FORGING LATIN AMERICA : profiles in power and ideas, 1492 to today

A sweeping yet intimate exploration of Latin America’s political history, Forging Latin America profiles fifty-two of the region’s most influential figures who, for better or worse, have shaped its character and destiny from the Spanish Conquest to the present day. This polyphonic gathering of dictators, reformers, revolutionaries, artists, writers, priests, and activists not only foregrounds the major political developments since 1492 but also spotlights lesser-known stories of hope, change, and resistance from the ground up. Along the way, the book shows how ideas can bring down a government or build one, how power corrodes ideology until the perpetuation of power becomes an ideology in and of itself, and how the intellectual heritage of Latin America has been used, disputed, and reinvented over five astonishing centuries. Untitled Untitled Copyright Gratitude Contents Introduction I. COLONIAL 1. Amerigo Vespucci: “Half the World Baptized with His Dishonest Name” 2. Bartolomé de las Casas: A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies 3. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Latin America’s First Feminist 4. Túpac Amaru II and the Great Andean Rebellion 5. Toussaint Louverture: The Black Spartacus of the Caribbean 6. Simón Bolívar: The Great Liberator, Flawed Emancipator II. NINETEENTH CENTURY 7. Antonio López de Santa Anna: The Hero Who Lost Half a Country 8. Benito Juárez: Mexico’s Great Reformer 9. Juan Manuel de Rosas and Domingo Sarmiento: The Struggle to Hatch Argentina 10. Dom Pedro II: Brazil’s Citizen Monarch 11. José Martí: The Colossus of Cuba III. FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 12. José Enrique Rodó: Ariel and a New Vision for Latin America 13. José Vasconcelos: The Mexican Revolution’s Cultural Caudillo 14. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo: Passion, Paint, and Politics 15. Berta Lutz: Brazil’s Frog-Loving Feminist 16. Augusto Sandino versus the United States 17. Lázaro Cárdenas: “Nuestro Petróleo” 18. Rafael Trujillo: “Our S.O.B.” 19. José Carlos Mariátegui and Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre: Peru’s Long Revolution IV. COLD WAR 20. Juan and Eva Perón: Peronism’s Dynamic Duo 21. Rómulo Betancourt: Titan of Democracy 22. Jacobo Árbenz: A Guatemalan Spring, Interrupted 23. Fidel Castro: A Rebel with a Cause 24. Ernesto Guevara: Becoming Che 25. Manuel Marulanda: Founding Father of the FARC 26. Salvador Allende: “All Things to All Men” 27. Augusto Pinochet: The Unlikely Model Dictator 28. Eduardo Galeano: Poet of History 29. Gabriel García Márquez: Magical versus Social Realism 30. Óscar Romero: Priest, Saint, Revolutionary 31. The Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo: Despair, Resistance, and Remembrance 32. Becoming Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the Dirty War 33. Efraín Ríos Montt: From God to Genocide 34. Rigoberta Menchú: A Voice for the Voiceless 35. Abimael Guzmán and Shining Path: The Philosophy of Terror 36. Chico Mendes and Marina Silva: Defenders of the Amazon V. POSTMODERN AGE 37. Mario Vargas Llosa: Cartographies of Power 38. Pablo Escobar: The First Drug Lord 39. Subcommander Marcos: The First Postmodern Guerrilla 40. Hugo Chávez: The Richest Revolutionary in the World 41. Yoani Sánchez: Cuba’s Underground Revolutionary 42. Michelle Bachelet: Healing Chile 43. Evo Morales: Reclaiming Bolivia 44. José “Pepe” Mujica: From Communism to Chrysanthemums 45. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: Brazil’s First Working-Class President 46. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo: Nicaragua’s Toxic Power Couple 47. Berta Cáceres: The Guardian of the River Bibliography Index "An exploration of Latin America's political history, this book profiles fifty-two of the region's most influential figures-from dictators and reformers to artists and priests-who, for better or worse, have shaped its character and destiny from the Spanish Conquest to the present day"-- Provided by publisher