The tradition of portraiture in Latin America is astonishingly long and rich. For over 2,000 years, portraits have been used to preserve the memory of the deceased, bolster the social standing of the aristocracy, mark the deeds of the mighty, advance the careers of politicians, record rites of passage, and mock symbols of the status quo. This beautiful and wide-ranging book―the first to explore the tradition of portraiture in Latin America from pre-Columbian times to the present day―features some 200 works from fifteen countries.
Retratos (Portraits) presents an engaging variety of works by such well-known figures as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, and José Campeche as well as stunning examples by anonymous and obscure artists. Distinguished contributors discuss the significance of portraits in ancient Mayan civilizations, in the world of colonial Iberians, in the political struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and in a remarkable range of other times and locations. 
With a wealth of informative details and exquisite color illustrations, Retratos invites readers to appreciate Latin American portraits and their many meanings as never before.

Retratos: 2,000 Years of Latin American Portraits

Arts & Photography

Carr, Carolyn Kinder

Bretos, Miguel A.

Oettinger Jr., Marion

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

“Bretos has not only conferred on his beloved Matanzas its rightful place in history but he has provided students and fans of Cuban history with a significant launching point into the future.”—Miami Herald“A marvelously well-researched and engagingly written combination of urban biography and personal autobiography. . . . Erudite and highly instructive, enormously enhanced with outstanding illustrations.”—Choice Matanzas is the Cuban city nearest the United States. Located on the north shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas, sandwiched between Havana and Varadero, it is a mere ninety miles from Florida. The “Athens of Cuba,” as it was known in the heyday of the nineteenth-century slave-driven, sugar-based boom, Matanzas is renowned for its cultural heritage.It is the birthplace of the traditional romantic danzón—Cuba’s national dance—and the sensual rhythmicguaguancó, a product of the city’s preeminence as a hub of Afro-Cuban culture. Matanzas is the only foreign place in which an American vice president was sworn into office.Matanceros engaged in heavy commercial trading with Boston merchants for decades, exporting sugar and importing hard granite cobblestones to pave the streets. It is the place where Cuban baseball and modern Cuban art began. The city was home to the country’s first building wired for electricity, the first electric street cars, and the first public library,—yet most Americans have never heard of it.Miguel Bretos’s fascinating history of his hometown seeks to remedy that oversight. Bretos arrived in the United States at age eighteen, but his family retains close ties to the city where they lived for generations. From the aboriginal Taínos to the coming of revolution, Bretos unfolds the Matanzas story with solid research, wit, clarity, and the kind of vivid detail that can come only from an insider. Miguel A. Bretos is retired as senior scholar from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery and is the author of four books, includingCuba and Florida: An Exploration of a Historical Connection, 1593–1991.

Matanzas: The Cuba Nobody Knows

History

Americas

University Press of Florida

“Bretos has not only conferred on his beloved Matanzas its rightful place in history but he has provided students and fans of Cuban history with a significant launching point into the future.”—Miami Herald“A marvelously well-researched and engagingly written combination of urban biography and personal autobiography. . . . Erudite and highly instructive, enormously enhanced with outstanding illustrations.”—Choice Matanzas is the Cuban city nearest the United States. Located on the north shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas, sandwiched between Havana and Varadero, it is a mere ninety miles from Florida. The “Athens of Cuba,” as it was known in the heyday of the nineteenth-century slave-driven, sugar-based boom, Matanzas is renowned for its cultural heritage.It is the birthplace of the traditional romantic danzón—Cuba’s national dance—and the sensual rhythmic guaguancó, a product of the city’s preeminence as a hub of Afro-Cuban culture. Matanzas is the only foreign place in which an American vice president was sworn into office. Matanceros engaged in heavy commercial trading with Boston merchants for decades, exporting sugar and importing hard granite cobblestones to pave the streets. It is the place where Cuban baseball and modern Cuban art began. The city was home to the country’s first building wired for electricity, the first electric street cars, and the first public library,—yet most Americans have never heard of it.Miguel Bretos’s fascinating history of his hometown seeks to remedy that oversight. Bretos arrived in the United States at age eighteen, but his family retains close ties to the city where they lived for generations. From the aboriginal Taínos to the coming of revolution, Bretos unfolds the Matanzas story with solid research, wit, clarity, and the kind of vivid detail that can come only from an insider. Miguel A. Bretos is retired as senior scholar from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery and is the author of four books, including Cuba and Florida: An Exploration of a Historical Connection, 1593–1991.

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Books by Bretos, Miguel A.