Ripped And Torn

Amaranta Wright was a young writer living in Miami when Levi's hired her to travel through Latin American, befriending teenagers and reporting back with details of their ideas, hopes, fears and aspirations. Initially, Amaranta saw the job as a means to travel around a continent she loved. But as time passed, the more sinister and divisive aspects of what she was being asked to do became apparent. Like the continent itself, she was in search of an identity, the realisation of which was constantly frustrated by the mechanics of corporate globalisation - its unspoken aim to reduce individuals to bullet points. This is a compellingly humane portrait of a famously elusive continent in crisis - riddled with paradox, complexity, beauty and brutality. It is a book about the arrogance with which we in the West refer to 'developing' continents, the developed world's overbearing desire to turn people into consumers, and the methods employed to do this which are simultaneously seductive and repellent. It is about the cultural confusion that reigns when indigenous voices are silenced by the promises of inappropriately imposed dreams. An evocative, sensual and politically incisive book.
'Amaranta Wright's exciting, thoughtful and lively book reflects her knowledge of and empathy with the people of Latin America, especially the young, and their struggle to lift the yolk of exploitation. It's also a reminder of the potential for real change in ourselves.' - John Pilger. Amaranta was born in Buenos Aires in 1972. Her father is Argentinean, her mother English. After reading History at Magdalen College, Oxford, she returned to Argentina and wrote for the Buenos Aires Herald. It was while working in Miami that she was recruited by Levi Strauss as an undercover researcher. Her brief was to investigate the youth of Latin America. She currently writes for the "Financial Times", amongst others, and is seeking funding for an ethical magazine for teenagers.