Real?

I just started reading The Heart That Bleeds by Alma Guillermoprieto. When I first begun the book and realised that it was about Latin America, I thought it was going to be filled with general facts, and stereotypes. I had never heard anything about the author so I was predisposed for her to say somethings that I might not agree with. However I didn't want to be biased and close minded, so I decided to read a bit about the author before beginning the book. Alma Guillermoprieto is a Mexican Journalist that has written a lot about Latin America, she has lived in Mexico, Colombia the US and Brazil. After I found out that she had already written about Latin America, and that she had lived here I abandoned all my previous thoughts, and decided to give the book a chance.

She begins the first chapter saying: "This country feels as if someone had turned out the light" (3). Before reading anything else I thought about how that could apply to our country and other countries today. I remember my parents and grandparents telling me about how terrible it was before, and how today couldn't compare to what everyone who lived back then had gone through. There was a lot of violence, the drug traffickers and the guerrilla put bombs everywhere, and no one knew when they would go off and where. As I kept reading about the stories and the events that took place I felt horrible. I could not believe that people could do something like this and not care. I am not able to comprehend how people are so selfish, and have so much greed that they don't care what they do, or who they hurt, as long as they get what they want.

Expropriation: when a public agency takes private property for a purpose deemed to be in the public interest.