Tessa Bridal

#ReadAroundTheWorld. #Uruguay

This is an historical fiction set in Uruguay in the 18th century. The author Tessa Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay, her ancestors having moved there from Ireland 100 years ago.

The story is about Isabel Keating, a young Irish woman who finds herself fleeing from home after inadvertently killing her abusive husband. She ends up on board a ship, dressed as a man, mistakenly headed for South America, when she had intended to travel to America, aww chucks, whoops!

On the plus side she meets the ship’s owner, the handsome and wealthy Garzón Moreau, a half French and half Charrúa Indian trader and smuggler. They travel to Montevideo, then to the Jesuit mission where they meet the inimitable Father Manuel working with the Guarani people. Garzón wishes to employ the Guarani to work for wages, a plan which raises the ire of the Spanish and Portuguese colonists who view them as their entitled property and a natural source of free labour.

The story has many interesting side characters like Irish landowner Charlie FitzGibbon, Yací a Minuane man who Father Manuel has developed a deep spirit connection to, Orlando a mysterious boy with a gift for languages, and Wimencaí a traditional healer and midwife.

The author has clearly done detailed research into the times, and writes lush and vivid descriptions of the place and the customs, such as the Minuane beliefs about dreaming. She outlines the conflict and deals between the Portuguese and the Spanish, the deadly impact of colonialism, and the tensions between the Catholic missions and the crown.

I found this an enjoyable read that gave me a sense of place, culture and history, despite some improbable storylines. I would like to also read The Tree of Red Stars sometime.… (more)

Tessa Bridal's first novel, published in 1997 won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. It is at once a coming-of-age novel and a chronicle of the rise of military repression and the use of torture to terrorize dissidents in Uruguay during the 1960s and 1970s.

The first half of the novel is a somewhat idyllic account of the 1950s childhood of Magdalena Ortega in Montevideo. She and her best friend, Emilia are the hoydens of the neighborhood, allowed to roam freely and create harmless mischief. As they reach adolescence in the 1960s, romance, student riots and political consciousness intrude upon their dreams and ambitions.

The Tupamaru urban guerilla movement seeking economic reform and the overthrow of the government is brutally repressed by the Uruguayan police and military, aided and abetted by the CIA and the US Office of Public Safety who sent operatives to South America to train police forces. Central to this operation was an FBI Agent, Dan Mitrione, who spread the use of refined torture techniques to gather information and intimidate the opposition. He was kidnapped and assassinated by the Tupamaru in 1970 when the government refused to release prisoners in exchange for his return.

Bridal puts Magda in the center of the historical events as participant and narrator. This is an important read for anyone interested in the recent history of Uruguay, but there are graphic accounts (mercifully rather short) of torture. One of the messages that came through to me in this novel is how violence begets violence on all levels of the social and political spectrum.… (more)