ABSTRACT
Mario Alberto Zambrano’s debut novel Lotería tells the story of the Chicana girl Luz, who tries to cope with three intersecting traumas. Resulting from sexual abuse, physical abuse, and the psychological repercussions of a violent police encounter that lead to the death of her sister, the traumas that haunt Luz are never acknowledged by the society around her. In her first-person account, Luz only gradually reveals the causes for her debilitating grief and pain in a fractured and unchronological manner. Drawing on David Herman’s concept of polychronic narration, Mario Grill explores how Lotería’s fuzzy temporalities highlight the difficulties of narrativizing loss while inviting readers to perceive Luz’s traumas the same way she remembers them. Grill argues that the fractured and unassimilated nature of polychronic narration is what allows Luz to re-enact her traumas while cueing readers to mentally witness them and feel along with her not only when she experiences pain but also when she copes and eventually reclaims agency over both her racialized body and her narrative.
