In the Land of God and Man: Confronting Our Sexual Culture Book

Silvana Paternostro, born into a well-to-do Colombian family, was taught to be a traditional, virginal, obedient Latina. Sent to the United States to be educated, Paternostro has since remained, tied to her Colombian family but unwilling to fall in step with her culture's expectations. Now a widely published journalist and fellow at the World Policy Institute, Paternostro has revisited Colombia and several other Latin cultures to boldly uncover the quietly damaging sexual contradictions of the Latin world she left behind. Here, where well-bred women must be virgins before marriage, monied young men are ritually deflowered by prostitutes at their fathers' expense and often continue to frequent brothels while courting their future wives. While married women are discouraged from educating themselves about sex and birth control, many husbands at every class level secretly pay for sex with women, boys, men, and transvestites. The consequences for traditional Latin American women, Paternostro discovers, are grim: married monogamous women are at far greater risk of being HIV-positive than female prostitutes, who can at least insist on condoms with their clients. Women in Latin America have, on average, more abortions than women in the United States, frequently at risk of their lives. Paternostro condemns not only the deceit fueling these epidemics but the larger culture that keeps many Latin women obedient and powerless. This devastating, important first book concludes with an investigation into the relationships of Latin American men and women who are being raised in the United States, with the author's hope that this "new world" might offer a boost to the condition of fellow Latin women. --Maria Dolan Read More