Faulty Perceptions Cause Gringos’ Misconceptions

To transform the ability of Latin Americans to view their often tragic reality through an ironic prism into a series of unrelated apocryphal tales which leave the casual reader with a reinforced sense that “things are different down there” is an example of how a feature article can misinform.Each one of William Montalbano’s “funny stories” (Dec. 9) could be matchedby an anecdote from our own country.

Particularly disheartening is including among these fantastic stories the fact that Fidel Castro has to take extraordinary measures against U.S. assassination attempts which have included poisoning a milkshake, high-powered rifles, drugging, enlisting the Mafia and trying to make his beard fall out. The reference to the cannibalism theme with two incidents centuries removed (and not unique to Latin America--remember the Donner party) is interesting in the light of the recurring use of this story in situations that have lead analysts to identify it as a psychological warfare scare tactic of the CIA which has been used in the media of at least Chile, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Jamaica in order to heighten social malaise under “unfriendly” governments.

For a reader uninformed of this context, the careless conjunction of material put together by Mr. Montalbano creates an impression of the region which might seem to justify the truly appalling behavior which U.S. covert and overt foreign policy have generated. If one is looking for the weird ormacabre, mentionable are CIA comic books urging Nicaraguans to stuff sponges in their toilets to plug up the sewer system and the magical real hypocrisy of an anti-terrorist U.S. President using terrorism to bring about the deathsof more than 10,000 Nicaraguans.

The genius of Latin America is to confront individual human foibles with a playful eye, but it also does not allow systematic abuses to be ignored, a facet of magical realism which Montalbano has conveniently left out.

DONALD W. BRAY

Professor of Political Studies

MARJORIE W. BRAY

Coordinator,

Latin American Studies

TIMOTHY F. HARDING

Professor of History

Cal State Los Angeles