"Prisons. Narratives of Confinement": The National Library explores books and testimonies of confinement.

The exhibition Prisons. Narrations of Confinement (1878–2025) , at the Mariano Moreno National Library , offers a journey through the social, political, and literary history of Argentina through texts that emerged in prison . It is composed of various types of documents on confinement and writing: maps, plans, scores, photographs, posters, flyers, fanzines, correspondence, newspaper articles, manuscripts, and books.

All of these documents are part of the library's collection ; they have been circulated in various forms and formats, and have been brought together in this exhibition, which runs until August 24th . It includes everything from correspondence from 19th-century caciques to testimonies from political prisoners from different eras, as well as famous poems and fiction related to the subject.

"The exhibition presents a broad overview of Argentina's social, political, and literary history through texts produced in prison or that have prison as their central theme ," says Andrés Tronquoy, one of the curators.

“This broad time span— almost 150 years —attempts to trace, interpret, and underpin some of the country's profound dramas throughout its history, from the 'Desert Campaign' to the present. We can say that the narratives of confinement in 2025 are undoubtedly relevant . In that sense, addressing the last 30 years of the rich movement of prison writing is fundamental, yet understudied.”

I. Acevedo , who, like Tronquoy, belongs to the Library's Research Department and also served as curator, explains: "The exhibitions we organize from this sector aim to showcase the different materials contained in the Archives Department's collection. The topic of writing in prison is very rich and perhaps not as explored ," he says, recalling the activities that began to be offered, especially starting in 2006 with the Education Law, which stipulated for the first time that education in prisons would be under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and no longer the Penitentiary Service.

“This Education Law allowed for more institutional spaces to be opened in prisons,” Acevedo says, with the arrival of civil associations or groups of people linked to writing “who helped to publish publications and magazines in a very easy and accessible way .”

The exhibition also includes different types of letters written in prison . "Often during dictatorships, with censorship or prohibitions on communication, you can see that letters were sent on very poor materials, in very small print," Acevedo says.

“There are also the letters called "candy" because they were folded so they were very small so they could be smuggled out of prison . In situations where communication conditions and opportunities are better, letter writing also improves. Always, or almost always, communication was limited to family members; that's also interesting because in the cases of political prisoners, you can often see their messages and political motivation, as well as the family members' pride and support for those people, given the circumstances that led them to their imprisonment. That's very impressive.”

One example of the letters on display is that of Dardo Cúneo, who was director of the National Library between 1985 and 1989 and kept his "Prisoner's Letters" in a folder, which he sent to his wife and son from the National Penitentiary and Viedma prison in 1961. The writings intertwine political messages with family matters. Cúneo amassed a collection of nine thousand books written by prisoners , which he donated in its entirety to the National Library in 2008.

“The presence of prisons in Argentine literature is of great relevance,” says Tronquoy. “Starting with José Hernández ’s La vuelta de Martín Fierro , which in 1879 dramatizes the imprisonment of Fierro’s eldest son in canto XII, entitled ‘En la Penitenciaría.’ The National Penitentiary had been inaugurated two years earlier, in 1879. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the great increase in the reading public, many fictional stories about crime and prison appeared in the popular press, alongside journalistic articles. It’s an interesting phenomenon because the discourses coexist, they intertwine. There is a very marked interest in texts about confinement and crime.”

In the 1970s, two titles on the subject were published that became huge bestsellers: Las Tumbas by Enrique Medina , from 1972, and Preso común by Eduardo Perrone , from 1973. Tronquoy continues: “Not only are these books with a very relevant presence in the public scene, but they were written by authors who found the impulse to write in confinement. Las Tumbas arose from the experience in juvenile institutes. Antonio Di Benedetto , imprisoned by the civil-military dictatorship, was arrested on March 24, 1976. While there, he wrote a series of stories that he later published in Spain, under the title Absurdos , in 1978.”

The researcher also proposes a review of some of the great fiction authors who write about prison: “ Borges in "The Writing of God" (1949), H. Bustos Domecq [Borges and Bioy Casares], Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (1942), Bioy Casares , Escape Plan (1945), a novel that addresses the subject from a science fiction perspective. Then David Viñas writes a story entitled "A Little Kindness" (1957) and Ricardo Piglia "In the Dungeon", a story from Jaulario (1967), his first book. They present two interesting antecedents of a central book, perhaps the most important fiction book on the subject: Kiss of the Spider Woman , by Manuel Puig . In recent years, in turn, Magnetized , by Carlos Busqued , published in 2018, has gained relevance. It is a book that was built from interviews with a serial killer. The presence of prisons and crime have a place predominant in Argentine literature.”

The exhibition also includes texts written by new authors , who are currently in prison or who produced their material there. “A lot is written in prison,” says Tronquoy. “ César González gained a very important role in Argentine literature, as did Waikiki (Gastón Brossio, an author born in Fuerte Apache), who began writing in prison. So we're interested in considering who we read and how we read, which are two questions that are constantly being discussed.”

“ Fogwill ’s case is very interesting,” Acevedo says. “Because he was imprisoned in 1981 for six months, accused of fraud .” And then he details the true circumstances of his arrest: “It happened during the dictatorship. The accusation was of fraud, but it actually had to do with his refusal to participate in certain issues . It wasn’t entirely clear, but there was interest in the advertising world. Finally, when he got out of prison, he wrote a collection of short stories he was already preparing, in which he included some stories where the prison appears. The book is called Música japonesa (Japanese Music ), published in 1982, but he also wrote Los Pichiciegos (The Pichiciegos ), which deals with the Falklands War. Although the prison doesn’t appear, it was a success because of its vocabulary, a very realistic, very vivid lunfardo. Evidently, his time in prison influenced him through contact with people from other provinces in Argentina, with a vocabulary he could only have come into contact with in prison.”

Since prisons aren't just filled with men, the exhibition also highlights the place occupied by women and trans or lesbian people throughout history . "There are quite old testimonies of trans people, for example indigenous people, who were imprisoned for refusing to participate in the enlistment process in the 19th century," Acevedo says.

“There are also materials that show how criminologists at the beginning of the 20th century categorized crime; transsexuality and homosexuality appear as abnormal behavior that should be punished .”

And she exemplifies this with some clippings from the Crónica archive, featuring protests by trans women about prisons for minors in the 2000s; or with a section dedicated to the women's correctional facility and juvenile asylum that operated since the late 19th century in San Telmo, run by the Good Shepherd order of nuns, where they provided "moral rehabilitation" and helped inmates return to "family values" through penance and domestic work.

“There is also very impressive material on display about women's prisons in Mendoza ,” Acevedo continues. “A woman was imprisoned for her political activism during the Uriburu dictatorship of the 1930s, and upon entering the prison, she was able to make contact with sex workers and common prisoners who were perhaps imprisoned not for political reasons or theft but for sex work.”

It also shows the work of groups such as the collectives Yo no fui (I Was Not), or Mujeres atrás las rejas (Women Behind Bars), which strongly address the issue and explain that prison is not the same for women as it is for men: " When a woman goes to prison, she is not visited in the same way , because in general her family has to dedicate themselves to caring for all the people that this woman was caring for. The theme of motherhood in prison is also addressed with photos by Adriana Lestido , who visited the La Plata prison in 1992 and photographed the lives of women and what happened to their children when their mother was in prison, and it is quite impressive," Acevedo adds.

Prisons. Narrations of Confinement (1878–2025) is open to the public until August 24, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Juan L. Ortiz Room of the National Library (Agüero 2502).