Women and Power in Argentine Literature: Stories, Interviews, and Critical Essays

8. Liliana Heker

Liliana Heker is a short, small woman with long, straight bangs and a rounded face. She has the wide-eyed look of someone who is curious, aware, and thoughtful. She is sure of herself, and at the same time, gracious. Liliana moves freely and confidently in a world she feels defines her, the world of Argentine literature. Liliana Heker THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Liliana Heker | The Author and Her Work 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 a few months old his parents settled in the province of La Pampa. Heker says that her parents were poor, but very intelligent, and that they always encouraged her to get a good education. She feels that their legacy to her and sister was one of love, freedom, and a passion for reading. It was her sister who influenced her the most. Six years her senior and very headstrong, her sister took it upon herself to educate young Liliana, and was instrumental in her formation and development as a writer. Heker believes her gift for storytelling began when she was a little girl. She recalls making up stories in her head while she walked back and forth along the edges of her grandmother’s patio. Her memories of her childhood are quite clear and insightful—perhaps the reason for the numerous stories she has written about children. She attended an elementary school in her neighborhood , where many of her classmates came from poor families that lived in tenement homes. Her high school was a teachers’ preparation school called the Escuela Normal Número 7 (Teacher’s School Number 7), which was a lowincome school. In the 1960s she studied physics for four years at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas (School of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires). At the same time, she began working for a literary magazine by the name of El grillo de papel (The Paper Cricket) and eventually abandoned physics in favor of a literary career. She co-founded two literary magazines of note, El escarabajo de oro (The Golden Scarab) and El ornitorrinco (The Platypus), a left-wing literary magazine published between 1977 and 1986, during the military dictatorship. Heker’s first book, Los que vieron la zarza (Those Who Beheld the Burning Bush, 1966), is a collection of eleven stories about tormented childhood, relationship problems, and other conflicted situations. This book received a prize from the prestigious Casa de las Américas. Her second book, titled Acuario liliana heker 185 (Aquarium, 1972), is also a short-story collection thematically similar to the first one. Her 1977 collection Un resplandor que se apagó en el mundo (A Light That Went Out in the World) is a triptych comprised of one novella and two short stories with repeated characters that portray problematic relationships. The last story takes place when the characters are young and still have a chance for happiness. In 1982 she published Las peras del mal (Pears of Evil). These are stories that seem realistic but often burst into the absurd or into madness. Heker began her career as a novelist in 1987 with Zona de clivaje (Slopping Zone), a novel of seduction and disappointment that leads to eventual personal growth. The protagonist is a bright young woman who falls in love with her professor. The novel develops the idea of the tyrannical force that is often characteristic of love relationships. This novel was followed by a collection of short stories and a novella titled Los bordes de lo real (The Borders of the Real, 1991), in which Heker develops the themes that continue to fascinate her: relationships , madness, and the absurdity of life. In 1996 she published her second novel, El fin de la historia (The End of the Story). This novel is loosely based on her friendship...