El Reverso de la Utopía: América Latina Y Oriente Medio / The Other Side of Utopia: Latin America and the Middle East

Firme defensor de ideales como la libertad y la democracia, durante m s de cinco d cadas Mario Vargas Llosa ha reflexionado en su obra literaria y en sus textos period sticos sobre los problemas que conlleva la utop a pol tica. Las piezas reunidas en este volumen colocan en el foco tres contextos que el autor conoce de primera mano.

«A pesar de que Am rica Latina, Israel e Irak son lugares distantes, con historias culturales y pol ticas dif cilmente equiparables, no es tan dif cil encontrar un hilo invisible que los une. ...] Aquel periodo de tranquilidad ideol gica que parec a haber llegado con la ca da del comunismo demostr ser una ilusi n. La historia segu a viva, m s que nunca. El radicalismo isl mico, el nacionalismo y el populismo no han dejado en estos a os de ser amenazas serias para la libertad y la democracia. Estos ideales se han alejado un poco m s, lamentablemente. Am rica Latina no se convirti en un oasis purgado de todos los vicios modernos, ni en la regi n donde surgir a un socialismo humanista y libertario. Al contrario, ha sido la pol tica del resto de Occidente la que ha terminado pareci ndose a la latinoamericana: los demonios incubados en el reverso de la utop a --el fanatismo, el nacionalismo, el odio sectario, el populismo-- andan sueltos, y ahora acechan a la humanidad entera . -- Del pr logo de Carlos Gran s

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

"That freedom and equality as options, understood in extreme terms, are allergic to one another cannot mean that we are doomed to injustice. But more plainly, that we must renounce utopias, extreme options."

Firm defender of such ideals as freedom and democracy for over five decades, Mario Vargas Llosa has reflected in his literary and journalistic works on the problems that political utopias entail. The pieces gathered in this volume turn the spotlight to three contexts the author knows first hand.

"Even though Latin America, Israel, and Iraq are distant places, with cultural and political histories that are hardly equivalent, it is not so difficult to find an invisible thread binding them... That period of ideological tranquility that seemed to have arrived with the end of communism proved to be an illusion. History was still alive, more than ever. Islamic radicalism, nationalism, and populism have not stop being serious threats to freedom and democracy this past few years. These ideals have drifted further away, unfortunately. Latin America did not become an oasis purged of all modern vice, nor in the region where a humanist and libertarian socialism could arise. On the contrary, politics from the rest of the Western world ended up resembling the Latin-American: the demons incubated at the reverse of this utopia--fanatism, nationalism, sectarian hatred, populism--are on the loose, and now threaten humanity at large." --From the prologue, by Carlos Gran s