Overview

To many foreigners, Colombia is a nightmare of drugs and violence. Yet normal life goes on there, and, in Bogotá, it’s even possible to forget that war still ravages the countryside. This paradox of perceptions—outsiders’ fears versus insiders’ realities—drew June Carolyn Erlick back to Bogotá for a year’s stay in 2005. She wanted to understand how the city she first came to love in 1975 has made such strides toward building a peaceful civil society in the midst of ongoing violence. The complex reality she found comes to life in this compelling memoir. Erlick creates her portrait of Bogotá through a series of vivid vignettes that cover many aspects of city life. As an experienced journalist, she lets the things she observes lead her to larger conclusions. The courtesy of people on buses, the absence of packs of stray dogs and street trash, and the willingness of strangers to help her cross an overpass when vertigo overwhelms her all become signs of convivencia—the desire of Bogotanos to live together in harmony despite decades of war. But as Erlick settles further into city life, she finds that “war in the city is invisible, but constantly present in subtle ways, almost like the constant mist that used to drip down from the Bogotá skies so many years ago.” Shattering stereotypes with its lively reporting, A Gringa in Bogotá is must-reading for going beyond the headlines about the drug war and bloody conflict.

Full Product Details

Author:   June Carolyn Erlick
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9780292721357

ISBN 10:   0292721358
Pages:   174
Publication Date:   01 March 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Foreword: A City on Display, by Herbert Tico BraunPrefaceAcknowledgmentsLa Primera RondaMy Gringa AccentLife and RulesLooking for MariaView from My WindowDreaming of JournalismWar and PeaceLife on Movie RowRedprodepaz: Knitting PeaceDogsTransMilenioThree Tall BuildingsDisplacedTimePlaza de BolívarHorses and Other AnimalsEl Chocó: Never to the JungleArtists: Beyond the Invisible DoorDogs IIA City of Many HuesRobberiesRandom Acts of KindnessUpstairs, DownstairsCiclovíaBombs and Other Loud NoisesTransMilenio IITheatreRed, Yellow, and BlueDisappearedGood Friday: The PassionBooksGaboSanta Marta: Listening to StudentsThe StrikeRemolinosAbortion and Citizens' RightsCatcalls and Unwelcome WhistlesElecting ÁlvaroJamundíTransMilenio IIITruth and ReparationsDreaming of Journalism IICAFAMEpilogue

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Author Information

June Carolyn Erlick is the Editor-in-chief of ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard.She is the author of Disappeared: A Journalist Silenced, the Irma Flaquer Story (Seal Press, 2004) and Una Gringa en Bogotá (Santillana, 2007). A graduate of Columbia University’s prestigious journalism school, she teaches feature writing at Harvard Extension and Summer Schools. Erlick lived and worked in Latin America and Germany as a foreign correspondent for many years. She has received two Fulbright Fellowships, one to Guatemala (2000) and the other to Colombia (2005-2006).

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