The stories of the great navigators and travelers
The first accounts of Patagonia were, of course, written by the great navigators. Antonio Pigafetta, one of the eighteen survivors of Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe, published a major work with his travel journal in 1524, giving rise to the legend of the Patagonians. He also wrote a Vocable des géants de Patagonie, in fact the first dictionary of the Tehuelche. John Byron, meanwhile, published his superb Naufrage en Patagonie (Shipwreck in Patagonia ) after his terrible misadventures at the ends of the earth in the 1740s. Then there was Charles Darwin, who reported on his stay in Tierra del Fuego, Magellan and Chiloé between 1831 and 1836 in his Voyage of a Naturalist Around the World. In it, he describes the plants, animals and fossils... while indulging in some rather regrettable facile statements about the inhabitants of these far-flung regions. Then came novelists like Jules Verne, who published three novels inspired by the discoveries of the late 19th century: Le Phare du bout du monde, En Magellanie and Les Naufragés du Jonathan.
In the following century, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published Vol de nuit (1929), following his trip to Patagonia to open the Aéropostale route in South America. A few years later, in 1977, Bruce Chatwin (1940-1977) published In Patagonia, a cult book for all lovers of this remote land. Sadly, suffering from AIDS, he didn't have the time to tell us more about this region of the world that so attracted him. He was followed by Paul Edward Theroux, who published Patagonia Express in 1979, the story of his train journey from the USA to Patagonia.
Patagonia through some authors
The great Chilean writer Francisco Coloane, who was born in Quemchi, Chiloé, in 1910 and died in Santiago in 2002, evokes the lives of these men from the ends of the earth in most of his works. He sang of the simple, raw beauty of Patagonia like no other. As a young man, while living in Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego, he worked in a variety of occupations: sheep herder, oil prospector, sailor and wild horse trainer... These experiences left an indelible mark on his writing. He was awarded Chile's National Literature Prize in 1964 and made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France in 1997. In France, critics compare him to Jules Verne, Melville and Conrad.
In a similar vein, Luis Sepúlveda's novel Le monde du bout du monde (The World at the End of the World) takes us on a whale-chase through the Strait of Magellan. Also worth reading are his Patagonia Express and Dernières nouvelles du Sud. This Chilean writer was born in Ovalle in 1949. Close to Allende in his youth, he was a militant member of the Communist Youth. But at the age of 25, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison by Pinochet's military regime. His charges included betrayal of the homeland, subversive conspiracy and membership of armed groups. He was released two and a half years later by Amnesty International. His love of travel, his revolutionary commitments and his political and environmental convictions took him as far as Peru and Colombia, where he became involved in protest movements. The year after his release, he went to visit the Shuar Indians as part of a UNESCO program. On his return from a year's immersion in the Amazon, he wrote his first novel, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. It was an international success, translated into 35 languages. A dozen novels followed, including Les Roses d'Atacama, Journal d'un tueur sentimental and Un nom de torero. German, then Spanish by adoption, he lived in Europe, notably in Hamburg and Paris, before finally settling in Gijon, Spain, a little over twenty years ago. La Fin de l'Histoire (The End of History), his latest novel, is a detective story recounting the dark hours of the Chilean dictatorship. In it, he reveals certain facets of that era and plunges the reader into a suspenseful, action-packed tale. All his books are marked by his political and environmental commitment. In his writings, he often evokes Patagonia, notably in Dernières nouvelles du Sud, which recalls his 1996 trip there with photographer Daniel Mordzinski. In it, we discover the historical and everyday realities of the region, as well as anecdotes and legends that persist to this day. In his 1994 novel, Patagonia Express, he pays tribute to Francisco Coloane, who instilled in him a love of the region. We meet a host of unique and touching characters, whose lives are more or less crazy. The book ends with the words: "I'll never be alone again. Coloane had given me his ghosts, his characters, the Indians and emigrants from all latitudes who live in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, his sailors and their wandering sailors. They are all with me, allowing me to say out loud that living is a wonderful exercise". Finally, although Chile is his native country, he only regained Chilean nationality in May 2017. He died in 2020 of Covid-19.
Jean Raspail (b. 1925) romanticized the life of the self-proclaimed King of Araucania in his brilliant Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie (1981), winner of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. Patagonia had a profound effect on the French writer and explorer. In 1986, Patagonia again featured in Qui se souvient des hommes... In 2001, he wrote Adiós, Tierra del Fuego, a moving and erudite reminiscence of the ancient times of discovery and today's reality, the passage of time and the disappearance of millennia-old peoples..
Let's talk about Patricio Manns, with his Cavalier seul (1999), who also delivers a fine picaresque novel about gold prospector Julio Popper, who, at the end of the 19th century, established a veritable dictatorship in Tierra del Fuego and massacred the Onas Indians.
American writer Paul Edward Théroux, born in 1941, is best known for his travel stories, including Railway Bazar (a train journey from Great Britain to Japan) and Patagonia Express (the same adventure from the USA to Patagonia). Caustic by nature, he left sharp impressions on the landscapes he crossed and the people he met. Last but not least, Caryl Férey's recent bestseller Mapuche (2012) features a novel in which the Mapuche heroine evolves in the dark zones of Argentina.
