Miller-Lachmann, Lyn (2009). Gringolandia. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone, 280 pp. ISBN 978-1-9318964-98 ($16.95).
For just about two years of my life, when I was just mutating into the teen I still remain, I lived out of a Church youth center. Homeless. There are times in my life, when I reflect back upon those heady days of dumpster diving and food pilfering, that my current life feels like I have been trapped in Disneyland. There is an aching sense of unreality that colors my thinking. I am left with the painfully difficult question of, “What is really real.? Perhaps it is this background that has me screaming, “Gringolandia! A book that is real, a book that tells an important truth!”
The CIA’s involvement in undermining, outsting, and possibly assassinating Salvador Allende the democratically elected President of Chile is virtually without dispute. While our government may argue that they had nothing to do with the suicide of Allende, they certainly created the environment that made suicide possible. Many people believe that the U.S. is directly responsible for Allende’s death. What is totally without dispute is the torturing of dissidents by the Pinochet regime, which took control after the successful coup, which the CIA encouraged and the U.S. supported financially. And one absolutely horrifying coincidence is that Pinochet’s coup occurred on September 11th!
Gringolandia chronicles the torture and the persistent fight for justice of one fictional Chilean freedom fighter. Marcello, indeed, may serve as the prototype for many of the stories out of Chile during this time frame. While Gringolandia is not a book that we tell friends to “enjoy.” Readers will not easily finish this book and rave, “I just loved this book.” Nevertheless, it is impossible to read Gringolandia without being moved and, if from the United States, without being a bit ashamed of our role in Chile.
When Marcello is taken to prison and tortured, his family is whisked away to Wisconsin. Daniel and his younger sister, Christina soon become assimilated into a Disneyland-like culture that cares little about human rights abuses in foreign countries (which makes the title an important element of the story). It is also this clearly drawn portrait of a family attempting to reconcile the safety of Wisconsin with the reality of Marcello’s experience that provides the dramatic tension of this novel.
When Marcello is released from prison and flown to Wisconsin, he is so radically altered from the father and husband his family knew, that he scares them all, especially Christina. Everyone is much happier when Marcello is not around. Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Marcello continues to fight for the freedom of his companeros still locked in prison, but he may very well drink himself to death first. Gringolandia asks readers just how far they are willing to travel both physically and mentally to work for justice. It also depicts with brutal honesty the heartbreaking consequences visited upon a family whose father never stops fighting.
While the significance of this story makes it an easy book to recommend without reservation, it is not a perfect book. The character of Courtney borders (at times) on the two dimensional, times in which we are told about Courtney’s mental anguish rather than experiencing it in her actions. The way Daniel deals with his relationship with Courtney in Chile is a bit rushed as well.
However, there is way too much that is significant and excellent to spend too much time nitpicking. Miller-Lachmann’s depiction of Marcello’s PTSD absolutely matches what I experienced with a Viet Nam Veteran brother (and what I have read about it). The reactions of Victoria (Marcello’s wife) are agonizingly real. The depiction of the guards are chilling. In fact there is so much in this book that is worth recommending that I hope all readers will take the trouble to find and to read Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. I hope readers will share this one with students. It is a book that students need to find for its depiction of our country’s failure in Chile. Students need books like Gringolandia to remind them (and us all) why it is vital to understand a bigger world than the one we find in Disneyland. Gringolandia is published by Curbstone Press out of Willimantic, Connecticut. Email Curbstone at info@curbstone.org and visit Curbstone on the web at www.curbstone.org
[I am hoping to do an author video with Ms Miller-Lachmann at ALA in Chicago this July 2009. If I do, I will be adding more material and an author video to my website.]
UPDATE: August 27, 2009 I DID do an author video which you may see by clicking this link!
