Literary Journalism and Latin American Wars

Born from colonialist and postcolonialist affronts and affinities with
European and North American traditions, as well as from specific nationalistic
needs, cultural as well as political, Latin American literary journalism is
arguably a direct product and process of a people's volatile past. Be it a
specific _reportaje_ , _testimonio_ or _crónica_ , these reportages stoke more
often than calm the political and social unrest frequently associated with the
development of South and Central America. Practised by a number of prominent
writers discussed here – Gabriel García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Elena
Poniatowska, Euclides da Cunha, Miguel Barnet, Antonio Callado, Leila
Guerriero, Mário Neves, Judith Torrea, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Patrícia Campos
Mello, Mario Vargas Llosa, as well as Ryszard Kapuscinski and Charles Bowden –
Latin American literary journalism documents the continents’ many civil wars,
revolutions, dictatorships, pogroms and cartel turf wars in the hope that
readers today will learn from the past and avoid repeating it.