Animales de Alquiler: Challenging the Architectures of Domination

Ecological Crisis and Cultural Representation in Latin America

Lexington Books

Año: 2016; p. 217 - 233

The short film ?Zootizens: a Natural Reserve for Wild Capitalism? (2010) examines the dreadful consequences of both the environmental and the social crises in developing countries in a futuristic setting. An incisive critique of capitalism, ?Zootizens? explores a non-distant future ?the year 2078- in Costa Rica in which, due to the human over-exploitation of the environment, many rainforest animal species have perished. In this context, however, some commercial laboratories have managed to store and patent genetic samples of some of the species indigenous to this habitat. Departing from an ecocriticritical framework we view this text as denouncing the exploitation of both human and non-human nature, as well as the logics of the system that legitimize such exploitation. Profiting from the rising in poverty and unemployment levels and the ensuing social turmoil, these labs- which are portrayed as big pharmaceutical corporations- develop a controversial project: to implant the genetic material taken from the perished species in people willing to become hybrid individuals in exchange for financial aid. The term in Spanish ?beneficio?- which means financial aid but also advantage- is soon put into question as the mock documentary presents the negative effects behind the beneficial façade of this project, as well as the reasons which drove these people to turn into zootizens. This fictional work was directed by Costa Rican film-maker and philosopher Pablo Ortega, researcher and teacher for the Universidad de Costa Rica who incorporated the stop-motion animated technique. The film has been granted several awards since its opening in 2010, and has been described by Ortega (2012) himself as a reflection on ?? a society [in which] we are valued not for our humanity but for the profits we yield to this system, and this is what the film is trying to represent metaphorically? . In our view, this short film can be read as an eco-narrative which ironically reflects not only on the state of the environment, but also on the way in which power is exerted over others, and materially performed. The logics of domination associated with late capitalism are exposed in all its rawness: humans who happily conform to the role assigned to them in the chain of production-consumption as cheap hand labor, and a natural ecosystem which has been tampered by humans for the sake of their benefits. These hybrid beings embody the harms of a system which creates a new material and subdued subject which on top of its marginality remains fragmented, unable to constitute a united front against its oppressor. However, quite on the contrary of what could be expected, these beings uphold that system and its logic. By this logic, nature becomes one more element to be subdued and controlled in two instances: first, by destroying the environment, and after that by controlling at will the continuity ?if slightly modified- of species. What?s more, the manipulation of both genetic material and the result of that manipulation support and emphasize both the anthropocentric and class-oriented exploitation. As Serenella Iovino states literature as a space of wider imaginative potential is endowed with the ability to become ?the site of a constant, creative renewal of language, perception, communication, and imagination? (36). This is the case for this ironic text which makes a mockery of commonplace arguments by which the oppressed legitimize their own oppression. We contend that this irony contributes to problematizing anthropocentric perspectives, thus, endorsing a biocentric discourse.