LA PERDIDA is a graphic novel (comic or comix) by Jessica Abel (Fantagraphics Books, 2004). It tells the story of Carla, who travels to Mexico to explore her heritage and to escape her young adult life in the U.S. That apathy and lack of direction each generation likes to assign to the next is evident in Carla’s wanderings. She’s not sure who she is, or where she wants to be. She feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere. At the same time, she has very human feelings and possesses a meta-awareness of her cliché situation.
We start part one of five with Carla reflecting on her reasons for going to Mexico. In hindsight, she attempts to make sense of her actions. She also sheds light on that very human experience of the relevance of places at certain times. When she writes of being in the Parque Mexico in Mexico City, one could apply her thoughts to any place she has visited and for which she has felt an inexplicable affinity. For me, a place like this is Provincetown, Massachusetts. I never fail to feel invigorated and inspired after a day walking the streets, hiking the dunes, exploring the galleries, the beaches or just sitting on a bench. Thus, in this way, the reader becomes close to our narrator, Carla, as she thinks of these kinds of places and how they affect the psyche.
Carla tells us about wanting to visit the home of Frida Kahlo. We see her adore the artist, even as she finds it difficult to understand much of her life and choices. This is classic hero worship, wherein we learn the humanity behind the person, the dichotomies in a single person, and we find imperfection, incongruity, something different from ourselves and have a hard time rectifying those differences.
We’re shown more of the difference of experience between U.S. citizens who live and/or work in Mexico, and how separate they remain from the Mexican people. Carla argues with Memo, a Mexican man who claims she cannot escape her capitalist, imperial nature. Carla seems to be unable to escape who she is, and to reconcile her life with that of Mexican citizens. At the same time, Memo, and his friends, are also unable to escape their own lives, even as they merely attack Carla for her own existence, blaming her for their situation.
Eventually, Carla becomes involved in the kidnapping of her former boyfriend, Harry. As a victim herself, she is never charged in the matter, yet feels responsible for Harry’s experience, as well as for the death of her boyfriend, Oscar, in the kidnapping situation. At the end of the story, Carla feels the girl she was when she went to Mexico is lost, and that she is still not sure how to come to terms, how to find a middle ground, between her Mexican heritage and her American life.
In LA PERDIDA, we see what it is to be in a liminal place, between cultures, not fitting into any particular locale or location. I think of Carla’s experience at the beginning of the story, in the park, and that moments like this are all we have to feel grounded, even if it is just for moments of time. Despite the turmoil of the story, and the personal turmoil we witness as Carla attempts to come to terms with the dichotomy of her experience, Carla is depicted as a strong female character who keeps her presence of mind. At the end of the story, Carla reflects on the loss of the girl who went to Mexico, her younger self, and mourns the loss.
KATE’S PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE: IF YOU WANT TO READ LA PERDIDA, LOOK FOR IT AT YOUR LOCAL COMIC BOOK SHOP. MOST WILL SPECIAL-ORDER ANYTHING YOU WANT IF THEY DON’T HAVE IT IN STOCK. IN MASSACHUSETTS, SOUTHWEST OF BOSTON, I USE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD COMICS IN BELLINGHAM. THE SHOP IN NO WAY ENDORSES OR PAID FOR THIS PROMOTION. I MENTION THE SHOP BECAUSE IT IS WOMAN AND FAMILY FRIENDLY!
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