 The dictator novel ( Spanish : novela del <unk> ) is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society . The theme of caudillismo — the régime of a charismatic caudillo , a political strongman — is addressed by examining the relationships between power , dictatorship , and writing . Moreover , a dictator novel often is an allegory for the role of the writer in a Latin American society . Although mostly associated with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s , the dictator @-@ novel genre has its roots in the nineteenth @-@ century novel Facundo ( 1845 ) , by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento . As an indirect critique of Juan Manuel de Rosas 's dictatorial régime in Argentina , Facundo is the forerunner of the dictator novel genre ; all subsequent dictator novels hearken back to it . As established by Sarmiento , the goal of the genre is not to analyze the rule of particular dictators , or to focus on historical accuracy , but to examine the abstract nature of authority figures and of authority in general . 
