Latin America at the End of Politics (Book Review)

“Latin America at the End of Politics”, 0691089078, c2002, by Forrest Colburn. Colburn’s most pertinent, perceptive, and provocative book. This is a lose collection of essays, each of which could be read or studied individually, but taken as a whole it is far from an academic hodge-podge of previously published material, and is an excellent analysis of contemporary Latin America. It is a history book about the future of Latin America which succeeds on both counts, which is no small feat.

Colburn's time spent in, and knowledge of the area, shines even when local history and personal anecdotes are not used to enhance the big-picture meaning of some foreign-aid statistic or dissect superficial journalism. The stories told ring true for the simple fact that he knows what he is talking about and conveys what happens to people and why, in a very believable way. While it sounds like a prerequisite for any decent book, it is amazing how many books in history or social science fail this simple, fundamental test. Colburn offers a book which comes recommended by serious people on both the right and the left - and that happens less and less often with each passing decade (or year, if you are cynical or, perhaps, just realistic).

The 12 essays (chapters) include “An Ideological Vacuum”, “Fragile Democracies”, “The Business of Being in Business”, “Environmental Degradation”, “Malls”, “Crime”, “El Gringo”, “Migration”, and more. While the history told is often personal, it is not anecdotal in the trivial sense. For example, the essay on “Ideological Vacuum” traces the life of Jose Figueroa, who devoted 20 years of his life to the Sandinista cause. While he received praise, was wounded, received an education abroad, worked in Eastern Europe, helped the Cuban cause, was sent on variously loosely-defined missions, and ultimately saw the Berlin Wall come down, his life is in some very real sense come full-circle, leaving him a different man but basically not far from the same sorry place he was before he started the journey. Additionally, there is an excellent chapter, simply titled “Crime” often told firsthand - in a fashion similar to his less-scholarly though no less interesting, “My Car in Managua” - though it is in a different era, and regarding other cars.

This book is about as level-headed, “objective”, informed assessment as you will find in English. By reading this volume alone, one would perhaps not know how to classify Colburn, politically, assuming doing so is even useful (if it matters, he is clearly on the left, as the word is usually used). There is in Colburn’s assessment, in many ways, a series of round-about answers to a question posed here on Nicaliving, directly, and indirectly in many forums. Namely, in these new Latin American democracies which often seemed to have emerged nearly void of serious political theory, what is achieved in respect to what is desired, or even needed? Or, better put, do Latin Americans end up with the government they deserve? What Colburn offers up, in addition to a round-about defense of “it is not that simple”, is to reveal that asking the question itself presupposes a certain unfamiliarity with the entire social and political structure. At only 150 pages it is a slender volume, but arguably one of the better books written on the subject in the last 15 years. Colburn is also the author of “The Vogue of Revolutions in Poor Countries”, “Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua: State, Class & the Dilemmas of Agrarian Policy”, “Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance”, “My Car in Managua”, and “Managing the Commanding Heights: Nicaragua’s State Enterprises”.