The Heart that Bleeds (Latin America Now) by Alma Guillermoprieto

The Heart that Bleeds by Alma Guillermoprieto is a great collection of essays ('dispatches' for New Yorker) from various Latin American cities by Alma Guillermoprieto, who is a Mexican writer. Having almost zero context on Latin America, this book was a perfect introduction to the culture, politics and people of the continent. Each chapter picks a theme within a city, and beautifully expands on it - with the right level of detail and context. And even when you don't know anything about Lima, lets say, you find yourself in the middle of a story building up in the city, intertwined in its politics and culture. And a lot of the stories are political. The writer set this up in the introduction of the book - which perhaps is the best written part of the book - touching up on the core theme of the book. 

She writes - 'The questions not yet answered in Latin America have to do with a coherent future vision, not only of how the hugely unequal sectors of Latin-American society can all modernize themselves into the same century, but of how they can modernize each other into the same ethical standards and a rough consensus regarding what it is that a modern society owes its citizens, and what those citizens owe each other'. 

I believe Amal is one of the best non-fiction writer i have read recently. Her writing just flows. This is a great example of how you engage readers in the most complex of issues when they have limited context about the place you are writing about. I felt like i was in the comunas while reading the Medellin essay on the drug infused densely populated hills or attending the Umbanda ceremonies while reading the Rio essay. The best chapters for me were the Mexico City ones, along with the ones set in Brazil and Peru. So much so, that i am looking to read more about these places and at some point maybe visit them as well. 

The writing is as beautiful as the material is depressing. Constantly, one encounters corrupt politicians, innocent civilians murdered, and drugs which have entered all aspects of the society. The one silver lining was the Managua essay highlighting the election victory of Violeta Chamorro against the long time president Daniel Ortega. And i cant help but draw parallels between these far away Latin American societies and the issues we face here in India. Here's hoping we all can come out of our century of solitude and see new light.  

First Stop in the New World by David Lida

 

The key hypothesis of this book by David Lida is - as nations steadily urbanize, across the globe, and as these urban centers  grow to accomodate the immigrants, these modern cities would not be based on the models of first world cities like Paris, London, New York or Amsterdam. But rather, they would be based on models of Delhi, Kolkata, Shanghai, Mexico City, Sao Paulo etc. - that is rapidly growing urban centers in the third world countries. And the writer posits that Mexico City, more than any other, is an ideal character of how the modern 21st Century city would look like, would feel like. That is why 'First Stop in the New World'. I was with the author till here, ready to believe this hypothesis if he says so, and ready to read explorations on how he arrived here. But this is where the book falters, for me. The author hasn't really put forward very convincing arguments to support his hypothesis. 

The books is a collection of broader themes about Mexico City and Mexican culture in general, along with some very specific observations and anecdotes to add some more flavor to the narrative. Some of these are very well written. I especially liked the deep dive into Mexican sexuality in a chapter titled 'Sex Capital' and also another into what is called 'Malinchismo' in a chapter titled 'Globalisation and Malinchismo'. I was surprised how relevantly the themes in these two chapters would apply to Indian culture and Indian men. Could it be that old cultures which were colonised for a significant period of time by an alien population behave have some common themes? It could be a coincidence as well. But i would love to explore more about the origin of these common themes that appear between the Indian and he Mexican cultures that otherwise are located so far away from each other. 

I was hoping these chapters, put together, conclude convincingly into the hypothesis posited by the author. They dont. The conclusion at the end of the book seems too short, too hasty, almost like an afterthought. This does not take away from the beauty of some of the chapters. But they stand alone, not as a part of a whole narrative.

The writer is a New Yorker who has has lived in Mexico City for the past few years. So the book is an outsiders perspective on Mexico City. Naturally, some generalisations and biases creep in. And i was fine with this. I did not necessarily want an authentic or inside out view at the city. On the contrary, knowing how an outsider looked the city made the book more interesting for me. Though, now that i have read this, i would love to know what a original residents narrative about the city might look. 

After i finished reading this book, i jumped right away (based on the recommendations at the end of the book) into a book called The Heart that Bleeds by Alma Guillermoprieto. She is a Mexican writer and the book is a collection of 'dispatches' form various South American cities for the New Yorker. I began with two chapters based in Mexico City. And right away, the thing that stood out for me is how much more tightly written these chapters were as compared to 'First Stop in the New World'. They had better flow, she was able to lay out a unique theme about Mexico City, and build on it convincingly. That, in hindsight, made First Stop in the New World pale in comparison to the Mexico City chapters of The Heart That Bleeds. 

I will write more about The Heart That Bleeds next.