Tyrant Memory is the fourth book I've read by Castellanos Moya, but only the second set in his home country of El Salvador. It covers a period of about one month in 1944 when a coup attempt followed by a popular nonviolent protest resulted in the resignation of the country's fascist-leaning President, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. The bulk of the book's narrative is told through the daily journal entries of an upper class Salvadoran woman, Haydée, whose husband, a former secretary to the president and diplomat, is imprisoned after becoming an outspoken critic of the president. A few days into Haydée's journaling, the coup attempt takes place. Her son, a radio broadcaster, voiced support for the coup over the air and is forced to flee when the coup turns out to have failed. The son's period in hiding makes up the other major part of the narrative. The book closes with an epilogue nearly 30 years after the main events of the book, where we learn a little more about what's become of the protagonists in the intervening years.
It's Haydée's story – and her transformation – that was most interesting in Tyrant Memory. While her husband has always been active in politics – both in service to the President, and later in opposition to him – we understand that she has stayed out of those things. It is the realm of men. But with her husband imprisoned and her adult son in hiding and sentenced to death, she develops a determination and will that seems to be a surprise even to herself. She is initially inspired by the mothers of two young political prisoners who she meets when they are all trying to visit their imprisoned family members. The women are organizing the wives and mothers of the political prisoners and of the people who have been executed for participating in the coup. Haydée takes up the cause enthusiastically, using her own connections to raise funds, support student activists, reach out to the press, and communicate with the diplomatic corps.
It's been a while since I read The She-Devil in the Mirror, but I found myself thinking about it now and then while reading Tyrant Memory. Inasmuch as I had formed a mental image of San Salvador, it came from The She-Devil in the Mirror. But that book is set in a modern San Salvador that comes across very differently from the 1944 version presented in Tyrant Memory. As I was reading, I found myself forming a new imaginary San Salvador that feels much more tangible and, frankly, interesting than the one in The She-Devil in the Mirror. It's also striking that the two books are told from the perspective of women (though they are very different women). In the way that she recorded events, both the mundane and the momentous, Haydée felt very real to me.
I'm glad I was moved to get copies of Castellanos Moya's remaining books, and also glad to see he has several others that haven't yet been translated into English. I hope someone is working on that.
