Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America

I knew that my knowledge of Latin America was wanting, but I had no idea how much I never learned in school nor received from the news media. Guillermoprieto does a solid, dispassionate job of explaining the complicated politics of Latin America and what it means for those countries and their relationships with other nations. The essays on Cuba and Mexico are particularly intriguing.

In a collection of seventeen articles focusing on six Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Maxico,and Cuba), New York Times journalist Ana Guillermoprieto serves up a highly literate and gracefully scripted collage of Latin America today. The limited selection of countries and issues should not detract from the value of this book in understanding the region as a whole, for each of the sets of articles offers some broader insight beyond just the personalities or countries described. The author artfully combines first-hand interviews and reportage from the region with research and masterfully chosen extracts from other important books on this region. Her concise piece on Eva Peron is illustrative of her incisiveness and left me better informed than other sources on this somewhat mystifying subject ( see, for example, Evita: An Intimate Portrait of Eva Peron, which I have also reviewed on this website.). By ably reviewing the literature and carefully distinguishing between fact, hearsay, and speculation, the author unravels some myseries surrounding this QUOTE bland and to all appearances untalented girl, born illegitimate and on a ranch...possesed of an unreconstructed working-class accent and an unfailing gauche manner..in a country where upper-class snobbery reaches extremes of refinement and viciousness UNQUOTE I also enjoyed an excellent piece on Peruvian writer turned presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa whose biographcial sketch the author weaves into a broader portrait of Peruvian politics and society in the 1990s.The pieces on Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba may seem dated at first glance, but in fact provide penetrating insights into the Zapatistas, Colombia's civil strife, and Castro. Among books on Latin America, it is unusual in its ability to avoid pretending to be apolitical, while not falling prey to a facile ideological analysis. This book is a reflection of journalism at its best and is written by someone who is not simply peering into Latin America with an outsider's eye, but has a deep sense of the myths, conflicts, and legacies that gives soul to this part of the world. This book should not be a disappointment to anyone with more than a passing interest in Latin America. You may also consider complementing this book with a more pictorial account of this region (see, for example, America Latina by Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir, which I have also reviewed on this website).

Need to know what is happening in Latin America today and don't want some dreary old history lesson force-fed down your throat? Then buy this book for the totally beguiling and endlessly fascinating writing of Alma, Alma, Alma who hits another high note as she sambas her way through Latin culture and cuts through the rhetoric.

"Looking for History" is an enjoyable, vivid collection of articles on Latin America. The piece on Eva Peron is especially fascinating and surreal. Here Guillermoprieto is at her best, writing a very balanced portrait of a near-mythic character. We learn that Eva and Juan Peron were both unlikely superstars and yet somehow, once united, became a political and media tag-team powerhouse. We also learn that the story of Eva's corpse is perhaps more interesting, and certainly more bizarre, than her real life. Stuffed by a taxidermist, her body traveled across the Atlantic several times -- at one point collecting dust in an attic -- before being laid to rest in Buenos Aires decades after her death. Guillermoprieto does not report new facts here. Anyone who has read a good biography on Evita will already know the lurid details surrounding the corpse. But Guillermoprieto handles this material so well that it reads better than a Borges story. Indeed, she seems to know that any good telling of Latin America, whether factual or fictional, must include some dimension of absurdity. Some of the strongest articles in "Looking for History" are on Colombia's civil war. She details how the FARC, the country's largest guerilla group, went from a ragtag team of 200 Marxist fighters to a revolutionary army that now has some 17,000 troops. She also goes into the background of Colombia's rightwing death squads, particularly the AUC, and shows how these paramilitary units actually feed off of the rebels. She mentions, for example, that one-third of the AUC's members are actually fighters plucked from the guerilla groups. Many of these converts are former hostages of the AUC, who have even been viciously tortured and beaten by the paramilitaries. Once released, the guerillas often return to the death squads and freely join the enemy side. It is a strange story, and Guillermoprieto interviews these converts -- many of them women -- to understand what made them fight in the first place, and then what made them into turncoats. These personal stories, so confused, so profoundly chaotic, seem to represent the turmoil of the entire Colombian nation. Here loyalties are tangled, identities fractured, and the lines between civilian and soldier hopelessly blurred. Guillermoprieto communicates this all so well, showing that no one is truly innocent or, for that matter, completely villainous.Finally, the pieces on Mexico are exceptional, especially the one on Subcomandante Marcos. Her portrait of the Zapatista leader is complex but fair, not presenting him as a sacred hero, nor as some warmongering radical. She fits him somewhere in between, flawed for sure, but also noble. He is a man motivated by ego and fame, enjoying the hero worship that now surrounds him. But he also spearheaded a just cause -- the rights of the Indian peasant -- and used a savvy media campaign to champion this group and overthrow a corrupt regime. This approach to revolution, using words over AK-47s, disting

This is an excellent primer for the reader who seeks an overview of the diverse currents in modern Latin America. The study is not comprehensive; it is a sampler of articles addressing a number of separate and distinct Latin American situations (Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Colombia) which includes historical figures who served as catalysts (Eva Peron, Che Guevara). She references a number of other recent (accurate and well written) works on Latin America enabling the reader to pursue additional study.Guillermoprieto writes in a clear, crisp readable fashion which incorporating understatement and irony. Her perspective is Latin American and she is direct and honest regarding the pervasive influence of the United States. Refreshingly, however, she refrains from simplistically depicting Latin Americans as martyrs and clearly places an appropriate degree of responsibility with Latin Americans for their own fate.A fine book -- well written, interesting, informative. Highly recommended for the person who wishes to get further up to speed on the complex and extremely varied social and political milieus in the hemisphere's Spanish speaking nations.