Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot

by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner Cuban journalist, writer,, Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Overview

By opening the ever-escalating debate regarding Latin America's "underdeveloped" status and cloaking the seriousness of the situation with wit and humor, the Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot reached number one status on the nonfiction bestseller lists in many countries in Latin America. It reveals the connection between economic success and cultural values—attitudes toward work, education, health care and community—and the consequence of the Latin American people retaining or evolving these values.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568332369
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/25/2001
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.11(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Plinio Mendoza, Carlos Montaner, and Alvaro Llosa are the authors of Los Fabricantes de Miseria. Mendoza lives in Bogota, Colombia; Montaner lives in Madrid; Llosa lives in Miami; and Michaela Ames lives in Ohio.

Table of Contents

	Translator's Notes	ix
	Translator's Acknowledgments	xi
	Foreword	xiii
1.	The Family Portrait	1
2.	The Family Tree	9
3.	The Idiot's Bible	21
4.	We're Poor: It's Their Fault	37
5.	The Cure That Kills	63
6.	"Let's Create Two, Three, One Hundred Vietnams"	77
7.	Cuba: An Old Love Is Neither Forgotten nor Abandoned	95
8.	Rifles and Cassocks	107
9.	"Yankee, Go Home!"	127
10.	How Beautiful Is My Flag!	141
11.	The Idiot's Friends	161
12.	Here Comes the Big Bad Wolf!	175
13.	The Books That "Shook" the Latin American Idiot	183
	Index Expurgatorius Latinoamericanus	209
	About the Authors	219

Editorial Reviews

Deeply iconoclastic…. It is a valuable work of historical conservation…it succeeds admirably.

The New Criterion

Three Latin Americans team up to shred the slavish political correctness that they see dominating Latin American elites…. Exaggerated, even unfair at times, this book nevertheless provides a rollicking good read.

Foreign Affairs