This thought-provoking anthology is the first of nine edited volumes for the University of California Press's Global Square Book Series. Its editors are two prominent Latin Americanists, anthropologist Mathew Gutmann and historian Jeffrey Lesser, and its central premise is this: “Those in the rest of the world have much to learn from Latin America” (14). By focusing on the impact of Latin America on the wider world rather than the other way around, the work emphasizes the significance of Latin America as “home to emerging global powers” in 2016 (4), connecting Latin America to the Atlantic and the Pacific worlds, as well as to the Global North and the rest of the Global South.
The co-editors' introduction presents the internationally omnipresent image of Ernest Che Guevara as the symbol of Latin America, and the book is filled with numerous fascinating facts, events, and stories that come through and flow around the idea of a “global Latin America.” This anthology is divided into five sections, each of which is furnished with renowned anthropologist Renato Rosaldo's bilingual poems. The first section is intended to connect Latin America's past to the “global present,” presenting an interview with Ricardo Lagos, president of Chile (2000–06); a detailed portrait of Francis, the first Latin American pope; a picture of Fidel Castro as “the first superdelegate”; and an examination of Latin America's emergent role in offering solutions to the Global North for climate change, human rights, and transnational justice, among international concerns. The second section examines several important forms of cultural fusion: Latin America's linguistic landscape; Andean music enthusiasts in Japan since the 1970s; the transformation of soccer in South America; and Latin American fusion cuisine in Los Angeles. The following section covers soybean agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon; Brazil's foreign assistance projects in Mozambique; and Latin America's contributions to world drug culture. Rigoberta Menchú Tum's Nobel Peace Prize speech (1992), sex workers and their activism, tourist experiences in Latin America, and the circulation of ideas to and from Brazil are the topics of the fourth section. The fifth and final section deals with Latin American art as a global commodity: novels, telenovelas, bossa nova, and the Mexican actor Gael García Bernal's international career.
This reviewer has a few reservations about the book. First of all, even though the diversity of topics is highly appreciated, the depth of research and writing across the chapters is rather uneven. Second, there is also regional imbalance in the coverage of Latin America. For instance, much of the text is focused on Brazil and its cultural and economic impact on the rest of the world, while little attention is paid to the Andes and the Caribbean. Furthermore, the book does not refer sufficiently to the changing political climate, specifically Latin America's New Left, which Oliver Stone's documentary South of the Border (2009) romanticizes, and its recent, drastic shift back to the right. Third, the commodified image of Che should be examined as the representation of global capitalism, long divorced from its regional origin. Fourth and last, the popularity of the Brazilian-born Japanese singer Lisa Ono and her bossa nova in China should be contextualized within the ever-expanding transnational Asian music market, where the music's Brazilian origin hardly matters. In other words, Brazil, which exports mainly soybeans to China, cannot reclaim bossa nova as its own—just as Latin America cannot own Che's image.
All in all, Gutmann and Lesser produced an interesting reader that uncovers the little-known “cultural” territory of “global Latin America.” It may appeal to general readers who are “interested in better understanding Latin America's deep entanglements with and influence on our interdependent world” (5). It could be adopted as a textbook in such interdisciplinary undergraduate survey courses as Introduction to Latin American Studies and Introduction to Global Studies. It might also serve as a helpful guide for undergraduate research on the Global South.
