To fully appreciate this simple novel ‘The President and the Frog’, you first must know a few facts about the real person who is this fiction’s main character, José Mujica.

José Mujica was President of the South American country of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. What makes his story unique is that in his younger days Mujica was a leader of the left-wing urban guerrilla movement the Tupamaros. The Tupamaros were responsible for political kidnappings and assassinations during the time of Uruguay’s right-wing dictatorship. In 1970, the Tupamaros kidnapped and killed United States CIA torture instructor Dan Mitrione. During the years that Uruguay was ruled by the US-backed military junta, Mujica was imprisoned in squalid conditions, locked in a cell by himself in a hole in the ground. In all Mujica spent 13 years in prison and was subjected to frequent torture.

“Once upon a time there was a group of revolutionaries who’d dreamed of changing the world for the better by fighting the forces of repression, but the forces of repression were a monster that grew new tentacles with every battle they fought.”

The military dictatorship of Uruguay ended in 1984 with democratic elections, and Mujica was finally released from prison. Later Mujica would become Uruguay’s Minister of Agriculture and later was elected President of Uruguay in 2009.

‘The President and the Frog’ celebrates the breaking away of Uruguay from the evil influence of the United States government which supported and aided severe dictatorships across South America which tortured and murdered many of their own people for opposing their tyranny.

A Norwegian TV reporter has come to interview Mujica now that he is President.

“You have many admirers in Norway.”

“That’s very kind.”

“It’s quite true. You’re a beacon of hope, giving the world a different view of leadership, showing us that it’s possible for a president to truly serve the people.”

During the interview Mujica recalls his prison days.

As you can tell from the title ‘The President and the Frog’, it is written as a fable. When Mujica is imprisoned in a hole in the ground, only the frog is there for him to talk to. The frog is kind of a wise guy, but sometimes he has some good advice.

You don’t want to be broken. Don’t be broken.

“You’re a frog. You don’t know what humans do to each other – what they’ve done to us.”

And what they haven’t done.

“There’s nothing they haven’t done. Just look at me. They’ve starved me, beaten me, tortured me with their fancy imported torture machines, put me here alone, and done it not just to me but to the lot of us, the resistance lost, we’re lost, we’re all done for. “

Ho-de-hum, co-co-comes a sto-rm.

“Have you even been listening?”

Silly man.

This is a simple inspiring story about a remarkable leader we here in the United States have not heard much about.

Grade:    A

‘Cantoras’ by Carolina de Robertis   (2019) –  317 pages

The small country of Uruguay was supposed to be immune from collapsing into a dictatorship. It was supposed to be a tiny oasis of calm. The country prided itself on being a progressive democracy, a role model. However on June 27, 1973 it fell into the throes of a severely repressive military dictatorship. Citizens were arrested and disappeared for no reason. Many of these were tortured and/or murdered it was found out later. Large numbers of people left the country, escaped as exiles. Not until 1984 was Uruguay returned to civilian rule.

‘Cantoras’ is the story of that appalling time in Uruguay told from the perspective of five women who had thought they had found refuge on a remote beach on the Atlantic Ocean. These women all have a special reason to be concerned about the alarming events in their country because they are women who are attracted to other women. They call themselves “Cantoras” which is the Portuguese word for female singers or songstresses.

“There was no future for women in this godforsaken country, must less for women like her.”

We readers are there when one or more of these women fall in love or fall apart or bring in another woman from outside the group.

“She had never seduced a woman who was so much older than her before; the thrill of it helped her survive the terror of her days. She was only seventeen years old but she’d been watching men for a long time, the way they acted as if they knew the answers to questions before they were asked, as if they carried the answers in their mouths and trousers.”

We are there when one of this female group is arrested.

“There she was, a prisoner flanked by soldiers in plain clothes, and yet she looked as free and normal as anyone else. The essence of dictatorship, she thought. On the bus, on the street, at home; no matter where you are or how ordinary you seem, you’re in a cage.”

I have previously read the novel ‘Perla’ by Carolina de Robertis which is also about the military dictatorship in Uruguay. After reading ‘Perla’ I was already sure that I had discovered a new major world-class novelist in Carolina de Robertis, and ‘Cantoras’ reinforces that view. ‘Cantoras’ is a moving blend of the political and the personal, how these women start, continue, and end their romantic relationships under difficult conditions.

“…at twenty-eight, she would never know how much of who she was was deformed by dictatorship, like a plant twisting its shape to find light. That so much had been lost or broken.”

We do not realize how important freedom is to living our lives until it disappears. The significance of living freely and the destruction of lives caused by the loss of freedom are conditions too many South Americans know all too well.

“We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Freedom is like that. It’s like air. When you have it, you don’t notice it.” – Boris Yeltsin

Grade :    A-