Garcia Canclini questions whether Latin America can compete in a global marketplace without losing its cultural identity. He moves with ease from the ideas of Gramsci and Foucault to economic analysis, from appraisals of the exchanges between Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges to Chicano film and grafitti. Hybrid Cultures at once clarifies the development of democratic institutions in Latin America and reveals that the most destructive ideological trends are still going strong.

Christopher L. Chiappari is assistant professor of anthropology at St. Olaf College. Silvia L. Lopez is assistant professor of Spanish at Carleton College.Renato Rosaldo is professor of social science and chair of the department of anthropology at Stanford University. He is the author of Ilongot Headhunting, 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History and Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis.