Volver Is to Return


Book Description

America Somerville works for UNICEF as a close adviser to the executive director and is a respected child rights advocate. She is happily married to a Frenchman who is also dedicated to his work at Amnesty International as a specialist in the Middle East. They have a young son and a busy life in New York City, where America is consumed by her highly visible and political job. Her demanding position calls for traveling to many countries around the world, addressing challenging violations of childrens rights as well as dealing with the many intrigues at United Nations Headquarters. When she receives an urgent call requesting her to return home to Uruguay, she is on a high-level mission for UNICEF and believes she must first finish her assignments. The truth is that she fears facing her authoritarian father, whom she has purposely shut out of her life due to the many lies and secrets that drove her away after her mothers mysterious and untimely death. As she reflects on the circumstances that led her to exclude her powerful and illustrious family from her life, key signs from the universe reach out to her during her visits to India, Peru, and Vietnam. A devastating tragedy forces her to return home to her estranged family in Uruguay, which puts her on a path to search for the truth and spiritual transformation. Back home at the ranch Los Olivos, which has been in her family for several generations, she uncovers the dark secrets that have damaged her family for years and continues on her journey to find faith, love, forgiveness, and true calling.




The Life, Music, and Times of Carlos Gardel


Book Description

In the first biography in English of the great Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Collier traces his rise from very modest beginnings to become the first genuine "superstar" of twentieth-century Latin America. In his late teens, Gardel won local fame in the barrios of Buenos Aires singing in cafes and political clubs. By the 1920s, after he switched to tango singing, the songs he wrote and sang enjoyed instant popularity and have become classics of the genre. He began making movies in the 1930s, quickly establishing himself as the most popular star of the Spanish-language cinema, and at the time of his death Paramount was planning to launch his Hollywood career.Collier's biography focuses on Gardel's artistic career and achievements but also sets his life story within the context of the tango tradition, of early twentieth-century Argentina, and of the history of popular entertainment.




Voices of the Survivors


Book Description

By blending personal memoir and critical analysis, Voices of the Survivors explores cultural and human responses to the violence of political repression and social disintegration perpetrated in Argentina during the so called Dirty War of the late '70s and early '80s. Central to the theoretical and critical corpus is the work of scholars writing in response to the historical trauma of the Holocaust (Adorno, La Capra, Shoshana Felman), which posed questions regarding social trauma, the links between mourning and memory, and the role of artistic creation and its value as testimony. The book traces shifts in discursive formations and social practices critical to understanding the origin and impact of the Process of National Reorganization (as it was known by the military government) through analysis of a broad range of sources, including poetry, fiction, memoirs and testimonies, popular music, and journalism. These texts explore the persistence of issues of memory and mourning within the particular conditions of Argentine culture in the aftermath of the dictatorship. This significant new work will be essential reading for scholars interested in issues of violence, political and cultural disruption, memory, and historical consciousness.




Latin American Women On/In Stages


Book Description

While a feminine perspective has become more common on Latin American stages since the late 1960s, few of the women dramatists who have contributed to this new viewpoint have received scholarly attention. Latin American Women On/In Stages examines twenty-four plays written by women living in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. While all of the plays critique the restraints placed on being female, several also offer alternatives that emphasize a broader and healthier range of options. Margo Milleret, using an innovative comparative and thematic approach, highlights similarities in the techniques and formats employed by female playwrights as they challenged both theatrical and social conventions. She argues that these representations of women's lives are important for their creativity and their insights into both the personal and public worlds of Latin America.




I Had to Survive


Book Description

This is a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that propelled survivor Roberto Canessa to become one of the world's leading pediatric cardiologists. Canessa played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help. This fine line between life and death became the catalyst for the rest of his life. This uplifting tale of hope and determination, solidarity and ingenuity gives vivid insight into a world famous story. Canessa also draws a unique and fascinating parallel between his work as a doctor performing arduous heart surgeries on infants and unborn babies and the difficult life-changing decisions he was forced to make in the Andes. Print run 75,000.




The Cambridge Companion to Tango


Book Description

Tango music rapidly became a global phenomenon as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, with about 30% of gramophone records made between 1903 and 1910 devoted to it. Its popularity declined between the 1950s and the 1980s but has since risen to new heights. This Companion offers twenty chapters from varying perspectives around music, dance, poetry, and interdisciplinary studies, including numerous visual and audio illustrations in print and on the accompanying webpages. Its multidisciplinary approach demonstrates how different disciplines intersect through performative, historical, ethnographic, sociological, political, and anthropological perspectives. These thematic continuities illuminate diverse international perspectives and highlight how the art form flourished in Argentina, Uruguay and abroad, while tracing its international and cultural impact over the last century. This book is an innovative resource for scholars and students of tango music, particularly those seeking a diverse international perspective on the subject.




In Strangers' Arms


Book Description

The tango is easily the most iconic dance of the last century, its images as familiar as an old friend. But are they the whole story? Peeling back the poster propaganda that has always characterized the tango publicly, this intimate study shows the invisible heart of the dance and the culture that raised it. Drawing on direct experience and conversations with dancers, it reveals much about the role of the tango in Argentinean culture. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.




Desire Unlimited


Book Description

In the last decade, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar has grown from critical darling of the film circuit scene to mainstream success. Frequently comic, often deadly serious, always visually glorious, his recent films range from the Academy Award–winning drama Talk to Her to the 2011 horror film The Skin I Live In. Though they are ambitious and varied in style, each is a distinctive innovation on the themes that have defined his work. Desire Unlimited is the classic film-by-film assessment of Almodóvar’s oeuvre, now updated to include his most recent work. Still the only study of its kind in English, it vigorously confirms its original argument that beneath Almodóvar's genius for comedy and visual pleasure lies a filmmaker whose work deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness.




Tracing Tangueros


Book Description

Tracing Tangueros offers an inside view of Argentine tango music in the context of the growth and development of the art form's instrumental and stylistic innovations. It first establishes parameters for tango scholarship and then offers ten in-depth profiles of representative tangueros within the genre's historical and stylistic trajectory.




Experiencing Latin American Music


Book Description

Experiencing Latin American Music draws on human experience as a point of departure for musical understanding. Students explore broad topics—identity, the body, religion, and more—and relate these to Latin American musics while refining their understanding of musical concepts and cultural-historical contexts. With its brisk and engaging writing, this volume covers nearly fifty genres and provides both students and instructors with online access to audio tracks and listening guides. A detailed instructor’s packet contains sample quizzes, clicker questions, and creative, classroom-tested assignments designed to encourage critical thinking and spark the imagination. Remarkably flexible, this innovative textbook empowers students from a variety of disciplines to study a subject that is increasingly relevant in today’s diverse society. In addition to the instructor’s packet, online resources for students include: customized Spotify playlist online listening guides audio sound links to reinforce musical concepts stimulating activities for individual and group work