There are many reasons why the “Boom” literature occurred when it did. All the ingredients necessary for a social change were there; social and economic dissatisfaction, new cultural ideas and an opening of opportunities for Latin American writers. Gabriel Marquez gave an example of the social and economic injustices committed in his home country, Colombia, in his Nobel Prize speech: “There have been five wars and seventeen military coups; there emerged a dictator who is carrying out, in God’s name, the first Latin American ethnocide of our time. Twenty million Latin American children died before the age of one. Those in exile near one hundred and twen

ty thousand.”2 These problems are common throughout Latin America, a factor in creating a sense of unity because of these common concerns. New cultural ideas often emerged from writers who had been living in Europe, mostly in exile. Mario Llosa said in Interviews with Latin American Writers, that by living in Europe, he received “a broadened education” and a “comprehensive perspective, which helped me understand the things in my own country.”3

In “The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta,” the “good” revolutionaries battle the “bad” failing Lima government and the U.S. marines. Mayta screams into the town, which takes little or no notice of him, “We are rebelling against the bourgeois order, so the people can throw off their chains! To end the exploitation of the masses! To give land to the people who work it! To stop the imperialist rape of our nation!”9 Like “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the revolutionaries fight for a better life, described in a daydream of Mayta's: “The peasants, owners of their lands by then; the workers, owners of their own factories by then…discrimination and exploitation abolished…the hardest-working…and most revolutionary would get the important jobs, instead of the richest or the best connected.”10 In these comments the reader recognizes the aspirations and mindset of its Trotskyite “hero.” Again, the reason why there is such a clear-cut “hero” and “villain” is mostly from the influence of communist philosophy.

In “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” nature vs. progress is emerges through Macondo’s experience with the development of the mail service, which brings new people to Macondo, and the construction of the banana factory opens new jobs. Macondo is a town without an economy; it is an agricultural community. Like many third-world countries, the town must purchase foreign goods with its raw materials. In this way Macondo becomes a metaphor for South America and its relation with developed countries like the U.S. While there is desire for progress in Macondo, the only sources of monetary exchange are the natural resources. In the beginning of the book, the gypsies brought new technology and by the end the imperialists have replaced them but like the gypsies, the technologies they bring remain more curious than useful. Marquez describes the new inventions the gypsies bring with an almost wary tone: “In an instant they transformed the village. The inhabitants of Macondo found themselves lost in their own streets, confused by the crowded fair.”13 Eventually Macondo becomes less isolated and is slowly invaded by foreigners- Yankees, government officials, Arab merchants and militant troops. Marquez portrays progress as a loss of innocence to alien values and systems- imperialism, government bureaucracy, greed.14

One of the common conflicts that emerged from the “Boom” literature was the age-old battle between good vs. evil. After the Cuban Revolution, Castro gained power and soon was recognized as a follower of Marxism and had open relations with the Soviet Union. Latin America was soon influenced by communist philosophy, which claimed communism was the only way and of course, it had its archenemy, capitalism. This black and white view of the world may be a reason why the novels feature the protagonist as the “hero” and the antagonist is the “villain.”

The second conflict that emerged pitted nature vs. urban progress. Early in the twentieth century, U.S. leaders urged the expansion of American influence over other countries, primarily through the selling of American goods and the spreading of American culture. The Europeans and Americans looked down on Latin America as a third world country. Latin Americans perceived the American investors as capitalistic, self-absorbed and a threat to South American independence. Sou

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