Argentine literature is filled with suffering. This pain is dealt with in their literature by using magic and fantasy to escape from the harsh realities of life. Three author’s and their works in particular stand out as representative of this type of Argentine literature. Luisa Valenzuela’s “Strange Things Happen Here”, Jose Luis Borges’ “The South”, and Lawrence Thornton’s Imagining Argentina all employ the fantastic. More importantly, each author has also provided their own interpretation of Argentina’s identity. First, Valenzuela gives excellent physical description of her setting and of the mentality of her poor characters. Borges, for his part in shaping our understanding of the identity of Argentina, gives wonderful description with plenty of local color. Thornton does Argentina a service by telling of the oppressive military regime that once ruled the country. However, Thornton fails to give readers any insight into the identity of the people of Argentina.
Luisa Valenzuela’s short story, “Strange Things Happen Here” overflows with physical description of the buildings and the inhabitants of a typical Argentine town. For example the first sentence describes the placement of a typical cafe in Argentina (Valenzuela 301). Also, Vanenzuela’s plot relies on the actions of two poor Argentineans. Thus Luisa gives readers a sense of a typical Argentine town and a look at two of its shady inhabitants.
Jose Luis Borges short story titled “The South”, illustrates the way a native Argentinean knows his own people. In addition he gives readers a glimpse of Argentine history and geography. He does this with his descriptions of characters in this story which give us a sense of Argentina. For example, one character is described as having a, “long chiripd, [likely]...from the Northern countries or from the province of Entre Rios”(Borges 172). This descriptive language gives readers a taste of the local words and phases.
Thornton’s work does an excellent job in relating the plight of the Argentine people to a world audience. The novel’s protagonist, Carlos Rueda, is in charge of the children’s playhouse in his home city of Calle Cordoba when people begin disappearing. In response to the abductions and in defiance of the military government, Carlos holds meetings in his backyard where he “imagines” the fate of those taken. In doing so the author breaks from reality and enters into the fantastic as Carlos uses his “imaginings” to console the people of his town. The ability of Thornton to weave a complex message of hope on a background of suffering and torture earned him a number of accolades from the writing community. In winning these awards Thornton further increased awareness of the atrocities of the Argentine government. This was especially important because this novel was published only a decade after the fictional “disappearances” of the story were actually taking place on the streets of Argentina. Unfortunately, raising awareness is about the only thing this book is good for.
Lawrence Thornton’s Imaging Argentina is appropriately title because the author of this work is only imagining what Argentina is really like. Repeatedly in this novel Thornton reveals his own ignorance of any specific details regarding Argentine culture. Take, for example, the description of the doors to the Children’s Theathre which contain, “...representations of characters from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Argentine fairy tales” (145). Here the author clearly forgets that he is writing this story through the eyes of Marin, a native Argentinean, because he chooses to include two stories popular in US culture and neglects mentioning equivalent Argentinean stories! This omission is glaring mistake on the author’s part. Thornton frequently relates events in the novel to situations in American History. For example the author describes the intensity of Cecilia’s presence as being similar to, “...the shadow of an atomized person burned into the concrete abutment of a bridge at Hiroshima” (121).
Each of these authors use their literary talent to describe Argentina. The difference between them is that the two that are from Argentina have something interesting to say on the subject as well as adding to our knowledge of their culture. The American author on the other hand chose an interesting subject however, because of his lack of knowledge he can not be trusted to accurately describe the conditions in Argentina.
Works Cited
Borges, Jose Luis. “The South” Valenzuela, Luisa. “Strange Things Happen Here” Thornton, Lawrence. Imagining Argentina. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.

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