Marta Traba's Conversacion al sur was first published in 1981, with an English translation by Jo Labanyi in 1986 as Mothers and Shadows. Traba was a prominent SA art critic, novelist, and political reformer. Re the cover bio: " Born in Buenos Aires in 1930, Marta Traba lived in Bogota, Montevideo and the USA. She and her husband, Angel Rama, died in the 1983 Madrid plane crash with other prominent Latin American writers. Marta Traba won the 1966 Casa de las Americas Prize. She authored 33 published volumes of fiction, poetry, essays and art criticism...."

The novel, set during the reign of terror of the Generals in Argentina, the military torture in Uruguay and the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile is a dialogue between two women. Irene is an aging actress, who has led a privileged and bohemian life in South America, and is confounded by the repressive governmental tactics, the possible capture of her son in the Chilean overthrow, and the disappearance of her aristocratic friend's daughter in Argentina. Dolores, a daughter of the fearful Uruguayan working class, has gone to university, married a revolutionary and lost him and their unborn child to the torture inflicted by the military.

The terror is inescapable. The governments' major tactic is that of denial and disappearance. When Irene joins her friend on the weekly vigil of the mothers at the Plaza de Mayo -- what is most apparent is the absence of any sort of recognition.

"So these were the Madwomen of the Plaza de Mayo...The number of women was incredible and so was the silence: apart from the rapid footsteps and muffled greetings, there was not a sound, not a single army jeep was in sight. The Casa Rosada looked like a stage set, with thick curtains drawn across its windows. There were no grenadier guards on sentry duty at the gates either. It was the realization that the grenadier guards were not there that gave her a sudden, terrifying insight into the enemys's machinations: every Thursday, for the two to three hours during which the the demonstration took place, the Plaza de Mayo was wiped off the map. They couldn't fire on the women or lock them all up. It would have undermined the concerted effort they'd made to project a carefree image of the 'the Argentina I love'. Their ploy was simply to ignore them: to ignore the existence of the square and of the madwomen stamping their feet. Had they arrived at that degree of sophistication? And why not, if the same sophistication operated at the level of tortures and abductions. A developed nation does things properly."

Chilling. But it was finally those those madwomen, those mothers, who brought down the regime of horror in Argentina. ( )

This was my first foray into South America and it was an eye-opener. This is the story of two women, Dolores and Irene, activists during the Dirty War in South America (1976-1983).

These Argentinians, one young and one older, meet five years afterwards and their conversation and interior monologues disclose the terror and untold suffering they – and thousands of others – endured during that time. The tale encompasses their personal lives, and tells of the widespread participation in demonstrations that led to arrests, senseless beatings and torture, as well as the loss of loved ones to death. The psychological trauma of the women is evident. As they talk, they form a bond and begin the process of healing.

One memorable scene in the book portrays a scene in which Irene participates in a demonstration known as the 'Madwomen of the Plaza De Mayo'. This was a weekly demonstration by thousands of women carrying photographs and lists of names of loved ones who had disappeared. Each woman would don a small white scarf as a sign of hope, so the demonstrators would appear like a sea of white scarves waving in the air on the plaza. Apparently some 30,000 people went missing during this time.

Incidentally, The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an activist organisation that still exists today. Their objective is to fight for the right to find and reunite families. ( )