When considering the topic of Argentine women, particularly as it relates to power, the image of Eva Perón is inescapable. The poor, illegitimate girl from the provincial countryside not only became, while still in her twenties, the First Lady of Argentina (then the breadbasket of the Americas and Europe), she ultimately became a myth so enduring that Andrew Lloyd Weber took her story to Broadway and Madonna to the Hollywood screen. She still remains a polarizing figure in Argentina, where she is simultaneously considered a saint by some and an avaricious prostitute by others. Her character and relevance are debated...

Elvira Orphée was born in 1922 in the city of Tucumán, the capital of the northern province of Tucumán, known for the beauty of its green hills, lush countryside, and hot weather. Her father was a scientist of Greek origin whose family had immigrated from France to Argentina. Her mother was a devout Catholic whom she remembers as a disciplinarian with a sense of humor. She considers her roots to be both Greek and Incan, as Tucumán was the southernmost region of the Inca Empire. She credits her fascination for the mystical and metaphysical aspects of life to having grown...

Angélica Gorodischer was born in Buenos Aires in 1928. In 1936 she moved to Rosario, an industrial city with an active cultural and academic life and a fascinating history. Rosario was developed on the shores of one of the country’s most important rivers, the Paraná (native word for “Father of the Sea”), which flows into the Rio de la Plata estuary of the capital city of Buenos Aires. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, Rosario also became famous for its prostitution houses, which rivaled those of Versailles and Balmoral for their luxury. Gorodischer explains that most business...

Marcela Solá was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 into an upper-middle-class family that was well situated in Argentine society. Her mother, originally from the province of Córdoba, was a devout practicing Catholic and expected her family to follow the precepts and dogmas of the Catholic Church. She was president of several important Catholic organizations, including Córdoba’s Damas de la Beneficencia (a branch of the charity organization that refused entry to Eva Perón). Her father occupied several important political positions in the Argentine government, such as Undersecretary of Finance, legislator, and other high-level governmental posts. Solá remembers her childhood as...

Luisa Valenzuela is no doubt one of the most internationally acclaimed Argentine writers today. She has authored seven novels, eight books of short stories, a book of essays, two personal anthologies, and an erotic memoir. Her work has been translated into many languages and is included in most university curricula focusing on Latin American literature.

Valenzuela was born in Buenos Aires, in 1938, into a well-to-do family. Her father, Pablo Francisco Valenzuela, was a physician who died before she came of age. Later her mother married Guillermo Klappenback Caprile, managing director of the newspaperLa Nación, who was to become...

Tununa Mercado (Nilda Mercado by birth) was born in the city of Córdoba in 1939. Her father was a lawyer who instilled in her a love for reading the classics of Spanish Golden Age literature, and her mother was a law clerk, orescribana, a degreed career in Argentina. Mercado attended a public school for teachers, Escuela Normal Nacional Alejandro Carbo, and later studied philosophy and literature at the University of Córdoba, a university known for high academic standards and political involvement. There she met and married the writer and professor Noé Jitrik. The couple moved in 1964 to Buenos...

Alicia Dujovne Ortiz was born in Buenos Aires in 1940. As her surnames suggest, her ethnic origin is dual and has provided her with a cultural hybridity that has marked her life, her experiences, and her work. Her father, Carlos Dujovne, was the son of Jewish immigrants born in the colonies of the Baron of Hirsh, in Argentina. Her mother, Alicia Ortiz, was a writer and a dedicated feminist who came from a well-known family from the province of Entre Ríos. They met in a meeting of the Communist Party, to which they both belonged. As communists and feminists in...

Liliana Heer was born in 1941 in the town of Esperanza, in the province of Santa Fe, a small rural town founded by Swiss settlers. They were lured to Argentina with promises of riches and success in hopes that they would found a colony in which they would serve as role models to the locals. Heer says that as a child she often thought the townspeople were exaggerated in their behavior, which was disciplined and virtuous almost to a fault. Her mother, Dina Ofelia Rivero Hüber, was a concert pianist. Her father, Alfredo Eduardo Heer Kieffer, was an epidemiologist with...

Though Liliana Heker’s family was living in the southern city of Bahía Blanca in 1943, her mother gave birth to her in the neighborhood of Almagro, in the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires. Nonetheless, Liliana lived in Bahía Blanca until she was one year old, when her family took residence in Buenos Aires, where she has lived ever since. Her maternal grandparents had arrived in Argentina on the first boat that brought Russian Jews to the country. Her mother, Catalina Gosidoy, was born in Argentina. Her father, Gregorio Heker, was born in the Ukraine, and when he was just...

Alina Diaconú was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1945 and immigrated to Buenos Aires in 1959. She remembers her mother as a very powerful figure. She was an immensely strong-willed woman who had a business as an artistic bookbinder, at which she was very talented. The author’s father was an intellectual, a writer, a lawyer, and an art collector. He enjoyed a position of importance within the Bucharest society of the time. However, in spite of his position and accomplishments, it was Diaconú’s mother who was the figure of power in the family, far more so than her father. Diaconú...

María Kodama was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her father, who was Japanese, had emigrated to Argentina, where he met his future wife at a welcome party held by friends upon his arrival to the new country. Mrs. Kodama, originally from Uruguay, had studied piano and French. A devotée of music, she taught piano while her daughter was young. Mr. Kodama was a chemist and an aficionado of the arts, particularly painting. Kodama remembers her father as a sensitive and bright man who taught her respect for others and a love of beauty and the arts.

Kodama attended the public...

Cristina Siscar was born in the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires in 1947. She was reared in a middle-class family of modest means; her mother was a seamstress and housewife, and her father was an accountant. She comments that in her home there was no library, and no one read. However, as a child she loved to read and began by reading the only book she had at home, an encyclopedia. At first she was methodical about it; she began with the letter “A” and went forward from there. But then one word would lead to another one associated...

Born in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Ana María Shua is a daughter of the Argentine bourgeoisie. Her mother was a dentist at the time of Shua’s birth and later became a psychologist. Her father held a degree in agronomy, but his main occupation was owner of a company that manufactured high-tension wires. Her parents were children of immigrants: on her mother’s side, Shua’s heritage is Polish Jewish; on her father’s side, the family was Jewish of Moroccan and Lebanese origin. Shua claims she was always a writer. She recalls writing poetry at the age of seven and having a lengthy...

Alicia Kozameh was born in 1953 in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe. Like Córdoba and La Plata, Rosario is one of the Argentine cities (other than Buenos Aires) that provide the best opportunities for higher education. Kozameh’s father, Enrique, was a banker of Lebanese and Greek Orthodox origin. Her mother’s family was Jewish, of Syrian origin. Raquel Ades de Kozameh converted to Catholicism in order to marry into her husband’s family. At this time anti-Semitism was prevalent, and the Kozameh family insisted on rearing Alicia as a Catholic. Her older sister Liliana suered brain damage at childbirth...

Esther Cross was born in the city of Buenos Aires in 1961. She belongs to the generation of Argentine writers whose work came to fruition in the 1990s. Her father, Federico Cross, was a professor of literature at the University of Buenos Aires, one of the most prestigious and at the same time conflict-ridden universities in Argentina. He also was part of the research organization called CONICET, or Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (National Council of Scientific and Technical Research), where he was in charge of the International Relations branch and coordinated student and faculty exchange programs. When...

Ana Quiroga was born in 1967 in the town of Rodeo, which sits at the foot of the Andes Mountains in the northern province of San Juan, known for good wine and picturesque scenery. Her father, Martín Quiroga, was the only doctor in the area; thus, he delivered her in their quaint adobe home surrounded by vineyards. Her mother, María Enriqueta Martín, was a homemaker who reared their nine children. The family moved to Buenos Aires shortly after young Ana was born, and they settled in the Avellaneda neighborhood, an industrial area located to the south of the city. The...