María Rosa Lojo - Free Women in the Pampas: A Novel about Victoria Ocampo

Mara Rosa Lojo. Photo by Rafael Yohai.

A Novel about Victoria Ocampo

Mara Rosa Lojo

Edited and translated by Norman Cheadle

McGill-Queens University Press
Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

Mara Rosa Lojo 2004

English-language edition McGill-Queens University Press 2021

ISBN 978-0-2280-0860-6 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0861-3 (paper)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0987-0 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0988-7 (ePUB)

Legal deposit fourth quarter 2021

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Work published within the framework of Sur Translation Support Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic. Obra editada en el marco del Programa Sur de Apoyo a las Traducciones del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto de la Repblica Argentina.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Every effort has been made to locate the copyright holders of the materials included in this book, in some cases to no avail.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Free women in the pampas : a novel about Victoria Ocampo / Mara Rosa Lojo ; edited and translated by Norman Cheadle.

Other titles: Libres del sur. English

Names: Lojo de Beuter, Mara Rosa, author. | Cheadle, Norman, 1953 editor, translator.

Description: English-language edition. | Translation of: Libres del sur : una novela sobre Victoria Ocampo. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210248483 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210248645 | ISBN 9780228008613 (paper) | ISBN 9780228008606 (cloth) | ISBN 9780228009870 (ePDF) | ISBN 9780228009887 (ePUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Ocampo, Victoria, 18901979Fiction. | LCSH: Authors, Argentine20th centuryBiographyFiction. | LCSH: Women intellectualsArgentinaBiographyFiction. | LCSH: FeministsArgentinaBiographyFiction. | LCSH: ArgentinaIntellectual life20th centuryFiction. | LCGFT: Biographical fiction.

Classification: LCC PQ7798.22.O352 L5313 2021 | DDC 8637.64dc23

This book was typeset by True to Type in 11/14 Minion

The support of the following organizations is gratefully acknowledged:

The Awards to Scholarly Publications Program of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

The Sur Translation Support Program, sponsored by the Argentine Republics Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship

In translating Mara Rosa Lojos novel Las libres del Sur, I have benefitted immensely from the generous and unstinting collaboration of the author herself. Our continual and often far-reaching discussions by email have inspired and fostered a clearer understanding and rendering of the text.

My warm thanks go to the editorial team at MQUP, and to two editors in particular. Mark Abley launched this project before his retirement from the publishing industry. Richard Ratzlaff then took over at the helm and expertly navigated choppy waters in uncertain times to lead us safely to port.

Juan Javier Negri, director of the Fundacin Sur, helped in several crucial ways to provide this book with illustrations, for which I express my sincere gratitude.

I also express my appreciation to the two anonymous readers commissioned by MQUP for their comments on the draft manuscript and their many valuable suggestions.

Very special thanks go to Jane McWhinney, who copy-edited the manuscript at an uncommonly deep critical level and offered many astute suggestions that made for significant improvements.

This edition is an annotated translation of Las libres del Sur (2004) (literally: Free Women of the South), a novel by Mara Rosa Lojo. The novel was written for general, contemporary readers interested in the historical figure of Victoria Ocampo and the role played by women in the extraordinarily brilliant cultural history of twentieth-century Argentina. The novel stands on its own. It can be read with enjoyment without consulting either the introduction or the endnotes. A glossary of Spanish terms is provided at the end of the book for the readers convenience.

The introduction and endnotes may be perused at will. They provide contextual information about Mara Rosa Lojo, Victoria Ocampo, and other women and men, as well as Argentine history, politics, and culture. The notes also give supplemental information about the various international figures with whom Victoria Ocampo came in contact, along with other Argentine names and events mentioned in the novel.

When Mara Rosa Lojo was awarded one of Argentinas most prestigious literary prizes in 2018, it was the crowning honour of her extraordinary dual career as a creative writer and scholarly researcher. Likewise, the concerns of Lojos academic work are never far from the themes of her narrative fiction; her scholarly research is crucial to many of her novels, which in numerous cases, such as this novel, blend fiction and the historical essay.

Three broad thematic axes may be discerned in Lojos novelistic oeuvre: the Galician-Spanish migration to Argentina; feminism and gender relations; and Argentine history. Each of these capacious categories in turn ramifies into a cluster of related themes. Celtic-Galician culture, exile, travel, and intercultural encounters are all directly related to Lojos Galician family background. Related to feminism are womens contributions to national literature and the public sphere, as well as their experience of denial and frustration. Historical themes include both the internecine violence and the role of indigenous peoples in Argentinas emergence as a nation-state, along with the paradoxes of civilization and barbarism. All three strands of thematic concerns cross-fertilize; all three inform Lojos many novels with varying shades of emphasis, various shapes of overlap. The novel now in the readers hands is no exception; in the case of Las libres del Sur (Free Women of the South), rendered in this translation as Free Women in the Pampas, the Galician theme is present, but women and history are primary.

Women and freedom, plus the quasi-mythical