A Note on the Chueta Figure in Ana María Matute's Primera memoria

The lyricism of Ana María Matute’s prose has sometimes obscured what Janet Pérez has rightly called her "determined sociopolitical engagement". A one-time member of the Turia group, which included the young Juan Goytisolo, she has been associated with other practitioners of the novela social, albeit often with certain reservations. However, such reservations may in part be due to the fact that what has gone unappreciated in Matute’s engagement (besides, as Pérez notes, its determined intent) is its subtlety. Her use of the chueta figure in Primera memoria, for instance, is both understated yet fundamental.