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Presented by
(Friends of Latin American Expression) and
Literary Agency.
Two great books on two very different Latin American
cities. Buenos Aires: city of Tango, Borges, and Evita
Perón; and Lima city with an indigenous past and an
old colonial heart.
Jason Wilson, author of
a book on Buenos Aires, and James Higgins author of
a book on Lima, discuss these cities' cultural, political
and social uniqueness with Mexican journalist Ángel
Gurría-Quintana.
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17 February 2005
6.30-8.00pm
Borders
bookshop
120 Charing Cross Road
London WC2.
0207 379 8877 (free
event)
info@flame-uk.com |
The most European of South American cities, evokes exile and nostalgia. A nineteenth-century
replica of Paris or Madrid set adrift in an alien continent,
its identity is neither of the Old World nor the New.
The Argentine capital's rootlessness has famously found
expression in the melancholy of tango and, more recently,
in a vogue for psychoanalysis even more widespread than
New York's. City of Borges, Evita Perón and Tango!
Formerly the viceregal capital of Spain’s vast South
American empire,
is today a sprawling metropolis struggling to cope with
a population of eight million. Located on the coast
between the Andean foothills and the Pacific Ocean,
it is many cities in one, with an indigenous past, an
old colonial heart, the port of Callao, and turn-of-the-century
quarters modelled on Paris. City of ceremonial sites
and museums of pre-Hispanic antiquities; colonial churches
and mansions; pre-Columbian textiles, pottery and goldwork.
Lima is a city of multicultural exchange: the indigenous
legacy; the imposition of Spanish culture; African slaves;
European and Asian immigrants and mass migration from
the provinces.
is Professor
in Latin American poetry at University College, London,
and the author of books on Octavio Paz, Alexandre von
Humboldt and Latin American literature.
Professor at Liverpool University,
specializes in Peruvian literature. A regular visitor
to Lima since the 1960s, he is an honorary professor
of the city’s University of San Marcos and a corresponding
fellow of the Peruvian Academy.
historian, translator and journalist, writes for the
travel and books pages of the Financial Times. He is
head of culture and education at Canning House
This event is done in collaboration with
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