Well, much of the last two centuries of the Raj were premised on racism (1800s till 1947), so it really does not bother me that racism exists in fiction, whether American/European/Anglo-Indian... it was there, especially in the era in which Flashman is set (unlike the 1700s when many of the English were keen to integrate with Indians).

We don't get many South American writers here easily, only the wildly popular ones like Neruda, Garcia Marquez and Allende, and of course, Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez :P So my South American reading has not progressed beyond magic realism, as far as genre goes. (I am not even touching on Paulo Coelho!)

I'll keep a look-out for Jorge Amado, though. Could you recommend some stuff of his, please?

Thank you for my thingie ;)