Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America

By Alma Guillermoprieto

From the esteemed New Yorker correspondent comes an incisive volume of essays and reportage that vividly illuminates Latin America’s recent history. Only Alma Guillermoprieto, the most highly regarded writer on the region, could unravel the complex threads of Colombia’s cocaine wars or assess the combination of despotism, charm, and political jiu-jitsu that has kept Fidel Castro in power for more than 40 years. And no one else can write with such acumen and sympathy about statesmen and campesinos, leftist revolutionaries and right-wing militias, and political figures from Evita Peron to Mexico’s irrepressible president, Vicente Fox.

Whether she is following the historic papal visit to Havana or staying awake for a pre-dawn interview with an insomniac Subcomandante Marcos, Guillermoprieto displays both the passion and knowledge of an insider and the perspective of a seasoned analyst. Looking for History is journalism in the finest traditions of Joan Didion, V. S. Naipaul, and Ryszard Kapucinski: observant, empathetic, and beautifully written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9780307426673

Reviews for Looking for History

[sidewaysstation · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am amazed no one has reviewed thjs book yet. Alma Guillermoprieto is simply the most clear-sighted analyst of Latin American I have come across. These essays are about the continent in the 90's but many things are the same. She has the advantage of being both inside and out, a person who can be a Latin American and understand everything from the perspective of a Mexican, a Cuban or a Colombian but also someone who can adjust this understanding with the slightly different view of an outsider. If you are interested in Latin America you must read this book. In fact, I would say you must read all of her books.