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The Heart That Bleeds: Latin America Now
An extraordinarily vivid, unflinching series of portraits of South America today, written from the inside out, by the award-winning New Yorker journalist and widely admired author of Samba.
366 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 1994
36 people are currently reading
1251 people want to read
About the author
Alma Guillermoprieto
35 books105 followersGuillermoprieto was born and grew up in Mexico City. In her teens, she moved to New York City with her mother where she studied modern dance for several years. From 1962 until 1973, she was a professional dancer.
Her first book, Samba (1990), was an account of a season studying at a samba school in Rio de Janeiro.
In the mid-1970s, she started her career as a journalist for The Guardian, moving later to the Washington Post. In January, 1982, Guillermoprieto, then based in Mexico City, was one of two journalists (the other was Raymond Bonner of The New York Times) who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December, 1981. With great hardship and at great personal risk, she was smuggled by FMLN rebels to visit the site approximately a month after the massacre took place. When the story broke simultaneously in the Post and Times on January 27, 1982, it was dismissed as propaganda by the Reagan administration. Subsequently, however, the details of the massacre as first reported by Guillermoprieto and Bonner were verified, with widespread repercussions.
During much of the subsequent decade, Guillermoprieto was a South America bureau chief for Newsweek.
Guillermoprieto won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1985 to research and write about changes in rural life under the policies of the European Economic Community.
During the 1990s, she came into her own as a freelance writer, producing long, extensively researched articles on Latin American culture and politics for The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, including outstanding pieces on the Colombian civil war, the Shining Path during the Internal conflict in Peru, the aftermath of the "Dirty War" in Argentina, and post-Sandinista Nicaragua. These were bundled in the book 'The Heart That Bleeds' (1994), now considered a classic portrait of the politics and culture of Latin America during the "lost decade" (it was published in Spanish as 'Al pie de un volcán te escribo — Crónicas latinoamericanas' in 1995).
In April 1995, at the request of Gabriel García Márquez, Guillermoprieto taught the inaugural workshop at the Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, an institute for promoting journalism that was established by García Márquez in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. She has since held seven workshops for young journalists throughout the continent.
That same year, Guillermoprieto also received a MacArthur Fellowship.
A second anthology of articles, 'Looking for History', was published in 2001, which won a George Polk Award. She also published a collection of articles in Spanish on the Mexican crisis, El año en que no fuimos felices.
In 2004, Guillermoprieto published a memoir, 'Dancing with Cuba', which revolved on the year she spent living in Cuba in her early twenties. An excerpt of it was published in 2003 in The New Yorker. In the fall of 2008, she joined the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, as a Tinker Visiting Professor.
Her first book, Samba (1990), was an account of a season studying at a samba school in Rio de Janeiro.
In the mid-1970s, she started her career as a journalist for The Guardian, moving later to the Washington Post. In January, 1982, Guillermoprieto, then based in Mexico City, was one of two journalists (the other was Raymond Bonner of The New York Times) who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December, 1981. With great hardship and at great personal risk, she was smuggled by FMLN rebels to visit the site approximately a month after the massacre took place. When the story broke simultaneously in the Post and Times on January 27, 1982, it was dismissed as propaganda by the Reagan administration. Subsequently, however, the details of the massacre as first reported by Guillermoprieto and Bonner were verified, with widespread repercussions.
During much of the subsequent decade, Guillermoprieto was a South America bureau chief for Newsweek.
Guillermoprieto won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1985 to research and write about changes in rural life under the policies of the European Economic Community.
During the 1990s, she came into her own as a freelance writer, producing long, extensively researched articles on Latin American culture and politics for The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, including outstanding pieces on the Colombian civil war, the Shining Path during the Internal conflict in Peru, the aftermath of the "Dirty War" in Argentina, and post-Sandinista Nicaragua. These were bundled in the book 'The Heart That Bleeds' (1994), now considered a classic portrait of the politics and culture of Latin America during the "lost decade" (it was published in Spanish as 'Al pie de un volcán te escribo — Crónicas latinoamericanas' in 1995).
In April 1995, at the request of Gabriel García Márquez, Guillermoprieto taught the inaugural workshop at the Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, an institute for promoting journalism that was established by García Márquez in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. She has since held seven workshops for young journalists throughout the continent.
That same year, Guillermoprieto also received a MacArthur Fellowship.
A second anthology of articles, 'Looking for History', was published in 2001, which won a George Polk Award. She also published a collection of articles in Spanish on the Mexican crisis, El año en que no fuimos felices.
In 2004, Guillermoprieto published a memoir, 'Dancing with Cuba', which revolved on the year she spent living in Cuba in her early twenties. An excerpt of it was published in 2003 in The New Yorker. In the fall of 2008, she joined the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, as a Tinker Visiting Professor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 31, 2012
My first encounter with Alma Guillermoprieto's reporting ocurred some five years ago in the pages of The New Yorker. The article was called "Fidel's farewell" and it was about the old Cuban leader's decision to step back from his country's presidency after nearly fifty years of uninterrumpted power. I really liked her stylr and her insightful analysis, so when I came across this book and found out that it was a compilation of articles on Latin America from the early 90's, I bought it.
Each article carries some city's name and the year it was writtem for its title: Rio, 1993; Buenos Aires, 1991. Some countries are represented twice: Colombia, Brasil. She mostly unravels the connection between poverty and abandonment in which millions of people in this continent struggle to live in, and how it is enforced and deepened every day, by its corrupt leaders, its so-called saviours and so on. They are a couple of turbulent years indeed (1989 to 1993) and some of the most intriguing figures appear here in their best (or worst?) light: Collor de Mello, Fujimori, Menem, the Shining Path guerrilla (Sendero Luminoso), Salinas de Gortari.
It's written in a well-documented, lay tone, apt both for connaiseurs and from non-experts. Utterly reccomended.
Each article carries some city's name and the year it was writtem for its title: Rio, 1993; Buenos Aires, 1991. Some countries are represented twice: Colombia, Brasil. She mostly unravels the connection between poverty and abandonment in which millions of people in this continent struggle to live in, and how it is enforced and deepened every day, by its corrupt leaders, its so-called saviours and so on. They are a couple of turbulent years indeed (1989 to 1993) and some of the most intriguing figures appear here in their best (or worst?) light: Collor de Mello, Fujimori, Menem, the Shining Path guerrilla (Sendero Luminoso), Salinas de Gortari.
It's written in a well-documented, lay tone, apt both for connaiseurs and from non-experts. Utterly reccomended.
February 5, 2024
The now of the subtitle refers to this collection of articles for The New Yorker between 1989 and 1993. So, they treat themes such as political elections in Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Panama, and Argentina. These naturally come with an early expiration date as to their freshness. The value comes from the cultural coverage instead. Such as Mexico City's garbage dumps, the eerie entanglement of telenovelas and power struggles in Brazil, and the impacts of Sendero Luminoso on Peru. These issues kept my interest, although many other entries with their jumbled parties and long-forgotten candidates and then-troublesome events roiling the nations fade like yesterday's newspapers. That being said, this anthology unwittingly documents the last hurrah for what we have come to call "legacy" media...When the nightly news and morning headlines came courtesy of conglomerates, but also when these publications and networks could draw upon a somewhat broad audience interested in weighty topics, willing to read in depth essays each thousands of words long. The year this book appeared, it all started to change as the Internet began its expansion into the lives of ordinary people like presumably you and me, while those more easily distracted invented "tl;dr" as snide putdown.
August 14, 2016
This is an extremely engaging book about Latin America at the beginning of the ’90. Besides the amount of information related to that period, I really enjoyed Alma Guillermoprieto’s writing style. She may be describing various political events, but she never forgets to write about how these events affect all layers of society. This collection of short stories touches subjects like Sendero Luminoso (how it affected Peruvian society and how its leader was captured), Pablo Escobar, the drug trade, Mexico City’s pepenadores, Panama’s relationship with the US.
One of my favourite readings was the one describing the presidential campaign that brought Alberto Fujimori and Mario Vargas Llosa against each other. Although, I am a big fan of Llosa as a writer, I didn’t know many things about this episode in his life. And my only information about Fujimori was that his daughter, Keiko, was a candidate for the 2016 elections (and while I was visiting Peru, there were protests against her). Another topic skilfully touched was the country’s history of racism:
The other story that comes to my mind is the one related to Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected president of Brazil after the military government.
One of my favourite readings was the one describing the presidential campaign that brought Alberto Fujimori and Mario Vargas Llosa against each other. Although, I am a big fan of Llosa as a writer, I didn’t know many things about this episode in his life. And my only information about Fujimori was that his daughter, Keiko, was a candidate for the 2016 elections (and while I was visiting Peru, there were protests against her). Another topic skilfully touched was the country’s history of racism:
In the end, it was not the novelist but his supporters who lost the election for him. He cannot be faulted for being honest about the recessionary, monetarist program he saw as the only way to drag Peru out of the abyss, and he might even have been forgiven his white turtlenecks and love of French—this was, after all, the café-society Mario everyone already knew. What he was savaged for on Election Day was not knowing how to choose his friends. His friends called his opponent El Chinito—the affectionate diminutive being a favorite recourse of Latin-American racism—and the dark-skinned people who had heard themselves addressed forever as indios and little indios and cholos de mierda liked Fujimori better each time they heard the nickname. (He had the good grace to use the term himself, shouting “El Chinito has arrived!” on his first campaign tours, when there was nobody to do advance work for him.) For its election-week issue, the news magazine Caretas ran a cover that featured Fujimori wearing the indios’ peaked wool-knit cap with earflaps and holding a llama on a leash, with his campaign slogan—“A President Like You”—punctuated as a question. The intention behind it was vicious, but if the cover had come out a few weeks earlier it could have served as Fujimori’s best campaign poster.
The other story that comes to my mind is the one related to Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected president of Brazil after the military government.
January 23, 2009
As a guide to Latin America of the late 80s and early 90s, of the Contras, Escobar, Noriega and Shining Path—and many events we in the North heard far less about—Alma Guillermoprieto brings a measure of style, guts and cool intelligence to her essays equal to that of any living journalist. Although no longer current events, the vitality of her writing makes every one of these stories feel as urgent and relevant as the day they were written. Each is a glimpse into countries convulsing with change, seemingly on the point of doom or salvation, that had me running to Wikipedia after every essay to find out what happened next.
Her writing has a way of revealing truth indirectly. She explores one issue and reveals another, much larger one in the process. She quotes an assassin, executive or miner and it's not what they say, but what they don't, that speaks most loudly and betrays them. Even when writing on such narrow topics as the glamorous, sordid world of Brazilian telenovelas, or the post-NAFTA hardship of Mexican mariachis, she uses these entry points to give a wide-angle view of the country as a whole. As great as her talent is for uncovering truth, it's her ability as a reporter to reserve judgment that I most admired. She risks her life to tell more than a few of these stories, going where others had gone and were killed, and one has the sense that she's seen it all. At one point, after listing atrocities committed by Shining Path guerillas—the disemboweling of babies, human bonfires—she goes on to describe, in almost affectionate detail, a leaked tape in which the group's leader and his wife dance at a party. "He dances with great conviction and good rhythm while Iparraguirre encircles him with dainty steps and a shower of glances that are at once flirtatious, tender, and protective. His followers watch adoringly. One could almost wish them well." There's no pretense to her, no embarrassment or flinching at the extreme realities of life and death. In part I believe she's too smart, too knowing to accept any issue as simply black or white, but I also believe she respects the reader enough to allow them to come to their own conclusions.
I was frankly reluctant to review a book this good. It's surprisingly funny, in spite of its often dark subject matter, and not at all short on juicy details. Alma has a generous wit and has clearly learned some tricks from her deep reading of trashy gossip columns. My only small gripe was with her somewhat disingenuous portrayal of the drug trade, repeatedly asserting the perspective that the US and its appetite for drugs, not the production of them, is the entire source of the problem. This is an important book, and by the end one marvels that it even exists. It could not have been written without a journalist like Alma, willing to stake her own life and pursue these stories when almost anyone else would've turned back.
Her writing has a way of revealing truth indirectly. She explores one issue and reveals another, much larger one in the process. She quotes an assassin, executive or miner and it's not what they say, but what they don't, that speaks most loudly and betrays them. Even when writing on such narrow topics as the glamorous, sordid world of Brazilian telenovelas, or the post-NAFTA hardship of Mexican mariachis, she uses these entry points to give a wide-angle view of the country as a whole. As great as her talent is for uncovering truth, it's her ability as a reporter to reserve judgment that I most admired. She risks her life to tell more than a few of these stories, going where others had gone and were killed, and one has the sense that she's seen it all. At one point, after listing atrocities committed by Shining Path guerillas—the disemboweling of babies, human bonfires—she goes on to describe, in almost affectionate detail, a leaked tape in which the group's leader and his wife dance at a party. "He dances with great conviction and good rhythm while Iparraguirre encircles him with dainty steps and a shower of glances that are at once flirtatious, tender, and protective. His followers watch adoringly. One could almost wish them well." There's no pretense to her, no embarrassment or flinching at the extreme realities of life and death. In part I believe she's too smart, too knowing to accept any issue as simply black or white, but I also believe she respects the reader enough to allow them to come to their own conclusions.
I was frankly reluctant to review a book this good. It's surprisingly funny, in spite of its often dark subject matter, and not at all short on juicy details. Alma has a generous wit and has clearly learned some tricks from her deep reading of trashy gossip columns. My only small gripe was with her somewhat disingenuous portrayal of the drug trade, repeatedly asserting the perspective that the US and its appetite for drugs, not the production of them, is the entire source of the problem. This is an important book, and by the end one marvels that it even exists. It could not have been written without a journalist like Alma, willing to stake her own life and pursue these stories when almost anyone else would've turned back.
May 24, 2012
Guillermoprieto is amazing. The geographical and social scope of the stories is really broad, total respect (and a bit of jealousy) for the investigative reporting that led to them. Maybe this is obvious for a journalist, but how fascinating it must have been to visit so many places and talk to so many people from all camps of life. She points out that much of the content and leads came through local journalists, which is just as excellent, making the local media part of each story. The narrators in her stories represent the scope of stakeholders very well.
The writing is almost always polished and careful, it is a fun, good read. Certainly some articles are tighter than others, and maybe there's a correlation with the topic of a specific story (not all are as intriguing as african religion in brazil or teenage assassins in medellin). Some may find the articles frustratingly vagrant, but they are spotted with sharp analysis, and reflect the nature of situations that were actual and inconclusive at the time of writing.
The writing is almost always polished and careful, it is a fun, good read. Certainly some articles are tighter than others, and maybe there's a correlation with the topic of a specific story (not all are as intriguing as african religion in brazil or teenage assassins in medellin). Some may find the articles frustratingly vagrant, but they are spotted with sharp analysis, and reflect the nature of situations that were actual and inconclusive at the time of writing.
August 21, 2007
Brilliant brilliant brilliant anyone who hasn't read it shouldn't be allowed to vote.
November 5, 2007
Hands down the best writing on Latin America I've ever read.
January 31, 2018
Coincidentally, while reading this book, the January 2018 issue of National Geographic arrived and Alma Guillermoprieto had a beautiful piece on Columbia's recovery from civil war. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ma... That was a fun surprise.
I've traveled to Venezuela and Guatemala and was captivated by the beauty of the rich landscapes and the kind, generous people I met there. Yet, I've puzzled over these countries, so rich in natural resources, and also so devastatingly poor. How can that be? And the violence, the constant undercurrent of violence. One has to be always vigilant. I was hoping that reading this could help me to understand. Each city that Alma writes about in this book, The Heart that Bleeds has a very complicated history and Alma bravely sorts it all out for the reader.
I've always felt that a large part of the poverty and violence is the machismo. Too much Yang and too little Yin. The male to female dynamic has tipped the scales too far with devastating results. When I was in Venezuela I felt suffocated by machismo, it's very restricting and unhealthy.
Alma Guillermoprieto does not mention, much, this dynamic, except for in a few spots and I think it's due to the fact that she's writing as a journalist and is very focused on specific issues in certain cities. None of her pieces, here, are specifically on the topic of machismo. Although, the machismo does bleed through, and you get a sense of it's underlying pervasiveness.
And then there's the element of machismo. Again, it's not that men here beat their wives more, because I'm sure that Germans do it just as much; it's that here they boast about it. Astrid Hadad, ranchera singer 249
This is a class of people who want to discover the values that will allow them a stable family life and respectability. It's a class that suffers enormously from the effects of alcoholism: every Friday night, the husband comes home pickled in cachaca, he beats his wife, and then he gets on top of her. Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist 173
I know there's more to the problems of Latin America than machismo, but I feel it's A, if not THE major player. Here, Alma Guillermoprieto delves into the myriad complications of a few Latin American cities.
I especially enjoyed the piece on Mexico City, 1990, concerning the garbage dumps. She captures so well the sights and smells of the place you can almost imagine yourself there, with her.
She has fantastic insight: The remarkable psychic sturdiness shared by the inhabitants of a city that often looks like the morning after the apocalypse may or may not owe something to cultural coherence, but, as every Latino teen-ager in Los Angeles knows, the combination of cultural fragmentation and social disadvantage can be poisonous. 244
If you love all things Latin America and are intrigued by the juxtapositions of the richness of the land and the poverty of the people, hope amidst ruin, violence and love, then this is the book for you.
I've traveled to Venezuela and Guatemala and was captivated by the beauty of the rich landscapes and the kind, generous people I met there. Yet, I've puzzled over these countries, so rich in natural resources, and also so devastatingly poor. How can that be? And the violence, the constant undercurrent of violence. One has to be always vigilant. I was hoping that reading this could help me to understand. Each city that Alma writes about in this book, The Heart that Bleeds has a very complicated history and Alma bravely sorts it all out for the reader.
I've always felt that a large part of the poverty and violence is the machismo. Too much Yang and too little Yin. The male to female dynamic has tipped the scales too far with devastating results. When I was in Venezuela I felt suffocated by machismo, it's very restricting and unhealthy.
Alma Guillermoprieto does not mention, much, this dynamic, except for in a few spots and I think it's due to the fact that she's writing as a journalist and is very focused on specific issues in certain cities. None of her pieces, here, are specifically on the topic of machismo. Although, the machismo does bleed through, and you get a sense of it's underlying pervasiveness.
And then there's the element of machismo. Again, it's not that men here beat their wives more, because I'm sure that Germans do it just as much; it's that here they boast about it. Astrid Hadad, ranchera singer 249
This is a class of people who want to discover the values that will allow them a stable family life and respectability. It's a class that suffers enormously from the effects of alcoholism: every Friday night, the husband comes home pickled in cachaca, he beats his wife, and then he gets on top of her. Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist 173
I know there's more to the problems of Latin America than machismo, but I feel it's A, if not THE major player. Here, Alma Guillermoprieto delves into the myriad complications of a few Latin American cities.
I especially enjoyed the piece on Mexico City, 1990, concerning the garbage dumps. She captures so well the sights and smells of the place you can almost imagine yourself there, with her.
She has fantastic insight: The remarkable psychic sturdiness shared by the inhabitants of a city that often looks like the morning after the apocalypse may or may not owe something to cultural coherence, but, as every Latino teen-ager in Los Angeles knows, the combination of cultural fragmentation and social disadvantage can be poisonous. 244
If you love all things Latin America and are intrigued by the juxtapositions of the richness of the land and the poverty of the people, hope amidst ruin, violence and love, then this is the book for you.
May 23, 2012
I was introduced to Alma Guillemoprieto‘s fascinating book The Heart That Bleeds (1995) by Daniel Alarcon from his list “Ten Powerful Books from the Latin American Canon” in the P.S. section of his novel Lost City Radio. It is a series of dispatches that Guillemoprieto wrote for the New Yorker in the late 80s and early 90s on different situations in several Latin American countries. It is dated in that all of the dispatches are from 1989 to 1993, but she is a compelling storyteller and resourceful reporter that weaves history, and culture into her dispatches that remain worthwhile accounts of Latin America.
Since I am planning to visit Peru this summer I wanted to read up on Peru’s recent history, so I started with the dispatches from Lima in 1990 and 1993 first instead of reading the book in strict chronological order. The dispatch from Lima in 1990 is a fascinating analysis of Mario Vargas Llosa’s loss to upstart second generation Japanese Peruvian Akinori Fujimori in the presidential election. Of course, the men’s fate has changed significantly since then where Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature and Fujimori is serving a prison sentence. The dispatch from 1993 chronicles Fujimori’s brutal response to the escalating violence by the Shining Path terrorist group and their defeat by capturing their leader Guzman. Later in 1996 MRTA seized the ambassador to Japan’s residence and held the occupants captive for 126 days before Fujimori sent in armed forces on a raid in which the hostages were freed and no MRTA members survived. Then in 2000 Fujimori fled to Japan during a corruption scandal. At the time I wondered why Japan allowed him sanctuary and it seems his handling of the hostage crisis was enough for the Japanese government to offer him sanctuary. In 2005 he was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru and in 2007 he was convicted of ordering illegal search and seizure and sentenced for 6 years in prison. In 2009 he was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced for 25 years and also for embezzlement and given a 7 1/2 year sentence.
I chose to read the Panama dispatch from 1992 next since it is the only Latin American country I have visited so far. This dispatch from Panama City was about Bush’s first visit since the US invasion and arrest of Manuel Noriega in 1989 and the instability of the country at that time. It discussed the history of 21 years between Omar Torrijo’s rise and Noriega’s fall. Torrijos did much to further the standard if living in panama by rewriting banking laws so that it resembled Switzerland. He solved the Panama Canal Treaty and reduced unemployment, illiteracy, and child mortality rates. However, he played arbitrarily with press freedoms and citizen’s rights and was indirectly or directly responsible for 90 political deaths. As of 2010, Panama has recovered to become the second most competitive economy in Latin America and has plans to expand the Panama Canal assuring prosperity for years to come.
I was interested to see what Guillemoprieto had to say about Nicaragua as well since I recently read Salman Rushdie’s book about the country, The Jaguar’s Smile. Thus, I read the dispatch from Managua in 1990. This recounts when Daniel Ortega lost the election for the Sandinistas to figurehead Violeta Chamorro (widow of murdered newspaper editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro). However, Ortega would return to power in 2006 and was recently reelected in 2011 as well. Today Nicaragua still relies heavily on remittances form Nicaraguans living abroad, but has emerged as a location for the emigration of retirees from North America and Europe.
Mexico is on my short list of countries to visit and is the birthplace of the author, so the next sections I read were the two dispatched from Mexico City. The first dispatch from 1990 is a moving chronicle of the connection between garbage pickers and the Mexico’s political machine. The second article from 1992 discusses the importance of Mariachi bands and music to the society and culture of Mexico. There was an economic collapse in 1994 and then 2000 the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) lost its first election in 71 years to Vincente Fox from PAN (National Action Party) and Mexico is widely considered a upper-middle income country today.
Colombia had its share of troubles in the 80s and 90s and therefore gets three dispatches: 1989, 1991, and 1993. The first from Bogotá in 1989 analyzes the rising conflict between drug cartels and the government that supports extradition to the US and resulted in an escalation of bombs murders, and chaos. The next dispatch from Medellin in 1991 discussed the rising violence of drug cartels, young punks fulfilling murder contracts, and neighborhood death squads getting rid of the punks for peace and safety. The last dispatch was from Bogotá in 1993 and analyzed how the end of the “Drug War” approach by the Clinton administration affected Columbia. The infamous Pablo Escobar surrenders and then escapes, and later is killed in a raid. There is a national scandal as one of the country’s most popular soccer players Hiurga is jailed for his part in a kidnapping. Between 2002 and 2006 homicides were halved and kidnappings decreased. It seems that since 2010 the violence in Columbia has decreased significantly increasing tourism to Columbia.
Argentina is one of the Latin countries that I know something about since I read Thomas Martinez’s excellent novel, Peron, in college. This dispatch is from 1991 in Buenos Aires and focuses on the transitional Peronist president, Carlos Menem, who allows a freer press than previous known. And Guillemoprieto fleshes out how this affects the society and culture of contemporary Argentina. She touches on the drug trafficking and corruption that surrounds Menem’s administration and discusses the legacy of the Dirty War, in which 9,000 died or were disappeared-a common fate in Latin America of the 80s and 90s. Menem would serve until 1997 and Argentina has survived a massive economic collapse in the mid 90s, and has a female President in Christina Fernanadez Kircher who was recently reelected to second term in 2011.
After this I read the two dispatches from Rio that discuss the culture and politics of Brazil in 1991 and 1993. These are two of her more interesting dispatches since they both give illuminating reflections of the culture and society of Brazil as well as the politics of that time. The first dispatch investigates the Umbanda Afro religion in Rio and mediates on the recent election of Fernando Collor as President. It is impossible to talk about Brazil without mentioning the poverty, drugs, and violence, but also the beauty and passion of the people. The second dispatch is also reveals a lot about Brazilians by examining the massive popularity of telenovelas and the disconnect between life and fantasy that was exposed in the murder of a TV starlet that stole the headlines from the impeachment of the corrupt Fernando Collor. Today Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world after Lula De Silva was ushered in and provided political stability to the country.
The final dispatch that I read was from La Paz, Bolivia in 1992. It has been politically and economically unstable for some time and has been targeted in the past as having produced as much as 1/3 of the coca for all the cocaine produced in the 90s. Guillemoprieto focuses on the connections between industries like mining and cocoa farming in relation to politics and Bolivia’s future.
All in all, a fascinating look back at a region struggling with history and the future.
Since I am planning to visit Peru this summer I wanted to read up on Peru’s recent history, so I started with the dispatches from Lima in 1990 and 1993 first instead of reading the book in strict chronological order. The dispatch from Lima in 1990 is a fascinating analysis of Mario Vargas Llosa’s loss to upstart second generation Japanese Peruvian Akinori Fujimori in the presidential election. Of course, the men’s fate has changed significantly since then where Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature and Fujimori is serving a prison sentence. The dispatch from 1993 chronicles Fujimori’s brutal response to the escalating violence by the Shining Path terrorist group and their defeat by capturing their leader Guzman. Later in 1996 MRTA seized the ambassador to Japan’s residence and held the occupants captive for 126 days before Fujimori sent in armed forces on a raid in which the hostages were freed and no MRTA members survived. Then in 2000 Fujimori fled to Japan during a corruption scandal. At the time I wondered why Japan allowed him sanctuary and it seems his handling of the hostage crisis was enough for the Japanese government to offer him sanctuary. In 2005 he was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru and in 2007 he was convicted of ordering illegal search and seizure and sentenced for 6 years in prison. In 2009 he was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced for 25 years and also for embezzlement and given a 7 1/2 year sentence.
I chose to read the Panama dispatch from 1992 next since it is the only Latin American country I have visited so far. This dispatch from Panama City was about Bush’s first visit since the US invasion and arrest of Manuel Noriega in 1989 and the instability of the country at that time. It discussed the history of 21 years between Omar Torrijo’s rise and Noriega’s fall. Torrijos did much to further the standard if living in panama by rewriting banking laws so that it resembled Switzerland. He solved the Panama Canal Treaty and reduced unemployment, illiteracy, and child mortality rates. However, he played arbitrarily with press freedoms and citizen’s rights and was indirectly or directly responsible for 90 political deaths. As of 2010, Panama has recovered to become the second most competitive economy in Latin America and has plans to expand the Panama Canal assuring prosperity for years to come.
I was interested to see what Guillemoprieto had to say about Nicaragua as well since I recently read Salman Rushdie’s book about the country, The Jaguar’s Smile. Thus, I read the dispatch from Managua in 1990. This recounts when Daniel Ortega lost the election for the Sandinistas to figurehead Violeta Chamorro (widow of murdered newspaper editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro). However, Ortega would return to power in 2006 and was recently reelected in 2011 as well. Today Nicaragua still relies heavily on remittances form Nicaraguans living abroad, but has emerged as a location for the emigration of retirees from North America and Europe.
Mexico is on my short list of countries to visit and is the birthplace of the author, so the next sections I read were the two dispatched from Mexico City. The first dispatch from 1990 is a moving chronicle of the connection between garbage pickers and the Mexico’s political machine. The second article from 1992 discusses the importance of Mariachi bands and music to the society and culture of Mexico. There was an economic collapse in 1994 and then 2000 the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) lost its first election in 71 years to Vincente Fox from PAN (National Action Party) and Mexico is widely considered a upper-middle income country today.
Colombia had its share of troubles in the 80s and 90s and therefore gets three dispatches: 1989, 1991, and 1993. The first from Bogotá in 1989 analyzes the rising conflict between drug cartels and the government that supports extradition to the US and resulted in an escalation of bombs murders, and chaos. The next dispatch from Medellin in 1991 discussed the rising violence of drug cartels, young punks fulfilling murder contracts, and neighborhood death squads getting rid of the punks for peace and safety. The last dispatch was from Bogotá in 1993 and analyzed how the end of the “Drug War” approach by the Clinton administration affected Columbia. The infamous Pablo Escobar surrenders and then escapes, and later is killed in a raid. There is a national scandal as one of the country’s most popular soccer players Hiurga is jailed for his part in a kidnapping. Between 2002 and 2006 homicides were halved and kidnappings decreased. It seems that since 2010 the violence in Columbia has decreased significantly increasing tourism to Columbia.
Argentina is one of the Latin countries that I know something about since I read Thomas Martinez’s excellent novel, Peron, in college. This dispatch is from 1991 in Buenos Aires and focuses on the transitional Peronist president, Carlos Menem, who allows a freer press than previous known. And Guillemoprieto fleshes out how this affects the society and culture of contemporary Argentina. She touches on the drug trafficking and corruption that surrounds Menem’s administration and discusses the legacy of the Dirty War, in which 9,000 died or were disappeared-a common fate in Latin America of the 80s and 90s. Menem would serve until 1997 and Argentina has survived a massive economic collapse in the mid 90s, and has a female President in Christina Fernanadez Kircher who was recently reelected to second term in 2011.
After this I read the two dispatches from Rio that discuss the culture and politics of Brazil in 1991 and 1993. These are two of her more interesting dispatches since they both give illuminating reflections of the culture and society of Brazil as well as the politics of that time. The first dispatch investigates the Umbanda Afro religion in Rio and mediates on the recent election of Fernando Collor as President. It is impossible to talk about Brazil without mentioning the poverty, drugs, and violence, but also the beauty and passion of the people. The second dispatch is also reveals a lot about Brazilians by examining the massive popularity of telenovelas and the disconnect between life and fantasy that was exposed in the murder of a TV starlet that stole the headlines from the impeachment of the corrupt Fernando Collor. Today Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world after Lula De Silva was ushered in and provided political stability to the country.
The final dispatch that I read was from La Paz, Bolivia in 1992. It has been politically and economically unstable for some time and has been targeted in the past as having produced as much as 1/3 of the coca for all the cocaine produced in the 90s. Guillemoprieto focuses on the connections between industries like mining and cocoa farming in relation to politics and Bolivia’s future.
All in all, a fascinating look back at a region struggling with history and the future.
September 27, 2021
I learned quite a lot from this book which always makes for an enjoyable read. The structure of the book, a series of long-form news stories, aided in making the book digestible and captivating for the reader. I also found the current events nature of the essays a fascinating take on what now makes up recent history, since this book was published in the mid-1990s.
I just wish, however, that Guuillermoprieto had included another essay, or at least more pages, about the fascinating interplay between the African religions, Catholicism, and the "new" Protestant religions in Brazil. I absolutely loved that chapter.
I just wish, however, that Guuillermoprieto had included another essay, or at least more pages, about the fascinating interplay between the African religions, Catholicism, and the "new" Protestant religions in Brazil. I absolutely loved that chapter.
December 13, 2020
I love Gulliermoprieto’s style, and her insight! This is another work that draws you in, inviting you to better understand Latin America. I appreciate the context that she gives, too. In particular, this book helped me fill in some gaps in my knowledge as I seek to better understand Latin American history — approachable works on the events of the late 20th century are not all that common, and finding this gem that is well-researched, well-presented, and compassionate in tone has been a gift. Highly recommend!
March 23, 2022
This is an old collection, but it sure explains a lot. I have long admired Guillermoprieto's shorter pieces in NYRB or the New Yorker, about the social crises in Latin America. I think her work should be included in cultural studies courses here, so Americans know what the hell they are talking about when they excoriate immigrants fleeing impossible living conditions and corrupt governments we helped create and support. I just wish there were more recent collections of Guillermoprieto's pieces available.
July 28, 2019
This is hands down one the best books I've ever read and definitely one of my favorite books from now on.
It mixez both of my mayors: Politic science and social communication, in such a perfect way. This books teaches and inspires me in the same way.
It was wonderfully and powerfully written by a woman who went far and beyond to show the world a little bit of what was happening in Latin America, in such a cruel time as the 90's.
Praise for the author.
It mixez both of my mayors: Politic science and social communication, in such a perfect way. This books teaches and inspires me in the same way.
It was wonderfully and powerfully written by a woman who went far and beyond to show the world a little bit of what was happening in Latin America, in such a cruel time as the 90's.
Praise for the author.
February 4, 2021
For a scholar of the time period this book would be an invaluable resource. For a casual history lover, this is immediate and unfiltered reportage without the filter of time that limits the players and situations that in the long-term are whittled down to understandable storylines. Although the first few and last few essays in the book are exciting and indicative of Greater Regional dysfunction, in the center there are a few that drag with minute details or long-winded process.
April 3, 2025
This was beautiful. The reality is so unreal at times.
This reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel lecture - "we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable"
This reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel lecture - "we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable"
July 23, 2018
Even though it's a book about drug and government corruption during the 1980/1990s it's still a lot to take in. I cried and got mad as I read.
September 1, 2012
As I type this simple review, I am in Cuernavaca, Morelos close to so many of the places and contexts that Guillermoprieto writes about in "The Heart that Bleeds." It is certainly an apt title given that while poverty is rampant, politics are corrupt, and the water supply is literally sickening, the people that make Latin America what it is have passion that belittles and overshadows their neighbors to the north. While reading the chapter about Rio, I shook my head in disbelief at the fact that more than half the country, close to 70%, of Brazil suffers from chronic hunger, yet poor families living in shanties will sooner by a TV than a refrigerator. This is because things are so bad that people just long for the illusion of hope and the escape from reality they find in constant telanovelas. Meanwhile, I sit at the table with my host family in Cuernavaca who run a convenience store out of their home just a few yards away from their kitchen/dining room, and they keep their TV anchored at the corner of their table. It is always on, always blaring the news or telanovelas. Everyone in the family watches this blue-screened god in the corner, from the teenagers to the grandparents. When telanovelas come on, they stare and occasionally laugh. And when the news comes on, with its coverage of Mexican politics, they cry, "Mentirosos! (liars)" Then the elders of the family explain to me, as if with passionately bleeding hearts, that there is no justice in Mexico. But the house is filled with laughter, smiles, and the energy of a family that has more passion for life's simple gifts in their pinky fingers than all the shopping malls in the United States and Canada combined. Guillermoprieto's brave, well-written book gives a broad look at Latin America that is just as real as it is heartbreaking.
February 15, 2017
had only read guillermoprieto via the new yorker archives. this is my first book of hers, it does read quickly as short-stories captivating you by the turn and return to countries (chapters titled after cities), non-fiction, that do belong together. i learned tons, this book was written before the clinton administration took place, the panama canal had yet to return to panamenian control (late 90s), it was before the reigning party in mexico (pri) had lost an election (pan), and pablo escobar was still alive.
what a piece, i really enjoyed it.
what a piece, i really enjoyed it.
July 20, 2007
Finally felt like I had a clear view from the ground in South and Central America. The book is comprised of a number of extensively researched articles which appeared in the New Yorker throughout the 1980s, covering the Sandinistas, Argentinean society in the aftermath of the Dirty War, Colombian drug cartels and more. The scope of her pieces across levels of society is striking. In an article on the trash dumps in Mexico City for instance, the perspectives she presents range from those of children living among the trash to those of municipal bureaucrats strategizing about waste management. Throughout her writing is superb- concise, descriptive, and always elucidating. This is some of the best journalism I've ever read
October 30, 2007
1.What makes this book unique is that it talks about vry interesting topic like the unraveling web scandel surrounding the presidential election in Argentina. It attracted me right away becayse it talks about something I really wanted to know more about and that's the story of Medellin.
2.I don't really know if it met the expectation because I didn't finish the but it is overall a great book.
3. I do apporove of the writing style;her style kind of reminds me of Junot Diaz, the auther to "Drown" which was also a very good book.
4. I would recommend this book, but only if the readers are really interested in those topics.
2.I don't really know if it met the expectation because I didn't finish the but it is overall a great book.
3. I do apporove of the writing style;her style kind of reminds me of Junot Diaz, the auther to "Drown" which was also a very good book.
4. I would recommend this book, but only if the readers are really interested in those topics.
March 18, 2009
I took a Introduction to Latin American Studies class and this was one of the required readings for the class. This collection of articles is one of the reasons I loved this class. Its a great start to knowing modern latin america and this issues that it has been through. It truly makes your heart bleed when you read Guillermoprieto's writings. One of the most heart wrenching articles was about the Mexican pepenadores, or garbage pickers. I would recommend this book to anyone want to know more about Latin America rather than only knowning its south of the border. What happens in Latin America affects us. They are AMERICA too.
September 1, 2012
This book was given to me by my brother in law who is an authority on the topic. Since I left Mexico in 1990, this book provided a window into the news and historic changes that took place in Mexico and the rest of latinamerica during that time.
I am reading a book from Vargas Llosa called [Book: Lituma en los andes] that talks about the events that took place in Peru during the shining path's reign of terror. Also, we hear about ex-president Fujimori's election (now days he is being prosecuted by his people).
Nice easy read. Maybe boring for those not in tune with LatinAmerican politics.
I will certainly look for other books from the author.
I am reading a book from Vargas Llosa called [Book: Lituma en los andes] that talks about the events that took place in Peru during the shining path's reign of terror. Also, we hear about ex-president Fujimori's election (now days he is being prosecuted by his people).
Nice easy read. Maybe boring for those not in tune with LatinAmerican politics.
I will certainly look for other books from the author.
November 29, 2008
This book in Spanish is entitled, "I am writing to you from the foot of a volcano." the english title is "the heart that bleeds: latin america today." contrast these titles. one is better, no? evidence of that the pernicious slime of magical realist aesthetics finds its way onto anything everything and anything latin american origin in north america? i think so.
the essay about Mexico City garbage pickers is fantastic.
the essay about Mexico City garbage pickers is fantastic.
April 7, 2011
Guillermoprieto gives insight into the lives of people in several Latin American countries around the early 90s. She has an approachable writing style and provides some nice snapshots of what it was like for the people living in these areas during the time of her reporting there. My biggest gripe is that it just felt outdated (probably because it is almost 20 years old). Definitely a good read for people interested in Latin American life or politics.
March 27, 2014
Thoroughly amazing how interesting these chapters are considering the events in them took place nearly 25 years ago. Subject matter ranges from drug lords, religion, telenovelas, mariachis, and people who makes their homes among the garbage. The only chapters that didn't fully capture my attention were those specifically about politicians, but even those were pretty good. A great crash course on Latin America of the recent past.
May 3, 2007
Alma Guillermoprieto is one of the best chroniclers of Latin America for English readers. Her subjects are amazing, the reporting is quality (while a little superficial at times). The real gem here is that it's accessible to fans of Latin America as a narrative guide to the social issues of the day, as well as a fascinating first read for people without the background.
January 28, 2008
I haven't actually finished the entire book yet. Each chapter focuses on a different Latin American nation so it's easy to just go through chapter by chapter. You don't have to read the section on the drug cartels in Columbia to understand the one about sandinistas in Nicaragua. If you're interested in Latin American history, look into this book.
February 14, 2008
A collection of pieces originally published in the New Yorker, these are examples of some of the finer journalism pieces on Latin American society in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Intriguing and thoroughly researched, Guillermoprieto offers us insight on what it was like to live through quickly evolving economic and political changes, in occasionally revolutionary times.
April 30, 2012
Alma Guillermoprieto is both an excellent writer, easy to read and often heart-grabbing, but also an excellent thinker. This book is coming up on being a couple decades old, but her insights are still relevant. This is great background for anyone wishing to better understand Latin America.
June 24, 2009
if you gave this book 3 stars or fewer i may need to fight you.
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