War Haikus

Martin Raninqueo, whose last name comes from a Mapuche great-grandfather, was born in 1962. Like most of his contemporaries, he was conscripted under the generals’ dictatorship and sent in 1982 to hold the Falklands (las Malvinas) against Maggie Thatcher’s expeditionary force. Martin fought in the critical and bloody Argentine defeat of Mount Longdon, and was held as a prisoner of war aboard a British battleship. The Falklands debacle brought about the fall of the dictatorship. Strong and stunning in their often brutal brevity, these haiku come out of a critical moment in Argentine history.