A Young Swallowman (Un joven golondrina)

Published by Policarpo Q. in bilingual edition, in book and ebook. Written and translated as part of the Royal Court Theatre’s new writing workshops in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

In rural Argentina at harvest time, migrant workers – known as swallowmen – arrive in their numbers. Travelling around the country according to the agricultural calendar, they work for low wages and in poor conditions, largely looked down upon by the very communities that depend on their labour. When a young girl goes missing in one such town, the swallowmen are the first to be accused. When his brother is unfairly arrested for the abduction, a young initiate swallowman, working in the farms for the first time, allies with the girl’s best friend to try to unearth the truth. But in a community familiar with bloody slaughter, brutal weather, back-breaking work and suspicion of outsiders, their road is fraught with danger.

Who are these people who bring you over from Tucumán, Jujuy, Salta, just to keep paying you to stay poor? The people from ’round here don’t wanna do it: they’d have to see your faces every day in the shop. That kid they’ve got locked up, they’ve had their eye on him since last year. I don’t know how many boxes they put in their own pockets…  They come from far away to work for pennies; no one wants to do the work those poor sods do, and people look down on them. They stick a few posts in the ground with leaves hanging off them so they can shelter from the sun, like pigs…  People don’t learn. This has only just begun; they won’t stop now.    

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