Affections - Bolivia 🇧🇴

Using a simple and affectionate title, Rodrigo Hasbún tells us the story of a family of German immigrants in Bolivia during the second half of the 20th century in Affections (2016). For those unfamiliar with Bolivian history (just like me), it is more specifically a historical fiction novel about Monika Ertl and her family.

Monika Ertl was a German guerrilla fighter who joined the Bolivian Liberation Army (ELN or Ñancahuazú Guerrilla). She was the daughter of a cameraman and director (a political propagandist) known to the Nazi regime. Hans Ertl, her father, arrived with his family in Bolivia searching for a new beginning (or escaping Germany and Austria denazification post-World War II?). She became an important name in the revolutionary movement, being known as the avenger of the deaths of Che Guevara and Guido Inti.

The discomfort of immigration is portrayed when the family moves to Bolivia at the end of World War II: learning a new language and adapting to a new culture. This causes distress for the whole family and great irritation for the young Monika. Her father, accustomed to expeditions and journeys in nature, decides to take her on an expedition to find Paititi, an ancient Inca city, to calm his daughter's spirits and his own. These expeditions in the book allow us to see the internal distance of the family between those who stay and those who leave.

Monika's restless spirit is depicted in the eyes of her family, especially her sisters. She's very similar to her father. His influence is noticeable in Monika's knowledge about the jungle and photography, which she used during her period of activism. However, the difference in ideologies will become irreconcilable.

Along with other readings from 2024, the father's journey in the story gave me some food for thought. I noticed the different image that Germans have, and that persists to this day in Brazil, compared to the Spanish and Portuguese. This book is the third one I have read in which the Germans appear in the role of intellectual adventurer saviors and not of European colonizers. This stereotype appears as a main theme in Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener (read in this challenge) and, also in O Som do Rugido da Onça (The Jaguar's Roar Sound), by Micheliny Verunschk (the Brazilian writer and historian tells the story of the purchase of two Indigenous children by scientists Spinx and Martius).

Mr. Erlt takes the role of an adventurous intellectual who is there to use his expertise and find treasures, with a feeling of superiority as only they could recognize the local riches. Ultimately, the subtle difference between the explorer as a discoverer and the exploiter benefited the German image in colonization. At least in my point of view. Would it be like this in other countries from South America? Regardless, like the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the French, even though there were also looters and kidnappers of treasures, animals, plants, and human beings, they were dressed as intellectuals.

Leaving was what my father knew how to do best, leaving but also returning, like a soldier in a permanent war, until he gathered the strength to leave once more.

I confess my ignorance in not knowing who Monika Ertl was before reading it. However, this turned out well, as I didn't feel the lack of historical depth in the plot, which is the target of criticisms about this book on the internet. I could focus more on the intimacy side that the story brings. Rodrigo's writing is clear and direct, but he lets us see between the lines a latent need in Monika, a search for something that sometimes seems to be love, sometimes something beyond her. It is an intimate, familiar book, but it is not placid. It is painful, with a feeling of loneliness and a distance in the family relationship that, compared to a Latino family, it's almost cold.

.

*The English translation of the quotes is a loose translation from the Portuguese version of the book. All the Rights Reserved for the author.

---

About the Writer

Rodrigo Hasbún (1981) is a Bolivian writer and screenwriter born in Cochabamba. His work deals with themes such as family ties, identity, the passage of time and memory and has been translated into multiple languages. He was selected by the Hay Festival and Granta magazine as one of the most promising Latin American writers of his generation. He holds a PhD in Latin American Literature from Cornell University and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Houston. In addition to literature, he has also distinguished himself as a screenwriter, receiving awards at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Other Books: El lugar del cuerpo (2007), Los días más felices (2011), Cuatro (2014), The Invisible Years (2020)