The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence, rape, mental illness, emotional abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, suicidal ideation and self-harm, substance use, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness, and death.



“Angelita Unearthed” is narrated in the first person by a young, unnamed woman who lives alone in Buenos Aires. The emphasis on the narrator living “alone with no husband or children” (6) indicates her refusal to fulfill traditional gender roles, to the “disappointment” of her father, who “always complained that he was going to die without grandchildren” (9). However, the appearance of Angelita forces the narrator “to definitively stop thinking in terms of what was possible and what wasn’t” (7). Her first impulse is to strangle the dead baby, but she soon starts to soften toward the creature and even begins to behave maternally toward her, buying Angelita toys and carrying her with her when she goes out. However, the narrator’s tentative enthusiasm for motherhood is challenged when she realizes that she is truly stuck with the little creature. She takes Angelita back to her grandmother’s house, but the baby still refuses to leave the narrator alone. Finally, the narrator tries to flee the responsibility, walking away quickly with Angelita running after her.