Seoul, São Paulo was originally published at the end of 2019, a time when Bolivia was going through a major political crisis as a result of the fall of the government of Evo Morales. Although Gabriel Mamani Magne (La Paz, 1987) only wanted to tell the story of two teenagers, the novel was welcomed by critics and the public almost as a political manifesto. The same year of its publication, the work received the national prize and is now published in Spain by Periférica. Gabriel Mamani Magne is one of the authors who this year has been invited to the KM América Latin American literature festival held this past weekend in Barcelona.
Seoul, São Paulo is the first novel by Mamani Magne. The book stars two seventeen-year-old cousins, the Pacsi: Tayson, born in Brazil and the son of Bolivians; and the unnamed narrator of the story. The plot narrates his experiences in full stage of development and personal growth and takes place between Bolivia and Brazil.
The story develops from Tayson’s return to his country of origin, Bolivia, a fact that forces him to assimilate his identity. “In writing, I am very interested in talking about the stage of adolescence and youth because there is an awakening and evolution of questions regarding identity, sexuality, the future… These are themes that always haunt us, but new at this time and It’s important to me to talk about it. It is from here that the other themes have been appearing”.
The story arises from the author’s own experience, who in 2016 had to emigrate to Brazil to pursue his studies. There, in the midst of a cultural and traditional mix, this need to question what it is to be Bolivian arises. Although the book is born from his own experiences and is written in the first person, part of the fiction: “I am often asked if I am explaining my story, but I try not to be autobiographical even if I write in the first person for convenience.”
With a clear, direct and uncomplicated writing, Mamani Magne manages to bring the Latin American reality closer to the reader. The apparently simple story is full of the dilemmas and difficulties of living in a patriotic, macho and racist society. The voices of the characters and their way of dealing with situations portray the environment in which the author has grown up, who confesses to having experienced some of the scenes in the story. The plot moves quickly, with small twists and decisions of the characters that show the passage of time to the reader. Dilemmas about vital objectives and how to plan the future appear constantly and further reinforce a troubled society. It conveys a relationship of love and hate for a rich country that does not know how to manage it. “When we understand that we have this base and this important native past, we can be completely free.”
The mixture of languages ??(Spanish, Aymara, Portuguese, Anglicisms…) is constant and they never appear in italics or in quotes that differentiate them. “As Andrés Neuman said, I don’t like to think that the pages are like customs that mark what is from here and what is not, I prefer that they all coexist in free conditions.” The author manages to put an end to the concept that a country is a single idea.
The resources that Mamani uses to overcome the difficulty of defining both the characters and Bolivia is what captivates the reader and makes the work such a faithful portrait of reality. “I wanted the narrator to not have a name to also represent this impossibility of defining Bolivia. It is very difficult to limit a country to just one thing, even a name. A name is one of the cornerstones of someone’s identity. Since Bolivia is very diverse, it was difficult for me to choose a proper name. I also liked to think that the protagonist has no one to call him by his shadow.
