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Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: And eye-opening book in many ways. I had read in passing in a Norman Mailer interview that Latin men do not consider being the active one when having sex with another man homosexual. Only the passive one is considered gay. That seemed so absurd, I found it hard to belive. But this book makes that point and furthers it. In a way it's the foundation of the whole book. An extreme instance related in the book is of a man who had done a lot of penetrating of men, but had never been penetrated. But one night he was so drunk he allowed it to happen. The next day he found the man who had been his partner and shot him in the head. As one joke that is told to the author goes, "What is the difference between a straight Latin and a gay Latin?" "Two drinks." The citing of passiveness encouraged in Latin women is interesting, too. The author herself fought that, and is a single professional middle-aged woman living alone in New York City, something that would marginalize her in her hometown in Colombia, but is accepted in New York. Some of the book is tainted with the author's self-absorption and slight martyr complex. Her relating her losing her virginity is a bit too graphic and dramatic. But over all an interesting book. And if you're a typical American like me, who is rather shamefully less aware of the countries on either side of the States than he should be, you might read this book to find what is going on south of the border.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye-opening
Review: If you've never lived in Latin America, then this book is likely to revolutionize your perception of how things work. Even if you have lived in Latin America, this book reveals things that are infrequently discussed, secretly pondered, and yet critically important. Also includes a fascinating look into the AIDS epidemic as it has affected Latin America. All in all, a fascinating book.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read!! You won't put it down until you finish it!
Review: Silvana Paternostro does an amazing job at explaining the sexual culture in Latin America. The data she gathered shows how the lack of sexual education has become an issue of public health, especially endangering women.
I think this book is a brave account that gives voice to what so many women in Latin America live through and that exposes the double standards of the machista culture that unfortunately prevails.
As a Latin American woman, I felt she describes the social norms that I grew up seeing around me but that are seldom ackowledged or thought about in our societies.
The book reads as a novel would, full of personal anecdotes and fragments of interviews. One of the best books on Latin American culture that has been published lately.
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