“Leila Guerriero, the implacable gaze. How to tell reality with the resources of literature” is titled the table that will serve as an opening to the X Dialogues of Writers from Argentinaa series of meetings with some of the most notable references of contemporary Argentine literature –Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Claudia Pineiro, Agustina Bazterrica, Guillermo Martinez, Clara Obligado, Gonzalo Aguilar, Mariana Travacio, Flavio Lo Presti either Paula Perez Alonsoto name just a few of those participating this year.
“If authors and their books move us to the extent that they allow us to intimately experience an experience other than our own – real or imaginary – we must give the Narrative Journalism Yet the Non-fiction the definitive recognition that they deserve as literary genres, also within the framework of the Fair,” says the cultural journalist Veronica AbdalaGeneral Coordinator of the Dialogue this year.
“That is one of the central reasons why we invite Leila to the opening of this cycle: plain and simple, because his books and his texts – chronicles, profiles, articles – cause commotion. Her literature is like a cross to the jaw, to put it in the terms of Roberto Arlt. Not for nothing is she considered a reference for the genre.”
The title of this opening dialogue is “The implacable gaze”, furthermore, because, it says Abdala“as another Argentine writer, Pedro Mairal, pointed out, Leila Guerriero nothing escapes it: those who read it know it and verify that it combines an unusual capacity for observation, prose of mathematical precision and the sensitivity to recognize the narrative potential of events or situations that many others go unnoticed, and that “Skill also speaks of his acuity and the tenacity of his searches.”
warrior She is the author of several books. The most recent is The call, where she tells the life of Silvia Labayru, a woman who is the daughter of soldiers and was a member of Montoneros, who was kidnapped at the ESMA and who was used as “bait” by Astiz. It came out in January and is one of the books of the year.
Before that he wrote books like The other war -about Malvinas-, Opus Gelber -about Bruno Gelber- The suicides of the end of the world -about a wave of suicides in the south of Argentina and strange fruitsa varied sample of chronicles and profiles.
The influence of some of the contemporary authors he most admires – Lorrie Moore, David Foster Wallace, Joan Didion or Vivian Gornik – is often recognizable in his texts, but his style in turn reveals a fierceness most likely associated with his roots. Latin Americans and that also links her to a tradition closer to that of Rodolfo Walsh, Martín Caparrós, Juan Villoro and the great chroniclers of the continent.
Someone pointed out – and hit the nail on the head – that Leila Guerriero writes about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or about extraordinary people who end up being like one. It was also said that she does so with unacceptable modesty.
But how is it built? one’s own view? How was it in your case?
What sequence of tenacious searches and coincidences led you to reach some certainties or outline intuitions about what narrative journalism is and is not?
And to what extent are you willing and able to immerse yourself in the life of another to narrate them later, with lack of apprehension and distance?
Can anyone be a journalist?
The two journalists will talk about all that and more on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 1, in the living room. Victoria Ocampo (at 6 p.m.). “We know in advance that there are no formulas,” says Abdala. “That, as she says: ‘Narrative journalism is not a martini. “I wish it were as easy as gathering two or three ingredients and topping them with an olive.”
During Thursday, May 2 and Friday, May 3, Los Diálogos continue with the following program:
Thursday May 2
Table I. 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Room. White Pavilion.
Issue. Are there no more men or do we no longer want men? The dilemma of new masculinities
They talk: Federico Jeanmaire, Enzo Maqueira, “Lucho” Fabbri.
Moderate: Gonzalo Aguilar
Table II. 19 to 20. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Room. White Pavilion.
Issue: Narrative of the self // New variants of the autobiographical story: the art of recreating one’s own life.
They talk: Claudio Zeiger, Gloria Peirano, Carlos Aletto.
Moderate: Luis Mey
Table III. 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Room. White Pavilion.
Issue: Insistencies of the political in fiction: Do convictions and utopias sneak into literature?
They talk: Claudia Piñeiro, Guillermo Martínez, Claudia Aboaf, Elsa Drucaroff. Moderator: Alejandra Rodríguez Ballester
Friday, May 3
Table I. 19 to 20. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Room. White Pavilion.
Issue: Tips for aspiring writers: writing secrets for constructing the perfect story.
They talk: Alejandra Kamiya, Flavio Lo Presti, Paula Perez Alonso, Mariana Travacio. Moderator: Débora Campos
Closing:
Table II 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Room. White Pavilion.
Issue: The past speaks of the present: History inspires fiction.
They talk: Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Agustina Bazterrica, Fabian Martínez Siccardi, Clara Obligado.
Moderate: Patricia Kolesnicov
