Pablo Neruda once said to me, “You know, we Latin American writers, we all travel with the bodies of our countries on our back. We carry our countries on our back. We are responsible to our countries, because our countries don’t have political freedom, because illiteracy is in the 80s. For all the reasons you know, it is up to us to give voice to the voiceless.” Today that is no longer true. Most Latin American countries are democracies, with regular elections, political parties, liberty for the unions, agrarian co-ops. In general, there is democratic freedom in Latin America. So if you want to be a writer that participates in politics, you do so with the honesty of saying, “I am in politics. I am a writer. Being a writer doesn’t give me special privileges. Let me be judged by my political thoughts and actions.”