Is Latin America actually as the esteemed historian, Fernand Braudel, has contested Europe's "second skin"? Or is it to be characterized as Frantz Fanon has observed in Wretched of the Earth "the brothel of Europe", a land where neo-colonialism rules and its independence serves merely as a comforting illusion? Recent historiography suggests that the issues surrounding a country's independence must be viewed not only from a political angle, but from a cultural one as well. In order for a newly emerged nation to attain true liberation, it must sever itself not only bureaucratically and administratively from its former oppressor but also psychologically. Scrutiny of the intricacies of life in post-revolutionary Mexico, Castro's Cuba, Peron's Argentina, and Guatemala in the 20th century highlight the contradictions and inconsistencies of postcolonial existence in nations newly liberated from their former colonial ties.
In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean Peter Winn sets as his goal a desire "to offer North Americans views from the south" (5). To underscore his approach he quotes Manuel Moreno, Cuba's leading cultural historian, that "the truly [Latin] American is the mestizo" (57). Mixing European, African, and Indian races and culture is the true achievement of the Americas (57). What is best is to improve upon what is indigenous to a culture rather than, what has so often been the fate of Latin American countries, attempting to eradicate these features. For Winn issues of race, detailed in the reverencing of established white civilization over black folk-rooted traditions, lies at the suppressed center of the excessive pillaging of Latin America by its European forebears.
Yet the history of Latin America is embedded in a history of domination and exploitation. Since the time of the Conquest, Latin America has produced commodities for export to wealthier, industrialized nations, receiv...