A Culture of Its Own: Taking Latin America Seriously

by Mark Falcoff

Overview

A Culture of Its Own: Taking Latin America Seriously presents Mark Falcoff's essays on the region. Many of them are contentious; none of them are dull. He ranges from bilingualism to the cult of Garcia Lorca, from U.S.-Cuban relations to Chile's curious love affair with Germany. On more than one occasion, Falcoff takes aim at American journalism and scholarship, both of which, he argues, have all too often produced a fantasy version of Latin America which reflects our own national narcissism rather than genuine curiosity about the other. Latin America, Falcoff argues, is not merely a geographical extension of the United States, or a kind of downmarket version of the American Southwest. It is a culture all its own, with its own historical memory, sensibility, and worldview. Its achievements -and its miseries-are also its own, not the end-product of policies made by the Pentagon, Wall Street, or the CIA.

Falcoff writes about the region with originality, iconoclastic wit, and distinctive literary flair. His volume will interest Latin American specialists, diplomats, and journalists as well as those general readers who think they are not interested in Latin America-or who only suspect they might be, but don't know quite where to start.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560003618
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	04/30/1998
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Ideas and Ideologies 1. Was 1492 a Mistake? Did Columbus Go Too Far? 2. Beyond Bilingualism 3. The Only Hope for Latin America 4. Literature and Politics in Latin America 5. Orphans of Utopia Part II: Pictures from an Exhibition 6. “An aristocrat in the public square”: Jose Ortega y Gasset 7. Victoria Ocampo’s Sur 8. Garcia Lorca and His Times 9. Gerald Brenan 10. Carlos Fuentes Discovers America 11. The Doleful Legacy of Carlton Beals Part III: Cubans, Americans, and Cuban-Americans 12. U.S.-Cuban Relations: Back to the Beginning 13. America’s Culture Wars and the Cuban Revolution 14. The Cuba in Our Mind 15. The Other Cuba 16. Why the Latins Still Love Fidel Part IV: Argentine Hours 17. Orange Juice with General Perón: A Memoir 18. Between Two Fires: Terrorism and Counterterrorism in Argentina, 1970-1983 19. The Falklands Conflict Revisited Part V: Latins and Europeans 20. The Strange Case of Erich Honecker 21. Franco, Trujillo, and the CIA 22. Why the Europeans Support the Sandinistas

Editorial Reviews

A student of Latin American history and culture in the late 1950s, Falcoff notes that there was little to study before 1959 when Fidel Castro presented the threat of revolutionary contagion in the hemisphere. Castro provoked substantial support for studying Latin America. Falcoff claims that this support paradoxically developed a dissident intelligentsia rather than a patriotic corp of specialists in service to the U.S. Falcoff presents himself as a contrarian, "liberated from any sense of orthodoxy," attempting to expand the boundaries of his area of study beyond social science to encompass the totality of Latin American culture. In this collection of essays, lectures and reviews, written over the past 15 years, Falcoff touches on the cultural wars, that is, the growing Spanish-speaking population in the U.S and its role in the debate on multiculturalism. Falcoff refutes the common notion that the U.S. pushed Cuba into the arms of the Soviet Union.” —Vernon Ford "This book demonstrates why Falcoff. . . . has become the most formidable conservative commentator on Latin America in the United States. Falcoff takes aim at his erstwhile academic colleagues, who, he argues, trivialize Latin America by pretending that 'these countries are picturesque extensions of American power rather than societies with lives of their own, rich in contradictions and' conflict. . . . He sees the Cuban-American community as demonized by the academic left precisely because the material and cultural success of the Cuban diaspora has yet to force a revision of its notions of what Latin Americans are capable of achieving without surrendering their identity given the right economic and legal circumstances. He also criticizes the image of Latin America as a revolutionary hotbed which exists in a kind of ideological cocoon." —Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

Mr. Falcoff describes the larger picture in A Culture of Its Own: Taking Latin America Seriously, a collection of essays taking up the region's politics, literature, culture and history. He reveals himself to be an incisive thinker as well as an engaging writer who at times resembles a British essayist in the breadth, flair and bite of his prose. -- Wall Street Journal

Edward Schumacher

Collects 22 essays by Falcoff (resident scholar, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C.). Many diverse topics are covered, including bilingualism, the cult of Garcia Lorca, US-Cuban relations, Chile's curious love affair with Germany, terrorism and counterterrorism in Argentina from 1970 to 1983, and the CIA. Falcoff argues that American journalists and scholars have often produced a fantasy version of Latin America which reflects our own national narcissism rather than genuine curiosity about the region. Of interest to specialists on the region, diplomats, and journalists, as well as general readers looking for an introduction to the region's issues. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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