In Journalism and the Development of Spanish American Narrative, Anibal Gonzalez explores the impact of journalism and journalistic rhetoric on the development of Spanish American narrative, from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the testimonial and documentary novels of contemporary authors such as Miguel Barnet and Elena Poniatowska. Gonzalez examines selected works from the Spanish American narrative tradition that exemplify moments in the history of the relationship between literature and journalism. He argues that Spanish American narrative has sought to work in consonance with journalism's modernizing impulse, making strategic use of journalistic discourse to promote social or political change. In the course of the argument, Gonzalez offers a broad historical panorama of the journalist/narrative interaction, and at the same time proposes an alternate theory of the development of the Spanish American narrative.