<p>“No writer captures the joy and the pain of life in Latin America like Alma Guillermoprieto. This collection goes far beyond the usual headlines to explore the deeper currents shaping the human experiences of everyone who lives in our hemisphere.” - Patrick Iber, author of <i>Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America</i> </p> <p> "For decades now, Alma Guillermoprieto has been an indispensable guide to a region that US opinion makers stubbornly continue to ignore. <i>The Years of Blood</i> is Guillermoprieto at her most intense and nuanced, offering humane portraits set in turbulent landscapes, some of ordinary people trying to survive, others of people with extraordinary power who believe they control the turbulence. An indispensable window into a region that, even as it remains itself, is changing with breakneck speed." - Greg Grandin, author of <i>The End of the Myth</i> </p> <p> "Alma Guillermoprieto’s collection of feature articles reporting from on the ground in a key period of Latin America’s history will stand the test of time as a vivid ethnographic snapshot of the impact of change on the real people behind academic aggregation." - Gavin O'Toole <i>Latin American Review of Books</i> </p>
Part I. South America
1. Bolivia’s Tarnished Savior 11
2. In the Wrestling Rings of Bolivia 21
3. Don’t Cry for me, Venezuela 27
4. Confrontation in Colombia 41
5. Colombia’s Healing Begins 51
6. Confessions of a Killer 61
7. Claudia Andujar: Witness to Yanomami’s Last Struggle 73
Part II. Central America
8. Nicaragua’s Dreadful Duumvirate 83
9. Death Comes for the Archbishop 95
10. In the New Gangland of El Salvador 103
Part III. Mexico
11. “The Morning Quickie” 117
12. The Mission of Father Maciel 131
13. Troubled Spirits 139
14. Risking Life for Truth 149
15. A Voice against the Darkness 157
16. Making the Dogs Dance 161
17. A Lost World on the Map 167
18. The High Art of the Tamale 179
19. The Twisting Nature of Love: Alfonso CuarÓn’s Roma 187
20. Forty-Three Students Went Missing: What Really Happened to Them? 213
Acknowledgments 239