COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is the historical backdrop to the publication of Catedrales, placing the novel’s engagement with abortion in a period when global lockdown coincided with intense public debate in Argentina over its legalization.

Publication Context

Catedrales appeared during the global lockdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a circumstance of the novel’s publication, not an event identified as part of its fictional plot. The timing situates the book’s intervention in a period marked both by pandemic restrictions and by fierce public discussion of abortion in Argentina.

Relation to the Abortion Debate

The debate over legalizing abortion continued during this period and culminated in approval by the National Congress of Argentina on 30 December 2020. The pandemic thus frames the publication of a novel concerned with the consequences of rigid traditional Catholic positions on abortion, while the legislative outcome marks the historical context in which that concern was being publicly contested.