According to Stuart Miller in the Picaresque Novel (1967), "in the picaresque world, the chaos is radical; it extends to the very roots of life. In a picaresque novel one has as much chance of being run over by a cart if one steps into the street as not...When one reads a picaresque novel, he gradually comes to feel that he may be in physical danger sitting in his armchair." (pg. 134)
I can't but help feel that the immigrant makes the perfect picaro or rogue. In fact, my parents who are Argentine have always felt that the main export of Argentina is fully formed adults that are vivos, despiertos, and picaros. In fact, the porteno or person from Buenos Aires is constantly obliged to be the anti-boludo. Boludo is a very Argentine thing to call someone. In circles of confidence, it is like a hey you. In unknown social navigations it can become an insult, like calling someone a dolt. My father got away for calling me this for most of my adult life. For an Argentine, especially a porteno, there is nothing worse than a boludo, a bobo, a dolt.
Therefore, Argentines are preternatural picaros and are wired to become social rogues. More than free thinkers, Argentines are raised to want to become Pucks, jesters, and ball-busting troubadors. And the history and culture of Argentina play into this temporal aesthetic. During a ten day period last year, Argentina went through at least four presidents. It was as if the presidency of Argentina were a hot potato, or stolid ember from a pyre. And the military dictatorship during the 70's where countless students, lawyers, intellectuals, therapists, homosexuals (at least 30,000) were disappeared by the military government. If a dirty war is not a manifestation of the sang froid arbitrariness of the picaresque, then I don't know what.
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