Carolina de Robertis - Perla

Perla is a difficult story both in the mystic way that it is written - that is so popular in South American novels - and the story line that it seeks to explore. A story that must be told about a brutal dictatorship in Argentina at a different time and place. 

 

Although the story supposedly ends in triumph as the protagonist Perla discovers herself, it is tragic because it unravels the life of Luisa and Hector Correa who were her 'adoptive' parents and had been on the 'wrong side' of the Argentine wars.  Perla initially is protective of Luisa and Hector even when she knows that they are considered the villains. However when she discovers that she too is one of the disappeared, she takes a stand against them. I  was rather distressed by her ultimate reaction, hence for me, the ending is a tragedy.

The story is about those who disappeared - The desaparecidos - and those who ultimately suffer. Either way, everybody is like a pawn on a chess board and everybody suffers in one way or other. On one side of the divide we have the grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons and friends who lost their loved ones. They demand justice and want the desaparecidos back with life. The problem is that what was done cannot be altered or undone. So those who "lost " are asking for the impossible. Others want to bring the issue to closure as their loved ones are "disappeared" without the dignity of a proper burial. This story is not only about Argentina and if we look deeply we will find similarities in life lived in the past or as we live it today. It is the story of Keith Bennett whose mother has died at a ripe age of 78 and unable to grieve properly for him because she does not know where he was buried by his killers. It is also the story about Kenya's Mau Mau veterans requesting delayed justice from the Imperial Government for atrocities committed by His Majesty's Government at a different time and place. It is the story of various Genocides, Post Election Violences, Various Struggles for Independence & Self Determination  and the Holocaust. It is the story of the wives of the Lonmin Platinum miners in South Africa who ask for their wounded and dead. It is the story of the children of slavery, the aborigine children forcibly taken away from their people and parents and those they left behind.  The indegenous peoples of many lands who disappeared through various conquests. It is really the story of our fallen lives for which we are all guilty...held responsible for the sins of fathers.


Intertwined in the book is  a story about feminism - Interestingly, it is the males who commit the atrocities and the females looking out for their men - seeking a solution for crimes against humanity. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo who demand for justice and the women who assist the disappeared children to discover their families.  The 100 women who appear outside the courts in South Africa....'pleading for leniency for their men'.

On the other hand, we have those who simply followed orders. How do we judge, those who simply carried out their duties to the state with special zeal?  How do we judge Scilingo, Hector and their comrades? Is there atonement and forgiveness for their supposed sins?  How do we judge the police who open fire on the striking miners and dispatch them to  their untimely destiny? I feel drawn towards the plight of Luisa and Hector Correa. With hindsight, I think that Perla has "judged" them too harshly when she discovers that she was not their biological child and that she, Perla, is one of the disappeared children.  She leaves without giving Hector, the father who brought her up and loved her, a chance to explain himself...To understand his demons...To explain his position and atone for his sins. To resolve the Argentine conflict, there was immunity for those, whose duty it was to make people disappear.  This however did not resolve the problem for those affected by the disappearances on either side of the divide.  It was simply the easier path... the lesser evil  between so many other poor options and choices.  So Perla is no different from her 'friend' Romina who shunned her when she 'discovered' that Perla's supposed father (Hector) was on the wrong side of the Argentine problem.  I would have been happier if Perla had demonstrated character like Gabriel for whom it did not matter either way.  The sentence that reminds me about the fate of the affected - whichever side of the divide one finds oneself - is ..."Don't talk me about demons, until you have wrestled down your own".  To judge a man or woman- unless you too have walked on the same road that they have trodden, with the same shoes and under the same circumstances and context - is an exercise in futility.

The other compelling issue was the role of the all powerful church that sanctioned the disappearances.  The dilemma the church is facing  is great, being at the forefront of so many social problems like slavery, wars, questionable policies, crimes against humanity, outright theft, fleecing people of hard earned money, child abuses and yet not standing up to be counted.  When Perla's father disappeared, "He had a God and when the dark swallowed his mind, he reeled and broke and soared out to find him, pray to him - Pater noster qui es in caelis"... The problem though is not the Almighty God of mercy and grace but the people who purport to represent him on earth.  It is those that I am tempted to rile against...those who stand by and actively taunt people as they descend into  holes that have no bottoms...and do this in the name of God.  Can we, who are guilty by extension for sins of commission and omission,  honestly find grace, mercy and atonement when we pray,  in whatever tongue that enables us seek penance best?







"Padre nuestro que Estás en los cielos, Perdónanos nuestras deudas..Baba Wetu, Uliye Mbinguni, Utusamehe makosa yetu...Our Father who art in Heaven, Forgive us our trespasses...Notre Père, qui es aux cieux, Pardonne-nous nos offences...Pater noster qui es in caelis, dimitte nobis debita nostra...Wuonwa manie polo, Wenwae gopewa...Jthe witũ wĩ Igũrũ, Na ũtũrekere mathiri maitũ...Papa Wefwe O'uli mwikulu, Okhureshere obuononi bwefwe...Baba wethu osezulwini, Usithethelele izono zethu...Bawo wethu osezulwini, Sixolele amatyala ethu njengokuba

 

Ultimately, the pain we feel is ours alone. People move on...distracted by other things like Argentina hosting the 1978 World Cup.  But there are those for whom the pain - whatever pain - will never go away.  It does not matter that in the big scheme of things, they are few and have to be sacrificed for the greater good. I think of my boss from Argentina and regret that I never really took time to ask him about events at that time. I knew so little about Argentina until I watched the fictionalised Evita Peron personified by Madonna. Every time I think about Argentina, I come back to the song " Don't Cry For Me Argentina....The Truth Is I never left you". I also think about Diego Maradona - the greatest footballer of all time and the beautifully sounding Buenos Aires.

For those who struggle with the demons that plague them, we can only be reminded by the words of Perla to Gabriel  - Please Don't Give Up On Me.