The Hispanic Condition: The Power of a People - Softcover

Stavans, Ilan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060935863 ISBN 13: 9780060935863

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2001

Synopsis

In The Hispanic Condition, Ilan Stavans offers a subtle and insightful meditation on Hispanic society in the United States. A native of Mexico, Stavans has emerged as one of the most distinguished Latin American writers of our time, an award-winning novelist and critic praised by scholars and beloved by readers. In this pioneering psycho-historical profile, he delves into the cultural differences and similarities among the five major Hispanic groups: Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, and Spaniards.

Masterfully interweaving historical, literary, and political references with his personal experience, Stavans discusses the divisions within a common heritage; customs of music, love, sex, marriage, and religious belief; the role of the intellectual in society; ideological struggle; and the hopeful visions of the future at the core of a civilization rooted in the trauma of the past.

About this title

About the Author:

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College–40th Anniversary Professor at Amherst College.

Ilán Stavans nació en México, en 1961. Cursó estudios de posgrado en la Universidad de Columbia, y ahora tiene la cátedra Lewis-Sebring de cultura latina y latinoamericana en Amherst College.

From Library Journal:

A well-known fiction writer (The One-Handed Pianist and Other Stories), critic (The Inveterate Dreamer: Essays and Conversations on Jewish Culture), and scholar (Spanish, Amherst), Stavans was born in Mexico but educated in the United States. In 1995, he published the first edition of this innovative attempt to characterize the Hispanic or Latino population in the United States. Using art and literature as a mirror to this population, he suggests that it should be understood not through political or social manifestations but through the creative expression of the people. With this approach, he suggests that Hispanics or Latinos are different from all other minorities because of their common cultural and historical past, regardless of country of origin. This second edition has been updated, but Stavans's arguments remain basically the same. This volume should be part of most academic collections and public libraries that serve the Latino population. Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060935863
• ISBN 13: 9780060935863
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 288