“Desaparecido” (disappeared) is the theme of the novel “Purgatory” by Tomas Eloy Martinez, the Argentine writer. The noun ‘desaparecido’ is an addition to Spanish vocabulary by the Argentine military dictatorship which made thousands of leftists disappear.
In the novel “ Purgatory”, Simon Cardoso, a young cartographer and leftist sympathizer is made to disappear by the military dictatorship. This is soon after his marriage to Emilia, the protagonist in the novel. Devastated by the disappearance, she spends the rest of her life waiting for the return of her husband. She does not believe the news that he was killed, since she has not seen the body. Her oligarchic father, who makes money by collaborating with the Generals, thinks it is good riddance. Unable to have a life of her own without her love, she spends her whole life searching for her disappeared husband. She goes to Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico, when she gets false tips of sightings of Simon in those countries. Finally she settles in US but continues to look out for Simon even there. She is completely obsessed with her impossible hope of return of her husband and is lost in hallucinations and delirium. She meets another Argentine also on exile in US and tells him her story. She says to him “the most unbearable loneliness is not being able to be alone”.
During the military dictatorship, the soldiers went on a rampage by picking up anyone, branding them as subversives and detaining, torturing and killing with impunity. Emilia and Simon were detained when they were on a map making mission in Tucuman area for the Automobile Club of Argentina. But the illiterate and ignorant soldiers on patrol in the area did not understand the mapping work. They arrested the couple, abused and tortured them. Emilia was saved by her influential father but not Simon.
When asked about the whereabouts of someone abducted by the regime, one of the dictators responded, “ ni vivo, ni muerto, simplemente desaparecido” (not alive nor dead but simply disappeared). The military picked up leftists, and anyone suspected of sympathizing with communism, jailed, tortured, killed and even thrown a few prisoners from planes. Workers disappeared from their factory gates; farmers from their fields, leaving tractors running; dead men from the graves in which they had been buried only the day before. Children disappeared from their mothers’ wombs and mothers from the children’s memories. The sick who arrived in hospital at midnight had disappeared by morning. Truth was made to disappear by the false propaganda of the regime.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement started a silent protest march in Buenos Aires in 1977 seeking information on their ‘disappeared’ children. The regime abducted three of the mothers and made them also ‘disappear’. Undeterred, the other courageous Mothers continued their march throughout the time of dictatorship which ended in 1983.
The military regime made even the body of Evita disappear in 1955. Fearing that her body and burial ceremony would rally the leftists, the authorities sent the body in a coffin to be buried secretly in a cemetery in Milan. They made identical coffins and sent them to other European cities to confuse anyone trying to trace it. Finally Evita’s body was found and brought back to Argentina in 1974.
In 1974, the Montonero guerrilla group kidnapped from the cemetery the body of General Aramburu who lead the coup against Peron and became President in 1955-58. He was earlier abducted and killed by the Montoneros in retaliation for his execution of Peronists. The group demanded the return of Evita’s body in exchange for that of Aramburu. Once Evita's body arrived in Argentina, the Montoneros gave up Aramburu's corpse and abandoned it in a street in Buenos Aires.
The military regime made even the names of Evita and Peron disappear from the public after the coup in 1955. Mentioning of the names in public or media was prohibited and violation was punished with imprisonment. In government files, Evita’s name was avoided and she was referred as ‘that woman’, ‘deceased’, ‘mare’ and ‘the person’
Martinez has described in poignant detail the anguish and agony of Emilia who is unable to come to terms with the disappearance of her husband. This was the case with thousands of other Argentines who lost their loved ones and could not say farewell with proper burials.
Martinez has written novels and articles on the disappearances, dictatorship and devastation of the Argentine society. My reviews of three of his novels in the links below:
The Peron Novel- https://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2010/02/peron-novel-by-tomas-eloy-martinez.html
Santa Evita - https://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2008/08/santa-evita-argentine-novel-by-tomas.html
The Tango singer- https://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2009/10/tango-singer-novel-by-tomas-eloy.html
Purgatory is Martinez’s last novel before his death in 2010.
Martinez himself was a victim of the dictatorship. The newspaper for which he was working in Buenos Aires was closed down by the authorities. He was forced into exile in Venezuela where he lived from 1975 to 1983. Thereafter he moved to US. On his exile, he says, ‘No one returns from exile. What you forsake, forsakes you’.
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