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 Lorea, 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. 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.
Mark Falcoff is a resident scholar at AEI.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Ideas and Ideologies
Was 1492 a Mistake? Did Columbus Go Too Far?
Beyond Bilingualism
The Only Hope for Latin America
Literature and Politics in Latin America
Orphans of Utopia
Part II: Pictures from an Exhibition
"An aristocrat in the public square": Jose Ortega y Gasset
Victoria Ocampo's Sur
Garcia Lorca and His Times
Gerald Brenan
Carlos Fuentes Discovers America
The Doleful Legacy of Carlton Beals
Part III: Cubans, Americans, and Cuban-Americans
U.S.-Cuban Relations: Back to the Beginning
America's Culture Wars and the Cuban Revolution
The Cuba in Our Mind
The Other Cuba
Why the Latins Still Love Fidel
Part IV: Argentine Hours
Orange Juice with General Peron: A Memoir
Between Two Fires: Terrorism and Counterterrorism in Argentina, 1970-1983
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