Latin Americans traveled both purposefully and frequently in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Strange Pilgrimages reveals their experiences in Europe and the United States, and explores their power to shape opinions and bring outside influence back to Latin America. This new book analyzes Latin Americans' longstanding attraction to and interest in other cultures as barometers of their own progress. In addition, Strange Pilgrimages examines the invention of tradition, cultural practice, and identity formation among nation-states.

A combination of articles and primary sources provides readers with both informed analysis of the experiences of Latin American travellers and entertaining first-hand accounts from the travellers and exiles themselves. These travellers were a diverse group that included artists, diplomats, political exiles, athletes, dilettantes, and more.

Readers will learn that Latin Americans came to understand their homelands better and in fact helped to define their own countries' identities through their experiences traveling and living abroad.