In 1982 Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel prize in literature. In his speech in the ceremony Garcia Marquez stressed out how different the nature of Latin America was, how LA was unique and couldn’t be thought to be pro or against any of the superpowers of the cold war era (though a Latin American country almost triggered the third world war), and finally how scholars and citizens of other latitudes had to learn the inner forces of the region before judging it.
I still have to think more about his words before I tell my opinion. By now, I recomend you to read the speech and draw your own conclusions:
– English: The solitude of Latin America.
– Spanish: La soledad de America Latina.
Bye Bye
Juan David Hincapié-Ramos 
Juan,I read the lecture – I’m after all still your most faithful reader ;)As a European reader some questions popped up while reading it, for instance why did García Marquez choose to emphasize Latin America’s specific character in his Nobel Lecture – or better what provoked him to do so? What is the context of his stands, when he says, “And if these difficulties, whose essence we share, hinder us, it is understandable that the rational talents on this side of the world, exalted in the contemplation of their own cultures, should have found themselves without valid means to interpret us.” ?He gave the lecture after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1982 – but does he still have a point more than 20 years later, in 2007? In Latin America? In Europe?When he perfectly right asks,„Why is the originality so readily granted us in literature so mistrustfully denied us in our difficult attempts at social change? Why think that the social justice sought by progressive Europeans for their own countries cannot also be a goal for Latin America, with different methods for dissimilar conditions? No: the immeasurable violence and pain of our history are the result of age-old inequities and untold bitterness, and not a conspiracy plotted three thousand leagues from our home. But many European leaders and thinkers have thought so, with the childishness of old-timers who have forgotten the fruitful excess of their youth as if it were impossible to find another destiny than to live at the mercy of the two great masters of the world. This, my friends, is the very scale of our solitude.”I’ll arrogantly ask, what makes Latin America any different from Asia to an ordinary European citizen? – Except the culture of course. Latin America needs their big brother in the States, but does Latin America need Europe? Does Europe need Latin America – except for romantic dreaming?Love, Pernille
Actually it reminded me of one of the first Grooks by Piet Hein. It goes: Little cat, little cat, walking so alone; tell me whose cat are you – I’m damned well my own.