Latin American literature contains warnings for American universities that yield to Trump

Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, who fled Colombia after learning that the government planned to arrest him, returns to his hometown, Aracataca, in 2007 for the first time in 20 years. Alejandra Vega/AFP via Getty Images

As university leaders work to make deals with the Trump administration, many college presidents are at an ethical crossroads. On the one hand, they must do all they can to restore funding for vital research. On the other, they risk ceding to the demands of a president with views that don’t align with their missions.

As the fall semester begins, academic administrators could look to literature for guidance. Latin America’s rich archive of fiction over the past century features this dilemma in numerous stories about living under dictatorships.