Customer Reviews

Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book at the same time that I bought Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent--the latter the book Hugo Chavez is reported to have given to Barack Obama.

It has been brilliantly marketed, and I applaud the initiative and the integrity of the self-made author, but in the larger scheme of things this is very light reading, in no way comparable to any of the works of Robert Kaplan or Robert Young Pelton, to take the two who are best in class in this particular writing domain. I list books I recommend instead of this one at the end of the review.

A few details that stayed with me:

Of the ten chapters, three are on Venezuela, with one each on Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Equador, and Guatemala. He visited but has left for another book Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Hugo Chavez certainly comes out of this book looking very well, and I wonder somewhat unkindly if the Cuban intelligence service had anything to do with the crafting of the book. They are wonderfully subtle, as is this book. I do, however, share the author's views on Venezuela and Chavez and the need for an alternative model for Latin America, so I endorse and praise his take on the situation, including:

+ Chavez is now ten years in power, early on he slammed those who wrote about the end of history, the triumph of neoliberalism, and the Washington Consensus. See Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for more substance.

+ Media is in and out of Venezuela, they get it wrong and communicate a false picture of Venezuela.

+ Winning the election is only the beginning, then there is a very long fight to change the "system" that is deeply entrenched.

He corssed 25 borders and spent over 150 hours on bus rides.

In Colombia he found human rights being trampled by global economic imperatives, with massive internal displaced persons (see the genocide chapter in The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

He is by nature an anti-imperialist progressive, and speak of shame in seeing the impact of US policies and CIA interventions up close, but in the single most valuable sentence that I found in the entire book, he observes that indigenous corruption at the local level is what really hurts those at the bottom of the pyramid, they do not see or even feel the direct effects from CIA interventions or predatory capitalism at the national level. I share Lawrence Lessig's view that corruption is the scourge of all, and I also beleive that the sooner We the People can follow ALL of the money and reveal all "true costs," the sooner we can demand and receive honest government at all levels.

This is a very fast read, especially if you have lived in Latin America, this is a wonderful book for those who wish to read lightly about the fine combination of a young man making a great deal of himself from very austere beginnings, and one person's perceptions on Latin America over the same period, but at root, this is a travelogue, not an analysis.

Other books to consider:
Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places)
The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven: Journeys to Three Worlds Gone Mad
The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia--A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy
The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility--Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change

The book is engaging, full of information and a rarity. Very valuable for someone looking for information about current events in South America.

If you love a good adverture travel book and want to get some poltical insight on what is happening in Latin America, this is the book. Chesa Boudin is the son (in his 20s) of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert. His parents were members of the 60's Weather Underground and were sentenced, together with Bernadine Dohrn, to long 20+ years in prison. He is also a Rhodes scholar and currently writes for the Nation magazine.


He starts off with a simple trip to Guatemala just to learn Spanish and winds up traveling to Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela and getting a close-up look at radical politics. For example, he got an interpreters job for the staff of President Hugo Chávez. He visited slums in Venezuela. He went down into the mines of Bolivia. He traveled with poor people deep in the jungles of Brazil. He lived with the elite of these countries as well as the most impoverished. And he did most of his travels in "chicken buses" instead of flying. It is full of comments and meetings with political groups in Latin America.

While he is a leftist and progressive, he doesn't always agree with the policies these governments are pursuing. He saw close up how political theory is not always the same in practice.

Unfortunately, he did not write of his travels in Mexico. Maybe his next book? I highly recommend it.

In order to make this review as brief as possible (I myself cannot stand Amazon reviews that are too long), I will state what I liked about this book in list form:

1) Unique;
2) Amazing story-- which is true;
3) Very accessible-- well-written, but not pretentious; I think anyone as young as 13 or 14 would love it;
4) Page-turner;
5) Extremely, crucially important topic; often overlooked, despite its significance;
6) The author is great: He speaks all over, many times for free, and did an exclusive interview with Michael C. Howard (more famously known as "Mike Nice"), which can be found here: [...]
One Love
Bi_Partisan1986

I have just finished the last chapter of Chesa Boudin's book Gringo: Coming of Age in Latin America and I am sorry it has ended. I tried to stretch it out over a week to savor each chapter and visualize his travels, but I was unable to stop reading. It is a beauifully written story of his respect for Latin America, it's history and it's people.

I admire Boudin's decision to travel by bus everywhere he went so he could travel with the locals, see the scenery, stop at small villages, despite the discomfort of traveling as many as 50 hours by bus. Something few of us do today. We are in such a hurry to get to our destination. He was fortunate to have the time to travel this way. Boudin chose to travel with strangers, who often became friends.

I feel as if I have just traveled throughout Latin America with Boudin. I highly recommend you give a gift to yourself and buy this book.

Descriptive of the traditions and culture of the Latin American people coupled with honest expository comment on the wonders of both the geography and Latin governments, Boudin leads us through a chapter in his life where personal growth not only continues into a third decade, but accelerates to warp speed as he takes in everything around him with the clarity of an intellectual many years his senior. Read him now so you know him when he becomes an important part of the fabric of the US as it learns to appreciate rather than exploit it's neighbors to the south.

I rarely give out five stars for a book but I almost did here. Well written and intelligent but not pretentious or academic description of travel through Latin America. Amazing stories of being in Colombian jungles and the presidential palace in Venezuela. I find books such as this are rarely objective and Latin America is viewed through an American or European lens but he does a very good job of keeping an open mind. He has leftist ideals but isn't a cheerleader that just praises all leftist leaders. He asks questions and offers criticisms as well. I definitely would like to check out other books by this author.

The book moves a little slow but I enjoyed reading about his travels. I received the book for a gift and I would not have purchased it if I had previously read it.

I loved this book. Boudin weaves a fascinating travel memoir that seamlessly transitions between historical background, personal reflection, and rich narrative. His glimpses into national, race, and class identity in different parts of Latin America are poignant, blunt, and highly readable. He offers balanced positions on political backdrops without apologizing for his radical and progressive roots. His story is a must-read for Americans (and others) venturing to Latin America as tourists, students, or NGO workers. His story touches the hearts of those (like me) who walk between worlds of Hispanic identity- Americans by nationality, but Latino in ethnicity with family and friends still living in Latin America. His words echo experiences and observations that many of us have internalized but never fully voiced to our American friends, whether through purposeful omission due to social conventions or the desire to refrain from reinforcing stereotypes. Overall, an excellent read that goes far beneath the surface of most travel memoirs.

Per the New York Times' review: "{i}f Gringo is any indication, {Boudin's} future should not include committing sentences to paper with the intention of distributing them widely". Ouch! The truth hurts, doesn't it? Since Boudin and his ilk need so urgently to atone for the shameful sin of White Imperialism - vis-à-vis indulging their latent psychological craving for totalitarianism and radical chic, as well as constant empty gestures of 'solidarity' with a nonexistent proletariat - I suggest that they all relocate en masse to Cuba, where they can revel for the rest of their natural lives in a big bath of Solidarity with comrade Assata "Joanne Chesimard Is My Slave Name" Shakur. Or - maybe a life of constant food shortages, nonstop crime and failed nationalization in the beloved Venezuela? 'Yankee imperialism' never looked so good, am I right?

This book was incredibly embarrassing to read (I almost couldn't take it anymore when he writes that he began signing emails 'in the belly of the revolution'), and being as I am slightly younger than Mr. Boudin I'll go so far as to say it reflects poorly on our generation that pseudo-intellectual tripe such as 'Gringo' is published routinely these days with the concomitant routine expectation of awards, nonstop praise and great fanfare for the misguided author. So, to say this book - and its author - is mediocre does mediocrity a grave disservice.

As a sidenote, it seems that despite Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn coughing up roughly $25,000 per year for Chesa Boudin's bourgeois education at U. of Chicago Lab Schools, anyone and everyone else unlucky enough to miss out on the spoils inherent to the red diaper baby nepotist are made to suffer the grossly substandard hell of modern public school education - and for this, we can thank in large part Boudin's solipsistic, personality-disordered terrorist guardians, who (I'm sure) proofread and strongly supported this book from inception to first publish. What a tragedy, all around.