Resistancefrom the margins: El beso de la mujer arana by Manuel Puig

In 1976 Manuel Puig published El beso de la mujer arana, his fourth novel. The context in Argentina was extremely dangerous, the turmoil of the third Peronism had given way to the self-proclaimed Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional, the toughest and most violent dictatorship that the country has experienced. However, Puig was exiled in Mexico, after being persecuted for his book The Buenos Aires Affair, which resulted in a death threat by the Triple A (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina) in 1974. It was the first time that Puig published the first edition of one of his books out of Argentina, where the Junta Militar had renewed the prohibition that weighed on his name. Despite the distance imposed with his readers, El beso de la mujer arana was clearly addressed to the Argentine public as a score settling and, at the same time, resistance.