Mariella Gattini

The purpose of the story

The purpose of the story is to talk about resilience and positive thinking. No matter what happens to us we are always able to bounce back, not to the ones we were, but to the ones we wanted to be. Everything that happens to us, sooner or later, has a positive or negative impact on us, but there is always the opportunity to rise above what is happening to become who we really want to be, getting closer to the ideal self, the one defined in our mind, not the one dictated by society.

In the process of developing this conversation, this story became an attempt to bring closer cultures that also are in America, in the very south of it. In the south of the south.

When Chileans, in particular, like Italians, move to another country, they become part of the very same fabric of the new society. I’m both, Chilean and from Italian descent. And I became a U.S. citizen, which I take seriously and responsibly.

With things that are happening in the world today, people here have forgotten about other people in other countries, who also suffered, but decided not to take a vindictive approach to their problems, to their history. Instead, they took everything in, and kept going, at a high economic and social cost for which, even today, they are paying for.

The repression suffered in that side of America can still be felt in each one of us. It was a long, painful process of degradation and dehumanization. Still today you can hear and feel the hatred and the pain in many.

For that reason, I decided that this book needed to focus on the impact that such mistreatment had on the individual, which brings tears to my eyes even today, although it’s not my pain I’m talking about. It’s about the lives and tribulations of many, who, in spite of all, managed to have a decent life, one with dignity. A life that could have been happier and much more than it came to be—that’s the sad part of the story. The silver lining is found in that, against all odds, they managed to be who they wanted to be in the highly materialistic environment of consumerism that that repression brought, a world without substance and without kindness.

Why Lost in the Forgotten South? Why the title?

As I was writing this book I got lost. I was lost, submerged in a past that I had left behind for good reason. I thought about everything that was lost and could never be recovered. I thought of all the ones lost, the ones mistreated, and all the others, who weren’t persecuted, but nevertheless, remained with their liberties curtailed, pushed to live a nonsense life of survival in a south forgotten by everyone.

Core of the story

The core of the story is in what makes us human and what dehumanizes us. What is it that makes us keep going when there is an inhuman assault on us?

Inhuman assaults are very primitive behaviors, but not of the animalistic kind. When humans behave in a primitive way, they are not behaving like animals (that would be very insulting to animals), they act with premeditation and pure evil. In my experience, evil is inserted only in certain humans. To be evil you need to be conscientiously bad intentioned, and only human beings have a conscience; animals don’t. Evil is the internal force of amoral or immoral conscious individuals, who dehumanize other conscious individuals. In that way, they are able to feel their own power. Otherwise, they are devoid of identity; they only find their identity when they operate in the deepest darkness of their inhumanity.

What is this book about?

It’s about the lives of a father and his daughter inserted in a very unique environment. They have a very loving first encounter, yet later they are apart for a long time, only having a glimpse of one another once in a while. Until one day they are forced to follow the path together, facing what is happening around them with courage and strength, and adding good-hearted people to their lives; people from different cultures.

The father, Aldo, never questions anything, he just keeps going. He is pushed to reflect on his life when he is detained. For the first time, he starts to think about what is happening around him and about how much of that is his own responsibility. In the process, he realizes about the importance of his daughter in his life.

The daughter, Stella, reflects on her life from the very beginning, since she is a child, but feels invincible anyway. When she grows up, she has to face two main realities: Her father’s tragic experience—that had left him, in a way, paralyzed—and also her own limitations.

The way they solve their puzzles goes in two different directions—Aldo goes to his past, and Stella focuses on her future. What they have in common is their present, their precious moments shared.

I chose fiction

Because it allows me to convey the reality of many in every character, in every scene, in every chapter, although they are not trying to speak for everyone in any of the countries mentioned. No character is the representation of a particular person in reality.

On the other hand, what is fiction? And, what is real? What we define as non-fiction is a collection of perceptions coming from people with a very unique, yet limited perspective. Those perceptions can be easily manipulated, and those perspectives can have a clear agenda.

Therefore, a fiction book based on reality like this one can be even more truthful than the most factual of non-fiction books. On the same token, a non-fiction book can be further from the truth than the most imaginative of the most fictionalized fiction books.

In a few words, what seems real to some can perfectly be fiction, depending on the writer’s limitations and agendas.

I do not have an agenda. My only purpose is to allow others to speak through me—I’m just a mere interpreter. That fact doesn’t preclude me from having a responsible approach to writing. I need to be even more accurate and responsible as a writer, because I’m conveying the thoughts and, therefore, the lives of many in one collage of stories interconnected and fused in one general, deep, heavy, and extraordinary outcome. Because, as in reality, we all are the sum of others, and together people can be extraordinary.

This is an international book

The book moves between North America, South America, and Europe, their interdependencies, and their interconnections, because I found myself in between them. From my point of view, it’s not about who is who in terms of money or political influence. In my opinion, it’s about what we have in common and all the extraordinary things we can do together, looking at ourselves in the mirror first, then looking at everybody else in the eye, and find the value in each one of us. I guess I have an idealistic view on how things should be handled, in that we can always reason our way to the solution of things. Money talks, people say here in the States, and it’s true. But money cannot replace people—people are the real value of countries. Those who reason are not covered by the media very often, being them the majority, why is it that we don’t hear from them?

This book focuses on that kind of reasonable people, the unheard, some of whom are not longer in this world, and whose lives weren’t lived in vain.