Bel Canto Symbolism

Taking place in South America, every character in the novel is somehow exposed to Latin culture. Colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese Empire, South America was characterized by a hierarchal structure. Because the colonizers landed in a territory occupied by Natives, a clear line was drawn to distinguish the ones with power and the ones who were repressed. There was also a time of slavery in which many Africans were sent to South America to be used for labour. The Natives and the Africans were enslaved, abused, raped and were treated as inferior by the European colonizers. Since Bel Canto takes place in South America, the idea of a split society is present all throughout the novel as well. The Latin society in which the story takes place is a wildly polarized society in which there's a clear opposition between

The garden, is associated to the more civilized side of society, a more colonized mentality. Another idea present in the novel is how this chaotic and fragile country hides behind "Russian caviar and French champagne" and "paintings that had been borrowed from the national museum" to impress all the other countries that are coming to visit. The fragile host country puts up a though act when visited by other countries when really, just like the yellow orchids placed on the dining tables, the country "trembled and balanced like mobiles". In Bel Canto, the Latin government is very chaotic as the president, leader of the country, hides away from reality and submerges himself in the fictional world of soap operas instead of dealing with the country's problems. Furthermore, the story of Luis, General Benjamin's brother who had "committed the crime of distributing flyers for a political protest and was now buried alive in a high-altitude prison" shows us how corrupted the government