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In this essay, I study the connection between the act of reading and the circulation of Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán’s Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos (1801). Drawing from a perspective that regards materiality as a central element to understanding the relationship between readers and texts, I explore Francisco de Miranda’s intervention as editor of the letter in relation to notions of authenticity, authority, identity, and culture in the context of colonial discourse. Specifically, I argue that Miranda’s additions to the text provide an opportunity to trace his reading of the text, showing the complicated history of how Viscardo’s letter has been constructed as a text while positing reading as a creative and productive act.

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This article contends that Mexican writers have drawn on the picaresque to ponder what they regard as the precariousness of intellectual labor in Mexico. It analyzes the role that the afterlives of the picaresque have played in the portrayal of writers as disenfranchised and vulnerable subjects, two of the most relevant features of the archetype of pícaros. In addition, this project also suggests that picaresque narratives embody a discourse of precarity that goes beyond pícaros and applies to all subjects who engage in the production and circulation of literature, turning the picaresque in a suitable form in which Mexican writers can reflect on the value of literature in Mexican society.En este artículo propongo la picaresca como una forma literaria que se ha usado para reflexionar sobre la incertidumbre y la precariedad del trabajo intelectual en México desde la época colonial hasta el presente. Analizo también el papel que la picaresca ha jugado en la representación de la figura del escritor como un sujeto marginalizado y vulnerable, dos características típicas del pícaro. Finalmente, sugiero que estas narrativas encarnan un discurso de precariedad que rebasa la figura del pícaro y que puede aplicarse a todos los individuos relacionados con la producción y circulación literaria, por lo que la picaresca se convierte en una forma de reafirmar el valor de la literatura en la sociedad mexicana.