Interview with Dunja Fehimović and Rebecca Ogden

Abstract

In this interview, Dunja Fehimović (Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the Newcastle University) and Rebecca Ogden (Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of Kent) examine how perceptions of national image and reputation are shaped in the continent, which is the focs of their book "Branding Latin America: Strategies, Aims, Resistance". They discuss the way Latin America has experienced global visibility and competitiveness since colonial times and argue that the production of an uneven playing field in the world makes the continent an interesting case of analysis in terms of branding. While the countries in the region are still perceived as peripheral, branding strategies have been seen as a means to intervene in the global system to retell national storylines or shed unfavourable ones --with uneven results in each of the countries that have attempted it.