This anthology is a collection of 17 pieces that attempt to document the experiences of Latin Americans on foreign soil, over the span of two centuries. The story of this book is about Latin American exiles, expatriates, and travelers in the United States and Europe and how their overseas experiences shaped their own national identities. These Latin Americans who ventured so far from home to experience what Gabriel García Marquez called “strange pilgrimages” were induced to explore “the secrets of themselves” (p. xi). This, then, is a work that purports to correct the traditional Eurocentric studies that have only looked at Latin America from the outsider’s point of view. Because the experience of North Americans and Europeans in Latin America is better known than that of Latin Americans abroad, this book focuses on the latter.
Strange Pilgrimages is organized chronologically in four parts. Part 1 deals primarily with the exile...
