Latin American Documentary Narratives

Winner of the Victor Villaseñor Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book Award – English, from the 2022 International Latino Book AwardsWhat defines the boundary between fact and fabrication, fiction and nonfiction, literature and journalism? Latin American Documentary Narratives unpacks the precarious testimonial relationship between author and subject, where the literary journalist, rather than the subject being interviewed, can become the hero of a narrative in its recording and retelling.Latin American Documentary Narratives covers a variety of nonfiction genres from the 1950s to the 2000s that address topics such as social protests, dictatorships, natural disasters, crime and migration in Latin America. This book analyzes – and includes an appendix of interviews with – authors who have not previously been critically read together, from the early and emblematic works of Gabriel García Márquez and Elena Poniatowska to more recent authors, like Leila Guerriero and Juan Villoro, who are currently reshaping media and audiences in Latin America. In a world overwhelmed by data production and marked by violent acts against those considered 'others', Liliana Chávez Díaz argues that storytelling plays an essential role in communication among individuals, classes and cultures.

A brave and illuminating study of Latin American documentary narrative and journalism as story-telling. Focussing on true stories told by a first-person witness, Chavez, a journalist by training, makes an incisive contribution to our understanding and appreciation of this distinctive genre. She hones in on the writing style and motivation of eight celebrated literary-journalists, including Gabriel García Márquez and Elena Poniatowska, to underscore the commitment and ethical choices made by these truth-seeking authors and, in some cases, the heavy price they had to pay. Makes for compelling reading., Latin American Documentary Narratives is by far the richest and best-informed state-of-the-art account of the vast body of contemporary Latin American nonfiction narratives. With an insider's experience of journalism as an institution and as textual practice and the rigor of a trained literary scholar, Liliana Chávez Díaz has written a field-defining book that will have immediate and long-lasting impact., Part literary criticism, part metajournalism, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through Latin America’s documentative non/fiction of the past half century. Describing a generic hall of mirrors, where fiction and nonfiction endlessly reflect and absorb each other’s image, Chávez Díaz interrogates the "ethical pitfalls" a literary journalist confronts as mediator between a disenfranchised informant and a narrative-hungry reader.

Liliana Chávez Díaz is Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and author of Viajar sola: identidad y experiencia de viaje en autoras hispanoamericanas (2020). She has been a journalist for over ten years, focusing on art, culture, and science.