Widow Leonor Gonzales lives in a tiny community perched 18,000 feet above sea level in the Andean cordillera of Peru, risking her life as she she works the gold mines. Carlos Buergos is a Cuban who fought in the civil war in Angola and now lives in a quiet community outside New Orleans; he was among hundreds of criminals Cuba expelled to the U.S. in 1980. A Jesuit priest from Barcelona, Xavier Albó emigrated to Bolivia, where he works among the indigenous people. Here Marie Arana seamlessly weaves these stories with the history of the past millennium to explain how Latin America has been shaped by foreign greed for its mineral riches, an ingrained propensity to violence, and the abiding power of religion.