Gratitude 134

I am also grateful for my wealth of books in two languages.  I likely have already written this in a previous post, but I am repeating it here because this is relevant to my research on Latin America and Collective Trauma.  While mentally preparing for this project over the past two years I have often thought, long and hard, about sources.  Where to find appropriate books, articles, studies, people full of knowledge and experience and wisdom I could talk to.  I am pleased to write here that I have had only to search through my wealth of some five hundred books or so, half in Spanish, and Oh Lordy!  What I have found!

On the bus I am reading a book in Spanish about Mexican history.  This does for me triple duty: I have something interesting to read on interminable bus rides, I get to practice my Spanish this way, and I become educated about Mexican history.  And because I do this in transit, think of the benefits of all this great time management!  I also am reading, usually in the bathroom, a similar book in Spanish on the history of Spain.  There are two other books handy by Colombian authors: one a biography of Tomas Mosquero, a prominent president of Colombia during the nineteenth century, the other a long novel about the civil war with FARC.  Both books are in Spanish.

Last night I was searching through my library for at least one novel by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, as I have discovered that well-written literary fiction by Latin American authors provides an indispensable window onto the Latino reality and the many of the roots, causes and effects of collective trauma.  My bookshelves contain many other such books.

While searching for one of the Llosa novels I found another unexpected gem.  A very ample textbook, university edition, of Latin American history, published in 1996.  It might be twenty years out of date, but that still gives me a good four hundred eighty years to play with, instead of five hundred.

In the meantime, my friend in Costa Rica sent me the online edition of Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano's contemporary classic "Las Venas Abiertas de Latinoamerica", in Spanish, of course.  The title in English would be the Open Veins of Latin America.  It is about the centuries of oppression, exploitation and colonial greed that have done much to shape the nations and cultures of Latin America.

I am also relying extensively on the internet.  Wikepedia provides me with information as I try to read and research one country at a time.  I am currently on Paraguay.  Writing these recent blogposts has also been for me, Gentle Reader, a most invaluable form for getting more insight into what I already know about the subject and, better still, how much I am still learning and needing to learn.

I am going to be very busy and for a very long time.