Analysis
Milei censors novels by Argentinian authors and recruits Meloni in his culture war
Milei says such things should only be talked about in the family: he thinks the state has no money to waste on such “feminist” nonsense, nor on the early pregnancy prevention program.
An enormous, absurdly pink palace, a famous balcony, and a blonde woman who waved from above with a boisterous alpha male next to her. It wasn’t Eva Perón rousing up the descamisados; not even the Evita portrayed by Madonna, pleading to Argentina not to cry for her in Alan Parker's famous film.
This time the blonde woman was none other than Italy’s own Prime Minister – hailing from a long political lineage for which balcony appearances were a staple – who flew to Buenos Aires for a bilateral meeting-turned-lovefest with Javier Milei, bringing him a gift in the form of a puppet of himself brandishing an enormous phallic chainsaw, and endless gushing about the “fundamental values” shared by the two nations.
And that's not all – Milei himself took the opportunity to share a dream of his own with Meloni: that of an “alliance of nations” that would win the cultural battle against “diseases of the soul” such as communism and “wokeism” (which in Milei’s vocabulary includes anything even vaguely related to civil rights).
Meloni could certainly draw valuable inspiration on how to fight this “battle” from Argentine newspapers, which these days have given ample space to the complaint by the Fundación Natalio Morelli, aligned with the ruling party, against Alberto Sileoni, head of the General Department of Culture and Education of the Province of Buenos Aires, whom it accused of “abuse of authority and corruption of minors” for including, among the books donated to high schools and public libraries, novels such as Dolores Reyes' Cometierra (Eartheater, 2019), Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's Las aventuras de la China Iron (The Adventures of China Iron, 2017), Aurora Venturini's Las Primas (Cousins, 2007), and the memoir Si no fuera tan niña. Memorias de la violencia (2022) by Sol Fantín.
Both Argentine critics and those in the many countries in which these novels have been translated have been effusive about the literary quality of Venturini's provocative black humor, Reyes's suburban gothic, or Cabezón Cámara's daring style (who has just been awarded the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for Las niñas del naranjel).
So what was the reason for the complaint? As it happens, the three novels and Fantín's heartrending memoir talk about violence and abuse against women, teenagers and young girls (in Argentina, a “gender” crime takes place every 35 hours), and their ability to resist and fight back. And addressing such topics also means talking about sex. The accusers are saying it’s outrageous to give such books to boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 – who otherwise have free access to things like online pornography and the extreme vulgarity of the president’s own rhetoric – as it supposedly undermines their “innocence and modesty,” as Vice President Victoria Villaruel commented on X.
Axel Kicillof, the governor of the province and member of the opposition party, responded by sharing a photo in which he is seen reading Eartheater, with the other incriminated volumes in clear view, and Villaruel's redoubled over-the-top fury (“These are books glorifying pedophilia and the sexualization of children, Kicillof!”) was joined by many members and supporters of the government party, foremost among them Agustín Laje, one of the founders of Las Fuerzas Del Cielo, a new Nazi-adjacent group self-described as Milei's “armed wing and praetorian guard.” On social media, thousands of comments are claiming that there is a naked minor on every page in Eartheater and that reading these books is now mandatory in schools.
Needless to say, the books in question are neither pornographic nor full of naked minors (it’s obvious that those taking part in the online mob have not actually read them); equally unsurprisingly, the appeal to common sense made by Sileoni fell on deaf ears: reading them is not mandatory at all, those who have the option to read them are not “children” but adolescents and young adults, and each book is accompanied by learning guidance for teachers who choose to use them to address difficult issues. Beyond the opportunistic attack on the opposition and the unintelligent nature of the whole debate about what is suitable or not suitable for young readers, however, the real target of the controversy is something else: namely, supporting the government’s intention to abolish Comprehensive Sexual Education (Educación sexual integral – ESI), which offers information on contraceptives and sexual health, elements of emotional education and support for those who are victims of abuse and sometimes are only able to tell someone at school.
Milei says such things should only be talked about in the family: he thinks the state has no money to waste on such “feminist” nonsense, nor on the early pregnancy prevention program (a very serious phenomenon throughout Latin America, which the previous Argentine government had been successfully fighting in recent years). As for the children and adolescents whose “innocence” Villaruel is so concerned about, they are the first victims of Milei's policies, amid growing misery, malnutrition, lack of schooling and child labor, to the point that the UN has expressed concern about the fact that children's rights are less and less protected.
In the meantime, Dolores Reyes has been flooded with insults and death threats from government supporters. She is an author who is particularly popular among young people because of her simple style, easily relatable characters, and fantastic and compelling plots set in the vast Buenos Aires suburbs where she grew up (her books are dedicated to two young girls who were raped and murdered, whose bodies were found near the school where Reyes taught).
And the first unintended result of the controversy is that Eartheater, released in 2019, has returned to the top of the Argentinian sales charts in just a few days, while many writers are mobilizing with statements of support and solidarity demonstrations, including an event at the Picadero Theater on Friday, where 80 big names in contemporary Argentine literature read out loud from the “controversial” books in the presence of the authors, who were all present with the exception of Aurora Venturini, who died in 2015, at the age of 94 – but one could bet that the legendary caustic and combative Peronist bruja was there in spirit from the great beyond. Milei and Villaruel might just be out of their league.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/milei-censura-i-romanzi-delle-scrittrici-argentine on 2024-11-22