Vislumbro a los muchachos quebrados en las muñecas

14:57 May 18, 2017 

Very good advice. Thank you all!

08:46 May 18, 2017 

I do not believe that isolated word has any particular meaning other than the stated "tricked" (including having been seduced by deceit) or "mocked". But if you are going to consult experts you'd better ask them about the whole of this book. I managed to download it yesterday (the link is not working today) and had the quickest of glimpses through it. It is complex, cryptic and difficult to read. I learned the author usually deals with marginal, harassed characters and family and identity issues. In this case she might also deal with transgenders and incest. She also uses slang and has a peculiar narrative style, which needs time and concentration to be understood as well as a first hand knowledge of this particular setting.

00:48 May 18, 2017 

Hmmmm Very interesting what you say about 'burladas', I think I'm going to ask some literature professors out here in Chile to see if it has a cultural meaning. With regard to 'desgarrar', I think that the same meaning that you've written could also be conveyed by 'torn up' e.g. a man could be 'torn up' after his girlfriend dumped him

00:36 May 18, 2017 

Looking at this again, don't you think "niñas burladas" might be another "euphemism" like the "muchachos quebrados en las muñecas", i.e., a pejorative (or insensitive?) way of referring to transwomen? Perhaps it would be worthwhile posting another question about that.

23:49 May 17, 2017 

As to your interpretation of "burladas" as "having escaped", it is syntactically impossible because it actually means the opposite. If someone is "burlado", it means they have been "tricked" or "deceived". You may have seen the expression "autoridades burladas", where the sense is that someone has tricked or evaded the reach of the authorities. It is as if you were to use "evaded" as a synonym of "evading", when in fact they are antonyms.

To my mind, "desgarrar" here has this meaning:
desgarrar
3. tr. Dicho de una cosa: Causar gran pena o despertar mucha compasión. Aquel suceso le desgarró el corazón.
http://dle.rae.es/?id=D0wiz5a

22:10 May 17, 2017 

So with regards to context, The soldiers have not been mistreated, but there are repeated attempts by the author to emasculate them, to tak away their honor as manly soldiers. With regards to "burladas", I thought of 'burlar' as in 'to evade', so thought that it might be talking about the women that got out of (esquivaron) the rape that were screaming. With regards to 'desgarrados', I have always understood 'desgarrar' as to 'tear open/rip apart', so 'torn up' to me sounded like a good situation since it also provided an emotional level to the translation

18:23 May 17, 2017 

Agree with Cecilia about "niñas burladas". "Desgarrados" doesn't mean "torn up" either.

17:09 May 17, 2017 

More context is needed to understand what the author means by that... maybe just that their wrists have been broken. But I do not understand why you translate "niñas burladas" as "girls that got away". That is not what it means.