- The Interior
- Published by: Planeta
- Level: Intermediate
- First Published in: 2006
In this non-fiction book, writer and journalist Martín Caparrós travels through the provinces of Argentina, jotting down his impressions and thoughts about the nation that exists beyond the capital city of Buenos Aires.
El interior is a non-fiction book written by Argentine journalist and writer Martín Caparrós. The title translates as The Interior, which in Argentina means the countryside in opposition to the huge city of Buenos Aires. Citizens of Buenos Aires – famously called porteños – refer to those from anywhere else in Argentina as being from “the interior,” whether the latter live in cities, mountains, islands, or shires in the middle of nowhere. And that is what the author tries to examine in this book: how people from all these places, despite the differences between the northern, southern, eastern, and western regions of a large and complex nation like Argentina, could possibly be considered a single, unique group.
"Citizens of Buenos Aires – famously called porteños – refer to those from anywhere else in Argentina as being from “the interior,” whether the latter live in cities, mountains, islands, or shires in the middle of nowhere."
When reading El interior, readers go along with Caparrós in his search for the meaning of “the interior” and its people. From the first page onward, it’s like going on a journey with a writer across 15 provinces of the 23 (24 if you count the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires) that make up the country. Readers feel like they’re riding alongside the writer, who drives over the most varied paths, highways, national routes, and lonely dirt roads. El interior is like a trip across all the landscapes hidden in “the interior” of Argentina, and it is also an exceptional journey in which readers meet all kinds of people, the “insiders” who live far away from the bright lights of Buenos Aires.
Caparrós was born in Buenos Aires in 1957, has a college degree in History from the University of Paris, has lived in Madrid and New York, has directed several magazines, and was featured in several radio and TV shows. The Argentine journalist – who is well-known for his funny moustache – has also written more than twenty books. As a born-and-raised porteño, he seems like the perfect companion with whom to travel around Argentina and understand “the interior” and its insiders. Caparrós portrays old factories that closed and were reclaimed by its employees in the province of Entre Ríos; the owner of a typical “puticlub” in Rosario, a kind of strip club where men can find prostitutes; people who moved away from their town because a dam was being built there; and a teacher from an elementary school hidden amidst the mountains in the province of Catamarca.
"As a born-and-raised porteño, Martín Caparrós seems like the perfect companion with whom to travel around Argentina and understand 'the interior' and its insiders."
But the most important thing is that readers have an opportunity to see the differences between “the interior” and Buenos Aires, and also within “the interior” itself. It’s the kind of book for someone who wants to get to know the real Argentina, an Argentina that does not end in Buenos Aires. It is only the beginning.
