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General Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), called El Liberator, and sometimes the "e;George Washington"e; of Latin America, was the leading hero of the Latin American independence movement. His victories over Spain won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Bolivar became Columbia's first president in 1819. In 1822, he became dictator of Peru. Upper Peru became a separate state, which was named Bolivia in Bolivar's honor, in 1825. The constitution, which he drew up for Bolivia, is one of his most important political pronouncements. Today he is remembered throughout South America, and in Venezuela and Bolivia his birthday is a national holiday. Although Bolvar never prepared a systematic treatise, his essays, proclamations, and letters constitute some of the most eloquent writing not of the independence period alone, but of any period in Latin American history. His analysis of the region's fundamental problems, ideas on political organization and proposals for Latin American integration are relevant and widely read today, even among Latin Americans of all countries and of all political persuasions. The "e;Cartagena Letter,"e; the "e;Jamaica Letter,"e; and the "e;Angostura Address,"e; are widely cited and reprinted.

Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered the pre-eminent writer of Brazil, but his work has only recently become known to the English-speaking world. This new translation of Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, first published in 1881, now brings Machado de Assis's sardonic wit and keen appreciation of human foibles to a much larger audience.

Recollections of a Provincial Past is the best known of several autobiographies by 19th century Argentinean Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Local history books describe him as the second of three founding presidents of the Argentine nation. He remains one of Latin America's most influential writers as wellas one of its more controversial and contested political figures.

"Esau and Jacob" is the last of Machado de Assis's four great novels. At one level, the story of Brazil itself, it is the story of twin brothers in love with the same woman. Assis presents a study of the doubts and insecurities of the human condition, rather than an heroic bible fable.

In his lifetime, the Peruvian Ricardo Palma (1838-1919) was one of the most popular and imitated writers in Latin America. His historical miscellanies, which he called "traditions," are witty anecdotes about conquerors, viceroys, corrupt and lovelorn friars, tragic loves and notorious characters.

Part social and cultural history and part commentary, this edition is edited with an Introduction and chronology of Rosales' life by Brian Loveman and Translated by John H. R. Polt.

Eugenio Cambaceres was the first to introduce the naturalist manner of Zola to Argentinean literature in the late 19th century. His work is crucial to understand the period of consolidation of Argentina, the formation of a national identity and the role of the intellectual in that transition.

The story of a youngster who is entrusted to the household of a member of the Santiago elite. While living there he falls in love with his guardian's daughter, and their love provides a commentary about the mores of Chilean society

A young couple arrive in a Peruvian province where the Indians are exploited by landowners and public officials and the women are especially abused by local priests. The idealistic couple attempt the difficult task of improving the lives of the Indians.

Cecilia Valdes is arguably the most important novel of 19th century Cuba. Written in 1882 by Cirilo Villaverde in exile in New York City, but set in the Havana of the 1830s, the novel recounts a story of the moral, political, and sexual depravity caused by slavery and colonialism.

This title brings the reader the magic of the Christmas season as seen through the eyes of the Hispanic Americans. Christmas is a universal story, and many of the images here are recognizable across cultures. There are some however, specific to Hispanic culture; both kinds are shared here.

Eight essays by Euclides da Cunha, author of Os Sertoes, about his trip through the Amazon in 1905, written to bring to life the Brazilian hinterlands to the urban citizens.

Juana Mauela Gorriti (1818-1892) is one of the outstanding women writers of nineteenth-century Argentina. She wrote in various genres from fiction and travelogues to cookbooks and essays and she edited a number of literary reviews in Lima and Buenos Aires, where she put women's issues before the public.

This is the fictional narration of a military campaign ordered by the dictator Porfirio Diaz in October 1892, which resulted in the massacre of the village of Tomochic. The work is narrated by an eyewitness, the author, and written in collaboration with the editor of a newspaper.

The Girondins of Chile deals with events that were inspired by the French Revolution of 1848 and offers a shrewd description of the emerging group of Chilean liberals. Vicuna MacKenna participated in the uprising of 1851, yet his book on the events was not published until 1902.

Jose Tomas de Cuellar (1830-1894) was a Mexican writer noted for his sharp sense of humour and gift for caricature. "Having a Ball" and "Christmas Eve" are two novellas written in the costumbrista style, made popular in the mid-19th century by the periodical press.

In Chapters of Brazil's Colonial History, Joao Capistrano de Abreu created an integrated history of Brazil that is both a landmark work of scholarship and a literary masterpiece. He offers an analysis of the past, based on the role of the economy, settlement, and the occupation of the interior.

Andres Bello played a role in shaping the national identities of independent Latin American countries. This text explores such subjects as grammar and philology, the aims of education, international relations, historiography, Latin and Roman Law, government and society, and many others.

Dom Casmurro, by the Brazilian novelist Machado de Assis (originally published in 1900), is one of the great unrecognized classics of the turn of the century. This new translation provides an informative introduction and notes by John Gledson, which set the novel in its historical context, as well as an afterword by the Brazilian scholar Joao Adolfo Hansen.

This poem is based on one of the best known literary pieces in the Brazilian canon. It tells the tale of doomed love between a soldier and an Indian maiden.

This memoir and chronicle of Chile's intellectual and literary development examines the Chilean struggle and illustrates the author's view that writers have a social and political obligation to raise the consciousness of their readers

First published in 1854, this delightful novel of urban manners follows a ne'er-do-well militial sergeant through his romantic liaisons and frequent scrapes with the law. Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant was long considered an early picaresque romance that emphasized the peculiarly roguish element in the Brazilian character.

Nataniel Aguirre (1843-1888) was a statesman and active participant in shaping Bolivian politics and economics. His novel functionalizes the memories of the last soldier of the Wars of Independence. The story is told as the reminiscences of Colonel de la Rosa.

In this text Marmol recounts the story of Eduardo and Amalia who fall in love while he is hiding in her home. Amalia and her cousin Daniel protect him from persectution, but can the couple escape to safety before they are discovered?

Published in 1890, The Slum is a tale of passion and greed with two intersecting story lines: a penny-pinching immigrant landlord who becomes a rich capitalist and discards his black lover for a wealthy white woman; and the innocent love affair between the immigrant and a mulata who live in a tenement owned by this landlord.