Country of Jauja, a¿ family novel ?

Abstract

País de Jauja (1993), by Edgardo Rivera Martínez, has been read as a novel that proposes the viability of a national project, integrating diverse and heterogeneous cultural tendencies, both interna l and external, and present and past. Jauja, which is a cosmopolitan and Andean town, as well as Claudio, who is also the cosmopolitan and Andean narrator, constitute a "real" yet symbolic ambience of a harmonious coexistence. From this perspective, it is valid to ask if País de Jauja can be read as a "family novel" based on the theoretical approach developed by Doris Sommer, in so faras the representation of family becomes an allegory of the nation.