The Mexican writer and journalist Carlos Monsiváis has frequently examined social and political issues at the heart of Latin American culture—and, in the process, the spiritual dilemmas of 21st-century modernity. This program introduces Monsiváis’ views on the growing disconnect between urban and rural life, the destructive impact of pervasive technology on language and conversation, and the increasingly precarious conditions faced by migrants to the U.S. The popular El Universal contributor also sheds light on racism within Mexican society and discusses the work of Juan Rulfo—an author whose lyricism, in Monsivais’ opinion, expresses “what silence sounds like.” (Spanish, 27 minutes)