Aura: “1. Irradiación luminosa que algunas personas perciben alrededor de los cuerpos. … 4. Ave rapaz Americana, parecida al zopilote pero con la cabeza de color rojo y el pico amarillo. Sin: gallinazo. [Diccionario didactico Avanzado; SM de Ediciones, 2007 Mexico, D.F.]
In “Aura” a 109 year old Consuelo Llorente ensnares 27 year old high school history teacher, Felipe Montero to remain with her as lover/ husband by entrancing him with Aura, her projected double, the image of herself as a young girl. Consuelo works black magic culminating in intercourse with Aura ingestion of a (presumably) Eucharistic wafer that Aura first touched to her vagina.
The story is eerie and narration in the 2nd person makes it more intense. Although we guess some of the setup before Felipe, I find a number of things yet unclear: is Felipe really the double of General Llorente, Consuelo’s husband? or has the spirit of the general been called up to occupy his body (“engendered his double” p. 412). Dinner the first two evenings has four places set, Aura and Felipe, Consuelo and, I conclude, the General. When Felipe succumbs to Consuelo’s spell, the narration mentions his “true face”, he experiences “an invisible hand” ripping “off a mask he’s worn for 27 years” (p. 415).
Regarding the eating of liver, evidently goat's liver, did that have some magic element to it? Fuentes employs much animal and bird imagery, and the second meaning of Aura (vulture/ zopilote) seems to me connected with Consuelo’s hatred of/ torturing of cats. Then what was the garden Felipe saw from the roof with cats fighting and burning – a recollection of his past life or a glimpse into Consuelo’s true nature? Was the rabbit Saga what we would call her familiar?
Finally, to me the name Llorente evokes the Mexican mythic figure La Llorona, who weeps for her children (in some versions the children have died, in some version she killed them herself).
On a happier note, I stayed at Donceles #95 in a very nice hotel (Hotel Catedral) once and include 2 pictures taken from the roof terrace.
You were a neighbor to the Llorentes/Monteros who, I assume, are still living happily in Donceles!
ReplyDeleteSaga is obviously a familiar. By the way, the main meaning of saga (from the RAE) is: Mujer que se finge adivina y hace encantos o maleficios.
And I think that one of the ways in which Mrs. Llorente manages to summon her "Aura" through the sacrifice of cats.
I figured out why it is Donceles- Templo Mayor!!
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