Abel Posse
The novelist's father, Ernesto Parentini, a porteño of Italian parents, was one of the founders of Artistas Argentinos Asociados and was the producer of the legendary feature film La guerra gaucha (1942), based on the text by the poet Leopoldo Lugones. The young Abel Posse grew up in the Argentine capital near Rivadavia street, and given his father's profession was exposed to the artistic and cultural milieu this most sophisticated of the South American capitals had to offer. The “Queen of the River Plate”, as Buenos Aires came to be known, fascinated the young man, (4) and his memories are evoked in his novel Los demonios ocultos (1987).
He was able to mingle with the glamorous stars of Argentine show business, like Chas de Cruz, Pierina Dealessi, Ulises Petit de Murat, Muñoz Azpiri, the writer of radioplays which were performed by Eva Duarte (de Perón), as well as the tango composers Aníbal Troilo and Homero Manzi. Such were the family connections to show business that one of his aunts, Esmeralda Leiva de Heredia, better known as “La Jardín”, was an actress friend of Eva Duarte. (5) Growing up in this environment enabled him to obtain an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the tango repertoire and its culture, (6) which imbues his novel La reina del Plata (1988).
Abel Posse
Abel Posse is a regular contributor to the liberal-conservative daily La Nación in Buenos Aires, as well as other Argentine dailies (Perfil, La Gaceta de Tucumán) and Spanish papers (ABC, El Mundo and El País). He has also been editor in chief of the Revista Argentina de Estudios Estratégicos (Argentine Journal of Strategic Studies). His journalistic publications include some 400 articles, many have been published in his collection of socio-political essays, such as, Argentina, el gran viraje (2000), El eclipse argentino. De la enfermedad colectiva al renacimiento (2003) and La santa locura de los Argentina (2006), Sobrevivir Argentina (2014) and Réquiem por la política (2015). His literary and more strictly philosophical reflections have been collected in En letra grande (2005). In many of these texts Posse celebrates the glorious past of Argentina where he expounds on his desire that in the 21st century his country may resume its destiny as a great nation in the continental and international sphere, and that it take a greater role in Mercosur and in wider projects of regional integration. As a Peronist, Posse has worked with Eduardo Duhalde in the consolidation of Mercosur.