The Slaughterhouse

Name: The Slaughterhouse
Author: Esteban Echeverria
ISBN: 9875506451

by Esteban Echeverria

This is actually a short story and is usually published in collections. It was written in 1839 but was censored and not published until much later. It wasn’t an easy road to peace for Argentina and this story was written in the middle of the struggle, by a liberal Argentinian educated in Europe and in opposition to the country’s first dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas. It’s an allegory of those times. An educated liberal is murdered by mixed-race gauchos and black women and some critics say that the visceral, physical terminology used to describe the murder is more like rape than murder. I think penetration is mentioned more than it needs to be and the atmosphere is almost festive, yes. You have to remember that Argentina is one of the biggest meatpacking nations in the world and the sense of that goes beyond cows to the humans too. It’s a carnal nation with a history based on slaughter – that’s why the theme is so important. The violence, butchery and slaughter as rape are metaphors for Argentina. There was a 1960s film called Carne and there is a character in it called Delicia who is raped by a fellow butcher in a slaughterhouse and, if I remember rightly, she is actually raped in a carcass and someone says; ‘Meat upon meat.’ This butchery as rape is something in Argentinian culture, the concept of meat as a woman’s body. Meat is more than meat there. If you were a psychoanalyst and your patient mentioned meat you’d be straight off to read meat histories. The English eat it on a Sunday and get on with it, but not in Argentina. It was the most significant thing in terms of the development in Argentina. Barbed wire came later – and was how the new white European landowners controlled land – the people, the gauchos and the Pampas. All the processes were butchery – first murder the inhabitants and replace with cattle. Then pen up the gauchos, control nature, slaughter the cattle. It’s all murder, fencing, restriction. And lust: I mean, Argentinian for a tenderloin steak is lomo, the same word for a woman’s thighs. ‘Nice lomo.’

Recommended by

Chris Moss

"This is actually a short story and is usually published in collections. It was written in 1839 but was censored and not published until much later. It wasn’t an easy road to peace for Argentina and this story was written in the middle of the struggle, by a liberal Argentinian educated in Europe and in opposition to the country’s first dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas. It’s an allegory of those times. An educated liberal is murdered by mixed-race gauchos and black women and some critics say that the visceral, physical terminology used to describe the murder is more like rape than murder. I think penetration is mentioned more than it needs to be and the atmosphere is almost festive, yes. You have to remember that Argentina is one of the biggest meatpacking nations in the world and the sense of that goes beyond cows to the humans too. It’s a carnal nation with a history based on slaughter – that’s why the theme is so important. The violence, butchery and slaughter as rape are metaphors for Argentina. There was a 1960s film called Carne and there is a character in it called Delicia who is raped by a fellow butcher in a slaughterhouse and, if I remember rightly, she is actually raped in a carcass and someone says; ‘Meat upon meat.’ This butchery as rape is something in Argentinian culture, the concept of meat as a woman’s body. Meat is more than meat there. If you were a psychoanalyst and your patient mentioned meat you’d be straight off to read meat histories. The English eat it on a Sunday and get on with it, but not in Argentina. It was the most significant thing in terms of the development in Argentina. Barbed wire came later – and was how the new white European landowners controlled land – the people, the gauchos and the Pampas. All the processes were butchery – first murder the inhabitants and replace with cattle. Then pen up the gauchos, control nature, slaughter the cattle. It’s all murder, fencing, restriction. And lust: I mean, Argentinian for a tenderloin steak is lomo, the same word for a woman’s thighs. ‘Nice lomo.’"

Argentina and Psychoanalysis · fivebooks.com