Introduction; M.J.Lazzara  & V.Unruh Ruins in Translation; S.Molloy The Ruins of the Present; C.Evoked  & S.Castro-Klarén Scribbling on the Wreck; F.Masiello 'Oh Tiempo Tus Pirámides': Ruins in Borges; D.Balderston Modernity in Ruins: Modernist Architecture and the Mexico City Earthquake of 1985; R.Gallo Tlatelolco in Mexican Cultural Production: From Ruins to Reconstruction; S.M.Cypess Second Thoughts on Mourning: Postdictatorship as Ruin and History; I.Avelar Images From Ruins: Art and Memory after the Holocaust and Argentina's 'Dirty War'; S.Lorenzano Archaeology of Terror; D.Taylor Pinochet's Cadaver as Ruin and Palimpsest; M.J.Lazzara Maps without Referents: The Erasure of Known Territories; G.Kirkpatrick A Tale of Two Ruins: the UNE Buildings of Rio de Janeiro; V.Langland Machu Picchu Recycled; R.Harrison After Manchay Tiempo: Space, Memory, Reconciliation; J.Lane Voices of the Dead: Ruins, Resistance, and Reconstruction in Ayacucho; L.Bayers Fernando Vallejo's Ruinous Heterotopias; A.Arias Tales and Tallies of Remains: Ruins in Post-Soviet Cuba; V.Unruh Reflections; D.Eltit , A.J.Ponteand &  J.Villoro

This book highlights the ruin's prolific resurgence in Latin American cultural life at the turn of the millennium and sharply reveals a stirring creative drive by artists and intellectuals toward ethical reflection and change in the midst of ruinous devastation.

MICHAEL J. LAZZARA is Assistant Professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of California, Davis, USA. VICKY UNRUH is Professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Kansas, USA.