Recommended Books & Films

For a general primer on South America, Paul Theroux's Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas (Houghton Mifflin, 1997) provides a beautifully written account of his travels throughout the continent. Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia (Penguin Classics, 2003) offers an alternate take on the Patagonia region covered in the Theroux work.

If you're interested in a scholarly read, pick up John Charles Chasteen's Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000). The book only begins with the arrival of the Europeans in the Americas, but it gives a good overview of the diverse regions of Latin America.

If you'd like a visual overview of South America, The Motorcycle Diaries (MCA Home Video, February 2005), which chronicles a road trip taken by a young Che Guevara, is a good bet.

Antarctica -- Antarctica has produced some of the most dramatic adventure stories in history, and surely the most riveting is Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (Carroll & Graf, 1999), which recounts Ernest Shackleton's failed attempt to reach the South Pole. Other adventure tales include Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell by Reinhold Messner (Mountaineers Books, 1992), who skied across Antarctica in 1989 and 1990; and A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole by Diana Preston (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).

If you'd like a sneak peak at some of the wildlife in Antarctica, check out March of the Penguins (National Geographic video, 2005).

Argentina -- For a review of the country's history, try Nicolas Shumway's The Invention of Argentina (University of California Press, 1993). Argentine historians Jorge B. Rivera and José Gobello are instrumental in helping demystify modern Argentina. Their books are difficult to find in English; if you read Spanish, try Gobello's Crónica General del Tango (Editorial Fraterna, 1980). Jorgelina Corbatta offers the best account of Argentina's "dirty war" under the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 in Narrativas de la Guerra Sucia en Argentina (Ediciones Corregidor, 1999).

Jorge Luis Borges sits at the top of Argentine fiction writers; read Collected Fictions (Penguin, 1999) for an overview of his work. Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman (Vintage, 1991) and Julio Cortázar's The Winners (New York Review Books, 1999) are good picks for more contemporary Argentine writing.

Bolivia -- The Fat Man from La Paz (Seven Stories Press, 2000), edited by Rosario Santos, is a collection of contemporary short stories by Bolivian writers. The stories provide readers with a vivid picture of life in Bolivia.

Che Guevara spent his last days on the run in Bolivia. There are several books detailing his journey. One of the best accounts is the Complete Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara and Other Captured Documents (Cooper Square Press, 2000) by Ernesto Guevara and Daniel James.

Herbert S. Klein's Bolivia: The Evolution of a Multi-Ethnic Society (Oxford University Press, 1992) does an excellent job of delving into the government, economics, and history of Bolivia. Klein also touches on art, architecture, and societal relations.

For more information about the sophisticated pre-Inca Tiwanaku culture, your best bet is Alan L. Kolata's The Tiwanku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization (Blackwell Publishing, 1993).

Brazil -- There is no single good general history covering Brazil from 1500 to the present. Colonial Brazil, edited by Leslie Bethell (Cambridge University Press, 1983), is a scholarly but readable account of Brazil under the Portuguese, while Peter Flynn's Brazil: A Political Analysis covers political history from the birth of the first republic to the close of the second dictatorship. For a fascinating introduction to a whole range of topics in Brazil, pick up the excellent anthology Travelers' Tales: Brazil, edited by Annette Haddad and Scott Doggett (1997). Tristes Tropiques (Penguin, 1992) is a classic work of travel writing by the great French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Until he passed away in 2001, Bahian novelist Jorge Amado was considered a serious candidate for the Nobel Prize. His greatest novels revolve around the colorful characters of his beloved Bahia, and include Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Avon, 1998) and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (Bard Books, 1998). In a previous generation, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis wrote fiercely ironic novels and short stories, many set in Rio towards the end of the 19th century. His works available in English include The Epitaph of a Small Winner (Noonday Press, 1990). Brazil's greatest social realist is Graciliano Ramos. His masterpiece Barren Lives (University of Texas Press, 1971) is considered to be one of Brazil's finest novels.

If you're interested in learning about Rio de Janiero's favelas, we recommend watching City of God (Miramax, June 2004).

Chile -- A quick, comprehensive guide to all things Chilean, Susan Roraff and Laura Camacho's Culture Shock! Chile (Graphic Arts Center, 2002), explains Chilean etiquette and culture. For history and a look into the Pinochet legacy that came to define modern Chile, try the following books: A History of Chile, 1808-1994 by Simon Collier and William F. Sater (Cambridge University Press, 1996); A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet by Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993); and Chile: The Other September 11 by Ariel Dorfman, et al. (Ocean Press, 2002).

Chile boasts two literary Nobel Prize winners, Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda; however, most North Americans are probably most familiar with the Chilean export Isabel Allende, whose popular novels such as Of Love and Shadows (Bantam, 1998) and House of the Spirits (Bantam, 1989) have been made into major motion pictures. English translations of Neruda's exceptional poetry are usually available, such as the classics Canto General (University of California Press, 2000) and The Heights of Machu Picchu (Noonday Press, 1999), but it is less common to find English versions of Mistral's works.

Colombia -- John Hemmings's The Search for El Dorado (Phoenix Press, 2001) gives readers insight into the history and conquest of Colombia by the Spanish. For a general overview of Colombia's economy, government, history, geography, destinations, people, and more, try Colombia, a Country Study Guide by USA International Business Publications, which is updated yearly and aimed at businesspeople. To understand the political crisis and never-ending civil war in Colombia, try Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society by Frank Safford and Marco Palacios (Oxford University Press, 2001); The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself by David Bushnell, Georg Wilhelm, and Friedrich Hegel (University of California Press, 1993); or Bandits, Peasants, and Politics: The Case of "La Violencia" by Gonzalo Sánchez (University of Texas Press, 2001).

Colombia's -- and all of South America's -- premiere literary figure is Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez, known for novels such as Love in the Time of Cholera (Penguin, 1994) and One Hundred Years of Solitude (Harperperennial Library, 1998), both of which are widely available. Vivir para Contarla, the first volume of his three-part autobiography, is now available in English as Living to Tell the Tale (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003).

Maria Full of Grace (HBO Home Video, December 2004) offers an engaging glimpse into Columbia's drug-running culture..

Ecuador -- Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands have captured the imagination of many North American and British writers. Herman Melville's Las Encantadas (Fawcett Publications, 1967) is a collection of various pieces from the 19th century that provide descriptions of the islands themselves, the inhabitants, and the whalers who passed through the area. Kurt Vonnegut's Galápagos (Delta, 1999) is a hilarious story about human evolution. It starts off with a story about a small group of people who are shipwrecked and forever stuck on a small isolated island in the Galápagos. It then follows the evolution of these people for a million years into the future.

If you're interested in learning about how Charles Darwin formed his theory of evolution, you should pick up Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle (Penguin, 1989) or his Origin of Species (Grammercy, 1998). Michael H. Jackson's Galápagos: A Natural History (University of Calgary Press, 1994) is the best authority on the natural history of plants and animals in the Galápagos.

For a quick, simple, and concise history of Ecuador, try reading In Focus Ecuador: A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture (Interlink Pub Group, 2000) by Wilma Roos and Omer Van Renterghem. Linda Newson's Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995) looks at the native people living in Ecuador in the 16th century and discusses how they were affected by both the Inca and Spanish conquests.

Peru -- Perhaps the classic work on Inca history is The Conquest of the Incas by John Hemming (Harvest Books, 1973), a very readable narrative of the fall of a short-lived but uniquely accomplished empire.

Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru's most famous novelist and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, was nearly elected the country's president back in 1990. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (Penguin, 1995) is one of his most popular works; The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (Noonday Press, 1998) is a dense meditation on Peruvian and South American revolutionary politics that blurs the lines between truth and fiction; and Death in the Andes (Penguin, 1997) is a deep penetration into the contemporary psyche and politics of Peru. Another side of the author is evident in the small erotic gem In Praise of the Stepmother (Penguin, 1991).

For a glimpse into Peru's recent political history, check out the documentary The Fall of Fujimori (Stardust Pictures, January 2006).

Uruguay -- Lawrence Weschler reports on Uruguay's "dirty war" in A Miracle, A Universe (University of Chicago Press, 1998). Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano examines the consequences of colonialism and imperialism in Open Veins of Latin America (Monthly Review Press, 1998).

Blood Pact & Other Stories (Curbstone Press, 1997) is one of the few collections of beloved writer Mario Benedetti available in English. A good place to start with José Enrique Rodó's essays is Ariel (University of Texas Press, 1988).

Venezuela -- Perhaps no piece of literature is as closely associated with Venezuela as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 The Lost World (Doherty, Tom Associates, 1997), which is set in an area modeled after Venezuela's Amazonas region. The Lost World has spawned numerous imitators and literary offspring, and has served as the model for a host of films, including Jurassic Park.

Anyone with even the slightest interest in Venezuelan literature should start with Rómulo Gallegos's 1929 classic Doña Bárbara (English translation by Robert Malloy; Smith Peter, 1990), a tale of love and struggle on the Venezuelan plains. Gallegos was a former president and is widely considered the country's principal literary light. Also of interest are Gabriel García Márquez's The General in His Labyrinth (Penguin, 1991), a fictional account of Simón Bolívar's dying days, and Isabel Allende's Eva Luna (Bantam, 1989), which is set in a town based on the Venezuelan city of Colonia Tovar.

For an excellent glimpse into one of the darker sides of present-day Venezuela -- and Latin America, in general -- try to see the recent film Secuestro Express (Miramax, 2005), which tells the story of an "express kidnapping" in downtown Caracas, within the context of the country's current political and social situation.