A Place Called Milagro de la Paz

by Manlio Argueta, Michael B. Miller (Translator)

This remarkable novel continues the saga of life among the common people in El Salvador begun with One Day of Life. A Place Called Milagro de la Paz tells the story of the courage and strength of two women, a single mother and her daughter, who have to overcome the trauma of the murder of the mother's older daughter and survive in an atmosphere of bitter poverty and repression. The book is filled, however, with magical, lyric moments of love and hope, especially surrounding the figure of a strange young girl with butterflies in her hair who appears suddenly and adopts the family. The tiny family group bravely preserves traditional values in spite of fear and repression. This new novel is Argueta's most lyrical work to date.

Genres: Latin American, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Argueta was born in San Miguel (El Salvador) on November 24, 1935. Argueta has stated that his exposure to “poetic sounds” began during his childhood and that his foundation in poetry stemmed from his childhood imagination. Argueta’s interest in literature was strongly influenced by the world literature he read as a teenager. Argueta began his writing career by the age of 13 as a poet. He cites Pablo Neruda and García Lorca as some of his early poetic influences. Although he was relatively unknown at the time, Argueta won a national prize for his poetry around 1956, which gained him some recognition among Salvadoran and Central American poets. As he became more involved with the literary community of El Salvador, Argueta became a member of the "Committed Generation". Because of his writings criticizing the government, Argueta was exiled to Costa Rica in 1972 and was not able to return to El Salvador until the 1990s. Argueta currently lives in El Salvador where he holds the position of Director of the National Public Library.

He belonged to a literary group by the name of Generación Comprometida (Committed Generation, referring to political and social commitment), also known as Círculo Literario Universitario (University Literary Circle), created by Italo López Vallecillos (1932-1986). Other members of the group included Roque Dalton (1935-1975), Alvaro Menen Desleal (1931-2000), Waldo Chávez Velasco (1932), Irma Lanzas (1933), Orlando Fresedo (1932), Mercedes Durand (1932-1998), Ricardo Bogrand (1932), and Mauricio de la Selva. Members of the group were revolutionary in both their writing and their political views, though some members claim that "Generación Comprometida" and "Círculo Literario Universitario" were two different groups, it's been said that "Generación Comprometida" would be formed three or four years after the "50's Generation", a group which would be formed by those writers whom started publishing between 1950 and 1952 and had been members of the “Cenáculo de Iniciación Literaria” such as Mercedes Durand, Irma Lanzas, Orlando Fresedo, Italo López Vallecillos, Waldo Chávez Velasco, Álvaro Menéndez Leal, Mauricio de la Selva and Ricardo Bogrand. The group sought to create social change in terms of the treatment of the lower class. But they also initiated rediscovery of cultural heritage to a certain extent. Manlio Argueta and his Committed Generation were heavily influenced by the French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre and his existentialist ideas. Existentialism is an outlook on life that emphasizes the existence, freedom, and actions of the individual. This perspective tends to be atheistic and stress human freedom and experience as a definition of existence as opposed to scientific definitions. Existentialists also do not believe in the existence of objective moral values.

Some of Argueta’s works include El valle de las Hamacas (Editorial Ariel, Buenos Aires, 1977), Un hombre por la patria (poetry, Editorial Universitaria, San Salvador, 1968), En el costado de la luz (poetry, EU, San Salvador, 1968), Caperucita en la zona roja / Little Red Riding Hood in the Red Light District (Casa de las Américas Prize 1977, various editions), Un día en la vida / One Day of Life (1980), Cuzcatlán, donde bate la mar del sur / Cuzcatlán, Where the Southern Sea Beats (1986), Milagro de la Paz / A Place Called Milagro de la Paz (San Salvador, Istmo Editores, 1995) Siglo de O(G)ro (San Salvador, DPI, 1997). A characteristic of Argueta’s writing style present in the majority of his works is the use of Salvadoran Spanish vernacular and slang. Argueta considers this a way to express and preserve some of El Salvador’s cultural identity.

Argueta is best known for his book One Day of Life, which has been translated into over 12 languages. The book takes the reader through one day of the life of Lupe, the main character. Lupe is a grandmother in a small vi

Reviews

[Rodrigo Domínguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Manlio is a very talented writer, perhaps one of the best my country has produced. This is seen clearly in Milagro's prose and style which, through constant shifts in time and perspective, induces in the reader a very satisfying sense of dream-like repetition and melancholic depth.

It's his subject matter I take issue with. Both 'Milagro de la Paz' and 'Un día en la vida' belong to an old tradition in Manlio's (and Central American) literature, of writing from the perspective of the poor. In his case, poor women.

It's not that the lives of the poor are unimportant. It's not even that Manlio as a lower-middle class man should be forbidden to adopt more "oppressed" perspectives. The Central American artist's obsession with some "authentic" kernel of truth located in the very precariousness of our most wretched seems to me fetishistic.

It's no coincidence that Manlio has been so successful abroad. I imagine that cosmopolitan liberals are happy to "learn" about El Salvador through these sad and hopeless stories of economic deprivation. And while economic deprivation is in fact key to understanding El Salvador, I can't see any real value in middle class writers and readers rejoicing to over-aesthetiziced depictions of poverty.

[Tom R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a recent trip to El Salvador I really wanted to read something by a Salvadoran writer while I was in the country, so I picked this book up. It is in the "magical realism" style of some other Latin American writers, where the possible and impossible happen side by side. At its heart it is a story of a family that bands together for protection against the outside world and has to deal with tragedy. I enjoyed that it mentioned some of the things I was seeing while in El Salvador, such as a volcano outside San Miguel.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, again a little confusing with the timelines like Little Red Ridinghood, but much easier to follow. Not nearly as powerful as the other two and not as much background about the war. This is primarily a story of women and their struggles with poverty, life, and men.