Latin America’s winds, by Raquel Ochoa

Abstract

This article analyzes The Wind of Others (2012), by Raquel Ochoa, a contemporary Portuguese author who presents a set of travel chronicles through Central and South America, from a feminine perspective in search of identity and questioning the native Other. Passionate about writing and travelling, the author wanders aimlessly like the wind through the Andes from Costa Rica to Patagonia in Argentina to emerge in the local culture away from the more commercial tours. As part of travel literature, the search for the Other(s) reveals alterity and traces a critical portrait of the plight of the peoples of Latin America, which result from the processes of colonization and globalization. The personal encounters and adventures blend in a literature of the senses revealing the landscapes, the peoples and the winds of Latin America from a transatlantic perspective.