Latineos - Latin America, Caribbean, arts, culture

When Argentina suffered financial collapse in 2001, demonstrators took to the streets and there were violent confrontations followed by a police crackdown. This is the turbulent backdrop to Matías Néspolo’s debut novel, first published in Spanish in 2009 and fluidly translated by Frank Wynne. It proves particularly topical given the recent global protests.

July 1865. A single tea clipper, The Mimosa, set sail from Liverpool to the west coast of Argentina carrying with it the hopes of 153 pioneers from Wales, 8000 miles away. Their journey was the dream of the revolutionary idealist Michael Jones – a desperate bid to secure a homeland for the people and language of Wales, under assault from the neighbouring English.

Iosi Havilio was born in Buenos Aires in 1974. Open Door is his first novel. His second novel is Estocolmo (Stockholm, 2010), and he is currently working on a sequel to Open Door. He has become a cult author in Argentina after Open Door was highly praised by the outspoken and influential writer Rodolfo Fogwill and by the most influential Argentine critic, Beatriz Sarlo.

MARCELO FIGUERAS, born in Buenos Aires in 1962, is a writer and screenwriter. He currently lives in Barcelona. His novel Kamchatka (Atlantic Books, 2010) was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

This May, Buenos Aires will host the twentieth edition of arteBA, the major fair of Latin American art held annually in the city. Under the banner ‘una fiesta continental’, arteBA will open its doors to over 120, 000 visitors eager to view the latest offerings from some of Latin America’s most exciting contemporary artists.¹

The Book of Sand (1975) was written by an aged and blind Jorge Luis Borges, approaching the end of his grand literary career. Having risen to international renown by, in particular, popularising the literary form of “magical realism,” in The Book of Sand he resolutely pursues a fantastical, albeit melancholic, style.

Argentinean writer and composer María Elena Walsh has died of heart failure aged 80 after a long career dedicated to the world of children. She will be remembered for entertaining generations with her quirky songs and endearing characters such as the adventurous turtle Manuelita and the goofy monkey Mono Liso.

Andrés Neuman was born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, where he spent his childhood. He now lives in Granada, Spain. He has a degree in Spanish Philology from the University of Granada, where he taught Spanish- American literature.

In October 2008 the Colección de Arte Amalia LaCroze de Fortabat opened in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, contributing to the rapid transformation of the capital’s port area from industrial hinterland to up-market centre of culture and entertainment.

Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, (August 26, 1914 – February 12, 1984) was an Argentine author of novels and short stories. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina. Most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951.