Abstract

VANDEN BERGHE, Kristine  and  ALVAREZ HERNANDEZ, Emma. Contrabando (2008) by Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda as a Post-testimonial Autofiction. Lit. mex [online]. 2025, vol.36, n.2, pp.153-173.  Epub Jan 06, 2026. ISSN 2448-8216.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.litmex/36.2.2025/001wx254107s67.

In this article, we read Contrabando (2008) by Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda as an early example of a generic mode that we propose to call ‘post-testimonial autofiction’, in order to designate texts that combine the ideological convictions and aims of testimonial literature with the enunciative ambiguity characteristic of autofiction. We will demonstrate that the text, traditionally read as a narco-novel, also contains typical characteristics of autofiction and testimony. The four section that structure this essay will highlight both the elements that bring the text closer to autofiction - its ambiguity between fiction and referentiality and its formal sophistication - and those that connect it to testimonial writing - its collective, subaltern and antihegemonic perspective -. Special attention will also be paid to Huguito, the author-narrator-protagonist constructed by Rascón Banda, whose representation oscillates between, on the one hand, the negative and denigrating self-portrait typical of contemporary autofictions, and, on the other hand, the figure of the writer committed to the suffering people, more akin to the ethos of the editor of testimonies.

Keywords : Autofiction; Testimony; Narconovel; Committed Literature; Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda; Contemporary Mexican Narrative.

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