SOURCE: "Metaphors and Magic Unmask the Soul," in Américas, Vol. 47, No. 1, January-February, 1995, pp. 22-7.

In the essay below, Bach provides an overview of Valenzuela's life and works.

Argentine writer Luisa Valenzuela has defined her country's origins in terms both violent and lyrical. In a 1983 essay penned for the New York Times, she referred to the discovery of the Rio de la Plata by Juan Diaz de Solis in 1516: "Poetry was already lurking: on board with Solis was Martin del Barco Centenera, who wrote an ode titled The Argentina,… a misnomer since there was practically no argentum, no silver, there…. It was written while the first settlers, surrounded by Indians, were forced to eat their dead. That is why I believe we are descendants of poets and cannibals." At the time, Valenzuela's essay was celebratory and quite specific: "With the return of democracy, the poets' time has come...