Latin American Jewish Cultural Production »

David William Foster, Regents' Professor of Spanish and Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University, is author or editor of many books on urban culture, media, and sexual identity in Latin America.

Latin America is home to roughly half a million Jews, preponderantly Ashkenazic Jews. The majority are concentrated in Argentina, but Brazil and Mexico are also home to significant Jewish communities, as are major urban centers in other countries. Jews in Latin America, in addition to their prominent role in business, commerce, and finance, have a significant presence in cultural production and the arts. Like Hollywood, the Argentine and Mexican film industry is heavily Jewish, while the media—print journalism, radio, and television—have long been associated with Jewish interests. The open enrollment policies of many countries—Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are notable here—have meant that Jews also have a considerable presence in academic and intellectual circles.

CONTENTS

Introduction

David William Foster

Latin American Jewish Identity

Berta Waldman, "Notes Concerning Jewish Identity in Brazil: From Word to Image"

Amalia Ran, "'Israel': An Abstract Concept or Concrete Reality in Recent Judeo-Argentinean Narrative?

Ariana Huberman, "Beyond Exotic: Jewish Mysticism and the Supernatural in the Works of Alejandro Jodorowsky"

The Literary Record

Márcio Seligmann-Silva, "Writing on the Shoah in Brazil"

Naomi Lindstrom, "Judaic Traces in the Narrative of Clarice Lispector: Identity Politics and Evidence"

Sarah Giffney, "Argentina's Wandering Jews: Judaism, Loyalty, Text and Homeland in Marcelo Birmajer's Tres mosqueteros"

The Plastic Arts

Laura Felleman Fattal, "Spectacle and Spirituality: The Cacophony of Objects: Nelson Leirner (b. 1932)"

Janis Breckenridge, "Text and the City: Design(at)ing Post-Dictatorship Memorial Sites in Buenos Aires"

Film and Photography

Ilene S. Goldman, "Mexican Women, Jewish Women: Novia que te vea from Book to Screen and Back Again"

Hernán Feldman, "Catastrophe and Periphery: July 18, 1994 and September 11, 2001 on Film"

David William Foster, "Madalena Schwartz: A Jewish Brazilian Photographer"

Afterword

Edward H. Friedman