The People And Culture of Latin America

The People And Culture of Latin America — page 3
INTRODUCTION I n 1982 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Gabriel García Márquez the Colombian author of such celebrated novels as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera Márquez in an interview with the New York Times expressed some anxiety about being given the coveted award Even though he was not the first writer from Latin America to receive it he feared that he would be called on to represent Latin America I must try and break through the clichés about Latin America he said in his interview Superpowers and other outsiders have fought over us for centuries in ways that have nothing to do with our problems In reality we are all alone Gabriel García Márquez Colombian novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize Márquez was referring to the way in which Latin American culture is often mis understood and misrepresented Latin America is much more diverse and dynamic than some people have assumed The term Latin America might sound strange since Latin is not spoken in this region However the term is over 150 years old and was invented to refer to the region 4