Latin American Studies Commons^™

From Challenge To Absorption: The Changing Face Of Latino Studies, Pedro Caban

Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies Faculty Scholarship

Over the last three decades Latino studies scholarship has gained increased academic acceptance. However, many administrators continue to doubt the wisdom of sustaining autonomous Latino studies departments, and are devising alternative approaches for incorporating Latino-based knowledge into the university’s mission. This article discusses the academy’s response to the emergence of Latino studies and explores a range of consequences for the field of two institutional arrangements that universities appear to privilege: the horizontal fusion with Latin American Studies, and a vertical absorption into centers for the study of race and ethnic or absorption into American studies.

Malinche: An Original Musical Drama, Kari Kelly, John Persell

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Holding To Basics And Investing For Growth: Cuban Education And The Economic Crisis Of The 1990’S, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Since the middle of the 1980’s, processes of economic restructuring have led to large changes in the landscape of educational and social policy in most of Latin America. Faced with severe economic crisis, Latin American nations have sought structural transformations that have redefined the role of government in the provision of social benefits and sharply reduced expenditures through wholesale privatization and deep reductions in remaining government-sponsored programs. Between 1980 and 1990, expenditures in education as a percent of total government expenditures fell in most countries in Latin America, affecting especially public education, the only recourse for the poor. By 1996, …

The Politics Of Helping: An Example From Guatemala, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies a complexity of helping others based on beliefs in the therapeutic value of such constructs as reliving memories, venting, catharsis, and the return of the repressed.

The “Politically Motivated” Defense: An Example From Paraguay, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes and analyzes the construct of a specific defense strategy employed by political leaders against allegations of wrongdoing.

The Pros And Cons Of Fearing Fear: Examples From Venezuela And New York State, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes consequences of fear for security-related public policy.

Longing For Running Water: Ecofeminism And Liberation, Ivone Gebara

Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology

No abstract provided.

The Evangelical Movement In Ecuador, Steve Grosz

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Common Origins/"Different" Identities In Two Kaqchikel Maya Towns, Walter E. Little

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Kaqchikel Maya residents of San Antonio Aguas Calientes and Santa Catarina Barahona (neighboring towns in Guatemala) tell the same origin story. This story is used to root historically their concepts of collective identity and community. However, residents in each town hold that those in the other town have no real claim to the story. Both towns can equally claim this origin story, but the debate between residents of these towns offers an opportunity to discuss how the meaning of place is related to the historical and ethnographic contexts of which that place's residents are part. By weighing the story and …

Performing Tourism: Maya Women's Strategies, Walter E. Little

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Walter Little is assistant professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Albany and codirector of Oxlajuj Aj, Tulane University’s Kaqchikel Language and Culture class in Guatemala. He has conducted fieldwork among Maya handicrafts producers and vendors since 1992 on issues related to tourism, gender roles, and identity performance, and this research is the subject of his book, Mayas in the Marketplace: Tourism, Globalization, and Cultural Identity (Austin: University of Texas, 2004).

In Defense Of Social Justice: From Global Transformation To Local Resistance, Donna Chollett

Anthropology Publications

The global transformations that enveloped Latin America over the past decade resulted in uneven consequences for diverse social groups. Scholars witness an increasing tension between a macroeconomic agenda concerned with profitability and local community access to employment and sustenance. As neoliberal reforms intensify Latin America's integration into the world economy, they may adversely impact local communities. Should local people lose their ability to obtain basic rights, will they be able to effectively challenge the neoliberal model? In the absence of more adequate attention to social justice, it is probable that occurrences of local resistance in defense of these rights will …

Entre La Cotidianeidad, El Pacer Y La Fuga: Fragmentos Narrativos De Una Transición, Alvaro Kaempfer

Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies Faculty Publications

Tanto la reflexión cultural bajo la dictadura como aquella surgida durante el proceso de transición han nutrido una literatura que indaga los límites del lenguaje en relación con las diversas experiencias vividas bajo los regímenes dictatoriales del cono sur. La producción literaria de Andrea Maturana (Chile, 1969) no es ajena a dichos fenómenos. Desde sus primeros cuentos, esta escritora dio cuenta de escenarios vitalmente atomizados donde los demás eran, precisamente, los bordes tangibles y cotidianos de experiencias sociales tan traumáticas como insolubles. Esa atomización vital no sólo se deja leer como una respuesta a un medio agresivo sino, además, como …

The Evolution Of Human Life Expectancy And Intelligence In Hunter-Gatherer Economies, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

The economics of hunting and gathering must have driven the biological evolution of human characteristics, since hunter-gatherer societies prevailed for the two million years of human history. These societies feature huge intergenerational resource flows, suggesting that these resource flows should replace fertility as the key demographic consideration. It is then theoretically expected that life expectancy and brain size would increase simultaneously, as apparently occurred during our evolutionary history. The brain here is considered as a direct form of bodily investment, but also crucially as facilitating further indirect investment by means of learning-by-doing.

Antonio Jose De Sucre (1745-1830), Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

Antonio Jose de Sucre was a military leader and statesman in the 19th century Spanish American independence movement against Spain.

Hispanic Citizenship, Registration, And Voting Patterns In Comparative Perspective During The 2000 Presidential Elections, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines citizenship, registration, and voting patterns of Latinos during the 2000 presidential elections.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The participation rates among potential Hispanic voters who were citizens of the U.S. 18 years of age and older were the lowest of any of the major racial/ethnic groups in the nation during the 2000 presidential elections as well as …

Truth And ‘Truth’: The Social Construction Of Truth And Memory In International Human Rights, Rachel A. May

Latin America and the Caribbean Studies Faculty Publications

Transitional justice is a rich area of inquiry. The literature and the academic discourse surrounding the phenomenon of transitional justice are at the forefront of human rights scholarship. Much of this discourse focuses on questions of the functional choices: restorative or retributive justice. A “restorative” approach to justice focuses on the idea of reconciliation while the “retributive” approach focuses on the punishment of perpetrators. The idea of truth telling, which encompasses truth commissions and historical memory, is most closely connected to a restorative approach to justice, although seeking the truth is also an implicit and explicit goal of criminal courts …

Defining Microcredit Success In Bolivia, Kelly Miller

Honors Theses

The structure of this study is as follows: The first chapter describes the origin of microcredit and the three major lending models. This chapter also includes a description of the motivation of the study as well as the methodology used. The second chapter illustrates the changes of development strategies in Bolivia and identifies the motivation behind and significance of each development method. The third chapter discusses the informal sector, which is the targeted population of microcredit. This chapter presents several theories about the development of the informal sector and illustrates how politics shape the informal sector in Bolivia. The fourth …

Comparative Income Distribution Patterns Among Hispanic Households In New York City, Census 2000, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic aspects of the Latino population of the New York City area in the year 2000.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Household income distribution data found in the 2000 U.S. census revealed a pattern of stark differentiation in New York City among the three principal racial/ethnic groups: Whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics or Latinos. Additionally, within …

Secolas At 50: Imagining The Future, Anne Fountain

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

On March 7, 2003, Anne Fountain and William Harris presented papers at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Council On Latin American Studies dealing with the history and future of SECOLAS. SELA is pleased to publish both papers.