Necrologías prematuras: bioficciones

A journalist sets out to gather information about the inhabitants of a small town in southeastern Puerto Rico. He asks them to write their own obituary, but one that would contain only something no one else knows about them. They are promised complete anonymity. The respondents were free to reveal anything, regardless of the nature of their secret. Over a period of three years, he received 74 replies, 62 more than he expected from the 150 participants. Encouraged by a colleague, he or she asked a writer to collect 63 of the obituaries in one volume, which the writer titled Premature Obituaries: Biofiction. The stories tell of pasts as victims of humiliation, violence, love, and disillusionment due to racism, homophobia, machismo and sexual incontinence—several of them proud victimizers.