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Language justice:

Narrative therapy on the fringes of Colombian magical realism1

by marcela polanco 2

marcela polanco, mestiza from Colombia, is part of the graduate psychology and family
therapy faculty team at Our Lady of the Lake University in the U.S. She leads their bilingual
(Spanish-English) graduate certificate training—the Psychological Services for Spanish
Speaking Populations. Contact details: mpolanco@ollusa.edu

Abstract
When problems can talk, dead people can speak, hope can taste, and heart, soul and mind
can dance together, a new discursive space is brought to life in therapeutic conversations. In
this paper I discuss the reimagination of narrative therapy into my Colombian culture, adopting
magical realism as a literary means to engage the imagination in therapeutic conversations.
I transgress mainstream rational epistemological traditions of evidence to situate narrative
therapy practice on the fringes of convention. I bring to the forefront the ordinary weirdness
of narrative therapy conversations via the magical realism’s absurdity and creativity. I stage
the discussion in Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo in his novels to speak the unspeakable,
to locate the unlocatable, to touch the untouchable, to hear the inaudible, and to utter the
ineffable in our lives.

Key words: language, justice, narrative therapy, magical realism, imagination

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 hose who can’t hear me since their current conditions
• T
Narrative therapy on the fringes limit their access of participation in contexts like this one
The subject of this paper: How do I convey that the message in English;
I want to deliver does not belong to English (Perez Firmat, • T
 hose who can’t read me or hear me since they learned
1994), and, in my translation of it from my Colombian to know the world instead in wiser terms by the color of
Spanish, unwillingly I had to surrender it, leaving it behind. the earth, the sound of the wind, the flow of a river, or the
I had to do so after engaging for longer than the longest taste of their spirits. Perhaps to their good fortune;
river in Colombia, the Magdalena River, with a futile task
of attempting to bring the message to English intact and • T
 hose who prefer to use the walls in the street to put
original as I know and understand it in Spanish. I have their colorful thoughts and to read the thoughts of others
finally succumbed to the conspicuous conclusion that the instead than in the pages of the colorless publishing
message I hoped to convey was after all untranslatable. industry;
Only by reaching such a conclusion could I honor it and do it • T
 hose who could not meet me because the social classes
language justice. I had to accept, with the moral dignity it calls that divide us gave us amnesia, making us forget who is
for, that what belongs to my Colombian Spanish, belongs to on the other side of the divide, and
my Colombian Spanish and what belongs to my immigrant
English, belongs to my immigrant English ‒ and only when • T
 hose whose biological and historical existence was
standing in the space in between these two distinct and taken from them without their consent in the name of the
particular visions of life, I could find new ways to utter it in a greed of power
form other than the one that originated and shaped it.
To begin to write about my untranslatable message, I will
I often wonder if this conclusion about the untranslatability start by its name. I have named it a ‘betweener’ message
of my languages may be mind-blowing for monolinguals (Diversity and Moreira, 2009). It belongs neither to Spanish,
and even for bilinguals. I consider this because even as a nor to English but to the space in between where they meet
bilingual, when I realised at first that a particular vision of my in a Spanglish sort of way. I write its name because I share
life in one language was untranslatable to the other, it blew Gabriel García Marquez’s belief that the characters in his
my mind ‒ fortunately, the blow up was not as violent as the novels cannot walk on their own feet until they have a
unfortunate and frequent blow ups my country has been a name that can be identified with their natures. I hope for my
witness to during a state of civil war. I spent a few years after betweener message to walk on her own feet to make a life on
looking all over the place to find those blown up pieces of her own. It is for this reason that I am hoping to convey some
my mind. When I found them, I had to put each piece back of its pieces to you, the reader, even if I can’t convey it as
together like a puzzle. Only until then I could proceed to I wish and to whom I ultimately wish.
make some sense of what seemed at the time a nonsensical
discovery. This is, the fact that what I learn and experience in
My betweener message is a response to untranslatability. It is
one language often becomes inaccessible or untranslatable to
about the remaking of meaning from one language to another
be performed in the other, having to leave their vocabularies
when, in my imagination I grappled with how to come to know
and meanings behind. Unexpectedly, this nonsensical lesson
the Australasian version of Epston and White’s narrative
about language did not come from the theories I was learning
therapy in my Colombian Spanish. Similar to my practices of
at the time by Wittgenstein, Locke, Gadamer, Foucault,
love when I had to come to English to know what love was
or Deleuze. Instead this lesson came from what chicana
about because I only knew how to in Spanish, I had to come
scholars call a theory in the flesh (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1983)
to Spanish to know what narrative therapy was about because
‒ in this case, my own flesh and blood. It was a lesson from
love (in English) and amor (in Spanish). After migrating to the I only knew how to in English. I had to start all over again.
U.S. from my native country Colombia, I learned that loving I had trained in narrative therapy in English and when the
in English is not the same as amar in Spanish. I found myself time came for me to practice it in Spanish I did not know how.
arriving to English to learn all over again what love was about, During my narrative therapy conversations in Spanish, I found
because I only knew how to amar ‒ even though the broken myself at a loss of words to form my inquiries because in my
hearts of some of my former Colombian lovers may dispute mind the narrative therapy vocabularies were only accessible
my statement with very good reasons of their own. in English. So, my betweener message is: Starting all over
again. I had to search for new words more suitable for the like
So, this untranslatable message I am writing about, which of the taste buds of my native tongue, Spanish. This required
belongs neither to my Spanish, nor my English, is directed to me to leave behind the unstranslatable narrative therapy
those whom, like the message itself, I left behind. They are: meanings in English where they rightfully belonged.

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Therefore, in the spirit of language justice to overcome the
Starting all over again: tradition of silence and obedience of my mother tongue, on
Language justice the one hand I made it a requirement to engage in the search
of Spanish vocabularies with the scrupulous skill of a surgeon
Starting all over again left me with having to face the to cut through a body of words. And on the other, I felt I was
unavoidable task of what David Epston called in one of our required to engage the imagination with the sensitivity of a
conversations as ‘reimagining narrative therapy’. This was poet, yearning to be undressed, seduced with mad desire by
one of the handful conversations David and I have had in those delicious words that would make you lick your fingers,
person and not email. It was on 2013 when I came to his when showing off their most desirable attributes, desperately
hometown Auckland to visit him and to meet his wife Ann. hoping to be selected to feature in the poets’ poems.
We had arranged in advance to set aside a day during
my visit to work at his office about a writing project of You should know, however, that I am a fraud. Without any
my translation of narrative therapy. David put it clearly. question, I do not possess either the scrupulous skills of
Reimagining narrative therapy in my Colombian does justice a surgeon or the sensitivity of a poet. But, unashamedly,
to his work and Michael White’s. By reimagining narrative I had to proceed knowing that I was scamming; I had to if
therapy, as Garacía Márquez’s would have said, I would not
I were to sustain my aspiration to find suitable candidates
continue walking through someone else’s dreams, Epston
for vocabularies that would capture Epston and White’s
and White’s in this case, but my own.
Australasian narrative therapy while walking in my own
dreams. I wanted to capture their transgressive, gently
The unavoidable task of reimagining narrative therapy in my
radical, morally just, communitarian, playful, creative, and
Colombian was due to narrative therapy having arrived to
adventurous practices but now with a Colombian flavor, the
Spanish so recently that there were no names to call it, let
coffee flavor of my homeland. The requirement of this task
alone make it visible and accessible. It could not stand on
set me on a meticulous search for words, such that I had to
her own two feet so I could play with her. I was only able to
depend on my bogus skills to select words full of sabiduria
track it with my eyes and was unable to hear the crackling
or wisdom. That was the only way I could figure out how to
sound of its discoveries in Spanish because they were only
serve my purpose of starting narrative therapy all over again
recognisable to me in English. So, I found myself facing an
in Spanish, and although a scammer, I assure you that
ethical dilemma. This was, to do language justice to my native
I am not lying when I say that it took me a lot of figuring out;
tongue by reimagining, therefore remaking meaning in my
several years in fact. I sought to write a new version of my
native tongue instead of always having to translate Epston
Colombian narrative therapy and it was very important to me
and White’s into my Spanish to match them faithfully in the
that it would contain within itself means to refuse to be taken
name of epistemological, theoretical and linguistic obedience.
over by a pretense of a privileged professional class that
Agreeing with Garacía Márquez’s (1982), interpretation of
our realities via methods that are not our own only serves to would assume Colombian monopoly rights over it, making
render us more unknown, less free, and more solitary. it dangerously and arrogantly universal, hence unavailable
for further reimaginings.
It became imperative that I engage in the reimagination of
my Colombian narrative therapy from a place of mischievous Although the idea of reimagining narrative therapy in my
disobedience. Only then I could accept the legitimacy of my Colombian was daunting at first, it turned out to be very
Spanish in my narrative therapy practice, otherwise I could much the opposite. It has been dignifying for my native
not accept the legitimacy of myself. I am my language, as tongue Spanish, which in various contexts it is relegated to
chicana Gloria Anzaldúa (1989) well put it. She wrote: the illegitimate corner to shut up and color by the monopoly
of English. It has been an imaginative labor of great intrigue,
Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes mystery and excitement. My imagination started to skip down
without having always to translate, while I still have to the path of this task with my commitment to engage in a
speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak rendition of my Colombian narrative practices’ character
Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate as fluid, untamed, outspoken, frank and available. I also
the English speakers rather than having them hoped it might be sufficiently open for many reimaginings
accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. by others who may find me as untranslatable as I found
I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. Epston and White.
I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have
my serpent’s tongue – my woman’s voice, my sexual What has made this imaginative labor so delightful is the
voice, my poet’s voice. I will then overcome company of Latin American colleagues with whom I could
the tradition of silence. (p. 81) play and co-imagine. Among them are Carolina Letelier, Italo

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Latorre Gentoso and Marcela Estrada Vega from Pranas in destructive nature of power, selfishness and individualism
Chile; Maria Angela Teixeira from Brasil; Alfonso Díaz and since colonial times, portrayed in the Buendia family.
Marta Campillo from Mexico, and Angela María Estrada from He proposes solidarity and love as the means to displace
Colombia, among others. This was by no means a solitary the Latin American isolation, otherwise resulting in its
undertaken. But the most important accomplice of this task, self-destruction.
whom awakened my enthusiasm and contributed significantly
to keep the spirit of my betweener message alive, has been Macondo belongs to the fringes of the tantalising magical
without a doubt David Epston. I could not have predicted this realist character of my Colombian culture as I have come
back on the 1st of September of 2006 when I sent to him the to vivenciar, or experience. That experience has been very
first of thousands of emails that followed. He has been the closely as how I have experienced
accomplice of my betweener message, every step of the way.
• The taste of cilantro in my ajiaco soup;
Although not a Colombian or cachaco, of course, or a Spanish
speaker himself, his obvious connection with narrative • T
 he sound of a vallenato Barranquillero music
therapy by having fathered it made him a surprising side-kick by the beach;
of my reimaginative labor. David’s unquenchable thirst for • T
 he aroma of brewing Colombian coffee ‒
transgressive and contesting ideas; his generosity with his the best in the world
time in mentoring me, as he has done with many others; his
freakishly speedy fingers when typing out a number of daily • T
 he hair-raising sound of the Colombian fans fever
emails with many people all around the world from his office at a soccer game;
in Auckland ‒ so fast his fingers seem in competition with • A
 nd the deftness of the intricate and colorful woven
Jamaican Usain Bolt’s legs, the fastest man in the world; and designs of indigenous women’s crafts that beautifully
his questions with the power to evoke the longest echoes decorate my wrists with the stories of struggle and
that would take days or weeks, even years, to quiet down strength that live within them.
in my mind’s ear made him suitable for this task. As García
Márquez’s would have said, David’s questions awakened I found myself in my task to remaking narrative in my
in their passing an entire sleeping world into my memory to Colombian as the witness of two realms ‒ the magical and
story it, otherwise left behind in amnesia; and David’s broad the real ‒ in a betweener space that belongs to neither and in
and fascinating repertoire on radical, Latin American writers, which life is dreamlike, but not a dream in any way.
broader than for this Colombiana, also made him most joyful
for this reimagining task. On the fringes, in Garacía Márquez’s magical realist
Macondo, not only carpets but people have the ability to fly
or ascend heavenward, some to never return; ghosts hunt
Reimagining in Macondo the villagers; and trickles of blood climb stairs, turn corners
and avoid staining carpets in search for the blood’s owner
In my task of this reimagining, something started to happen mother to inform her that her son was killed. Among the
that at first I was not entirely aware of. The selection of villagers, some grab on to life so hard and tight their bodies
Colombian words which at first I thought were merely can support their biological life for over 145 years of age;
discoveries, led me to an ordinary, humble, yet, enchanting others while appearing dead, fugitives in solitude, go on to
town where I found the signs of a new Colombian narrative live on for many years until death itself decides otherwise;
therapy heart palpitating and alive, yet to be given its name. and a plague of insomnia passes by erasing the memory
I had no trouble recognising where I had been taken, and I of the villagers, having to put labels to everything around
shouldn’t had been surprised. I had arrived to the heartlands and making psychics tell the fortune of the future but also
of my country. This was, Macondo, the literary magical realist of the past.
town, expression of the crude realities of Colombia and Latin
America, documented in the fullness of its poetry, in García These extraordinary events are not mirrors of a reality that
Máquez’s Cien Años de Soledad, One Hundred Years of is clothed in symbolisms or metaphors to conceal what is
Solitude. First published in 1967, and now translated into 37 ultimately verifiable as truth and real. Instead, according
languages, this novel has sold more than 30 million copies to García Márquez’s (1982), they are anecdotes of absurd
and is considered to be one of the most shaped work of events that happen all the time told with a brick face, making
literature of the last 25 years. In Macondo’s one hundred life along the way. These anecdotes attempt at overcoming
years of solitude, Garacía Márquez’s denounces the degree what he considered the suffering of a crucial problem
of solitude to which our Latin American countries have been consisting on our lacking of conventional means by which
confined for over 100 years, as a result of the dangerous and we can render our lives believable. We have been left only

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with Western, modern conventions that can only document The dreamlike, transgressive character of Macondo offers
reasonable objective facts as life. The anecdotal descriptions to narrative therapy possibilities for conversations that carry
in Macondo, on the contrary, reside in the absurdity of the with them subversive postcolonial imaginative and linguistic
magical real reality of real people, evoked in more interesting plays. They result in the dismantling of cultural structures
ways and with intense reverberations to give them a second that sanction everything that does not abide by the governing
life, getting caught in two oppositional worlds that exist in class of Western categories that only count as real and as
the quotidian. These anecdotes are written with imagination- normal, evidence based science.
ink enriching reality, rather than impoverishing it by turning our
backs against it. This is possible by the qualities of made- My fortune of having stumbled over Macondo during my
up-ness of language, in Rushdie’s (2014) terms, unshackling reimagining task of remaking narrative therapy meaning in
language from the prison house of words in which godly my Colombian, led me to a new discursive space, magical
grammatical conventions confines the doings of language realism, for therapeutic conversations. But I was not the
to perform only in naturalistic and unimaginative ways. Our first one to discover its literary, transgressive means for
language becomes imprisoned so that we abide to voluntary therapeutic ends. Not to my surprise, and maybe not to yours
censorship and linguistic obedience that cast either, David Epston had arrived to Macondo way before me,
out the imagination. but interestingly enough he kept his discovery a secret. Not
to long ago he told me that he always believed that narrative
therapy bore a remarkable resemblance to magical realism
not only as a genre in and of itself but in the preferred style
Magical realism in service of of oppositional writing by those on the margins. For so long
therapeutic conversations he didn’t dare say this out loud until he met a Colombiana
who said the same thing. Only then felt confident enough. In
From Garacía Márquez’s anecdotal Macondo, I came to his view, if I said it as a Colombiana, he could say it out loud
learn to evoke in my narrative therapy conversations magical too. Otherwise he worried that people would think he was
events that grab reality by the hand skipping side by side, just being pretentious. Along with Epston, also Jane Speedy
so closely they look like twins, no longer being able to (2011), narrative therapist and professor of counseling at
distinguish one from the other, when entering into scandalous University of Bristol in the UK, came to realise the magical
worlds that were formerly inconceivable. From a magical realist juxtapositions with narrative therapy arguing that, as
realist perspective in some of my therapeutic conversations, she wrote in her article titled Magical realist pathways into
people have reminded me, and I have learned to trust, that and under the psychotherapeutic imaginary: “just as writers
their hearts, bodies and spirits possess the ability to speak on the margins have subversively written themselves into
for themselves no longer having to wait for someone’s different spaces, people at the social and psychological
permission to do so. They can now be heard not only with margins have found imaginative pathways around life’s walls”
sincere interest but with intriguing mystery. The fevers of (p. 22)
these hearts, bodies and spirits desperately longing for so
long to be heard, can now rest assured that their time has By ascribing to magical realist literary and transgressive
come and their place is here. meanings to narrative therapy ends in my Colombian, when
returning back to the English meanings I had left behind,
From an imaginative place like Macondo, in narrative therapy Epston, White, Freedman, Combs, Madigan, Denborough,
conversations the magical refuses to be entirely assimilated Rusell, Hedtke, Nylund and other many narrative therapy
into realism. It resists it as ferociously as a dog chews on scholars work gripped my interest in a different sort of way.
a bone and no means can have it give it up. What might Their linguistic nuances erupted from their pages. I clearly
be referred in modern times to as a kind of madness3, is in saw language running loose through the streets of therapeutic
fact the preferred state of living in Macondo; madness is an conversation sniffing every scent that would grab their
aspiration for one’s life since it transgresses rational and attention, wandering freely, like Pedro por su casa, picking
modern conventions on what is deemed normal. These madly up, dropping off, and making up credibly, incredible words
or unconventional magical realist ways instead are as normal along the way. I identified more precisely the uncommon
as normal could be. I learned this many years ago from a use of language commonly adopted in their work, and their
wise Colombian street artist that documented a poignant quite serious playfulness. It was as if they were taking up
message in a colorful graffiti impossible to miss, in a strategic magical realist Macondos of their own and in their own
wall of a street in Bogotá, Colombia. This was right in front of terms. For example, I am here referring to White’s (1986)
one of Bogota’s psychiatric hospitals. It read something like: conversation in the early 80’s in which, as he wrote, things
madness will save us all. seemed to have a life on their own. In one of his most worldly

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known conversations, the character acquired by “poo” as feverish blood running through the stream of our lives with
treacherous and sneaky, pops out in life against the young the impetus with which reason, logic and objectivity
persons will, taking charge of the situation to have its way. In monopolised that which counts as life.
a later conversation between White (2007) and a young boy
Jeffrey the character of ADHD turns out to have a twin brother
White had personally met previously; this ADHD possesses
the ability to trick, crash and pretend to be a horse, tipping
Entitlement of hu manity
things all over the place. I am also thinking about Epston’s in exercising our imagination
conversations with Jermaine, a young man from Ann Arbor,
Michigan, in which the character of asthma possesses the The free engagement of the imagination in the making of
ability to pull a fast one on Jermain, pulling the wool over meaning I find it to be at the core of the constitution of our
his eyes; or his conversations of courage transfusions humanity; this is a central point in the work of David Epston
between a mother and daughter. Among many other clear David Marsten and Laurie Markham’s (2016) narrative
examples are Michael White (1988), Lorraine Hetdke and therapy in the wonderland. While at the core of our humanity,
John Winslade’s (2004) conversations in which they say however, our rights to our imagination are taken from us early
hello again to people after their death. Conversations in on in our lives being considered deviant, naïve, ignorant and
which ADHD, poop, asthma and dead people estan vivitos y pervasive to an argument of mental health, progress and
coleando, or are in the land of the living, could very well blow civilisation. The rational reasons of the mind set us straight
up someone’s mind ‒ particularly if they refuse to engage early on allowing us only to convey arguments of a world of
their imagination. I would go on to say that, in the terms of verifiable facts, measurable and observable. Agreeing with
modern, scientific, realist, hard core positivist perspectives Eduardo Galeano’s poem The Celebration of the Marriage of
that abolish everything in their path that does not abide by Heart and Mind,
their unimaginative logic based requirements, these kinds
The moment we enter school or church, education
of narrative therapy conversations could be considered, put
chop us into pieces: It teaches us to divorce soul
simply, absurd and also outrageous. But, in the terms of
from body and mind from heart. The fisherman
postcolonial, decolonial, postmodern and poststructuralist
from the Colombian coast must be learned doctors
perspectives that transgress, this is, put simply, the magical
of ethics and morality, for they invented the word
realist outrageousness of the everyday life.
sentipentante, feeling-thinking, to define language
that speaks the truth. A language that speaks the
Magical realism outrageousness is delivered poetically,
truth makes imagination no longer deviant, it makes it
without question, to breathe life to worlds in which it is
sentipensante. (Galeano, 1992, p.48)
possible to speak the unspeakable, to locate the unlocatable,
to touch the untouchable, to hear the inaudible, to taste the So, an indomitable utopia like the one Garacía Márquez’s
flavor of the flavorless, and to utter the ineffable. Its motivation spoke of, keeps me working toward the making of narrative
goes beyond literariness, however. It is political and moral. therapy conversations in which magical realist imaginative
In García Márquez (1982) terms, it follows an entitlement of labors make possible the made-up-ness of extraordinary,
humanity. He said: ordinary, unreal real realities not normally verifiable by the
mind of Western reason, logic or sensory perception. This
We, tellers of tales, who believe in everything, we feel kind of utopia seeks to transgress modern parameters that
entitled to believe it is not too late to create a different humiliate the engagement of the imagination, deeming it
utopia; a new and indomitable utopia of life where no as illegitimate, lessening humanity to the virtue of being
one decides for others how to die, where love is true capable only of thought and reason. In magical realism, the
and happiness possible and where the races cursed imagination meanders in a third space in between the magical
with 100 years of solitude have at last, and forever and the real, transgressing any convention on what counts as
more a second opportunity on earth. only magical and only real.

Like Epston and Speedy, I found in magical realism an utopia


of a second opportunity for humanity on earth specially for
those of us who have been living for longer than 100 years of Un-reason-able conversations:
solitude in the othering margins, placed there on arguments Dethroning the brain
of our skin color, geographical location, gender, language,
sexual orientation, etc. Some of us have spent almost the By exercising humanity, hence, the rights to imagine, I have
entirety of our lives taming the Africana and Aboriginal gained almost an obsession to see beyond that which can

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be seen, outside parameters of the laws of the nature of the forefront. I have become interested in inquiring about
the universe. I am interested in the arousal of unlawful, the participation of the poetic body in the decision making of
local, mythical, spiritual, fluid and poetic conversations in ending one’s life. I ask questions like these: What did your
which humanity transgresses the doings of our brains and body know about you and your relationships that although
eyes no longer being these the privileged that take charge your mind had decided to die, your body proceeded to live?
of the construction of our knowledge about our lives and At the moment in which your mind starts taking charge with
relationships. I seek to turn reasonable conversations its deadly plans, what part or parts of your body do you
unreasonable, when displacing reason and logic as the remember taking the lead in the execution of such plans, and
only legitimate means for conversation ‒ hence dethroning how was it like for them to engage in the plan? Often folks
the brain as the only organ of our bodies that possess the locate their suicidal decision to the doings of the mind. Their
capacity to become knowledged. Life ceases to become a mind selects a part of the body as a kind of entrance into the
matter of genetics and biology, only for physicists or chemists beginning of the ending of their lives. For example, the neck is
to understand and explain. Instead, as it has been the case in chosen when considering hanging themselves; the wrist when
some of my therapeutic conversations, life becomes a matter cutting, or the stomach when taking toxic substances.
better explained by the wisdom of an experienced cook and
the exquisite tastes, aromas and flavors of their recipes. Life In a conversation, in English and Spanish, with a Central
becomes worth living only if adding to it the right condiments American woman, who I will name Mariana to protect her
to highlight the desired tastes that spice the ‘words resting on rights to privacy, I learned that her mind had been recruited
their tongues’, as Tirzah Parish LeFeber (T. Parish LeFeber, by the belief that the most sensical decision for her to make at
personal communication, September 26, 2015) would have that time was for her body to come to the end of its existence
said, to taste life in a dreamlike state, rendering it so tasteful because of the ongoing sexual abuse she endured earlier in
no one would want to let it go to waste. her life. Her mind believed her body had endured enough.
Decidedly, her mind selected the stomach to be the main
Also, by holding on to the imaginative rights of our humanity, executor of its gruesome plans to take a bottle of pills.
it is possible for the body to feature more prominently in the I consulted with her if it would be possible for us to invite her
making of life in its full poetic expression. I am not referring stomach into the conversation as I was curious about how did
here to a biologically functioning body that is verified by it manage to survive despite the pills. Interestingly enough,
the senses and that serves as a depository of fluids that when Mariana would speak about her stomach, her hand
keeps us breathing. Instead, I am referring to an imaginative would go instead to what in my anatomy class I learned it is
body that exists in an incarnated, poetic imaginative way called the throat. This told me that although Mariana’s mind
able to exist beyond its death, with the capacity to evoke had targeted the organ that forms our digestive system in
what Daisy Ceja and Kristen Garza (2016) call ‘sentidos our upper abdomen, in our conversation we begun to talk
imaginarios’ imaginative senses. This is the kind of body, about something different, starting by inviting it to speak its
culturally, linguistically and imaginatively negotiated, that own mind, engage its taste buds and see with its own eyes.
makes possible for a tickle of blood to be capable of traveling I missed this opportunity to inquire further about the kind
all across town to alert a mother that his son was killed; for of stomach located in the throat perhaps because in my
asthma to pull the wool over someone’s eyes; or for poo to everyday imaginative life it made so much sense that it was
be outrun by a young person so as not to take over their not a matter that needed further inquiry. I knew that this was
lives. This is the poetic expression of an imaginative body a kind of stomach about which I did not learn in my anatomy
that becomes critical in the understanding of experiences in studies but in my cultural studies on magical realism. Since
the world that make it up. This kind of body often features in I did not have any doubts in my mind that Mariana’s unique
therapeutic conversations as a site of knowledge in everyday stomach had a mind on its own4, I wanted to hear its thoughts.
expressions such as: My heart is aching, my head is about to In agreement, I proceeded to address the stomach. I asked
explode, I feel the weight on my shoulders, my legs go numb, questions like these: To the stomach: What is your position
my stomach feels the punch, my spirit needs to talk, my arm about the decision of the mind of proceeding to take action
goes cold, or my chest is overflowing. against Mariana’s life believing that the body had endured
enough abuse? What kind of experiences of Mariana’s life
This sort of incarnated poetic existence, from a magical and with whom, have you come to digest that have supported
realist perspective, has started to feature more prominently your position on life instead of death?
in some of my therapeutic conversations; with more ease in
Spanish than in English when it comes to engaging people’s From these sorts of conversations, I have learned that when
imagination, not to my surprise. This is particularly the case given the opportunity, parts of our poetic, imaginative bodies,
in conversations about suicide, when the body is often at may have grown minds of their own. They are begging to us

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NARRATIVE THERAPY AND COMMUNITY WORK | 2016 | No.3 www.dulwichcentre.com.au 74
to let them speak their minds, since they are often shrouded
in secrecy. In this conversation, Mariana’s stomach had taken
Final commentary
a pro-life position: To the stomach: Certainly, my betweener message today, which does
not belong to my Spanish, nor my English but the space
‘From what you have come to experience living with Mariana inbetween, does not intend to emphasize that adopting a
since she was born, how did you come to learn that Mariana’s magical realist imaginative perspective is a matter of life or
life is worth living?’ death. That would be a bit of an exaggeration, although not
entirely for the dramatic flair of a Colombiana. I intended
Having digested many delicious experiences, or ‘experiencias to convey an untranslatable message about the meanings
que han sido una delicia’ in her life, the stomach deemed of humanity of narrative therapy via the engagement of the
Mariana’s life as one worth living. imagination, which I came to know in my Colombian Spanish
because I only knew them in my immigrant English. By doing
‘What are the kinds of tastes that run through your memory so, I can only hope to have shed light on the possibilities
that bring out the delicious experiences you have digested, that come by engaging in epistemological and theoretical
making Mariana’s life worth living ‒ “que hacen que la vida de disobedience when walking on one’s own dreams in search
Mariana valga la pena?”’ for new indomitable utopias. In a dreamlike world, I hope that
you find your ways to start all over again so as to reimagine
I learned about Mariana’s grandmother recipes that would new meanings of narrative therapy with new vocabularies,
‘despertar a cualquier muerto de su tumba’ or would bring any culturally coherent with intentions of language justice. I
one back from their death. Her grandmother had died 8 years hope that you find your ways, maybe inadvertently, to your
ago. ‘What was so distinctively delicious about Mariana’s own versions of Macondo where you might discover that
grandmother’s “sazón” or seasoning that would “despertar a a new character of your imagination has been waiting for
cualquier muerto de su tumba,” and make “la vida de Mariana you eagerly with its arms open proceeding to embrace you,
valer la pena”?’ whispering into your ear, softly but firmly, how life feels like,
in Tirzah Parish LeFeber’s (T. Parish LeFeber, personal
I learned that the stomach had delivered a pro-life message to communication, September, 26 2015) words, “…like a cup of
the mind by rejecting the pills and also by recruiting Mariana’s hot chocolate sipping the chocolaty sweet hotness beginning
right hand middle finger to enable this rejection. Furthermore, from your lips traveling to your tongue, down your esophagus
it let the mind know that while the body had endured a lot, it stopping at the bottom of your belly, to feel the difference of
had also experienced grandmotherly love and was not ready being frozen on the outside and the hotness on the inside…”
to end it all. I asked Mariana about the ideas we had spoken
about up until that point. Mariana told me that she felt that
her body was after all on her side, as an ally. To Mariana: Notes
‘Mariana, what is it like for you to know that your stomach
is on your side and has been a pro-life ally during a critical 1.
 n earlier version of this paper was presented as a key note
A
time in your life?’ She told me that she felt comforted. ‘How address at the Therapeutic Conversations Conference 13 in
Vancouver, Canada on April, 2016.
was it for you to share in the story of your grandmother’s 2.
 any hands contributed to the shaping of this document to whom
M
love conveyed through her recipes? Do you share the idea I want to give special recognition. They are my tireless mentor and
of grandmotherly love making your life worth living?’ Mariana friend, David Epston; my colleague, friend and humanity-partner in
wholeheartedly agreed and said to remember how important crime, Tirzah Parish LeFeber, and mis queridas y muy estimadas
comadres y colegas Daisy Ceja and Catalina Perdomo. In one
it will be for her to nourish her body/stomach after what it way or another, they share authorship of these ideas.
endured with the pills and earlier abuse. I learned about 3.
 he term ‘madness’ has been reclaimed by Mad Pride activists.
T
Mariana’s cultural traditions around sharing food in community More information about the rich history of mental health and
as a means to nurture family-like ties with her loved ones. survivors’ movements can be found at: studymore.org.uk/mpu.htm
She remembered having kept a notebook, libreta, of her
4.
In this conversation, I was hoping to escape the mind/body
dualism so common in western culture and emphasise cultural,
grandmother’s recipes. She made it a plan to cook and invite linguistic and imaginative discourses of the body. While this made
over neighbors, friends and relatives to share with her, honour much sense for Mariana in spoken Spanish, it is more difficult for
her grandmother and celebrate hers and her grandmother’s me to convey in written English.
life. ‘Mariana, tu abuelita nos esta escuchando ‒ is your
grandmother listening to us?’ Mariana’s grandmother gave
her blessing at the end of our conversation, ‘Que mi diocito
me la proteja, mija’.

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