Imagining Argentina is a 1987 novel by American author Lawrence Thornton. Set during the civic-military dictatorship of Argentina known as the “Dirty War” that took place in the 1970s, it follows a politically dissident reporter, Cecilia, and her husband, Carlos. The two characters’ paths diverge when the Argentinian secret police kidnap Cecilia and imprison her without a trial or any form of due process. Carlos leaves his job as a theater director to scour Buenos Aires for Cecilia and several of their friends, haunted by his own uncannily accurate imagination of the prisoners’ fates. The novel was adapted into a 2003 film of the same name.
The novel begins shortly before Cecilia Rueda is abducted and thrown in prison. Carlos Rueda is distraught about the state of the Argentine nation as a fascist government, which, with the support of the United States, begins to bear down on anyone whom it deems a political enemy. The administration calls itself the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. From the beginning, Carlos shows deep empathy for the victims of state terror. When Cecilia is abducted for writing a newspaper editorial criticizing the state’s abduction of children in La Paz, Carlos begins to experience visions of Argentine captives similar to Cecilia.
Carlos, the head of Buenos Aires’ Children’s Theater, resolves to risk his life to wage a rhetorical war against the propaganda spread by the Argentine generals. He sees straight through the administration’s allegations that it merely intends to cleanse Argentina of dangerous state enemies; in fact, the AAA intends to squelch all forms of political disagreement. Not long after Cecilia’s disappearance, Enrico, one of the lead actors at the theater, tells Carlos that his father has been abducted. Carlos experiences a vision that tells him exactly what will happen to Enrico’s father: he will spend a handful of days in prison and return home. Enrico’s father, Raimundo Garcia, returns just as foretold. Carlos finally realizes that he has the power to see into the fates of the captives.
The story of Carlos’ prediction quickly spreads throughout Buenos Aires. People begin to approach him to tell him the stories of their lost loved ones; Carlos mentally reconstructs the figures using these memories, pinpointing their present and future states. He opens up his garden once each week for people to ask him about their friends and family. Often, Carlos has to inform them that their loved ones have been killed. In many cases, Carlos shares the good news that a captive is safe or soon to be released. Regardless of the outcome of each individual story, Carlos’s insight gives the families closure and consolation.
At the Children’s Theater, Carlos writes and stages a play called
The Names. Through it, he conveys the reality of the war to the children who watch. The government notices the play, concluding that it is a deliberate act of political subversion. They shut down the theater and send men to hurt Carlos and abduct his daughter, Teresa. Using his powers, Carlos sees the course of Teresa’s future and laments that she will be murdered. Cecilia, however, remains alive and strong enough to resist her abductors.
The end of the novel takes place as the political conditions in Argentina begin to improve. Carlos goes to Carnival in Buenos Aires hoping to find good material for another play. He reopens the Children’s Theater and increases the frequency of his open meetings in the garden from weekly to twice weekly. One evening, however, he concludes that he can do no more to help Argentina. At Carnival, now several years after his separation from his wife, Carlos finds Cecilia. They rejoice to have made it through the war. Four years afterward, they are invited to the courtroom where the top members of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance are ultimately sentenced to life terms in prison. The novel ends on a bittersweet note, acknowledging that millions of Argentinians will never be able to tell their stories of what happened during the nation’s most tumultuous decade.