Tales of Torture and Terror: Testimonial Arts in 20th Century Latin America

Instructor:  Professor Paula D. Olinger
                 Department of Spanish

Latin America became the staging ground for numerous struggles for social justice in the second half of the 20th century, while the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a cold war. Blinded by its fear of communism, the United States perceived these social struggles as communist revolutions and swiftly leapt to the aid of the very governments that the popular resistance movements aimed to overthrow. With military assistance from the United States, many brutal Latin American dictatorships launched campaigns of terror and destruction against peasants and intellectuals. Writers, film makers, artists, and musicians were forced into exile to escape the atrocities of their repressive national governments. In their work they gave a voice to the hundreds of thousands of victims of state terror. We shall explore in this Seminar the novels, poetry, stories, songs, films, and paintings of Latin Americans who dared to dream of social justice in the midst of violence and oppression.