Contributions in the Cambridge Companions to Culture series aim to offer comprehensive introductions to their respective fields for the student and serious general reader. The present volume is no exception to the high standard we have come to expect from this series. For the student of Hispanic culture in a wider context the publication of this volume coming shortly after the appearance of its companion volume on modern Spanish culture (Gies, 1999) (RR 1999/385) is, therefore, all the more welcome.
As a research discipline Latin American studies are a relative innovation in the classrooms and halls of academia where they have now taken their place alongside the study and teaching of the language and culture of mainland Spain. Although Jose Luis Borges' and Pablo Neruda's contributions to the literary sphere, Frida Kahlo's to the world of the visual arts, and Bunuel's to the cinema have all drawn recent attention to the cultural riches of this continent, Latin American culture may be deemed to have come of age with the award of the Nobel Prize for literature to Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982 for his novel, Cien años de soledad. Since that date, attention has focussed more sharply on Latin American culture with the publication of the novels of Isabel Allende, niece of the former president of Chile, Salvador Allende, and the international box‐office success of the film Frida, depicting the troubled life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
Editor of the present volume is John King, professor of Latin American Cultural History at the University of Warwick. Professor King has written extensively on Latin American culture, especially on the cinema. The other authors, whose academic background and publications are listed in a preliminary section, are all leading academics from universities in the United Kingdom and North America.
All volumes in the series follow the same pattern with the list of contributors followed by an extensive (ten‐page) chronology of significant facts with relevant dates. Thus, in addition to the inevitable “1492 Columbus makes first European contact with America” – a fact now disputed in some scholarly circles – we find “1550 Debate between Las Casas and Sepulveda over the nature of the Indians” and “1690s Discovery of gold in Brazil”. Coming to more recent times we read “1877 Frozen meat first shipped from Argentina to Europe” and “1962 Cuban missile crisis”.
In his Introduction the editor explains that the present work takes the creation of independent Latin American states in the 1820s as the starting point of the “modern” period. However, a chapter on pre‐Columbian and colonial Latin America enables the reader to understand the legacy of the original peoples of the Americas, the European settlers and the Africans who were forcibly transported across the Atlantic into slavery. Other chapters cover Latin American poetry, popular culture, art and architecture, music and cinema. A final chapter deals with the cultural contribution of the 38 million residents of Hispanic origin in the United States to the popular culture of their adopted homeland. The overall aim of the volume is to offer a definition of the distinguishing features of Latin American culture that set it apart from the Western tradition. As Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa argues, “culturally Latin America is and is not Europe […] everything of lasting value that Latin America has produced in the artistic sphere stands in a curious relationship of both attraction and rejection with respect to Europe”.
All chapters include extensive notes or recommendations for further reading; some include both. A useful index completes the volume. In keeping with the overall aim of the series this work is intended for the student requiring a broad canvas of his subject. The work would equally suit someone seeking a general introduction to Latin American culture. At £16.99 for the paperback edition, the work is popularly priced and deserves a place on both library shelves and the shelves of the serious student.
