The short story “Pasión de historia” (1987) by the Puerto Rican writer Ana Lydia Vega offers a feminist and self-reflective viewpoint on metaliterary concerns about the fictional rewriting of history and the inherent violence that belies this enterprise, as well as the ties of culpability and complicity that bind writers and readers of such texts. The parody of detective fiction and tabloid sensationalism forces the reader to transfer certain types of ethical judgment to the stories in Vega’s tale. Through this process, “Pasión de historia” aims to subvert official discourses of national, religious, linguistic and gender identity, albeit without completely shaking off a conflicting sense of guilt and risk. Despite the recurrent association between the act of writing and the responsibility for violence, Vega’s tale claims the right to rewrite a history of colonial and patriarchal violence from the perspective of a Puerto Rican woman in the 1980s. The exploration of “universal” or hegemonic metaliterary concerns from the postcolonial/feminine margin thus becomes an admonition against postmodern scruples that threaten to silence or deny relevance to non-hegemonic forms of discourse such as Vega’s own writing.