Within the framework of the XXX Edition of the Santa Cruz Provincial Book Fairthe writer from Puntarenas Pavel Oyarzún Díaz presented his novel “The Devil’s Passage” in which he recounts the flight of “Gallego” Soto and 12 other anarchists to Chile after the Patagonian Strikes.
Although the work was published 20 years ago and the writer has visited the provincial capital on several occasions, this was the first time that he made the official presentation in the city of Río Gallegos.
“I look forward to being in Río Gallegos this Sunday to present ‘El paso del diablo’, which is my first novel published 20 years ago, but now I present the Argentine edition. “I am very excited to be there at that literary event,” said Pavel Oyarzún Díaz in dialogue with radio. LU12 AM680.
It should be noted that “El paso del diablo” has had four editions, that of LOM (2004) and Entrepañas (2012 and 2023) in Chile and that of IPS (2021) in Argentina.
History and fiction
“It is a novel that is set in Argentine Patagonia, in the province of Santa Cruz, specifically on the Anita ranch. Devil’s Pass is the place through which the last strikers must passthe main leader, in December 1921 in that famous strike that ended in such a tragic way,” the writer reviewed and expanded on the work in which “I tried to convey in that story the tension of those momentsis precisely the flight to Chile of the ‘Gallego’ Antonio Soto Canalejo, who leaves through this pass that bears this name that is frightening because it is a very difficult place to cross. “In addition, they are being pursued very closely by a patrol from the Army’s 10th Cavalry Regiment.”
“These are moments of tension, crucial moments in which both strikers and soldiers They risk their lives with this purpose, the first to leave and the others precisely to prevent that exit“, he noted.
“It has to do with the novelists’ task of ‘completing the historiography’, here There are elements of fiction, they are those passages that are not in the story because they have no way to be. since there is no testimony of that and that is precisely where the novelist and fiction sink their keen eye. It is a way of taking a known historical fact and giving it a twist through fiction and novel writing. It is a twist of this history known as the strike of 1921 in its last days in its most dramatic moments,” he explained.
Repercussions
In 2022, the Chamber of Deputies of Santa Cruz declared the novel of cultural interest. “I attended that ceremony, for me it was an honor because the Legislature recognizes in this novel elements that make it susceptible to being classified as interesting since it starts from a historical event, one of the most relevant and tragic in Argentine Patagonia.”
Regarding the response that the work has had from the public, he commented: “I have been very satisfied with the opinions of critics, but perhaps the most important opinion is that of the readers.“.
“In Magallanes it has readers, especially with a young reading public among high school students, among the university student public, the general public of different age ranges and in the Argentine Republic also good comments. I think it is a novel that fulfills its objective, which is to that a reader, more than reading the text, feels like he is living the textI consider that I achieve it for some moments in this novel and it has given me nothing but satisfaction. This novel never ceases to surprise me.”
The presentation took place this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. in the Luis Villarreal Auditorium of the Santa Cruz Cultural Complex in the provincial capital. “I feel at home when I tour Patagonia Argentina“For me it is a pleasure to be with friends from Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego and other provinces of Patagonia,” he expressed and announced that “we will surely have a dialogue there with the audience that for me as an author will always be This feedback is beneficial. Let’s share, I am going to try to tell my experience, what it was like to write this first novel, after having essentially written poetry for almost 20 years.“.
Fuente: laopinionaustral.com.ar
