The Eyes of the Earth
By Tamara Pearson
Tehom Center Publishing, 2024
Australian-Mexican journalist and author Tamara Pearson鈥檚 new novel, , is exactly what we need at the moment 鈥 a poetic story based on Latino magical realism, with tragedy and a victory. The unlikely hero is an elderly, impoverished, uneducated woman of colour, who has spent most of her life in Honduras.
Her name is Clementina, but she is known by her nickname La Tortuga, the tortoise. Nicknames are very common in Latin America, usually based on a comical aspect of one鈥檚 appearance.
She has been ignored and is seemingly invisible because of her fragility, age and gender. When her nephew is brutally killed by members of a drug gang for refusing to pay them protection money, she is forced to walk to Mexico.
The novel revolves around La Tortuga鈥檚 attempts to eke out an existence in a new country, in the massive metropolis of Mexico City. Her main problems are finding a safe bed for the night, a place to wash, a toilet and cheap food.
Now that the city鈥檚 election campaign is over, the charities have disappeared and hostels have closed down. There are no services for the millions of refugees and migrants that have arrived to cross into the United States to chase the 鈥淎merican dream鈥.
But this is not La Tortuga鈥檚 dream. She makes a living by fixing anything 鈥 repairing broken light shades, mending shoes or rewiring electric fans. She can take anything apart and figure out how it works.
I love this aspect of her character, the fixing and repurposing of the mass-produced goods ubiquitous in modern society.
The magical realism of the novel is revealed through La Tortuga鈥檚 ability to see beyond people鈥檚 physical appearance; to see their essence, 鈥渢he colour and shape of each person鈥檚 unique soul鈥. She can see their pain, problems and anxieties and the events that have shaped their personalities.
Pearson labels it an alebrije, which can take the form of a rainbow beetle with curly toes, an octopus, a sapphire egret, a duck-centipede, a small flame with white eyes. La Tortuga鈥檚 own alebrije is a butterfly-turtle.
On the other hand, there are the monsters with no听alebrije, who destroy the Earth and have 鈥渟old their humanity to the highest bidder鈥. They are the rapacious property developers, the financiers, the CEOs of corporations that destroy the rainforests, rivers and mountains to build car parks and shopping centres.
For those who have been to Mexico City, you will remember the bus station that goes in circles and Z贸calo Plaza where La Tortuga plies her trade. Pearson describes these places, without feeling the need to list details or numbers of the deadly devastations inflicted by the corporate system on the countries of the Global South 鈥 just a reference to remind us.
Pearson draws on her experiences of living in Latin America for the past 17 years 鈥 mainly in Venezuela and Mexico 鈥 to weave into the narrative the stories and international catastrophic events that have taken place.
She is very familiar with the ancient culture of Latin America and has worked with refugees and migrants in Mexico.
Pearson said during her that she wanted to highlight global inequality and the unhealthy relationship of the US with Latin America, 鈥減articularly now we are facing the genocide in Gaza, Sudan and the greenwashing of the COP [United Nations Climate Change Conference] 鈥 However, more important developments come from resistance and organising, of which we hear little.鈥
鈥淩eal, deep social change comes from the movements, the accumulation of small victories,鈥 she said. 鈥淥ur heads and hearts need the inspiration that fiction provides.
鈥淗ope is in the unseen heroes, who are not physically strong, unlike Superman from Hollywood 鈥 Crises and suffering can turn us inward, but novels and stories can take our imagination beyond our small world, so that a new and more gentle world is born.鈥
Storytelling is a powerful, important tool to break down stereotypes and propaganda perpetuated by the mass media against refugees, migrants, women and non-binary people.
Indigenous and African writers cannot easily get published in the Global North, so we do not generally hear their stories. As a result, it is more difficult to empathise with or understand the plight of the dispossessed in the Global South. Racism, ageism and misogyny render these people invisible.
The Eyes of the Earth is an important novel, as we live through one of the darkest hours of humanity. It is important to realise the effect that the global capitalist system 鈥 tariffs, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, enforced austerity, environmental destruction and the extraction of the world鈥檚 wealth by the billionaires 鈥 have on the populations of the Global South.
This book explains it all vividly, with heart-rending images and poetry, which inspires us to fight harder for their liberation and our own.
Watch the book launch event:
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