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 Bosum
In 1984, at age 28, Abel Bosum became the chief of the Oujé-Bougoumou, a position he would hold for 14 years. Oujé-Bougoumou which translates to "the place where the people gather", is the Cree nation in which Abel Bosum was born. When Abel Bosum became its chief it marked the beginning of a new era for the people. Over the preceding half century, they had been struggling to survive as a group and were considered "among the most destitute people of the developed world". Between 1926 and 1970, they had been forced to move their settlements seven times because of mineral discoveries that had been made in the region of James Bay, their traditional homeland. Because of the amount of relocation that the nation had undergone, by the 1970s many of its members were living in tarpaper and plywood shacks along logging roads, without running water or heat, and were split into six family groups. Others had moved to other Northern Quebec First Nations communities. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Abel Bosum had moved to Val D'Or, Quebec. During the period before he became chief and while he worked for the Grand Council of the Quebec Crees, Abel Bosum served as a link among members of the community and its elders. When meeting and discussing with the Oujé-Bougoumou elders about the nation's situation, they and Abel Bosum decided that they wished to take action. With Abel Bosum as their leader, they decided to negotiate with the federal and provincial governments to try to rectify the situation of the nation and return it to a community that could flourish. It was under this premise that Abel Bosum became chief of the Oujé-Bougoumou with the goal of negotiating with the Province of Quebec to provide his people with more suitable living conditions and to defend and promote the Oujé-Bougoumou's aboriginal rights in Quebec and Canada.