New World historiography, epic poetry, theater, the novel, and the essay form are among the areas covered in this comprehensive and authoritative treatment.

    Julia was a young physician and mother-to-be kidnapped from a medical clinic and found years later in a clandestine grave along with 334 other corpses. Who were those thousands of victims? Who was Julia? By reconstructing Julia's life, Eric Stener Carlson gives voice to the thousands of citizens who were "disappeared." In doing so, he must use the pseudonym "Julia" to protect the people she left behind. Julia's poignant story is told through the emotional memories of childhood friends and family, classmates and colleagues, an ex-lover, and fellow prisoners whose lives intersected with hers in the government torture centers. Interspersed between the personal testimonies are the commentaries of a military general, a priest, a politician, a human rights activist, and a prosecuting attorney in the war crimes tribunal, giving her story a political and social context.