Although she wasn\u2019t addicted to soap operas, tragedies held a strange attraction for her and one day, strangely, like someone who sits down just for the sake of it, she found herself sitting in front of the TV.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s how she came across Leonela. \u00a0It seemed that with Leonela, Elvira\u2019s cherished penchant for acting had attained perfection. \u00a0At ten o\u2019clock every day she would find herself thinking \u201cMy life is so mundane. \u00a0I\u2019ve been married for fifteen years and I can\u2019t think which year was the most boring. \u00a0Compared to that, life on television is so exciting\u2026 rather absurd, maybe, but\u2026\u201d \u2013 But wasn\u2019t her life an absurdity, living with a man whose passion had already burned out? \u00a0Wasn\u2019t it absurd for two individuals to meet in a bedroom \u2013 one to embroider and the other to read the newspaper? \u00a0The funny thing was she had nothing against marriage or love. \u00a0SHe believed in marriage as long as sharing, unselfish pleasure and communication were part of it. \u00a0But it was a lottery\u2026 nothing but a lottery\u2026 lucky only for few\u2026 or perhaps a labor or chore at which few people really exerted themselves. \u00a0In her case, her husband had become like a brother, and she acted like his mother\u2026 Wasn\u2019t he old enough or bright enough to learn how to make coffee or wash his own socks? \u00a0Didn\u2019t they both have to work? \u00a0Then why did he cling to her skirts for those silly little things? \u00a0ON the other hand, she thought, even though Leonela is a simple plot about rape and a mish-mash of subjects such as machismo, the degradation of women, alcohol, revenge and desire, hate, class distinctions, humiliation, poor communication, ,man as victim, woman as pitiless and irresponsible\u2026 despite all this (and much more), despite seeing the serpent dangled before her, she enjoyed it, and when she say down expectantly, she experienced during that hour a succession of scenes depicting every possible range of emotion.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Looking forward to something, even if it was just a soap opera, is what was missing from her life. \u00a0What did she care about foreign debt or topics discussed behind closed doors, when the doors to her many problems remained wide open? \u00a0What did she care about a third world war, the first hundred days, the end of the world, life after death, the meaning of dreams, Russian paranoia, Reagan\u2019s last move; his government, inflation, what\u2019s inflated or what\u2019s deflated, Paola\u2019s crooked smile, Boy George, Michael Jackson and his followers, the faceless woman, Trino\u2019s sexual education, Melisa\u2019s loneliness and Colina\u2019s constant preoccupation about who she\u2019d have coffee with?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Elvira would think: \u201cThe only thing that matters to me is Leonela \u2013 to sit down, or rather, stretch out in my armchair and watch her begging that hunk of a man, Pedro Luis, to let her see her son\u2026 and then to see them, beautifully dressed, slowly approach one other, brush lips and then go wild \u2013 and to listen to Mayra Alejandra whisper, murmur, almost<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Breathless\u2026 then weep in silence\u2026 that languishing look and anguished gestures, her gold lacquered Rocio Durcal hairstyle\u2026 then Pedro Luis would come in and have his face slapped over and over again. \u00a0Then (he wears such funny shirt collars!), he\u2019d raise his left eyebrow and then his right and there I\u2019d be, sweating, crying at all their reproaches, savoring their vengeance\u2026 because vengeance is sweet and satisfying, like a chocolate cake\u2026 and then the announcer with that ridiculous screen personality would come on, followed by Patty dancing (she has just no rhythm!)\u2026 and then if they didn\u2019t know what to put on next, they\u2019d bring on Pedro Luis\u2019s grandmother to provide a little tedium\u2026 so we wouldn\u2019t think we were going to escape being bored\u2026 and then\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat would I have done without you, Leonela?\u201d Elvira would think, \u201cNow,\u201d she reflected, \u201cI do nothing but think about the day my husband gets out of jail with a law degree and an inheritance.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Each to his own,\u201d said Elio to Elvira, when he got out of jail. \u00a0\u201cYours is to live a life of dreams.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lida Prypchan \u00a0 \u201cEach to his own,\u201d said Elio, who had a habit of creating a commotion in the city square at midnight\u2026 until one day they put him in jail because of it. \u00a0 Elvira, Elio\u2019s wife, had a habit of talking to herself in the mirror when she got up in the … <\/p>\n

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