Quote of the Week

Do you suppose Latin American writers, trying to mix literary modernism with revolutionary politics, resent our blue-eyed exploitation of their continent as a sort of compost heap of the libidinal and the symbolic? Aren't D. H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, Robert Stone and Paul Theroux imperialists? What do black Africans think of Conrad, Bellow, Updike and Edgar Rice Burroughs? Why don't the white guys look for the heart of darkness in their own bathrooms?
--John Leonard, "The Heroine: A Contraption of Attitudes", The New York Times, March 21, 1982

Quote of the Week

But what is really meant is Anglo-American culture as the heir to some grand European tradition. Anglo-American culture? That would have been a good laugh to José Enrique Rodó. The influential fin-de-siècle Uruguayan essayist, soul brother in spite of himself to today’s gringo neo-cons doing righteous battle for the values of the West, argued in his Ariel that Latin-American culture was the heir to the grand European tradition and that the natural enemies of these values were the Anglo Americans. Rodó’s argument had history on its side: Latins, after all are descended from Rome; the Anglos, as everyone knows, were barbarians. Chauvinistic nonsense? You betcha.
--Enrique Fernandez, “P.C. Rider,” The Village Voice, June 18, 1991, vol. 36, no 25

Book of the Week

Harry Dresden and Latin American pyramids? I am so there.

“There are 40 million Latinos in the United States today...

...And Rick Najera is determined to tell the story of each and every one of them.”

At least that's how a line goes in the end credits for Latinologues and Latinologues 2. Not really a bad sentiment at that, even if the stories themselves seem to lean rather heavily upon the very stereotypes they're sending up.

The most poignant of the stories thus far are “The Janitor” (about a Dominican janitor whose life is disrupted by 9/11) and “Cuba Libre” (about a Cuban prostitute who is desperate to escape Cuba). However, most of the stories don't aim for poignancy as much as mere humor and some -- like the one about the Salvadoran mother with a vampire son -- are little more than outright farce.

The result is not really bad. In fact, I can't help but wonder what Najera will come up for the inevitable Latinologues 3.

However, if you're expecting deep social insight from these shows, don't hold your breath.