By Scott Malcomson

Last October, on the plane from Miami to San Salvador, Shakira stared into her MacBook, pondering. The next morning, she was to give a speech on the importance of early-childhood development to an Ibero-American summit meeting that would gather most of the heads of state of Latin America as well as the prime minister and king of Spain, the prime minister of Portugal and a select group of somewhat lesser dignitaries...

Click here to read the full story from the New York Times Magazine

Published June 2, 2009

Photo credit: Joachim Ladefoged/VII, for The New York Times