Tim Z. Hernandezâs MaÃ±ana Means Heaven: Love on the Road and the Challenge of Multicultural Hospitality1

Maria AntÃ²nia Oliver-Rotger

Abstract

Tim Z. Hernandezâs MaÃ±ana Means Heaven is a critical rewriting of a biographical episode in Jack Kerouacâs On the Road featuring the relationship between Sal Paradise and a Mexican girl, Terry. Based on documentary research and on his interviews with Bea Franco after Hernandez tracked her down alive in Fresno in 2010, the novel appeals to truth by referring to real people, places, and facts occurring during the two weeks that Bea Franco spent with Kerouac âon the roadâ in Los Angeles, and in the agricultural towns of Bakersfield and Selma in the San JoaquÃn Valley. The story also deals with Francoâs trip to Denver in which she tried to locate Jack some months after his departure. Both as a counternarrative of Kerouacâs version of the story, as a road narrative (Brigham), and as a counter romance narrative (Illouz 1997, 1998, 2012), MaÃ±ana Means Heaven focuses on the difficulties of incorporating and relating to difference and contrasts with the ideal of an inclusive, heterogeneous America embodied by the experience of Sal Paradise in Kerouacâs novel. The novel is built on both the silence of the literary character of Terry and on the historical silence of Bea Franco who, as Hernandez reveals in a closing narrative frame, denied ever having met or ever welcomed or hosted Kerouac in her hometown. Led by the imperative to respect Francoâs memory and that âmemory belongs to the rememberer,â Hernandez negotiates extensive research, documentary evidence, and the writersâ interpretation to construct Francoâs hypothetical memory of that episode and reveal the ensuing emotional dilemmas and development of a young migrant woman of Mexican origin. Told from the perspective of Bea Franco, the story reveals the gender, class, and cultural conditions that restrict the protagonistâs access to the masculine realm of relative freedom and privilege of Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac, as well as the gender norms and social prejudices that make it difficult for Jack to be hosted as a migrant worker. Drawing on Ann Brighamâs considerations on the road narrative as a genre where the self seeks to reinvent himself through mobility by engaging with other places, regions, and identity, I will approach the road as a âcontact zoneâ (Pratt) where oneâs status of guest, host, or stranger is related to oneâs position or oneâs understanding of self in relation to place, identity, and culture. The understanding of the road and mobility itself also play a role in the understanding of hospitality, as they may be associated to the transgression and overcoming of boundaries, or to the presence of boundaries and the difficulty of incorporation. In the corresponding episode in Kerouacâs work, hospitality is at the expense of the misrepresentation of the other and serves the reinvention of the male character (Brigham, 61). Contrarily, in Hernandezâs work, class, racial, and gender boundaries challenge narratives of love, geographical imaginaries, and myths of social mobility, and draw attention to the difficulties of hosting and welcoming the Other. Given the social and gender rift between Jack and Bea that MaÃ±ana Means Heaven illustrates, Francoâs silence may be read as the âemotional residueâ of the crude, painful fact that theirs is a story of failed hospitality.

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	656	352	18
Full Text Views	4	1	0
PDF Views & Downloads	10	0	0

Chapter 11 Tim Z. Hernandezâs MaÃ±ana Means Heaven: Love on the Road and the Challenge of Multicultural Hospitality¹

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The Poetics and Politics of Hospitality in U.S. Literature and Culture

Metrics

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 11 Tim Z. Hernandezâs MaÃ±ana Means Heaven: Love on the Road and the Challenge of Multicultural Hospitality1

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The Poetics and Politics of Hospitality in U.S. Literature and Culture

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics

Chapter 11 Tim Z. Hernandezâs MaÃ±ana Means Heaven: Love on the Road and the Challenge of Multicultural Hospitality¹