From oficial history to individual history: Testimony and meta-testimony in A veinte años, Luz [1998] by Elsa Osorio

Abstract

A veinte años, Luz, written by Elsa Osorio, places us at the beginning of the dictatorship in Argentina in 1976. The events address the issue of denied identities, that is, the story of the children of leftists who were stolen and given up for adoption. With the birth of the first child of the main character, Luz, questions are raised about her own identity, which had been taken away along with her mother’s life. We assume the hypothesis that the novel establishes a relationship between the past and the present, between the individual and social history, and therefore becomes a lesson that, in turn, creates an ethical dimension in the text. Similarly, the novel exposes that to forget is to betray, and that to remember is another way to resist.