regarding political prisoners in Uruguay: "I don't know what we owe them, But what I don't know, I know is plenty..." -Mario Benedetti I. The worker said to the progres- sive soldier: "Maybe your inten- tions are good, but you'll be giving orders until the day you die." The progressive soldier said to the na- tionalist Blanco': "Want me to be honest with you? Your agrarian reform could fit in a flowerpot." The nationalist Blanco said to the Battlista 2 : "The problem is that all of you always forgot about the people in the countryside." The -Mario Benedetti has been hailed as Uruguay's finest writer of novels, short stories and essays. The story published here is from Con y sin nostalgia, a collection of short stories edited in Mexico in 1978. Forced into exile in the early 1970s by Uruguay's military rulers, Benedetti now lives in Cuba. -Flaurie S. Imberman completed graduate work in Comparative Literature and Sociology at SUNY-Binghamton. Her transla- tions of Latin American literature will be forthcoming in the Latin American Literary Review, Modern Poetry in Translation and other publica- tions. 40 Battlista said to the Christian Democrat: "I don't capitalize god. So what?" The Christian Democrat said to the Socialist: "I can understand your being an atheist, but I'll never forgive you for not believing in private proper- ty." The Socialist said to the anar- chist: "Did it ever occur to you to wonder why you've never had a successful revolution?" The anar- chist said to the Trot: "You're a tiny sect of rubbish." The Trot said to the foquista 3 : "You're con- demned to defeat because you isolated yourself from the masses." The foquista said to the Bolshevik: "You also had dissidents." The Bolshevik said to the Maoist: "We have our base in the working class. Do you hold that against us, too?" And so on. "Aim, fire!" yelled the gorilla 4 , ad- justing his kepi, and a truck picked up the cadavers. II. The Battlista said to the na- tionalist Blanco: "And well, one must admit that you have at times taken an anti-imperialist stance that we lacked." The nationalist Blanco said to the Socialist: "Maybe I lacked your obsession with social justice." The Socialist said to the Christian Democrat: "I think that our discrepancies over heaven don't need to obstruct our agreements on earth." The Chris- tian Democrat said to the anar- chist: "You know what I borrow from your traditions? That great commitment you have to liberty." The anarchist said to the Maoist: "Thinking it over, it wouldn't be bad if one hundred flowers blos- somed." The Maoist said to the Bolshevik: "What do you think about us making an exception and agreeing on the question of social justice?" The Bolshevik said to the Trot: "If only that bit about perma- nent revolution were true." The Trot said to the foquista: "You peo- ple at least risk your lives, shit!" The foquista said to the pro- gressive soldier: "I don't think that you, as an institution, will ever be on the side of the people. But I can believe in you as an individual." The progressive soldier said to the worker: "When we hear that bit about Workers of the World, Unite, will you save a little place for me?" And so on. "Aim," said the gorilla, adjusting his kepi. The soldiers aimed at him. Just in case, he didn't yell: "Fire!" He took off his kepi, hurled it into the sewer and, somewhat disconcerted, retired to his winter barracks. Notes 1. Blanco: member of the conser- vative National Party in Uruguay. 2. Battlista: supporter of politics articulated in the early 1900s by Jose Battle y Ordoriez, a precursor of populism in Latin America. 3. foquista: supporter of foco guerrilla theory, developed by Regis Debray and put into practice by Che Guevara. 4. gorilla: pejorative term used for the military in Latin America.
