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Volume 27, Issue 3/4
Open a newspaper or popular magazine and two wildly different versions of Latin America are apt to be lying there benignly side by side. The first tickles the senses—a travel agent's ad or a frothy rum concoction, with a hint of paradise done up in palm fronds, an insinuation of endless sand, and one form or another of human beckoning. The imagination leaps to fill in the rest: butterflies the size of handkerchiefs and a carefree populace whose invisible average yearly income must be somewhat offset by the willingness of bananas to bend to the hand and coconuts to fall.
The second version is of course more ominous and involves tales of "unthinkable" human rights violations and dictators in sun glasses.
Contradictory as these two versions are, there is a sense in which—in the popular imagination—they complement each other. The exotic, botanical or sensual, needs somehow to be tamed. Imposing human order on a prairie is one thing; a surveyor can do it in a glance. A terrain inhabited by boa constrictors and guerrillas is something else again. Thus the justification for an iron hand . . . and the contradiction neatly disappears.
How do Latin Americans see us? More clearly than we see them? In a way they have more to go on. Innumerable Latin Americans, for instance, can describe seemingly every frame of every famous Hollywood movie, present and past, as far back as the forties. It is also true that Latin American newspapers print a great deal more news of North America—and of the rest of the world—than the reverse. To Latin Americans the world looms large. North America, by contrast, often sees only itself.
How should we view that vast, complicated land mass to the south, its cultures so different from ours? With this issue MR seeks to go beyond the heat and untight of current policies toward Latin America by gathering what we feel is an exciting array of Latin American writing and art, along with commentary by North Americans who have first-hand experience of Latin America. If there is a thread that runs from beginning to end, it is the plurality of experiences that Latin American writers and artists express, and the primacy of personal vision that shapes their work. We will never have politics that works unless we contend sympathetically with the imaginations of others.
—Paul Jenkins & Ellen Watson
Entries
fiction
The Story of the Green Falcon and the Marvelous Flute
BY Daniel Moyano, TRANSLATED BY H. E. Francis
poetry
Denoument; Love in the Ether; Concerted Effort
BY Adélia Prado, TRANSLATED BY Ellen Watson
poetry
It Can Happen
BY Vincente Huidobro, TRANSLATED BY Sarah Arvio
non fiction
Dedication of the Statue of Liberty
BY José Martí, TRANSLATED BY Elinor Randall
poetry
Savings; Agreed: It's True That You Look Like May Britt
BY Roque Dalton, TRANSLATED BY Roberto Márquez
non fiction
The Brain Drain
BY Augusto Monterroso, TRANSLATED BY Edith Grossman
fiction
Alaindelon de la Patrie
BY João Ubaldo Ribeiro
poetry
'From' Sudden Death
BY Etelvina Astrada, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglsey
poetry
Ode to the Americas
BY Pablo Neruda, TRANSLATED BY Margaret Sayers Peden
fiction
A Little Fairy Tale
BY Elena Poniatowska, TRANSLATED BY Magda Bogin
poetry
Alice in Nightmareland
BY Enrique Lihn, TRANSLATED BY Mary Crow
non fiction
When Republics Go Bananas
BY Penny Lernoux
art
Sculpture
BY Margarita Azurdia
non fiction
The Two Cultures of El Salvador
BY Claribel Alegría
fiction
Granny and the Golden Bridge
BY Claribel Alegría, TRANSLATED BY The Author and Darwin J. Flakoll
poetry
Visit to Weimar; The Price of Bras
BY Ernesto Cardenal, TRANSLATED BY Ellen Watson and Jonathan Cohen
non fiction
Taking a Stand, an exchange of letters between Mario Vargas Llosa and Mario Bendetti
TRANSLATED BY Ellen Watson
poetry
This Country Is In a Dream; The Man Who Boxes
BY Ana Istarú, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglesey
non fiction
A Nun's Tale: Practicing Liberation Theology, an oral history gathered by Daphne Patai
BY Daphne Patai
art
Five Drawings
BY Leonel Góngora, WITH A NOTE BY Dario Ruiz Gómez
fiction
Little Girl
BY Ivan Ângelo, TRANSLATED BY Ellen Watson
poetry
I Want to Find Desperately I Look
BY Bertalicia Peralta, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglesey
poetry
Kostas Papaioannaou
BY Octavio Paz, TRANSLATED BY Eliot Weinberger
non fiction
A Nicaraguan Journal
BY John Brentlinger
poetry
Dressed in Dynamite
BY Gioconda Belli, TRANSLATED BY Regina McCarthy
fiction
The Man in the Armchair
BY Antonio Benítez-Rojo, TRANSLATED BY James Maraniss
poetry
We Misfits Don't Forget You, Marilyn; Film Short
BY Jotamario, TRANSLATED BY Ellen Watson
non fiction
Ebb and Flow in Panama
BY Merrill Collett
poetry
It is Certain That We are Constructing a World
BY Rosario Murillo, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglesey
poetry
Uncertainty
BY Bessy Reyna, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglesey
non fiction
'The Other Face': Coversations in Latin America
BY Pat Aufderheide
poetry
Evocation of Carmen Miranda,
BY Luz Méndez de la Vega, TRANSLATED BY Zoe Anglesey
art
Five Cuban Photographers
BY Johnetta Cole
non fiction
Into Another Sort of Jungle: The Last Voyage of the Matacos
BY Ariel Dorfman
poetry
'From' Amazonas, Land of Water
BY Thiago de Mello, TRANSLATED BY Charles Cutler
fiction
The Glass Box
BY Rosario Ferre, TRANSLATED BY The Author and Kathy Taylor
non fiction
Hopeful Letter to a General: A Fragment
BY Marcos Aguinas, TRANSLATED BY David William Foster
non fiction
Within and Without Walls, an excerpt from the novel 'Primavera con una Esquina Rota'
BY Mario Benedetti, TRANSLATED BY Hardie St. Martin
Table of Contents
The Story of the Green Falcon and the
Marvelous Flute, Fiction by Daniel Moyano,
Translated by H.E. Francis
Denouement; Love in the Ether; Concerted
Effort, Poetry by Adelia Prado, Translated
from the Portuguese by Ellen Watson
It Can Happen, Poetry by Vincente Huidobro,
Translated by Sarah Arvio
Dedication to the Statue of Liberty,
Non-Fiction by Jose Marti, Translated by Elinor Randall
Sayings; Agreed: It's True That You Look Like May Britt,
Poetry by Roque Dalton, Translated by Roberto Marquez
The Brain Drain, Non-Fiction by Augusto Monterroso,
Translated by Edith Grossman
Alaindelon de la Patrie, Fiction by Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro,
Translated by the author
'From' Sudden Death, Poetry by Etelvina Astrada,
Translated by Zoe Anglesey
Ode to Numbers; Ode to Americas,
Poetry by Pablo Neruda,
Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
A Little Fairy Tale,
Fiction by Elena Poniatowska,
Translated by Magda Bogin
Alice in Nightmareland,
Poetry by Enrique Lihn,
Translated by Mary Crow
When Republics Go Bananas,
Non-Fiction by Penny Lenoux
Sculpture, Art by Margarita Azurdia,
notes by Ellen Watson and Paul Jenkins
The Two Cultures of El Salvador,
Non-Fiction by Claribel Alegria
Granny and the Golden Bridge,
Fiction by Claribel Alegria,
Translated by author and Darwin J. Flakoll
Visit to the Weimar: The Price of Bras,
Poetry by Ernesto Cardenal,
Translated by Ellen Watson and Jonathan Cohen
Taking a Stand, an exchange of letters
between Mario Vargas Llosa and Mario Bendetti,
Non-Fiction by Mario Benedetti,
Translated by Ellen Watson
This Country Is In a Dream; The Man Who Boxes,
Poetry by Ana Istaru, Translated by Zoe Anglesey
Oral History "A Nun's Tale: Practicing
Liberation Theology", Non-Fiction by Daphne Patai
Five Drawings, Art by Leonel Gongora,
with a note by Dario Ruiz Gomez
Little Girl, Fiction by Ivan Angelu, Translated by
Ellen Watson
I Want to Find Desperately I Look,
Poetry by Bertalicia Peralta, Translated by Zoe Anglesey
Kostas Papaioannaou, Poetry by Octavio Paz,
Translated by Eliot Weinberger
A Nicaraguan Journal, Non-Fiction by John Brentlinger
Dressed in Dynamite, Poetry by Gioconda Belli,
Translated by Regina McCarthy
The Man in the Armchair, Fiction by Antonio Benitez-Rojo,
Translated by James Maraniss
We Misfits Don't Forget You, Marilyn; Film Short,
Poetry by Jotamario, Translated by Ellen Watson
Ebb and Flow in Panama, Non-Fiction by Merrill Collett
It is Certain That We are Constructing a World,
Poetry by Rosario Murillo, Translated by Zoe Anglesey
Uncertainty, Poetry by Bessy Reyna,
Translated by Zoe Anglesey
'The Other Face': Coversations in Latin America,
Non-Fiction by Pat Aufderheide
Evocation of Carmen Miranda,
Poetry by Luz Mendez de la Vega,
Translated by Zoe Anglesey
Five Cuban Photographers, a note, Non-Fiction by Johnetta Cole
Five Cuban Photographers: Photograph, Art by Paul Corrales
Five Cuban Photographers: En el Liceo, Art by Marucha
Five Cuban Photographers: Rebecca de la Familia Buendia,
Art by Abigail Garcia
Five Cuban Photographers: El Campeon, Zafra, Art by Mayito
Into Another Sort of Jungle: The Last Voyage of the Matacos,
Non-Fiction by Ariel Dorfman
'From' Amazonas, Land of Water,
Poetry by Thiago de Mello, Translated by Charles Cutler
The Glass Box, Fiction by Rosario Ferre,
Translated by the author and Kathy Taylor
Hopeful Letter to a General: A Fragment,
Non-Fiction by Marcos Aguinas,
Translated by David William Foster
Within and Without Walls, an excerpt from the novel
'Primavera con una Esquina Rota',
Non-Fiction by Mario Benedetti, Translated by Hardie St. Martin
The Fiancee, 1974, Cover Art by Margarita Azurdia,
photograph courtesy of The Center for Cuban Studies,
New York City
