ABSTRACT
Since the nineteenth century when many Latin American writers doubled as statesmen, no other region of the world has so often, on an official level, represented itself with writers. Among the most coveted assignments, more of a reward, was a diplomatic post in Paris. Octavic Paz, of course, was one of the first writer-diplomats to serve in Pans after World War II. In the 1960s, and again when Pablo Neruda was ambassador in the early 1970s, the Chilean writer Jorge Edwards held posts there; he was closely involved with many of the Latin Americans then active in Paris. A resident there at the start of Miguel Angel Asturias's career, from 1924 to 1933, he returned to live in Paris in the mid-1960s. His diplomatic career had begun in 1946 and continued during the sweeping reforms of Jacobo Arbenz's government, until the US-backed military coup of 1954. Throughout his life he remained devoted to cause of a unified, integrated Latin America.
