Auxilio consistently confuses dates as she explains her story to the reader. At the beginning of the novel, Auxilio says she “came to Mexico City in 1967, or maybe it was 1965, or 1962” (Bolaño 2). All of the dates mentioned occur before September 1968 suggesting that she is not ready to confront the events of that day, which is common in trauma victims. Bolaño diction, like “maybe,” draws attention to the uncertainty of Auxilio’s memory (2). Another example of temporal confusion is when Auxilio says she did not know Remedios Varo because she still lived in Montevideo in 1963, and it was impossible for her to meet her seeing that “Remedios Varo died in 1963” (106). However, Bolaño continues her story by having her meet Varo in the following chapter. Bolaño manipulates time and changes events in Auxilio’s life to convey the unsure nature of the events in Mexico. Bolaño’s intention behind showing the unreliability of the Auxilio’s memory and highlighting her traumatic state of mind is to make the reader focus on the emotion behind the UNAM incidents and less on the event …show more content…
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