States, the University of New Mexico Press published a twenty-two volume series of Jewish Latin American literature, the majority of them in English translation. Recently published books are reviewed in both the Jewish and national presses. From Mexico to Uruguay, and especially in Argentina, Jewish novelists, artists and screen writers examine and often influence the culturallife of their respective countries. And, in the United States, Brazil, and Italy, graduate students write their doctoral theses about Latin American Jewish topics. Every year, more American and Brazilian universities offer courses that deal with Jewish Latin American literature and culture. A long list of novels, books of short stories, and poetry have been translated into English, German and Italian among other languages.
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This anthology has three sections. It begins with this Introduction, intended to orient the reader. The first part brings together the work of some thirty poets. Some of them write about very private things, many meditate on the symbols and practices of Judaism; others protest anti-Semitism and the horrors of the Holocaust; and yet others write in praise of the cities and countryside of Latin America. They employ a constellation of poetic styles, some inspired by the greats of Latin American poetry —Rubén Darío, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda and Alejandra Pizarnik; others look to the intended incoherence of the twentyfirst century. The fiction section is the most extensive and varied in the anthology. Included are short stories, mini-stories, fragments taken from novels, and experimental works that defy classification. There are several stories about families who find themselves carried along by history. Faith and rationalism, the loss of hope and optimism, compete on these pages. Taken together, these fictions, those influenced by Borges, along side with those carrying the stamp of Sholem Aleichem, provide a broad and in depth exhibition of Latin American Jewish prose.
*** In this anthology, the predominant themes are: identity and its corollary, memory, the Jewish family, the Jewish religion as practiced in Latin America – its customs and peculiarities, Jewish history – in particular, the Biblical period, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, the waves of immigration to Latin America, the many dictatorships – in particular, The Proceso (the “Dirty War”) in Argentina, the Holocaust and the State of Israel. As this literature is not only Jewish but most decidedly Latin American, the history, the geography, and the every day life in Mexico City, Buenos Aires or San José frequently appear on these pages. Yet other writers concentrate on life’s intimate details.
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