Angel Rama, one of Latin America’s most distinguished twentieth-century men of letters, was a noted literary critic, journalist, editor, publisher, and educator. He left his native Uruguay following the military takeover and taught at the University of Venezuela and the University of Maryland. He died in 1983 in a plane crash near Madrid. John Charles Chasteen is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the translator and editor of Tulio Halperín Donghi’s The Contemporary History of Latin America, also published by Duke University Press.