Understanding Latino Culture
Additional Resources
Arias, Mortimer and Esther. The Cry of My People: Out of Captivity in Latin America. Friendship Press. 1980.
A compelling but controversial Christian plea for understanding, and a call for the praxis of liberation from the political and economic entities which deny justice and righteousness for Latin Americans.
Black, Jan Knippers, ed. Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise. 2nd Edition. Westview Press. 1991.
An important multidisciplinary introductory reader that provides a provocative analysis of the cultures and societies of Latin America.
Burns, E. Bradford. Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History. 4th Edition. Prentice Hall. 1986.
One of the best concise, general works that covers Latin American History from the conquest to contemporary concerns.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. 1997.
Biologist Jared Diamond combines a study of human history with science, specifically evolutionary biology and geology. Diamond examines the development of farming, domestication of plants and animals, creation of writing, and advancement of technology on a global scale. He maintains that it was such environmental benefits as the availability of certain key species and plants, as well as geographical placement, that gave the advantage to Eurasia over the rest of the world, rather than any biological advantages of one race over the others. A provocative book that will appeal to general readers as well as scholars; recommended for most libraries.
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Monthly Press Review. 1973.
Although Galeano has marxist presuppositions, he demonstrates the reasons for the anti-North American sentiment that still prevails in Latin America due to economic exploitation.
Martin, David. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. B. Blackwell. 1990.
Highly recommended sociological perspective on the rapid growth of Pentecostalism and the socio-economic forces that facilitate its growth.
Nida, Eugene. Understanding Latin Americans. William Carey Library. 1974.
Still one of the best; should be required reading for all missionaries to Latin American. Nida's insights into the ethos of Latin American religion remain potent.
Riding, Alan. Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans. 1989.
A former Mexico City bureau chief for the New York Times, Riding shows himself to be a sympathetic, informed observer of the complex changes wracking Mexican society and is especially insightful about recent political and economic turbulence and the tension between the Mexican majority and the "Americanized" minority.
Willems, Emilio. Latin American Culture: An Anthropological Synthesis. Harper and Row. 1975.
Willems, an anthropologist and long-time resident of Latin America, describes the process of the merger of European and indigenous civilizations which produced the mestizo culture of Latin America. He then elucidates the particular transformations which have shaped the contemporary configurations common throughout the Latin American cultural region.
