Editor's Choice feature in the September 2010 Issue of Explore TACA

Editor's Choice

By Jenny Acosta-Horta

La Orden del Tigre
J. J. Armas Marcelo
Alfaguara, 2003

"Memory is a weapon that the devil loads with shrapnel and dynamite." This memorable quote from Melba Sucre ("The Tigress") opens J.J. Armas Marcelo's La Orden del Tigre (The Order of the Tiger). This novel is a journey down memory lane, a tale of all the good and bad memories that fill the lives of seven characters, friends who come together by chance and are later reunited by destiny. It's also about the collective memory of Argentina being repeatedly betrayed by people's false perceptions of the recent past.

Álvaro Montes is a Spanish journalist whose destiny becomes intertwined with that of Melba's (a woman with a sad past and an uncertain future) when they meet in Caracas. After their first encounter in Venezuela during the 1970s-when the country was undergoing radical and definitive changes, such as the nationalization of its oil industry-Álvaro and Melba are reunited in Buenos Aires, "the most beautiful city in the world." In the midst of Argentina's social turmoil-with the brutal military dictatorship as a backdrop-the lovers and five friends embark on a journey down the Tiger River Delta. As they sail on the murky waters amid laughter and dreams, hopes and ideals, they found "The Order of the Tiger."

Twenty-five years go by. The friends have gone down the individual paths set before them by destiny and circumstances. But memories- good and bad ones-are the conductive ties that still bind. They've faced death, insanity, loss of hope and misfortune, but the intimate bond created by The Order of the Tiger has kept them tied to the memory of the dreams that they all left behind.

But now Melba has disappeared and "crazy" Rubén, one of the friends, asks Álvaro to return to the city where it all began-Buenos Aires-and look for her. That's when the journey to the heart begins: the journey to rescue Álvaro Montes' memories, as the journalist witnesses a new social transformation of Argentina, the downfall of Corralito and the frustrated dreams of a country that thought itself invulnerable.

In this novel, J.J. Armas Marcelo not only makes us relive the lives of his characters and their worlds-concentric, transforming circles-but also invites us to encounter ourselves and rescue our own memories: the individual and collective, the good and bad, which we all have.

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