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Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America
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 observant, empathetic, and beautifully written.
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 observant, empathetic, and beautifully written.
320 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2001
23 people are currently reading
875 people want to read
About the author
Alma Guillermoprieto
35 books103 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 37 reviews
March 11, 2012
I wish this book had actually been edited. At first it was captivating, but there was so much overlap in these essays that by the end I was so annoyed I could barely get through. It's fine to reference the same events over and over when these are articles that are appearing in different places, but to get that in a book? It seems completely lazy to me. No excuse for that.
February 6, 2024
I reviewed this Mexican journalist's earlier collection, The Heart that Bleeds, which covered her pieces for the New Yorker, 1989-93. This second anthology spans the end of the Nineties and the new century's start. It's better organized, as it arranges entries, for the New York Review of Books, by general theme. So you get Argentina with a nod to Evita, Mexico with Comandante Marcos, Peru and Mario Vargas Llosa, and Che and Fidel for Cuba. I found these biographical essays the most engaging, for she raises questions which continue to remain relevant about Latin American disparities, cultural nuances, and how these major figures have fared since their political heyday. It's inevitable that the majority of the selections become dated rapidly, full of speculation about candidates, assassinations, cartels, affairs, and lots of parties with acronyms. She has a couple of funny asides, and the content is readable without patronizing readers or parroting platitudes of the left undoubtedly common truisms among many in her educated and mostly well soft U.S. audiences. The documentation of this millennial period, even if many of its once-controversial campaigns or heavily debated subjects, remains valuable as there will always be those who seek knowledge from our past not found on the net. It's noteworthy, too, that even about a generation ago now, that online media remain largely in the background, tellingly.
May 14, 2022
This collection is dated, but isn't all history? For that reason, I also don't mind the repeated information. It is not as though I have a totally retentive memory re history, so I appreciate the review and (as always from Guillermoprieto) the brilliant, compassionate writing. I only wish there were more, and more recent, collections of her writings. For anyone who hasn't read it, her address to the U.N. encapsulates all that is wrong with American (shameful) policies that, one can't help thinking, seem designed to keep many Latin American countries weak, corrupt, on the brink of failed state status. The American 'War on Drugs' is but one example.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019...
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019...
July 5, 2023
Very well-written but extremely poorly edited. There was no through-line or ordering to the essays so they came across as completely disjointed. I’d also say this isn’t a book for the casual reader - if you’re completely uninformed about contemporary Latin American history (like I am) then this book will become overwhelming quite fast. Agree with others that it’s engrossing at the start and then rapidly goes both too deep AND too wide. This would have really benefitted from a deeper focus on one or two countries and more of a narrative or even chronological structure to take the reader on a bit more of a journey.
November 15, 2017
news that was fit to print....then
If you want to know what was happening in Colombia, Cuba, or Mexico during the period 1994-2001, or if you want to look back to that time and the events or trends in those countries then, this would be a most excellent choice. The author not only has chapters about three giant Latin American personalities---Eva Peron, Che Guevara, and Mario Vargas Llosa---but includes interviews and impressions of a number of other Latin Americans who might not be household words in the Anglo-Saxon world. However, I did not find the title very apt. History is more or less lacking here (OK, she was looking for it, we don't find it.) If you aren't familiar with say, 20th century Mexican history, you are going to be scratching your head. And while the impressions are vivid, and she definitely interviewed the right people, I got the feeling that this book would fall into a crack---for those in the know, at least those who already knew a lot about Latin America---it may be old hat. If you read some decent newspapers or weeklies during the period under review, you probably already got a number of these stories, or knew that Cuba, for example, underwent great economic strife when the Soviet Union collapsed and had to boost a moribund economy that could not support itself on sugar alone. That Colombia had a drug and paramilitary/guerrilla problem and that Mexico is corrupt is not exactly big news. As articles that I might have read in a newspaper, these would be topnotch, way better than average. However, I think the book's main problem is, if I may put it this way---choice of audience. If you don't know much about Latin America, I don't think you will be able to start here---it's too detailed without enough background. It will depend on where you are coming from. I found the book interesting, but I was hoping for more insight and overview from a person who obviously knows way more than I ever will.
If you want to know what was happening in Colombia, Cuba, or Mexico during the period 1994-2001, or if you want to look back to that time and the events or trends in those countries then, this would be a most excellent choice. The author not only has chapters about three giant Latin American personalities---Eva Peron, Che Guevara, and Mario Vargas Llosa---but includes interviews and impressions of a number of other Latin Americans who might not be household words in the Anglo-Saxon world. However, I did not find the title very apt. History is more or less lacking here (OK, she was looking for it, we don't find it.) If you aren't familiar with say, 20th century Mexican history, you are going to be scratching your head. And while the impressions are vivid, and she definitely interviewed the right people, I got the feeling that this book would fall into a crack---for those in the know, at least those who already knew a lot about Latin America---it may be old hat. If you read some decent newspapers or weeklies during the period under review, you probably already got a number of these stories, or knew that Cuba, for example, underwent great economic strife when the Soviet Union collapsed and had to boost a moribund economy that could not support itself on sugar alone. That Colombia had a drug and paramilitary/guerrilla problem and that Mexico is corrupt is not exactly big news. As articles that I might have read in a newspaper, these would be topnotch, way better than average. However, I think the book's main problem is, if I may put it this way---choice of audience. If you don't know much about Latin America, I don't think you will be able to start here---it's too detailed without enough background. It will depend on where you are coming from. I found the book interesting, but I was hoping for more insight and overview from a person who obviously knows way more than I ever will.
November 28, 2021
Once again, Guillermoprieto delivers a book that is extremely well-written — and more than that, insightful — about modern Latin America. I’ll admit to some bias both because I have a better contextual understanding and because I live here, but I found her presentation of Mexico to be convincing and clear (though I didn’t live here through the years discussed). Guillermoprieto has an absolute gift for teaching through writing, and I hope she continues to be a model both for journalism and for nonfiction writing for decades to come.
Want to read
May 27, 2021NYR 27 May 2004
in her journalism she has the burden of "explaining matters in depth to her audience for the first time"
"is NOT one of those presumptuous, righteous baby-boomer rememberers. She indulges in neither nostalgia nor hysterical rejection.'
'This is the memoir of a shy person...youthful shame....a melancholy...
'her reporting...a necessary skepticism'
in her journalism she has the burden of "explaining matters in depth to her audience for the first time"
"is NOT one of those presumptuous, righteous baby-boomer rememberers. She indulges in neither nostalgia nor hysterical rejection.'
'This is the memoir of a shy person...youthful shame....a melancholy...
'her reporting...a necessary skepticism'
September 6, 2017
Quite a few moments of incisive brilliance, and overall solid, engaging and informative writing. But even for a collection of news pieces, it had a bit too much repetition.
May 21, 2019
A bit dated in some regards, but other pieces are as relevant as ever and even prophetic at points.
December 5, 2020
Read for a class. This book offers a great perspective on Latin American politics and examines the impacts of some infamous leaders and revolutionaries. Insightful and very well written.
May 3, 2014
Alma Guillermoprieto was a New Yorker journalist, and this fine collection of sizable dispatches reflect her to-the-point storytelling via readable prose. Two decades of reporting included interviews with key players, be it Fidel Castro, Subcommante Marcos, Mario Vargas Llosa, or Vincente Fox. "Looking For History" includes a number of backward-looking pieces, about Eva Peron and Che Guevarra, but the rest are rooted in real-time dispatches of the late 1990s-early 2000's, from areas controlled by Mexico's Zapatistas, the Colombian FARC narcoterrorists and their paramilitary death squad counterparts. The focus is on three nations that were Colombia, Mexico and Cuba.
In the best journalistic tradition, her work is level-headed and fair. She is neither a dupe for Subcommante Marcos or Fidel Castro, yet, approaches dictators and crackpots with an eye toward understanding their motives.
Many of the stories are fascinating, many including amusing. The outlandish tale of the womanizing Raul Salinas, the Mexican President's brother, who stashed $80 million in Swiss bank accounts and was convicted of the bizarre murder of the head of Mexico's dominant PRI, who happened to be the former brother-in-law and whose reported dismembered remains were located by a soothsayer on Salinas's ranch. Like so much of Latin American political assassinations, the story turned even stranger, featuring witness tampering special prosecutors, grave-robbing, and other bizarre elements. That and other stories follow larger-than-life characters as Latin America stumbled toward democracy and civil society, in fits and starts.
In the best journalistic tradition, her work is level-headed and fair. She is neither a dupe for Subcommante Marcos or Fidel Castro, yet, approaches dictators and crackpots with an eye toward understanding their motives.
Many of the stories are fascinating, many including amusing. The outlandish tale of the womanizing Raul Salinas, the Mexican President's brother, who stashed $80 million in Swiss bank accounts and was convicted of the bizarre murder of the head of Mexico's dominant PRI, who happened to be the former brother-in-law and whose reported dismembered remains were located by a soothsayer on Salinas's ranch. Like so much of Latin American political assassinations, the story turned even stranger, featuring witness tampering special prosecutors, grave-robbing, and other bizarre elements. That and other stories follow larger-than-life characters as Latin America stumbled toward democracy and civil society, in fits and starts.
July 27, 2010
This book travels well. It is a series of reports based on three separate countries, the common thread being that they are all about latin countries and that they were all written with the masterful depth and perception of the author, Alma Guillermoprieto.
We are first given a non-propagandized version of the Che Guevarra story: his time before and after the Cuban revolution, his relationship with Fidel and the machismo pride that was his eventual downfall.
We then move to Peru, where for a moment in history, an intellectual and impassioned writer, Mario Lassa, in the ilk of Vaclav Havel, almost walks away with the prize of power in an unlikely place. Guillermoprieto then takes us to her homeland of Mexico, where in the late 90's, a series of unsolved murders at the highest level of politics and society combine with economic forces to topple the longest standing political party in history.
Guillermoprieto writes from a deep bed of knowledge and compassion, bringing us into history like it was her family's kitchen. As readers we gain an inside introduction to characters and to monumental events that have occurred within our own recent lifetimes in countries that are our latin American neighbors. It is a primer and and enjoyable adventure into history.
We are first given a non-propagandized version of the Che Guevarra story: his time before and after the Cuban revolution, his relationship with Fidel and the machismo pride that was his eventual downfall.
We then move to Peru, where for a moment in history, an intellectual and impassioned writer, Mario Lassa, in the ilk of Vaclav Havel, almost walks away with the prize of power in an unlikely place. Guillermoprieto then takes us to her homeland of Mexico, where in the late 90's, a series of unsolved murders at the highest level of politics and society combine with economic forces to topple the longest standing political party in history.
Guillermoprieto writes from a deep bed of knowledge and compassion, bringing us into history like it was her family's kitchen. As readers we gain an inside introduction to characters and to monumental events that have occurred within our own recent lifetimes in countries that are our latin American neighbors. It is a primer and and enjoyable adventure into history.
November 22, 2015
I am not a fan of journalists who roll the same articles over and over adding a few details. Sometimes there is a need to bring readers up to date but the collection of articles on a particular subject could have been edited. That being said, the author has certainly earned her bones in covering Latin America. Cuba, Colombia, Perú and Méjico. It is amazing that the Western educated Latin American elite have such a hard time reading and interpreting their own countries. No doubt class has some hold and corruption is evident throughout the region. The US doesn't seem to give a damn, regardless of political party. The articles are dated, about the same time we were there, and it is interesting to look at what has happened over the last twenty years or so.I once predicted that Cuba would become the 51st state before Puerto Rico. My prediction may come true.
June 11, 2012
Guillermoprieto is the go-to journalist for Latin America. I've been reading tons of material and I find her to be the most level-headed, smart and objective. She's spent time in a lot of different places and has more of an international viewpoint, which perhaps explains her lucidity. Her essays on Che and Evita in this book are concise, insightful and clean. The unromantic truth. If you want to understand what went on through the 90s in Colombia and Mexico, this book delves deep into all that. It's definitely recommended as part of any library on current Latin American politics and history.
Many of these essays first appeared in the New Yorker, and if you like reading the New Yorker for politics, you'll like her work.
Many of these essays first appeared in the New Yorker, and if you like reading the New Yorker for politics, you'll like her work.
November 12, 2009
Excellent reporting on Latin America, mostly from the mid-90s. Guillermoprieto treats her own politics with a light hand and really gets into the full absurdity and complexity of the stories she's treating, like the strange case of Raul Salinas and the psychic La Paca in Mexico. It's a good counterbalance to someone like Naomi Klein, who has her own spin on Latin American politics and tends to instrumentalize the same stories to hammer in her own point. Includes essays on the FARC in Colombia, Cuba, the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, and the election of Vincente Fox.
June 30, 2016
A really solid collection of pieces focused mainly on 3 countries of Latin America: Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico.
I kind of presumed as I live in Mexico that the pieces focused here would be the ones that interested me most, but it was probably the Colombian articles, mainly addressing the drug situation of the early nineties that caught my fancy.
A worthwhile read for anyone who is looking to get a bit of background on the region from a writer whose journalistic style educates and informs, whilst also encouraging reflection.
I kind of presumed as I live in Mexico that the pieces focused here would be the ones that interested me most, but it was probably the Colombian articles, mainly addressing the drug situation of the early nineties that caught my fancy.
A worthwhile read for anyone who is looking to get a bit of background on the region from a writer whose journalistic style educates and informs, whilst also encouraging reflection.
October 1, 2008
I'm loving these essays. I don't know shit about Latin American politics, but that doesn't make these essays any less powerful for me (more so, really). From Evita to Fidel to the Zappatistas (sheesh I hope I spelled that right) there's plenty of tantalizing story-telling and portraiture. I think I am going to have to bone up on my Mexico-US relations, though, turns out we haven't been a nice neighbor. Humph.
March 17, 2013
A must for anyone wanting to study the history that has shaped Latin America. These essays may focus on some similar topics, but they are all related to regional themes and events that have characterized the development of many countries and communities in Latin America. Guillermoprieto is amazingly informed and I can't recommend this book highly enough, especially as a starting point for Latin American cultural studies.
August 26, 2007
After reading this, I understood how little I knew of Mexico and Latin America. I understood how narrow a view we are given of our southern neighbors and how tragic our relationship has been as a result. Sheds light on the unfortunate affects of NAFTA on Mexico while also drawing attention to the beauty and mystery of Latin American culture.
April 2, 2012
Skimmed through the Colombia essays about FARC and the chapter about Eva Peron. Couldn't get into the Mexico essays, which covered the PRI and the political turmoil in the 90's. It felt a little dated, only because of everything that has been happening in Mexico recently. I'll have to come back to it.
August 21, 2007
More focused than The Heart That Bleeds. No Peru or Nicaragua. But the stuff on Cuba, Colombia etc is still brilliant, and there's more of a narrative since she reports from same location sseveral times.
March 22, 2012
This collection is now a bit dated, but is an incredibly well written collection of essays about Latin America, particularly in the arena of politics. The essays about Mexico are prophetic and beautiful, but greatly enhanced by a brief review of Mexican political history, if you are up for it.
Read
September 11, 2007Very well done
November 17, 2007
People compare her to Orwell and Kapuscinski sadly I did not find this to be the case.
May 23, 2008
Mostly over looked by teachers, the history of Latin America plays a significant role in our society today. This book takes an inside look into our neighbors to the south.
August 18, 2008
Great read and re-read. Discussions from often overlooked perspectives on Che and other Latin American visionaries and leaders.
October 26, 2008
Great insights and glimpses into parts of Latin American.
February 21, 2009
Great condensed version of recent Latin American history, much of which has been conveniently forgotten here in the United States.
October 7, 2009
one of the most lucid commentators on latin america. she gets it totally right.
January 5, 2010
A series of articles from her news articles on Latin America. She writes well and often has a point of view differing from either the left or right mainstream media.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews