Evening star., 1948-12-05
Literature in Latin America
By Alberto Leros
secretary General o America
General OF the Organization of American States

mother countries only served to
accentuate. Frances prestige.
The outstanding intellectual event
Lawrence, Joyce. The same thing
of the present century in Latin
neutrality-suspicious. in the world-Was
the fall of France in 1910. In the
Latin American capitals, almost
without exception, the people wept
openly in the streets. Silent crowds
marched mournfully around. In
other cities sorrow gave way to
desperation, and although diplo-
matte relations had not been severed
with Germany. the shops kept by
Germans were attacked. The fol-
lowing day the newspapers came
out with pages full of eloquent
obituaries for the literary and senti-
mental fatherland of all Latin
Americans, who felt keenly in their
own flesh the impact of Hitler's
divisions.
Then France became mute.
Nothing came from that quarter.
No books, no periodicals, not a
the censors The glorious echo
gradually died away. There was, too,
the scorn felt in Latin America at
the capitulation Of French intel
ligence.
Reading Interest Turns
To the United States
Then began an awakening, first
of curiosity, then of interest, in
the literature of the United States.
The publishing houses of Mexico,
Buenos Aires, Santiago and Rio
busted themselves with translations
of North American writer's. OF
course, there was a marked prefer
ence for those whose works showed
the greatest European influence,
more of the French spirit. But no
one has taken the place of France
in Latin America, and it still re-
mains as a great vacuum. The
interest in North American litera-
ture began as an interest in North
American life, in the design for liv-
ing of the worlds greatest power,
rather than in its literature per Sc.
Broad literary trends of recent
times have not been very different
in Latin America from other parts
of the world. We have had our typ
ical infatuationS, as for example
that for indigenist literature. This
was localized, naturally, in the
countries whose indigenous popula-
tions are still in fluid form and not
entirely assimilated into the states
juridical and social patterns. There
have also been the creole trend
which is to say, literary nationalism
and the still powerful fondness
for examining history in the light
of biography. Latin America is
essentially an ungregarious and in
dividUalistic world. Biography as a
key to history appeals to us as
more direct and successful than
the materialistic or the sociological
approach. But there has also been
a rash of social writer's, some of
them nonSystematic socialists, who
insist on delving into our poverty,
to portray cruel, sad, embittered
world, without hope of deliverance.
There has been some of all this in
Latin America. just as there has
OSSAA IiCiS ill out
down there, as here, when great
writer emerges he is not identified
with a tendentious school. He may
happen to create one, and may even
become himself a victim of his own
early success. But as rule he had
no other purpose than to write.
Neither last year nor the few i'm
mediately preceding have produced
great progress in the Latin Ameri-
can novel. The literature of Latin
America from the time of Columbus
boasts but dozen. perhaps fewer,
good novels. Why is this? In great
part because of lack of technique.
If literary artistry were all that was
needed, we should have more Latin
American novels. But the techni-
cal requirements of the novel, which
are even more exacting than those
Of the theater, involve the use of
certain formulae and elements at
which the Latin American writer
looks aSkance
In the past few years of tension
and uncertainty, the readers of