The Cold War showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union was played out in the 1980s with deadly results in crowded cities and dusty hamlets in Central America. From leftist guerrilla insurgencies in El Salvador and Guatemala to the Contras fighting Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government, hundreds of thousands died and countless more fled to the United States.

Scott Wallace spent a good part of that era in Central America covering these proxy wars, whose effects are still being felt today in the debate over immigration, gangs and intervention in Venezuela. Yet for a region that is just a few hours away by plane, there has often been a great disconnect. Mr. Wallace, who developed a deep interest in Latin America during college, saw himself as someone who could perhaps become a bridge of sorts between north and south.

“We exercised this heavy hand in Latin America, yet we have no understanding of the people we are influencing,” said Mr. Wallace, who lived in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala at the time. “There was a certain cultural arrogance that needed to be addressed.”