Book Reviews Feitlowitz, Marguerite. A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii, 293. Index. $30.00. Walking past the 'Sheraton Commander' Hotel can be a tense experience, especially for those who have read Marguerite Feitlowitz's latest book, A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture. Those two words, 'Sheraton Commander', can stir up many emotions, bringing other words to mind, such as terror, horror, torture. Once you have read Feitlowitz's book, you cannot remain indifferent to certain words, particularly when you learn that the 'Sheraton' was used as one of the 340 camps during Argentina's Dirty War, and that its commander was a sadistic torturer. Indeed, the author's six years of probing research - much of it among survivors - has produced a chilling human account of the events that claimed over 30,000 lives in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. To be sure, Argentina's Dirty War has been documented before, but Feitlowitz's work delivers much more than just another set of facts. As its name suggests, the first chapter, 'Lexicon of Terror', deals with words, their impact, and the dangers associated with linguistic manipulation. For example, 'Sheraton Commander' clearly means a lot more to those who have read Feitlowitz's book than to others. They may just seem like two inoffensive words to some, but to others they convey a message of terror. So too, apparently innocuous terms such as capucha (hood), interrogacion (questioning), terapia intensiva (intensive therapy), or parrilla (grill for cooking meat) can trigger similar reactions. Gathering entries for A Lexicon of Terror, Feitlowitz asked the surviving victims of the Dirty War the following questions: 'What words can you no longer tolerate? What words can you no longer say?' The above-mentioned terms are taken from that lexicon, comprising expressions that were misused by the torturers and appropriated as terms connected with physical torture. Thus, for the prison camp survivors, the capucha designates a section of the camp where prisoners were made to wear hoods covering their heads, faces and necks. Feitlowitz tells us about one of the survivors, Laura S., for whom that word has become unbearable. When she wants to tell her children to put their hoods on to protect them from the rain, she uses the word capirote - the archaic equivalent of capucha. Other terms tell equally chilling stories: interrogacion and terapia intensiva refer to physical torture and the parrilla is the metal table used for torturing prisoners. For those who survived, parrilla will probably remain precisely that. Marguerite Feitlowitz, who teaches writing and literary translation at Harvard University, uses the present tense for the main part in her book. This serves as a constant reminder of the survivors of the Dirty War as well as of the legacy of the desaparecidos, those who were kidnapped, held in secret camps, and - on many occasions - tortured, raped and executed by Argentina's paranoid military. Feitlowitz understands that memory in this context cannot be taken for granted. She therefore informs us that expressions misused by the torturers have already become part of the current slang in Argentine Spanish. The book is a painstaking work on that surreal world in which the Argentine people found themselves. A world of 'night and fog' (at 83) where silence can but mean acquiescence and where, for some, the truth is so mutilated and reality so truncated that even listening to the radio is unbearable. A world where words and language themselves are so obscurant that they become a form of torture. A Lexicon of Terror is unquestionably a major achievement in terms of meticulous research. It is both a remarkable and terrible account of life in Argentina during the Dirty War. Although it is somewhat fragmented and fragmentary, this collection of essays and interviews contains valuable analysis and useful starting points, particularly so for those who wish to reflect further upon the linguistic manipulations that give birth to a new language in the service of ideology and which, one may argue, characterize totalitarian speeches. Although an occasional reference to the vocabulary of terror can be found elsewhere, most of the discussion of this subject is concentrated in the first chapter. Thereafter, Feitlowitz largely turns to other domains. Of the many insights found in the book, two are particularly striking. In Chapter 4, 'The Land Mourneth', Feitlowitz tells the little-known story about the brutal repression of the Agrarian Leagues organized by poor campesinos in Corrientes, a remote north-eastern province. Another major contribution of the book is found in Chapter 3, 'Life Here is Normal', where the terror within Argentina's Jewish community, victims and complicit leaders alike, is skilfully and sensitively portrayed. Feitlowitz does not fail to point to other disturbing and, one must admit, all too familiar patterns. These include the guilty silence of those who saw, but went on with their lives (Chapter 5, 'The House of the Blind'); the seemingly under-investigated role of the Catholic hierarchy and many individual clergy; the inability to make the wrong-doers - including notorious figures like the torturer known as 'Julian the Turk' - adequately accountable for their deeds (Chapter 6, 'The Schilingo Effect'); and the relative silence of influential foreign governments throughout the junta's dictatorship. The law as such is by no means the focal point of this book. That said, many interesting law-related questions spring to mind for the interested reader. For example, what was the role of the legal system, the lawyers, and the judges at the time of the wide-scale abuse of human rights? (at 249). To what extent did the controversial pardon of military officers lead to a breakdown of justice and the rise of street justice? (at 246) Foreign cases, including the US landmark Siderman case, where Argentina was forced to admit harm committed against an old victim and had to settle related claims (at 248), call for further research into issues such as extraterritorial jurisdiction and immunities under international law. The recent London arrest, at the request of a Spanish High Court judge, of Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet - accused of torture, murder and genocide - indicates that such inquiries are timely and relevant. Feitlowitz is critical of Carlos Menem's leadership, Argentina's 'entrenched politics of impunity and amnesia' (at 255), and what appears to be in her opinion an unjustified, over-generous, and sweeping amnesty for blameworthy military officers. The result, Feitlowitz concludes, is that many intimidated Argentineans currently live in 'constant vigilance; an impending sense of disaster [and] carnal knowledge of fear' (at 255). Much anecdotal support for that view is found throughout the book in the many compelling interviews of survivors and families of victims. In Chile, a country that experienced similar events and amnesty for suspects, a recent opinion poll conducted just before Pinochet's London arrest found '… almost two-thirds of Chileans wanting the truth about [the regime's] crimes made known and those responsible tried'. As for Argentina, 'the past is a predator' goes the Argentine saying quoted by Feitlowitz in the last page of her book. A Lexicon of Terror successfully drives home the point that whether that predator will be forgotten or not largely depends on the will of the Argentine people to confront it. Sabine Huynh, Dror Ben-Asher Harvard Law School
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