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elfbiterCarmen Aguirre - Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
Carmen Aguirre is an actor and scriptwriter living in Canada. However, in her youth she was part of the Cold War-era secret left-wing network in South America which was effectively a resistance movement against the dominating military dictatorships.
Her parents had fled Chile to Canada after Pinochet's coup but when she was a teenager – who had already created a new life in Canada – her parents took her back to South America with assumed identities to serve as part of the network. She writes about growing up in that secretive environment, including being attracted to all the wrong kind of boy and having her first period. And when she finally became a adult, she had to assume a role of wife to continue her missions.
Stress of the secret life took its toll on both her and her parents and various relationships. They lived under both assumed and real threat of torture and death (contemporary regimes tended to make even their perceived enemies disappear). Family moved between several countries, including Bolivia and Argentina. Aguirre also writes about social divide between rich and poor (only the first dared to demand any kind of democracy) and various forms of de facto slavery of local native American tribes (I doubt the situation has changed that much in that regard).
Carmen Aguirre is an actor and scriptwriter living in Canada. However, in her youth she was part of the Cold War-era secret left-wing network in South America which was effectively a resistance movement against the dominating military dictatorships.
Her parents had fled Chile to Canada after Pinochet's coup but when she was a teenager – who had already created a new life in Canada – her parents took her back to South America with assumed identities to serve as part of the network. She writes about growing up in that secretive environment, including being attracted to all the wrong kind of boy and having her first period. And when she finally became a adult, she had to assume a role of wife to continue her missions.
Stress of the secret life took its toll on both her and her parents and various relationships. They lived under both assumed and real threat of torture and death (contemporary regimes tended to make even their perceived enemies disappear). Family moved between several countries, including Bolivia and Argentina. Aguirre also writes about social divide between rich and poor (only the first dared to demand any kind of democracy) and various forms of de facto slavery of local native American tribes (I doubt the situation has changed that much in that regard).
