The History Book Club discussion
HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA
>
HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN - INTRODUCTION
Mod
Edward Gibbon
Great, Redmond, thanks. My interest in Mexico increased as I visited New Mexico and Texas this year. I guess I'm blurring Latin America with U.S. history, but I was impressed that the Pueblos kicked the Spanish out of N.Mexico for a short time (1680). (The Spanish coming from Mexico). This looks interesting:
by David J. WeberBlurb:
What caused the Pueblo revolt of 1680? This now-famous revolt marked the end of 80 years of peaceful coexistence between Spaniards and Pueblos; historians have long struggled to understand the complex reasons for the sudden and dramatic breakdown of relations. In this volume, 5 historians examine the factors that led to the unprecedented collaboration among tribes separated by distance, language, and historic rivalries that resulted in the destruction of Spain's New Mexico colony. Searching through what little remains of the written record, the essays present a variety of interpretations, with different emphases on culture, religion, and race.
Redmond wrote: "Bryan, thank you for this title. The mysterious Pueblo Revolt certainly warrants a book, although the problem as noted in the blurb is the dearth of historical record to study.I know only the bas..."
Well said, Redmond, history should have more "blurring." I find history to be a whole with its pieces mixing or relating.
I have read a few books on the Aztec's and Incas and the Spanish in Central and South America. One book that I'm yet to read but appears to have been well received is
by Kim MacQuarrieReview:
"With vivid and energetic prose, Emmy Award–winner and author MacQuarrie (From the Andes to the Amazon) re-creates the 16th-century struggle for what would become modern-day Peru. The Incas ruled a 2,500–mile-long empire, but Spanish explorers, keen to enrich the crown and spread the Catholic Church, eventually destroyed Inca society. MacQuarrie, who writes with just the right amount of drama ("After the interpreter finished delivering the speech, silence once again gripped the square"), is to be commended for giving a balanced account of those events. This long and stylish book doesn't end with the final 1572 collapse of the Incas. Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, MacQuarrie tells the surprisingly fascinating story of scholars' evolving interpretations of Inca remains. In 1911, a young Yale professor of Latin American history named Hiram Bingham identified Machu Picchu as the nerve center of the empire. Few questioned Bingham's theory until after his death in 1956; in the 1960s Gene Savoy discovered the real Inca center of civilization, Vilcabamba. Although MacQuarrie dedicates just a few chapters to modern research, the archeologists who made the key discoveries emerge as well-developed characters, and the tale of digging up the empire is as riveting as the more familiar history of Spanish conquest." - Publishers Weekly
Two years ago now (oh, how time flies) I took a great course on Forced & Free Immigration to Latin America. Having not done much on immigration and nothing on Latin America, the course was very eye-opening. We mostly read academic essays, but one book my prof loaned me (that I haven't returned yet - eep!) is Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Restoring Women to History
by Marysa Navarro and Virginia Sanchez Korrol. It divides the topic into the pre-Columbian era and nineteenth century and beyond.
Hi J. That looks like a very interesting book and offers a different perspective on this period of history, one not seen all that often, thanks for the post.
One book that I read recently covering part of this history was; "Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs" by Buddy Levy. I quite enjoyed it, did anyone else read this book and have an opinion on it at all? 
by Buddy LevyReview:
"The saga of Cortés, Montezuma, and the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire has been chronicled repeatedly, and with justification, since it is one of the seminal events in world history. There is probably no new information on the conquest left to uncover, but it is a thrilling, moving, and tragic story well worth retelling. Levy is not a professional historian, but he is a fine writer who knows the material, and he is wise enough to allow the pure excitement and drama of the story to unfold naturally. At the center of the tale, of course, are the two protagonists. Cortés is viewed as an intriguing combination of ruthless ambition, religious piety, and surprising tenderness. Montezuma, also deeply religious, was less a man of action than Cortés, and his contemplative nature probably sealed his doom. As Levy illustrates, this was also an earthshaking clash of civilizations that is still working itself out five centuries later. This is a superb work of popular history, ideal for general readers." - Jay Freeman (booklist)
Another two great books, or so I think, covering this period of history are "Conquest" by Hugh Thomas and "The Conquest of the Incas" by John Hemming.
by Hugh ThomasReview:
"Digging into thousands of pages of legal testimony given in the 1520s by participants in Cortes's expedition against the Mexico of ancient Mesoamerica, Thomas revisits the Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire. The result is a richer account of the personalities, events, and social setting of this momentous episode than currently exists in accessible form. The complex genealogical interweaving of Castilian and Mexican royal families, the intricacies of battle strategy and tactics, the labyrinthine political machinations, and the brutal imposition of external standards of behavior and belief - all are described in a gripping narrative by Thomas, a British academic. His sterling achievement is to illustrate the complex historical foundation of modern Mexico. Although the book is intended for a general audience, extensive chapter-by-chapter endnotes and an annotated bibliography of major sources reveal the depth of the author's scholarship. No library should be without this important contribution to Latin American history." - Library Journal
by John HemmingReviews:
"A superb work of narrative history" - Antonia Fraser
"It is a delight to praise a book of this quality which combines careful scholarship with sparkling narrative skill." - Philip Magnus (Sunday Times)
"A superbly vivid history" - The Times
This looks interesting:
by John Paul RathboneFrom Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. The rise and fall of sugar trader Julio Lobo becomes a window into prerevolutionary Cuba, the mechanics of building an economic empire--and the author's own personal history--in this atmospheric biography by Rathbone, deputy head of the Financial Times's Lex column and former World Bank economist. Lobo, "Cuba's richest man and one of the world's greatest speculators," is an intriguing subject ("friends nicknamed him El Veneno, the poisonous one, for his charm and sibylline tongue"), and Rathbone handles his volte face, from hobnobbing with Bette Davis to the loss of his fortune and death in exile in Spain, with finesse. Ample drama--multiple divorces, audacious hostile takeovers, assassination attempts--is given gravity by Rathbone's parallels with and personal connections to his subject: his family traveled in Lobo's social circle in Cuba during the first half of the 20th century. An exceptionally rich portrait not only of an empire and its progenitor but Cuba itself, and the economic legacy of Castro's revolution, the loss of capital, and the end of Cuba's "great age of sugar."
Hi Bryan, that does look like an interesting book. I am currently reading "Conquer or Die!" which is all about British veterans from the Napoleonic Wars joining local leaders in South American to help fight the Spanish crown for independence.
by Ben HughesPublishers blurb:
In the aftermath of Waterloo, over 6,000 British volunteers sailed across the Atlantic to aid Simon Bolivar in his liberation of Gran Columbia from her oppressors in Madrid. The expeditions were plagued with disaster from the start, one ship sank shortly after leaving Portsmouth with the loss of almost 200 lives. Those who reached the New World faced disease, wild animals, mutiny and desertion. Conditions on campaign were appalling, massacres were commonplace, rations crude, pay infrequent and supplies insufficient. Nevertheless, those who endured made key contributions to Bolivar’s success.
Bryan wrote: "This looks interesting:by John Paul RathboneFrom Publishers Weekly:
Starred Rev..."
I saw a review of this about a month ago and added it to my reading list. Looks great. Something sparked my interest in Havana that day, because I also found this which looks good.
byRoberto Gonzalez EchevarriaFrom Library Journal
Echevarria, a literary critic and professor of Hispanic and comparative literature at Yale, has written a definitive cultural history of Cuban baseball from 1860 to the present. A former semi-pro catcher born and raised in Cuba, he currently plays in the Connecticut Senior Baseball League. According to Echevarria, baseball filled a void when Cuba rejected bullfighting and other Spanish influences. Despite all the political turbulence, the game has survived to become as much a part of Cuba's social fabric as soccer is for Brazil. The study features an excellent bibliography plus detailed notes for each chapter. The research is exhaustive, based on primary sources and interviews that include numerous anecdotes, making this an engaging read. Although this book is not for everyone, purists and historians of baseball will enjoy it.
Nice, Alisa, quite interesting. I wish both books were around when I took my Latin American revolutions course 15 years ago.
This looks good:
by Alex von TunzelmannProduct Description:
During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, the Caribbean was in crisis. The men responsible included, from Cuba, the charismatic Fidel Castro, and his mysterious brother Raúl; from Argentina, the ideologue Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, the capricious psychopath Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a buttoned-down doctor with interests in Vodou, embezzlement and torture.
Alex von Tunzelmann's brilliant narrative follows these five rivals and accomplices from the beginning of the Cold War to its end, each with a separate vision for his tropical paradise, and each in search of power and adventure as the United States and the USSR acted out the world's tensions in their island nations. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life. Red Heat is an intimate account of the strong-willed men who, armed with little but words and ruthlessness, took on the most powerful nations on earth.
Mod
Nancy Leys StepanGoodreads Write-up:
Eugenics was a term coined in 1883 to name the scientific and social theory that advocated "race improvement" through selective human breeding. In Europe and the United States the eugenics movement found many supporters before it was finally discredited by its association with the racist ideology of Nazi Germany. Examining for the first time how eugenics was taken up by scientists and social reformers in Latin America, Nancy Leys Stepan compares the eugenics movements in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina with the more familiar cases of Britain, the United States, and Germany. In this highly original account, Stepan sheds new light on the role of science in reformulating the problems of race, gender, reproduction, and public health in a time of intensified searching for new national identities. Drawing upon a rich body of evidence concerning the technical publications and professional meetings of Latin American eugenists, she traces a vibrant picture of how they adapted eugenic principles to their varying local contexts between the world wars. Stepan demonstrates that the eugenists of Latin America diverged considerably from their counterparts in Britain and the United States in their ideological approaches and their interpretations of key texts concerning heredity. "The Hour of Eugenics" raises crucial questions about the relationship between social and cultural identity and the nature of scientific discourse. It will be essential reading for historians of science and medicine, Latin Americanists, and others interested in cultural history and women's history.
J. wrote: "Two years ago now (oh, how time flies) I took a great course on Forced & Free Immigration to Latin America. Having not done much on immigration and nothing on Latin America, the course was very ey..."If anybody is interested in this topic, I can highly recommend:
by Susan Migden Socolow
I've just stumbled across this new book that looks very interesting; "The Sugar Barons" by Matthew Parker
by Matthew ParkerDescription:
The contemporary image of the West Indies as paradise islands conceals a turbulent, dramatic and shocking history.
For 200 years after 1650, the West Indies witnessed one of the greatest power struggles of the age, as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold.
This compelling book tells how the islands became by far most valuable and important colonies in the British Empire. How Barbados, scene of the sugar revolution that made the English a nation of voracious consumers, was transformed from a backward outpost into England’s richest colony, powered by the human misery of tens of thousands of enslaved Africans. How this model of coercion and exploitation was exported around the region, producing huge wealth for a few, but creating a society poisoned by war, disease, cruelty and corruption. How Jamaican opulence reached its zenith, and its subsequent calamitous decline; and the growing revulsion against slavery that led to emancipation.
At the heart of The Sugar Barons are the human stories of the families whose fortunes rose and fell with those of the West Indian empire: the family of James Drax, the first sugar baron, who introduced sugar cultivation to Barbados, as well as extensive slavery; the Codringtons, the most powerful family in the Leeward Islands, who struggled to fashion a workable society in the Caribbean but in the end succumbed to corruption and decadence; and the Beckfords, Jamaica’s leading planters, who amassed the greatest sugar fortune of all, only to see it frittered away through the most extraordinary profligacy.
The Sugar Barons reveals how the importance of the West Indies made a crucial contribution to the loss of the North American colonies, and explores the impact of the empire on Britain, where it still constitutes perhaps the darkest episode in our history.
Reviews:
"Very impressive - a meticulously researched piece of work, and so engagingly written. It taught me so much that I didn't know about British Caribbean history. What a story!" - Andrea Levy, (author of Small Island and The Long Song)
"Gripping ... a compendium of greed, horrible ingenuity and wickedness, but also a fascinating and thoughtful social history." - William Dalrymple, (author of White Mughals)
"Matthew Parker's admirable and frequently gripping book ... charts the Caribbean islands' profound effect on both British and wider European and African history ... he has the most extraordiary material at his disposal." - Andrew Holgate, (The Sunday Times)
"In The Sugar Barons, Parker provides a glittery history of the British impresarios, heiresses and remittance men involved in Caribbean slavery... racy, well-researched history... The Sugar Barons provides eloquent testimony to the mercantile greed of a few and manifest misery endured by millions in the pursuit of sweetness." - Ian Thomson, (Guardian)
"Fabulously researched, the diary entries, letters and papers reveal a staggering level of corruption and cruelty. But despite the soap opera potential of the truly scandalous tales, Parker refuses to sweeten his matter-of-fact prose style for the casual page-burner. Instead he construct, piece by piece, what amounts to a compelling prosecution of the slavery and Imperial greed that left a shocking legacy in the region." - Wanderlust
Does anyone have a recommendation for an accessible book on Fidel Castro? Thanks
This book was written by a German journalist using released East German documents, so it might be more balanced:
Volker SkierkaCastro worked with the author of this one, but still came out with good reviews:
Tad SzulcFinally there is:
Robert E. QuirkPublisher's Weekly:
One comes away from this major biography with an image of the Cuban dictator as a man who is a leader but not a thinker or innovator. Emphasizing Castro's often wrongheaded impulsiveness, Quirk ( The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church ) chronicles how his foreign and domestic crash programs have done Cuba more harm than good. Quirk's richly detailed, psychologically acute portrait reveals more about Castro's unique personality and character than do previous biographies. A thorough examination of the leader's homophobia and difficulties with women, for instance, reveals a life spent being looked after by females without being able to form a lasting sexual relationship with any of them--including the 20-year association with protective lioness Celia Sanchez, which the author likens to that between a son and doting mother. Quirk's concluding assessment of the Maximum Leader is harsh: Castro, he argues, has become a caricature of his earlier self. History, far from absolving him, has simply passed him by. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc
Since we are on Cuba, this book is on my "to read" list:
Frank Argote-FreyrePublisher's Weekly:
Following his overthrow by Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator Batista entered history as an effigy of brutality, corruption and subservience to Yankee imperialism. In this superb biography, historian Argote-Freyre deepens and complicates that picture. This first of two volumes follows Batista (1901–1973) to his 1940 election to the Cuban presidency, covering his impoverished childhood, military career, seizure of control over the Cuban army during the revolutionary upheaval of 1933 and rule as the strongman behind a series of weak civilian governments in the 1930s. There's a leitmotif of violence and thuggery in the saga, but the author portrays Batista as a subtle, restrained political operator. Loath to rule openly by force, he contends, Batista worked to replace military power with political influence as his stock in trade (even allying himself with the Communists to win election), maintained an accommodating but independent stance toward the United States and advanced a wide-ranging social-reform agenda. Argote-Freyre recovers the complex, dynamic Cuban political scene of the early 20th century, with its party intrigue, militant labor movements, guerrilla folk heroes and secret terrorist societies. Balanced, judicious and fluently written, Argote-Freyre's biography offers an important and long overdue scholarly reassessment of a crucial figure in Cuban history. Photos. 26 b&w illus. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information,
I read this book last year and it covers another aspect in the history of Cuba.....the hold that the American mob had on the government of Batista and on the gambling/prostitution business in Havana. The "Pearl of the Antilles" became the watering hole for the rich, famous and infamous; the mob and the government got rich and the population got poorer. Of course, waiting in the wings was Castro and the revolution but for a brief period it was all flash and glitter in Havana. This is an enlightening book that illustrates just one of the reasons for Castro's successful coup.
by T. English (no photo)
I was looking at this book the other day. Thanks, Jill.
I think you will like it, Bryan. It is well written and full of interesting information about the Cuban government's cooperation with mob.
T. English
In november I am going to Mexico for three weeks with my fellow backpackers and friends, and I intend to read following books beside the unavoidable Lonely Planet:
by Andrew Coe, which I have in paperback and it looks really informative, especially because it covers all the archaeological sites in Mexico, which I would really love to see at least...all ;-)On my mobile phone I'll bring a couple of popular historical/archaeological exploration novels:
by
Gary Jennings who is praised for enormous amount of detail (however, how accurate I do not know) in his novels which may be good but may not,
by
Douglas Preston and
by Larry Baxter which both cover Mayans, although not in the exact period of their prevalence.Now, I've seen in this discussion some really good suggestions for reading about related topics by Aussie Rick (message 10 and 11) - I'll definitely check them, as they cover the conquistadors' period in Mexico. Maybe I'll rather tackle Levy's book, it's half a size of Thomas' book ;-)
I would love to hear what do you think about books I hope to read while touring Mexico, if you have read them of course. Maybe you have some other suggestions to offer instead?
Hi Zeljka,I hope you have a great time back packing through Mexico, I bet it will be exciting and I love the idea of reading about a country as you travel through it. I think you'll enjoy; "Conquistador" by Buddy Levy if you take a copy with you.
by
Buddy LevyIt looks like the books you have selected to read offer some wide and varied accounts of Mexico and the Aztecs & Mayans so they should all be interesting reads.
Hi Aussie Rick,thank you for the response, I hope I'll manage to read them all :-) As for Conquistador, I'll try to find the copy, if not paperback (it might not arrive on time) then e-book version, although I wouldn't be able to see any map clearly on my phone. Muchas gracias ;-)
Mod
by
Buddy Levy
Hello, I'm back from Mexico (seen many awesome historical, natural and cultural wonders, it's enough to mention the Aztecan and Mayan pyramids, Diego Rivera murals, Puebla churches, Oaxacan chocolate, huge Pacific waves and Carribean paradise palm beaches), and I would like to say a few words on the books that I mentioned above and read, of course.Aussie Rick, I must thank you very very much for recommending the book
by
Buddy Levy - it was amazing read, and I learned really a lot about the Aztecans and other natives that inhabited the Mexican soil at the time of Cortes' arrival, as well as about conquistadors themselves, their motives and the key elements that lead them to the eventual triumph over the Aztecs. The book was written without biases, you really can't sympathize with any protagonist, because each of them, the natives as well as the Spaniards, did many horrid things that disgust today's reader, but the time and people were such, and cannot be changed.Before, during and after visit to each archeological highlight of Mexico, I've read
by Andrew Coe, and despite the outdatedness in some things (because Mexicans continually dig and "update" their sites), it offers really good historical background and informative archaeological record of the each site.
by
Douglas Preston is only one easy-read thriller, not really worth your time. It would be better probably only as a movie. Same goes for
by Larry Baxter, but his writing style was much worse, although he offered more, however not really accurate, information about Mexico and Mayans.That would be all for now, however I would really love to read more about Mexico, now after seeing how awesome the country and its history are :-)
Hi Zeljka, glad to hear your back home and it sounds like you had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed yourself. Good to hear you also enjoyed "Conquistador", it is a pretty good book eh!
by Buddy Levy
Glad you had a good trip to Mexico, Zeljka. Things are currently a little unstable there but mostly on the border. Aren't the Rivera murals impressive? Mexico is an amazing country with so much to see and hopefully, the troubles they have are not preventing visitors from enjoying the great history there.
Sorry for not responding, I was offline for a few days. I got some kind of belated jet lag - not really good feeling to be sleepy and tired on work :-)Mexico was absolutely stunning and I would gladly come back again to see things I couldn't see the first time, and of course to enjoy the nature again. As for safety, we felt perfectly safe, but we didn't go to northern states - our destinations were Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatan. Some precautions are of course wise in M.C., such as avoiding unlabeled cabs and keeping your bags close while in metro/bus.
Really, Rivera murals we saw in Palacio Nacional were splendid, it's hard to believe that he had such an imagination and talent to make such complex paintings that on the same wall but different levels depict the whole history of the Mexico.
Ok, this goes a bit off topic now :-)
Zeljka - your trip sounds fascinating and I think it stays on topic as you saw the history of Mexico, especially in the Rivera murals.Another aspect of Mexican history that illustrates the colonialism of the European powers and how it reached the Americas. A fascinating and tragic tale.
by Joan Haslip(no photo)
I just received this book in the mail. I have been wanting to get it for a while and am looking forward to reading it.
by
Jon Lee AndersonI also read this book a few months. It is the story of the investigation and subsequent trials regarding the murder of a Bishop in Guatemala. I found it very interesting, however, sometimes it was a bit of a slog keeping track of the characters and acronyms.
by
Francisco Goldman
Mod
I picked up this book a month or so ago (will also post in the Native American thread)Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas
by
Ronald WrightSynopsis
Powerful and passionate, Stolen Continents is a history of the Americas unlike any other. This incisive single-volume report tells the stories of the conquest and survival of five great American cultures — Aztec, Maya, Inca, Cherokee, and Iroquois. Through their eloquent words, we relive their strange, tragic experiences — including, in a new epilogue, incidents that bring us up to the twenty-first century.
Mod
I just finished Che by Jon Lee Anderson, which is a fabulous book, and there was quite a bit on the effect of United Fruit Company in Latin America. Can anyone recommend a book that covers that particular part of Latin American history.
by
Jon Lee Anderson
This might be a book that will give you more information about corporate greed in Latin America.Bananas! How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World
by Peter ChapmanSynopsis
In this powerful and gripping book, Peter Chapman shows how the pioneering example of the importer United Fruit set the precedent for the institutionalized greed of today's multinational companies. The story has its source in United Fruit's nineteenth-century beginnings in the jungles of Costa Rica. What follows is a damning examination of the company's policies: from the marketing of the banana as the first fast food, to the company's involvement in an invasion of Honduras, a massacre in Colombia, and a bloody coup in Guatemala. Along the way the company fostered covert links with U.S. power brokers such as Richard Nixon and CIA operative Howard Hunt, manipulated the press (that later backfired), and stoked the revolutionary ire of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Chapman weaves a dramatic tale of big business, deceit, and violence to show how one company wreaked irrevocable havoc in the "banana republics" of Central America, and how terrifyingly similar the age of United Fruit is to our age of globilization.
Breaking news from the WSJ:With Chavez Death, Venezuela Faces Uncertain Future
Hugo Chavez, a former tank commander turned populist politician who used Venezuela's oil riches to pursue his vision of socialism and challenge the U.S., died Tuesday from complications related to cancer. He was 58 years old.
Chavez led the country virtually as a one-man show for 14 years. Just months into his fourth term, his death plunges Venezuela into political uncertainty. Vice President Nicolas Maduro will succeed Chavez as interim president, but must hold a new election within 30 days, according to the constitution.
Mod
I believe there are group members from Venezuela and I wonder what their local reaction is to all of this. I imagine that even though Chavez was not a great friend to the US; that he was still their leader so there has to be some outpouring about his passing.
edited by Hilary Beckles et al
edited by Hilary McD Beckles et al
by O. Nigel Bolland*The West Indies in 1837: Being the Journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St.Lucia, Barbados and Jamaica
by Joseph SturgeSummary
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature
Great additions, Marren, thanks so much.
Mod
Hunting Che: How a U.S. Special Forces Team Helped Capture the World's Most Famous Revolutionary
by Mitch WeissSynopsis
An iconic symbol of violent revolution, Ernesto Che” Guevera has gone down in history as one of the most feared revolutionaries of the late twentieth century. But until now, details of his capture and execution have been told with a sympathetic eye toward the icon. Using government reports, documents, and eyewitness accounts, Hunting Che reveals how the Green Berets trained Bolivian soldiers in the spring and summer of 1967 to hunt the legendary revolutionary who was hiding in the mountainous jungles of the South American country. A sweeping narrative, Hunting Che tells the untold story of one of the first truly successful U.S. Special Forces missions in history—a mission later duplicated in Afghanistan and Iraq.
By the mid-1960s, Guevera had become famous for his outspoken criticism of the United States and his support for armed Communist insurgencies. He had been one of the architects of the Cuban Revolution, and was attempting to repeat his success throughout Latin America. His guerrilla tactics and talent for proselytizing made him a threat to American foreign policy—and when he turned his attention to Bolivia in 1967, the Pentagon made a decision: Che had to be eliminated.
Major Ralph Pappy” Shelton was called upon to lead the mission to train the Bolivians. With a hand-picked team of specialists, his first task was to transform a ragtag group of peasants into a trained fighting force who could also gather intelligence. Gary Prado, a Bolivian officer, volunteered to join the newly formed Bolivian Rangers. Joined by Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban exile working for the CIA, the Americans and Bolivians searched for Che. The size of Che’s group and when they would strike were unknowns, and the stakes were high. If Bolivia fell, it would validate Che’s theories and throw South America into turmoil.
Hunting Che follows the exploits of Major Shelton, Felix Rodriguez, and Gary Prado—the Bolivian Ranger commander who ultimately captured him. The story begins with Che’s arrival in Bolivia and follows the hunt to the dramatic confrontation and capture of the iconic leader in the southeastern village of La Higuera. With the White House and the Pentagon secretly monitoring every move, Shelton and his team changed history, and prevented a catastrophic threat from taking root in the West.
Mod
Bentley wrote: "Wow - I guess that shakes things up. Hope that Venezuela is not thrown into chaos or worse and that the new election is a free one and does occur within 30 days."Chavez's shoes will be hard to fill. He was a great person, a moral exemplar and a man of his people.
< /sarcasm>
Mod
I could never figure why these folks wanted this sort of thing.
I know what you are saying James and there are many who feel the same way. I am wondering how the Venezuelan people actually feel.
It is interesting that the US only sent some minor players to the funeral yet Ahmadinejad showed up in person. Strange bedfellows.
Bentley wrote: "It is interesting that the US only sent some minor players to the funeral yet Ahmadinejad showed up in person. Strange bedfellows. "Fitting expression is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Cuba’s Revolutionary World (other topics)Bolívar: American Liberator (other topics)
Father of the Poor?: Vargas and his Era (other topics)
Cuba’s Revolutionary World (other topics)
Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jonathan C. Brown (other topics)Marie Arana (other topics)
Robert M. Levine (other topics)
Jonathan C. Brown (other topics)
George Reid Andrews (other topics)
More...
Note: Please realize that we do not allow self promotion and spam.
We will be using the UN Geoscheme when describing this area:
Caribbean
Central America
South America
Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.
Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2009, its population was estimated at more than 568 million and its combined GDP at 4.26 trillion United States dollars (5.99 trillion at PPP).
The Latin American expected economic growth rate for 2010 is at about 4%.
This folder will encompass discussion and threads on the following continent/countries and regional areas: