In the Land of God and Man: A Latin's Woman's Journey

by Silvana Paternostro

Book Overview

As the daughter of the privileged Colombian elite, Silvana Paternostro was programmed to go from convent school to cocktail parties, obedient to God and man, never questioning the injustice she saw all around her or demanding a voice in public life. She left Latin America twenty years ago, but recently returned to look critically at our Church, our Constitution, our daily lives. Told in a lyrical and personal voice, but backed up by solid research,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452280303
• ISBN13: 9780452280304
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

A must-read!! You won't put it down until you finish it!

Silvana Paternostro does an amazing job at explaining the sexual culture in Latin America. The data she gathered shows how the lack of sexual education has become an issue of public health, especially endangering women. I think this book is a brave account that gives voice to what so many women in Latin America live through and that exposes the double standards of the machista culture that unfortunately prevails. As a Latin American woman, I felt she describes the social norms that I grew up seeing around me but that are seldom ackowledged or thought about in our societies.The book reads as a novel would, full of personal anecdotes and fragments of interviews. One of the best books on Latin American culture that has been published lately.

Eye-opening

If you've never lived in Latin America, then this book is likely to revolutionize your perception of how things work. Even if you have lived in Latin America, this book reveals things that are infrequently discussed, secretly pondered, and yet critically important. Also includes a fascinating look into the AIDS epidemic as it has affected Latin America. All in all, a fascinating book.

An Amazing Biography/ Ethnography

As a latina, I am extremely proud of Pasternostro. I've recommended this book to all the women in my life and I cannot wait to share it with my kids when they are older.Having a Latina write so candidly about what goes on in so many latino marriages is refreshing. I am aware that she probably received much criticism as a latina for exposing so much of her personal and family life. she has broken the silence, lifted the mantilla over the eyes of latina women, every woman, latina or not should read this book. She covers topics such as infedility, aids, women's submisivness, the street kids of Rio and Bogota, gay and lesbians and how they are treated in Latin America. Amazing.

A Must Read by Language, Cultural, Pol. Sci. Professors

Many books have been written extensively by research scholars, all introducing Colombia through the front entrance. This book, for the first time, will take the reader inside this country and all its adjacent land, from Patagonia to the Rio Grand border, through the back entrance, paths and roads that even those of us who were born and raised there, never new or walked about.But most importantly, that these depicted facts, form another crucial (never talked about) influence over the politics that keep our land from progressing in spite of the vast resources it possesses, including dormant brains.

In the Land of God and Man: A Latin Woman's Journey

Totally awesome! Silvana writes her thoughts in a honest manner about the whole male machisimo upbringing. I was shocked but but surprised of her findings and would recommend this book to everyone who is dealing with a macho man.