Reviews from countries outside Latin America, sub-divided into Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and Africa
Lessons about Cuba’s survival can be gleaned from the latest biography of Castro. Review: Fidel Castro: Beyond the Legend, Katrien Demuynck and Marc Vandepitte, 2026, Praxis Press
Categories: Caribbean, Cuba, International, Mexico, North America, Russia, United States, Yugoslavia (the former)
Art is a way of confronting institutional obstacles to decolonisation. Unmaking to Make: Art as decolonising practice in Latin America’s future, past and present, edited by Alex Ungprateeb Flynn, María Iñigo Clavo, Beatriz Lemos and Florencia Portocarrero, 2026, UCL Press
Categories: Caribbean, Central America, Europe, International, North America, South America
Georgina Jiménez assesses how London’s Tate Modern is exploring ‘Fridamania’.
Frida: The Making of an Icon
Tate Modern, London
25 June until 3 January 2027
Categories: Mexico, United Kingdom
Studying abroad has been an elite status symbol that has damaged sovereignty. Review: The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico’s Foreign-Educated Elite, Rachel Grace Newman, 2026, University of California Press
Categories: Mexico, United Kingdom, United States
A study of racial politics mounts a challenge to area studies. Review: Transpacific Nonencounters: Racial Disconnects Across Twentieth-Century Japan and Mexico, Andrea Mendoza, 2026, Duke University Press
Antonio Dias was the most famous Brazilian pop artist that never was. Review: Borderless Painting as Borderless Art: Antonio Dias between Brazil and Europe, Sérgio B Martins, 2026, University of California Press
A sociocultural study of Cuba’s transnational relationships offers rare insights. Review: The Cuban Revolution and the New Left: Transnational Histories of Gender, Sexuality, and Family, Michelle Chase and Isabella Cosse (eds), 2026, University of Florida Press
Was a masterpiece by Mario Vargas Llosa about the Brazilian ‘War of Canudos’ really referring to Israel’s rampage through the Middle East? Review: The War of the End of the World, Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Helen Lane, 1985, Faber & Faber (1981, Seix Barral)
Categories: Brazil, Middle East & North Africa, Peru
Latin America figures prominently in a history of urban visions. Review: The Invention of the Future: A History of Cities in the Modern World, Bruno Carvalho, 2026, Princeton University Press
Categories: Brazil, Europe, Mexico, North America
