Mauricio Silva, also known as “The Eye,” always tried to avoid violence, even at the risk of being considered a coward, but violence, real violence, is unavoidable, at least for those of us who were born in Latin America during the fifties and were about twenty years old at the time of Salvador Allende’s death. (…)
Source: Bolaño, Roberto “Mauricio (“The Eye”) Silva.” In: Last Evenings on Earth. Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews. New Directions 2006.
Available at page 106-120 of [🔗]
current affairs
Does Westerners have the duty or even the right to interfere with practices in other cultures? This question has been much debated in connection with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In the Aeon article “Boys and Girls Alike,” Brian D. Earp argues that the West’s condemnation of FGM is not consistent with its acceptance of male circumcision.
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questions
1. When Mauricio takes a picture of the eunuch child he says: “I knew I was damning myself for all eternity, but I did it.” What is it that he feels guilty about?
2. Much of the story focuses on Mauricio being a Chilean refugee and a homosexual. How is this relevant to the story?
3. The story invites us to take a moral stand relative to a practice outside of our own culture. Are we in a position to do so? Similarly, the West takes a strong stand against FGM. Do we have the right to take a stand against cultural practices in cultures other than our own? Do we have the duty to do so?
4. Do you think that Brian D. Earp is correct in arguing for the moral equivalence of male circumcision and FGM?