There are less than twenty days left and the concern experienced four years ago is repeated. Next Tuesday, November 5, the new president of the United States will be elected and the polls still do not predict a clear winner. These elections are also transcendental for us because their result will impact the waning quality of Western democracies, the development of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the geopolitical order under construction. Its impact will be global, but it is voted nationally in a country with unbridled polarization. The journalists, critics and essayists who write in this special edition of Babelia They illuminate, from complementary angles, what is at stake. The disunity of the country is heard in the soundtracks mainstream of the rallies and, at the same time, there are authors who continue to substantiate the voice of minorities to rethink the image of a complex country that, as some shocking recent films show, feels besieged by the abyss. From the state of mind of Washington to the spirit of the Bible Belt, from countercultural New York to a small area in Wisconsin where ginseng was grown, from photographs exhibited in museums to video game players, culture is a magnifying lens to understand a country fascinating and infinite. It will be time to reread the great American novel: the biographies and memoirs of presidents, waiting for perhaps the first president’s one to be published.
Books
From the memoirs of Melania Trump and Nancy Pelosi to political essays to interpret the drift of the United States and save a democracy in trouble. A review of the books that define the state of mind of the country looking into the abyss. By Iker Seisdedos
The great works about the leaders of the United States constitute true studies about power, but, above all, about the effect of power on the non-powerful. By Amanda Mars
A key figure in queer literature, he reflected in ‘Chelsea Girls’, which has just been published for the first time in Spanish, a youth marked by ‘underground’ poetry, lesbian sex and addictions. Myles, who identifies as trans, spoke in this interview about his new icon status, the state of his country and his vote in these elections. By Alex Vicente
The correspondent publishes ‘The Great American Fracture’, a book that brings together her best chronicles about the country.
Image
From the film about the young Trump by Ali Abbasi, to the documentary about the deportation of immigrants Separatedpassing through Civil War by Alex Garland, a review of the portrait of American politics offered by the big screen. By Elsa Fernández-Santos
The photographer from the Magnum agency travels through two decades of his country’s history, on an intimate journey driven by the need to explore and understand the complexities of a society in conflict. By Gloria Crespo MacLennan
On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the MoMA in New York dedicates, for the first time in its history, an extraordinary retrospective to one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. By Eduardo Lago
Music
The ‘playlists’ of Trump and Harris, in an article that explains the two opposing visions for the future of the country of the Democratic and Republican campaigns, are also reflected in the music that accompanies the candidates. By Iker Seisdedos
Comic
The comic has captured the reality of American street society like no other medium, becoming so popular that it would give rise to the term “yellow press” and one of the first press wars between the magnates Pulitzer and Hearst. By Alvaro Pons
Video games
Video games are more important than ever in this race to the White House. Three out of every four American families have at least one member who is an active player, and there is no doubt that it is in that environment that the minds of young people are formed, artistic wealth is transmitted, and the conversation around the present is structured. By Jorge Morla
Disinformation
Renée DiResta’s essay is the perfect book to dissect how a coup d’état next November is legitimized after an intoxicated election by turning lies into reality. By Marta Peirano
Language
The Spanish language is also running in the United States elections. Donald Trump is against it. Kamala Harris is in favor. By Álex Grijelmo
