The female grotesque in the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Frida Kahlo

If one summarizes the characteristics of the "grotesque," one finds it is extreme, exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, estranged, abnormal, surreal, subversive, tragic, comic, or beautiful. There is a close connection between the grotesque and women: Starting with their own bodies, women are associated with elements of the grotesque such as the uncanny, the extravagant, the witch, and the fatal devouring female, among others. Some scholars consider that there is a close relationship between a grotesque female body and a political body of a nation, e.g., Mary Russo in The Female Grotesque (1986) connects the essence of the grotesque with the role of women as leaders who fight for positive changes in their societies.;Upon analyzing the essence of the grotesque, it is easy to see that the Latin American continent has become a grotesque world, for it is estranged, alienated, and dominated and manipulated by powerful systems, and women are directly affected by this phenomenon. For many centuries, since the time of the conquest of Latin America, the majority of women have been placed in secondary positions: housewives, mothers, nuns, servants, or just underpaid laborers. Traditional and official institutions have contributed to the discrimination, exploitation, and oppression of women and have promoted and encouraged a conduct of machismo.;I argue that as a response to this phenomenon, many writers, painters, and other intellectuals have used the grotesque as a way of protest against historical acts of oppression, discrimination, and alienation of women. For instance, writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende depict extreme situations in their narratives and also propose solutions to work on behalf of all women. In visual arts, artists create grotesque symbols through unconventional paintings in order to defeat oppressive regimes. Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is an example of this kind of expression. Projecting her own image in a variety of depictions, Kahlo creates a new dimension of social protest against women's discrimination.