Lewis Shiner's work first came to my attention with the short story "Perfidia" which I completely loved. I thus was delighted to hear that he was doing an interesting blog tour on the subjects surrounding his latest novel, a political thriller (sort of) that combines recent Argentinian history, the tango, a bit of a mid life crisis, some life or death drama (big time) and a powerful love. Dark Tangos (which received a starred review from Booklist) is most certainly an adult novel, playing with themes and emotions that require the heart and soul of those who have lived through their own jaded moments. As a former history teacher what captivated me were the aspects of Argentina's history that Lewis brings alive; that's what I asked about and he replied with the guest post below.
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Colleen was kind enough to offer me space here to talk about my new novel, Dark Tangos. The book is set in present-day Argentina, but is overshadowed by the events of the late 1970s, commonly referred to as "the Dirty War"--the complete, airtight repression of all dissent by means of kidnapping, savage torture, and murder--state terrorism with no limits or remorse.

When Colleen and I discussed what she might like me to do here, she came up with a single question: "Do you think a contemporary novel about Argentina can be written without touching on some aspect of the Dirty War?"

The simple answer is that yes, of course you can write such a novel--but I think most people in the US would have a hard time understanding it. What is it with these Argentineans? Why are they so depressed and anxious? What is this elephant in the room that nobody is talking about?

The immediate origins of the Dirty War lie in 1973, when populist hero Juan Perón returned to power after an 18-year exile. People in the US know Perón mostly because of his second wife, Evita, played by Madonna in the eponymous movie. By 1973 Evita had been dead for more than 20 years, and Perón himself was a broken man who let the right wing of his party begin looting the country. Resistance was violent, the suppression of it even more violent, a circle that became more vicious yet under his widow, Isabel, and her Rasputin-like advisor, José López Rega.

There had been a long history of military takeovers in Argentina, and as chaos spread, everyone knew that another coup was inevitable. Many people, desperate for order at any price, were actively looking forward to it. So were the foreign investors whom Perón had always spurned.

On 24 March 1976 a military junta began what they euphemistically called the Process of National Reorganization (or "El Proceso," the name by which the Dirty War is generally known in Argentina). The death squads that had begun under López Rega went mainstream, their trademark green Falcons (supplied under an exclusive contract by the Ford Motor Company--one of many US-based companies who did lucrative business with the junta) provoking terror on streets now quiet as graveyards.

The death toll is generally estimated at 30,000, but the truth is unknowable. The victims were not just tortured and murdered, but their bodies buried in mass graves or dumped into the ocean so their loved ones would not even have the faint consolation of knowing they were dead.

As unspeakable as the acts of violence were, the Dirty War had a second, economic front that was equally crippling. The US, led by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, enthusiastically supported the regime--they were, after all, claiming to kill Communists. US corporations bribed their way into replacing homegrown Argentine industry and agriculture and privatizing state assets. The IMF and World Bank loaned the junta vast sums of money that both sides knew could never be repaid.

When the regime finally collapsed in 1983, the economy was already in a downward spiral that would culminate in the Crisis of 1999-2002: hyperinflation, devaluation, bankruptcies, unemployment, and rioting that devastated the country. Argentina had been reduced from one of the ten wealthiest nations on the planet in 1900 to ruin by the end of the century.

As if these tragic events were not enough, there was La Ley de Punto Final, commonly translated as the "Full Stop Law," referring to the period at the end of a sentence. This law, passed in 1986, pardoned all but the top echelon of the junta in a misguided attempt to heal the wounds of the Dirty War by ignoring them, saying to the entire nation, "Can't we just pretend this never happened?" Not only did the perpetrators go unpunished, there was no relief for the survivor's guilt of the ordinary citizens who asked themselves, "How did we let this happen?" Instead of healing, the wounds festered in silence.

On the first two trips my partner and I took to Argentina, in 2004 and 2005, there were no obvious signs that the Dirty War had ever taken place. It only came up in conversation with our closest friends, who happened to be of the artistic and left-leaning sort, and then in hushed tones. I remember the pained, embarrassed look on the face of the clerk in one of the city's largest bookstores when I asked him for books about El Proceso--before he took me to the meager selection they had.

That changed in 2006, when the repeal of La Ley de Punto Final led to a new series of trials of henchmen from the Dirty War. The kidnapping and murder of the prime state witness in the first trial, which was the takeoff point for Dark Tangos, brought the Dirty War back into the headlines and onto the streets, venting thirty years of repressed fear and anger.

But even that was not as frightening as our last trip, in 2007. That was when the peso, whose exchange rate had been fixed to the dollar, was allowed to float--and inflation was the immediate response.
No one talked about the Dirty War as we walked to our favorite restaurant to find it closed down, or went to ATMs and found them out of money. No one was talking at all. The few that were on the streets had their shoulders hunched, their gazes fixed on their feet, and an old terror in their eyes.

See other posts in the Lewis Shiner tour:

John Scalzi's Big Idea hosted "Justice"; Gwenda Bond hosted "Tango: The Dance"; Ron Hogan hosted "Tango: The Music" and Rebecca at "The Book Lady" got Lewis to discuss literary inspirations for his novel.

[Post pics: Some of the "Disappeared" from Madres de la Plaza de Mayo; A march of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo; film clip from "La Historia Oficial", the Oscar winning movie about a kidnapped child who was adopted by a military family - this will especially resonate with readers of Dark Tangos.)