The Cold War represented an unprecedented scenario for the intellectuals of Latin America that prompted them to intervene, as never before, in a world-class conflict. Writers, artists, essayists and critics were called to play an active role in a warlike conflict that was fought with "unconventional" weapons: ideas, speeches, propaganda. This is the story of how these intellectuals became an actor who participated in the Cold War, exercising their own power, the specific power of intellectuals. The story of how they engaged with causes, emblems, and ideologies; of how they were almost always guided by ethical principles and by the responsibility with which they assumed the representation of the peoples of the continent and even of the Third World; of how they defended, ultimately, the autonomy of the |