In Review
El desafio neoliberal: el fin del tercermundismo en Amirica Latina edited by Barry B. Levine, Grupo Editorial Norma (Distributed by Carvajal International, Coral Gables, FL), 1992, 518 pp.,...
...Reflections On Economic Development: Toward a New Latin American Consensus by Enrique V. Iglesias, Inter-American Development Bank (Distributed by Johns Hopkins University Press), 1992, 158pp...
...One cannot understand the history of modem Venezuela without a clear grasp of the importance of oil, and Hellinger keeps petroleum-and its booms and busts-pretty much center stage throughout...
...and the thrill and danger of staking out land in the new squatter settlements...
...No reader will be left without a deeper understanding of the Sandinista' s electoral defeat or remain untouched by the generous spirit and simple humanity of protagonists in a difficult struggle where life continues to be hard...
...The reader of Magic Eyes visits the story-filled, magic-suffused world which inspires such writers as Gabriel Garcia Mdrquez...
...Magic Eyes: Scenes from an Andean Girlhood by Wendy Ewald, Bay Press, 1992, 180 pp., $18.95 (paper...
...The authors may be overly sanguine about the prospects of socialism and revolutionary change in the region, and their argument's compelling force and linearity is sometimes gained at the expense of presenting information and perspectives which don't fit their neat theories...
...He subtly analyses the complex interplay among machismo, the dynamics of skin color, and the nature of homosexuality...
...On the contrary, they argue, many of the same basic authoritarian institutions dominate...
...These images quietly reflect the themes of Vdsquez' tale...
...domestic economy has prevented the United States from dominating economically and providing aid to its client regimes...
...Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua by Roger Lancaster, University of California Press, 1993, 340 pp., $25 (cloth...
...With striking empathy and sensitivity, Lancaster allows his informants to speak in their own voices while also conveying his own part in the dialogue...
...In doing so, he scrutinizes his own role and persona in the same incisive way he investigates the "subjects" of his research...
...It contains some good country studies, and is especially worth reading for a marvelous introductory essay by Mario Vargas Llosa which reflects upon the multiple-andrevealing-Latin American usage of the words pendejo, cojonudo and liberal...
...Despite the smugness and tendentious posturing of some of the essays, it is a useful source of neoliberal ideas and assumptions...
...Magic Eyes is the story of Alicia Visquez and her family, as transcribed and edited by Wendy Ewald...
...This approach, together with the poetic quality of his writing, creates the experience of"being there" as the reader comes to better understand a complex social reality...
...the abuse that she and the other women in her family suffer at the hands of the men in their lives...
...Hellinger gives us an extremely readable account of the origins of Venezuela's current political crisis...
...Thus we listen to Visquez as she tells about the people, folk beliefs and events that shaped her life as she grew from child to woman: the evil eye that has been passed down to her through her family...
...Latin America in the Time of Cholera: Electoral Politics, Market Economics, and Permanent Crisis by James Petras and Morris Morley, Routledge,1992, 208 pp., $14.95 (paper...
...As its title suggests, this is a collection of essays promoting free-market neoliberal economic policies for Latin America and the Caribbean...
...The text is broken up by interludes of black-and-white photographs, taken by Ewald and schoolchildren she taught in a Colombian village...
...This is a thoughtful and extremely useful review of the thinking behind the programs and policies of the InterAmerican Development Bank...
...With rousing polemical flair, Petras and Morley refute the claim that Latin America has undergone a "redemocratization...
...While it comes to market-oriented conclusions many NACLA readers may find objectionable, it is closely argued, and free of the economic jargon and utilitarian assumptions so often found in similar books...
...Written by the Bank's current president, it contains an interesting discussion of the historical evolution of Latin American theories of development, with aparticular focus on the early work of Radil Prebisch at the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA...
...15.95 (paper...
...Instead, the authors claim, the United States is economically pillaging Latin America through devastating free-market policies in order to finance its own recovery...
...Nonetheless, this book makes a decisive case for the relevance of Marxist analysis to contemporary Latin America...
...He is particularly lucid in his discussion of Venezuela'spartidocracia-the pervasive influence of the major political parties on virtually all aspects of public, and sometimes private, life...
...While the historical account ends with the widespread rioting of February, 1989, the reader-now with a firm grasp of the oil-based contradictions of Venezuelan political economy-is well-positioned to understand last year's two coup attempts, and to anticipate the results of this year's national elections...
...the sagacity of Don Juan, the village healer, who resolves conflict and promotes tolerance...
...This brilliant ethnography is an important contribution to the study of the Nicaraguan revolution, and may become the definitive analysis of the country's complex extra-economic social relations...
...Lancaster maps out the distinct yet overlapping terrains of class, gender, sexual orientation and race in a Managua working-class barrio...
...Ewald wisely stands back and lets the cadences and rhythms of Vasquez' voice set the tone...
...El desafio neoliberal: el fin del tercermundismo en Amirica Latina edited by Barry B. Levine, Grupo Editorial Norma (Distributed by Carvajal International, Coral Gables, FL), 1992, 518 pp., $19.95 (paper...
...Petras, professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Morley, senior lecturer in politics at Macquarie University in Australia, suggest that while the United States has strengthened its ideological and military grip on the region, the weak U.S...
...Venezuela: Tarnished Democracy by Daniel C. Hellinger, Westview Press, 1991, 236 pp., $34 (cloth...
Vol. 26 • February 1993 • No. 4
