"Poignant stories capturing the essence of everyday life for average Latin Americans. This New Yorker essayist and Mexican-born journalist perspicaciously covers topics from violence, inequality, and survival to the faithless politicians and the faithful perseverance with which people strive to believe. Beautifully written vignettes of life in Bogotá, Managua, Mexico City, Lima, Buenos Aires, and La Paz illuminate both constants and differences in the political cultures of Latin America"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.