The Testimonio Effect in Slash and Burn: Representing the Voices of Women in War

Abstract

Slash and Burn (2021) by Claudia Hernández is a timeless, nameless, placeless account of an ex combatant mother grappling with the legacy of civil war in her country. I argue that this novel generates a testimonial effect through powerful accounts, rooted in oral discourse, underscoring gender as a defining element in the lived experiences of women and girls during El Salvador’s civil war. In emulating testimonio, Slash and Burn becomes an alternative literary text that defies the colonial logic of linearity and highlights women’s implication within deeper political and social processes by re-inscribing their voices into the historical narrative. Ultimately, this novel’s reception is about bearing witness to the civil war and its impacts through the imaginative reconstruction of memories as characters negotiate coming to terms with a tumultuous past alive in the present.