Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego, Sylvia Iparraguirre, Curbstone Press, 2000

This novel is told in flashback by John William Guevara, son of an English father and Argentinean mother, who grew up in 19th century Argentina as part of neither world. Orphaned as a teenager, he takes to the sea and ends up in London, an almost mythical city that was subject of many stories from his father.

One of Guevara's voyages is to the southern tip of South America, to map the Tierra del Fuego. Along on the journey is a British naturalist working on a biological theory of evolution, a man named Charles Darwin. While there, the Captain of the ship, Robert Fitzroy, kidnaps a couple of local indigenous people, called Yamana, one of them named Jemmy Button, and brings them back to England with the intention of "civilizing" them.

The theory is that having spent a year among "superior" English society wearing clothes and eating with utensils, the Indians, when brought back home, will spread the "joys" of civilization among the other Indians. Guevara, also an outsider, is about the only person to establish a relationship with Button, and the only one to foresee the experiment's outcome.

Later, Button is arrested by the British and brought to trial on the Falkland Islands. He is accused of being the leader of an Indian massacre of a ship full of British missionaries who had arrived to convert the Yamana to Christianity. Guevara is there, if only to see Button, his friend, and to lend some moral support.

Based on a true story, this book is part seafaring story, part European colonialism, and part cultural tale of human nature (like Heart of Darkness) and it succeeds on all these levels. It's a rather "quiet" story that may take some effort on the part of the reader, but, by the end, it is very much worth reading.