Damn the Suit and the Tailor Who Made It: Power Struggle between the Narrator and the Editor in Nuevas coplas y cantares del temible bardo Eudomóndaro Higuera alias el Tuerto

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The collection of poems by a supposedly long-dead Sinaloan poet Eudomóndaro Higuera (referred to in the study as “the Narrator”), Nuevas coplas y cantares del temible bardo Eudomóndaro Higuera alias el Tuerto, is an intriguing read. Compiled and annotated by Mario Bojórquez (who will be referred to as “the Editor”), it contains a strange mix of bawdy lyrics, insulting epitaphs, and soul-searching coded poems. The collection presents a challenge to the reader, who is forced to choose between the Narrator’s often simplistic writing and the Editor’s high academic analyses thereof. Using the theory of text ownership, I will analyze this contradictory combination to determine who—if anyone—controls the text of the collection. I will explore the roles of the narrator and the editor, taken up by both the Narrator and the Editor, in order to challenge the apparent parodic nature of the collection.