Imaginary communities inscribe the body in concrete semiotic and semantic possibilities, within a system of engendered power relations. In this article, we study the imaginary and symbolic bodily constructions in Vaca Sagrada, novel by Diamela Eltit. Our reading explores embodied subjectivity not only as a literary problem in the novel, but as biopower, a political situation whereby material life itself becomes a specific object of power since Chile's dictatorship in the 70's. The old, enlightened "lettered city" is subjected to the transformative potential of the "embodied letter", revealing a central aspect of Eltit's aesthetic post dictatorial vision.