Lenguajes de la sangre: Memoria Transcultural en Los abuelos de Martín Caparrós

Abstract This article explores the semantic and symbolic dimensions of the concept of “blood” in Los abuelos , an unpublished novel by Argentine author Martín Caparrós, translated into Polish as Dziadkowie (2022). The novel reconstructs the parallel biographies of the author’s two grandfathers—Wincenty Rosenberg, a Polish Jew, and Antonio Caparrós, a Spanish Republican—interweaving their personal histories with major twentieth-century events such as the Holocaust and the Spanish Civil War. The narrative is structured around two axes of memory: horizontal (individual within collective history) and vertical (genealogical inheritance), with “blood” serving as a central metaphor. The article identifies five historical meanings of “blood”: religious purity, racial classification, hereditary transmission, patriotic sacrifice, and technoscientific identity (e.g., DNA). Caparrós critically engages with these discourses, questioning essentialist notions of identity and highlighting the constructed nature of familial and national belonging. The novel reflects on Argentina’s post-dictatorship memory politics, particularly the role of genetic testing in identity recovery and the prominence of family-based organizations such as Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Rather than affirming biological determinism, Los abuelos presents identity as a fragile, historically situated performance.