“I wrote my first book as a hobby,” says Viviana Rivero, remembering her time as a lawyer. “My children were in school and I felt like it was time to reinvent myself. Women have this ability: to change course when our calling urges us.“. This first attempt became “Well Kept Secret”, a novel that would mark the beginning of an overwhelming literary career. The book was a success, it was translated into several languages, had its film adaptation and came to Netflix, where it stayed for five years. “I never imagined what would happen.” It was a door that opened unexpectedly,” he told OCIO Magazine.
Her literature is characterized by the fact that it focuses on women who break with the dictates of their time. “When I published my first novel in 2009, it was unthinkable that the heroine of a historical novel would be a strong woman,” she explains. “The protagonists were rather shy or dependent on their boyfriends. I wanted to write about pioneers, about the first to be encouraged: the first to teach, the first to operate, the first to trade. There was always one who was encouraged before the others and these stories inspire me.”
Rivero also thinks about how literature written by women is pigeonholed: “When a man writes a historical novel with love, it’s called historical. When a woman does the same, it’s romantic. There are prejudices installed. We have to prove that again and again.” We can talk about love without turning pinkthat we can tell deep stories, with mature, real love, with conflict and second chances.”
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The Argentine look
The author is aware that the Argentinean perspective is a common thread in her work. “I love saving our history. For example, when I wrote The Lady of the Night, I told about the Argentine meat negotiations with England during the war. I find it fascinating that this is being read outside, that it is being translated, because it makes aspects of our identity visible that are not known.”
The connection with the country is also reflected in the landscapes: “Well Kept Secret” brought tourism to La Falda. “Once the mayor wrote to me to thank me. He said that many people had come to the hotel because of the novel,” he remembers. “Even my husband says that I am a hero in La Falda“, he adds.
His new novel “Secretos de sangre” takes up part of this story. “I found out what happened to the German sailors of the Graf Spee who remained in Argentina, and I wanted to tell how their lives went on. Some married Argentine women, had children, and when the country declared war on Germany, many were deported.” I wanted to show this contrast“What happened to these families separated by history,” he says.
The novel alternates this plot with the search for the roots of the grandson of the protagonists of Well Kept Secret: “For me it was about showing how What our grandparents experienced still pulsates in us“.
Unite books
For Rivero, writing about the past is also a way of understanding ourselves as a society. “It helps us not to repeat mistakes. ‘Well Kept Secret’ is even read in some secondary schools when studying World War II.” Fiction can open your eyes more than a manual“, he thinks.
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The author, recognized and translated in numerous countries, says that it is still an exciting experience to see her books in the hands of readers from other countries: “Emotions bring us together. I always say that.” Books connect us. Without them we wouldn’t be here talking. They connect us across borders.”
After fifteen published novels and numerous awards, Rivero assures that his creativity continues to be guided by curiosity. “When I wrote about Rome, I discovered the role of women at that time. I had never read it in any novel: It was women who found ways to trade or even found banks without legal rights.. I found that fascinating and I wanted to explore this universe further,” he says.
Throughout the lecture, Rivero repeats a phrase that seems to define her: “Women are good at reinventing ourselves“The author from Córdoba shows in her life, in her books and in her view of the world that this reinvention – personal, literary and collective – can also be a form of freedom.”