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108 the minnesota review Matta, the result of this interesting and generally unnoticed syncretism at the time was a diffusion of the distinctly Latin American elements in their work. Yet, such a union of apparently conflicting elements brings to mind the analogous development between structuralist and poststructuralist European theories and Latin American textuality (particularly in narrative) since the 60s, mixtures which have appeared less threatening to writers. Hence, one should ask if such a process necessarily entails an act of force or appropriation in which the particular elements succumb to the general. If this phenomenon can be studied as part of a cultural logic that has become syncretic in an unequal but yet more interconnected world, then the division between non-European and Latin American sources sought by the authors becomes somewhat more problematic . Looking at Latin American art and cultural identity from the perspective of "arte popular" does account for its need to contest and reclaim authenticity and for its capacity to fuse many art forms unique to the area. It must be noted, however, that the search for the autochthonous cultural roots in contemporary Latin America often runs the risk of simplifying its diversity. Ethnicity, for example—particularly through the relationship between "artesanía" and Indian motifs—plays a key role in the formulation of popular art given in this book. The presence of the Indian, whether as representative of the contemporary peasantry or as a link to a civilization that witnessed the conquest and colonization, has unquestionable value in any formulation of Latin American art. There is, however, the danger of excessive generalization from a framework that relies too heavily on the Indian ethnic trace in Latin American culture, which naturally emphasizes regions where the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca substrata remain a demographic force. The transculturation of the mestizo and mulatto elements in Brazil and the Caribbean, as well as the criollo element in the southern cone of South America constitute rather different cultural configurations that receive scant treatment in Drawing the Line. Furthermore, their participation in a unified construct of a "Latin American culture" complicates matters somewhat, for their African and European ethnic composition has been much less conducive to a culture of "artesanía" than to modernism proper. Baddeley and Fraser state that the paramount virtue of "arte popular" "resides in the popular artists' certainty in their own cultural identity. They are not caught up in a continual questioning of their own languages or representation" (124). Yet, in their analysis of Arnaldo roche RabeII, a young Puerto Rican painter who has lived in the U.S. and now resides in both countries , they recognize a technique that "is unorthodox and experimental in a way that is typical of much recent art in Latin America and which contributes to the sense of nervous energy and unsatisfied questing" (138). Furthermore, commenting on the work of Jacobo Borges, a Venezuelan painter, they also acknowledge Carlos Fuentes' observation that "Latin American identity consists in the search, and that to believe that one has found an identity is but to lose it again" (139). Undoubtedly, Drawing the Line is fully aware of the contradictions that make up Latin America and its cultural identity. The book's focus on the "arte popular" tradition seeks to heighten the main achievements of a cultural practice that has faced concrete forces of opposition throughout the centuries without denying the presence of many other vital and also contradictory artistic tendencies. The representation of cultural identity necessarily relies on intertextuality, difference and a quest that appears illusory in Latin America, but its traces and voices defy the notion that it is nothing but a literary or pictorial illusion. Drawing the Line illustrates, amply and clearly, how the political and material nature of forces that have intruded upon Latin America are codified in its artistic sensibility. As such, it offers an account that requires a comprehensive sense of the "real." ROMAN DE LA CAMPA 7Vie Conspiracy by Paul Nizan. Afterword by Jean-Paul Sartre. Trans, by Quintin Hoare. New York and London: Verso, 1988. pp. 255 + viii. $23.95 (cloth) In the climate of dramatic upheavals (after years of aspirations for change) that has now overcome Eastern...

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