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Karl Kohut ends the introduction to the book Literaturas centroamericanas hoy (2005) on a hopeful note, after having commented on the lack of attention the literature of the region has received abroad: "esperamos que este volumen pueda servir de orientación en el camino al conocimiento de estas literaturas indebidamente desconocidas" (12). Central Americans' concept of identity generally excludes Black people, despite their continuous presence as well as intermixing since the colonial period and additional immigration during the twentieth century.1 In this context of multilayered marginalization and effacement, Anacristina Rossi is one mainstream Costa Rican writer who at the beginning of the twenty-frst century has published novels portraying the Black community and placing Black individuals in protagonist roles.2 Rossi has conducted research on the West Indian community of Limón, the main enclave for immigrants from the Anglophone Caribbean through the twentieth century, particularly on the Black writers and civic organizations at the beginning of that period. Furthermore, in my estimation, the elements that allow for what I take as traces of a race ideology in Limón Blues (or at the very least a confation of themes that makes for a confusing reading of the treatment of race and gender) are better understood in light of the feminist sensibility and the psychoanalytical frame of reference that the author had playfully explored already in her frst novel, María la noche (1985). Gender First Rossi's treatment of matters of race in relation to gender has received little critical attention. From the standpoint of ecofeminism, the main ecological problem to be overcome is the patriarchal system, which operates and exercises power through hierarchical dichotomies.6 Postema focuses on Rossi's approach to breaking down those dichotomies and its impact in the representation of ethnicity in the novel.
