Notes of a Latin Americanist

Abstract

Tis a short walk from Moscow's Vernadskii Prospekt metro station to the block of high-rise apartment buildings where M. S. Al'perovich occupies a comfortable sixthfloor flat with his gracious, soft-spoken wife, Elena Atakova. The flat's spacious sitting room, which doubles as the scholar's study, is appointed with modern Scandinavian-style furnishings, including natural-finished bookcases along two walls containing a voluminous library of Russian and foreign works on Latin America. A number of wall hangings and other New World artifacts confirm the presence of the Latin Americanist scholar. Al'perovich's easy manner, discerning eyes, and trimmed dark hair (there is but a suggestion of graying) belie his almost sixty-four years and the physical toll of difficult times. He converses fluently in Spanish, albeit with the distinctive vowels and intonation of his native tongue-like many of his Soviet colleagues, he has had little opportunity to polish his language skills in the field. He thoroughly dominates the scholarly literature, however, and has known personally or through correspondence many of the leading figures of Latin Americanist historiography. While not a household name outside the academic communities of Eastern Europe, Al'perovich is nonetheless well known in Latin Americanist circles here and abroad. Scholars know him primarily through the Spanish-language editions of his works on Mexico, which, notwithstanding flaws acknowledged by the author himself, have elicited favorable appraisals by Mexican and other specialists alike. The undeniable professionalism of these works, additionally reflected in numerous historiographical and research pieces also available in translation, has earned Al'perovich growing esteem and recognition among non-Russian-speaking historians on both sides of the Atlantic.