Lali Martinez Arroyo
08/04/2021 11:14
Clarín.com
Culture
Updated 08/04/2021 11:14
Postcards, illustrated letters without the need for an envelope.
Each image, each photo contained in this book, is linked by an invisible thread that tells a different story of the Falkland Islands.
In its 120 pages, it shows a series of postcards (mostly
images taken by the author
) that invite you to take a journey that intertwines the history of the Malvinas with the places that the writer has visited.
A trip begins the moment you think about it, in planning, when packing your bags.
This trip begins by opening
Postcards from Malvinas
, a journey that leaves on each page
a little piece of these islands
, a place on the border of the world, where the wind whispers and you can see the bluish color of the smoke that comes out of the chimneys and the jump of the dolphins that play in the sea, but also the duality of the language, the flavor of the cachiyuyo, the sound of the stamp of the passport and the flavor of the red fruits is perceived.
This is what happens when traveling
with Federico Lorenz
-ex-director of the Malvinas Museum and teacher-, from the first page.
The author did indeed travel the island, with his eyes, his notebook and his camera.
Federico Lorenz.
Study Malvinas from many points of view.
Photo Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
The book is about a boy who on one of his vacations becomes interested in travel and exploring territories.
As he grew up, he studied and - like the author! - became a
specialist in the Falkland Islands
.
With him we will approach the islands.
More than the war, of course, a lot to know besides the war.
When Lorenz approaches the destination, the heart races: the book tells that when seeing that remote archipelago in the distance, the passengers of the plane get excited and shout "There they are!"
In the midst of that immensity,
Gran Malvina and Soledad appear
, surrounded by that sea that accompanies the landscape and that mixes with the sky.
For Lorenz,
the islands are the wind
.
“Because there are
the voices of those who are, of those who are not ... it
conveys an idea of a timeless place, very powerful.
My intention in the book was precisely to show the different layers that the island has, "he says.
That is one of the bets of the book, the
more elements the reader has to know
, the more edges they will have to understand on the subject.
With your feet on the islands.
The photos of Federico Lorenz in the Falklands.
Photo Federico Lorenz
One of the peculiarities of the islands is that they
are almost devoid of trees
because the atmospheric conditions do not allow it, the wind destroys almost everything and you can only see one or the other on the side of a house, sheltered from the gale.
What there is, are bushes and some that have a fruit that, they say, if you try them you will surely return.
Memory is also part of this trip, "It is difficult to visit the Islands without going through this place: the
cemetery
", says Lorenz in his book.
In that place there are deaths that the dictatorship produced
and they can be visited
, in so many other places in Argentina, no, reflects the author.
Other landscapes that the text gives us are wild horses: the locals say
that they are fallen soldiers
and that if you pass by the cemetery, they will come over to thank you for stopping a moment to think about them.
In some way,
Postcards from Malvinas
lets the traveler speak, who is surprised, who tells with ease and warmth what he learned on his trip.
This is how the experience of visiting the islands reaches the reading public.
Lorenz
manages to describe, in a few words, a multidimensional place: a fascinating place, a territory of adventure as well, as well as a place in which there was a war.
“Darwin has a phrase, he says: 'the territory is worthy of the scenes that take place in it, it is a formidable scenario' '.
Much more than war
Although socially the
Malvinas Islands
are very present,
very little is known about them
.
For this reason, Lorenz proposes to replenish information about this place of beautiful geography and imposing landscapes, as an invitation to incorporate another dimension of the islands into the memory of the war.
And the fact is that the
Malvinas
is much more than the war of 1982. Although it is very difficult to depart from its historical gaze, the author set out to take a tour that would give rise to information on the five centuries of history of these emblematic Islands:
one of the places that Europeans reached earlier
in their expansion of the southern region.
In the words of the author, the idea that gave rise to this work was around in his head for years.
I wanted to bring all the information about the Gran Malvina and Soledad islands to a child audience.
The text is one of the few nonfiction books
for boys
with a broad and diverse look at the islands.
The passport.
It is sealed on the islands as entry to a foreign territory.
Photo Federico Lorenz
"It is almost impossible to talk to an Argentine who does not get excited when mentioning the Falklands, the problem is when that emotionality limits the possibilities of thinking," he says.
“The idea was to write a work that managed to
overwhelm the reader
, create a pact.
It is known that
reaching the Islands is a privilege
, due to its difficult access and its high cost.
But it is very exciting for those of us who know the story in greater or lesser depth, so the more elements we can add to that, to the text, the better ”, the author tells us.
-Is it different to face the subject as a teacher and as a writer?
-I never thought of my work separate from teaching and public intervention, it seems to me that there are a lot of discussions that we have to give and we have to be generous so that the youngest can put together their own vision, because if not it cannot be projected .
That is why it is so important that the book exceeds war, that is why war is one more episode on postcards.
Plasticine Islands
Laura Leibiker (Norma's Editorial Director) says she wanted Lorenz's to continue in the line of historical narrative books.
The intention was to
tell the Malvinas from their own territory
, and not from the continent as is usually done.
For this reason, he summoned
Juan Pablo Zaramella
for the project
, who relates that this is the seventh cover he has made
in plasticine
for the collection of historical narrative.
01
Postcards from Malvinas
Author: Federico Lorenz
Publisher: Norma
Price: $ 769
"The interesting thing about illustrating with plasticine is that a connection is generated with the material, its textures and imperfections, which bring it closer to the reader in a very human way, since we all play with plasticine at one point in our lives. And the contrast between the kindness of the material and the thematic rigor take the product to a more encompassing, deeper place ”, says Zaramella.
Lorenz Basic
He was born in Buenos Aires in 1970.
He is a historian, writer, researcher at CONICET, and also a researcher associated with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Teacher trainer and History Professor at the National School of Buenos Aires and specialist on the Falkland Islands and its history.
She received the “Eugenia Meyer” prize awarded by ReLaHo for the best work in Oral History, and an Honorable Mention in the Isay Klasse Prize for the Education Book of the El Libro Foundation, published in 2018/19.
Among his books are
Las wars por Malvinas
;
Falklands Ghosts, a travel book
;
Malvinas, an Argentine war
;
Montoneros or the white whale
and
Komorebi
.
Look also
Beatriz Sarlo: "The Falklands are British territory"
Ghosts and Futuristic Story Exercises