Chronicles: an antidote against literary navel-gazing?
Their prominent position in Latin American literature. How to write one and why. Plus an exclusive translation of Roberto Arlt's chronicle, "Ventanas iluminadas"
A very Latin American affair
“The chroniclers of the Discovery and Conquest were the first in America to practice written journalism,”1 writes Mario Vargas Llosa in his 1999 article “Sirenas en el Amazonas” (Mermaids in the Amazon). Vargas Llosa’s hypothesis — one I agree with — is that these first chronicles, written by these accidental cronistas, held a…