A Trip to Salto / Un Viaje a Salto

One day you re going to ask me, Mama, do you remember that trip to Salto? and I don t want such questions to go unanswered.
What happens on that trip to Salto opens this moving narrative by Uruguayan writer and poet Circe Maia. It begins with a mother and her young daughter desperately trying to catch an overnight train to Salto that they hope carries their husband and father, a physician and political prisoner who is traveling to the Salto prison accompanied by military guards after being interrogated in Montevideo. Their ensuing trip reveals the effects of a totalitarian regime on families and social relationships.
The tale of their journey is followed by a series of diary entries written by the mother between 1972 and 1974. The diary complements the opening account as each entry sensitively chronicles the family s struggle to cope with daily life under prolonged separation, fear, and uncertainty. The diarist questions how one s sense of community and love for country change when basic human rights can no longer be taken for granted.
Presented here in a bilingual edition, "A Trip to Salto" ultimately provides an intimate glimpse into Uruguayan history while it explores the deeper truths about an individual s capacity to resist, adapt, and hope."