The Human Tradition in Latin America

Although the people whose stories appear in this book seem far removed from our lives, most have the qualities that E.M. Forster admires as part of the 'true human tradition.' We may cringe at the suffering that some of them endured--or contributed to--or at the violence that pervaded their lives. Still, we can empathize with the courage and ability that gave most of them the 'power to endure' through the 'cruelty and chaos' of nineteenth-century Latin America.