Twisted Roots: Latin America's Living Past

A Cuban/Spanish journalist and author examines the historical and cultural influences that shaped Latin America and suggests how they have made it into the most impoverished, unstable and backward region in the Western world.

No one ever saw what happened in Latin America as legitimate or just -- including the descendants of the Conquistadors themselves, says Montaner.

Today's patent economic failure, political instability and poor scientific contribution stem greatly from this unique history. Spaniards, Creoles, Indians and Blacks all have their own aggrieved perspectives, and all are partly justified.

Montaner draws on the cultural and historical currents that made up Spain at the time of the Conquest, including the Gothic, Moorish, Christian and Jewish elements; and explores how Spain tackled the challenge of co-opting, rather than exterminating, the native peoples. A more humane approach than that undertaken in North America, it nonetheless laid the foundations for the long-lasting conflict and confusion that still make Latin America unruly today.