The Promotion of Latin American Literature in and by the U.S., 1960-1979

FAIN: FA-50371-04

Deborah N. Cohn
Trustees of Indiana University (Bloomington, IN 47405-7000)

The project, which draws on archival research and interviews, studies the promotion of Latin American literature in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s, when authors such as Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa first received widespread acclaim in the West. This was also a time when Latin American intellectuals actively demonstrated their commitment to the post-Revolutionary Cuban government, resulting in an interest on the part of the U.S. governmental agencies as well as philanthropic organizations, cultural centers such as the Americas Society, universities, and publishers in creating a space for intellectual activity and exchange in the States that would serve as a counter-pole to Cuba and attract Latin American authors to the U.S. Thus I focus on the role of Cold War cultural politics in shaping and promoting this literary movement in the States, and of U.S. cultural and governmental institutions in constructing these authors' reputation and literary history.