For most Westerners, Latin America is the junior partner of the New
World, an underdeveloped sibling to the US and Canada. The vibrancy of
its culture is unquestionable, but the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking
countries of Central and South America are easily typecast and
overlooked as exotic, dangerous, and decidedly not part of the First
World. In his provocative and powerful book, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
shows how Latin America and its people are making their presence felt
across the world by upsetting long-standing political and economic
assumptions and orthodoxies.
The US will still occupy center
stage in the West for the time being, but few observers have taken
notice of the rapid growth of Spanish language and culture within the
USA--which is quietly and quickly becoming part of Latin America in its
own way. Guardiola-Rivera's stimulating work is equally a hidden history
of the modern world (the silver peso was the first global currency) and
a piercing look at the future. Latin America has been in the vanguard
of opposition to globalization, and its politics are imaginative,
innovative and unlike those anywhere else in the world. For anyone
interested in the future of the Western hemisphere or the world economy,
What if Latin America Ruled the World? is a must-read.
