ABSTRACT
The dual aspects of identity found in Esther Seligson and Muniz-Huberman are observed in other Jewish-Mexican writers, however, this emphasis is definitely greater in these two writers. This chapter analyzes two novels —one from each of these writers—and demonstrates how they deal with the essence of Judaism: its origins and the universal exile in which the Jewish people have lived for centuries. Muniz-Huberman, whose position is very similar to Seligson’s, develops a direct relationship between the ideas of identity and exile. The marginalized character par excellence is Rafael, who appears in Muniz-Huberman’s novel Tierra adentro [Homeward Bound]. Rafael is a Spanish twelve-year-old who begins the path towards maturity and through this journey hopes to encounter a world that will at least set him on the road to freedom. Rafael wants to be a Jew in a country where this is nearly considered a sin.
