Looking North : writings from Spanish America on the US, 1800 to the present /

This anthology reflects the evolution of Latin American collective consciousness and awareness of its northern neighbor over the last 200 years. The book is organized into three thematic sections: "The Two Americas," "Travelers from the South," and "The United States as Literary Theme." The selections include writings by founding fathers, five Latin American winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, journalists, politicians, writers, social scientists, and the voices of immigrants. The genres are also diverse: poetry, fiction, political speeches, interviews, letters, newspaper columns, and scholarly articles. Latin American admiration of the democratic model, technological advances and innovations, and US society and natural wonders are one side of the coin. A the same time, selections reveal the scorn and resistance the Monroe Doctrine created, as well as the subsequent political, military, economic, and geographical ramifications of US expansion. These distant neighbors became permanent housemates in the eyes of immigrants and travelers, and their bitterness often changed into hope. An ambitious, thought-provoking, scholarly view of the dysfunctional relationship between the US and Latin America, from the southern neighbors' viewpoint. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. R. A. Santillan Medgar Evers College, CUNY