Latin American Studies Commons^™

Black Agency And Aesthetic Innovation In Sergio Giral's El Otro Francisco, Philip Kaisary

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

In 2013, Henry Louis Gates lamented the tradition of whitewashing and the passing over of slave stories which has become commonplace throughout cinematic history: “there have been all too few films that have captured, or even attempted to convey, the truth of the experience of slavery, from the slave’s point of view” and even fewer “worthy of recognition.” While it is true that there have been some high-profile films produced in the last decade – 12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained, and Birth of a Nation, among others – that have endeavored to represent slavery from the …

Afro-Latin American Documentary Resistance From The Pacific Coast: How Voces De Resistencia (2017) Changes The Landscapes Of Aesthetics, Academia/Community Collaboration, And Black Feminist Activism During The Colombian "Peace Process", Sarah Ohmer

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Voces de Resistencia, Capítulo 1, is a short documentary film with an original soundtrack composed and performed by Black Colombian female folk a cappella chorus, or alabadoras. The multimedia product makes use of Black feminist pedagogy and resistance: it portrays a silenced and oppressed group in Bojayá, Colombia. The focus on alabadoras singers and composers promotes self-definition and exposes the power of self-determination in songwriting, an a cappella chorus performance, and documentary filmmaking.

Cultural Heritage And Local Ecological Knowledge Under Threat: Two Caribbean Examples From Barbuda And Puerto Rico, Rebecca Boger, Sophia Perdikaris, Isabel Rivero-Collazo

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

While the impacts to the infrastructures in Barbuda and Puerto Rico by Hurricanes Irma and Maria have received attention in the news media, less has been reported about the impacts of these catastrophic events on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of these Caribbean islands. This report provides an assessment of the impacts on the cultural heritage by these storms; tangible heritage includes historic buildings, museums, monuments, documents and other artifacts and intangible heritage includes traditional artistry, festivities, and more frequent activities such as religious services and laundering. While the physical destruction was massive, the social contexts in which these …

African Immigrants In Argentina Post-Slavery: An Old-New Odyssey, Alain Lawo-Sukam

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

In this interdisciplinary article, I address the less known migration of Africans in South America, especially in Argentina. This is significant because studies on African migrations have focused mainly on European and North American routes (north-south), living aside south-south paths. The complex experience of the first African immigrants in Argentina relates to a certain extent and also contrasts with the recent migrations of the twenty-first century. Because of (post)colonial history, collective/personal experience and stories, African immigrants are finding new homes in Argentina. However, recent changes in immigration policies relaxed under previous governments could jeopardize this el dorado. This article …

Codings Of Blackness In Mexican Cinema: An Analysis Of La Negrada, Ebony Marie Bailey

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

In a country whose national identity revolves around the idea of mestizaje, Blackness has been omitted from official discourses surrounding mexicanidad. As a result, Afro populations in Mexico have been subjected to codings that render them invisible, otherized and inferior. This paper analyzes the codings of Blackness in Mexico as reflected in the space of art and cinema, specifically the film La Negrada, the first feature fiction film to introduce an all Afro-Mexican cast. On one hand, there is an attempt to reclaim and make visible Mexico's African roots. On the other, the film also walks the …

So What If She Can't Dance And Sing: A Testimony From The Afrohabanera, Dawn Duke

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

From the early 1990s, a new film gained momentum in which there were no actors, i.e. contracted, paid, and famous, rather ordinary people, residing at the fringes of society, who momentarily were on camera, guided by a director determined to film realistic images. Cidade de Deus (Brazil), Pixote: a lei do mais fraco (Brazil), La vendedora de rosas (Colombia), Rodrigo D (Colombia), and Ratas y ratones (Ecuador) are examples. There is little footage about Cubans during the Special Period (1989-1995). Further, until then no production had directly and realistically focused on Afro-Cuban women. Rolando Díaz's 1998 production, Si me comprendieras …

Marca Peru: Representations And Exclusions Of The Afro-Descendant Population From The Official Narrative Of The Peruvian Government, Ana Lucía Mosquera Rosado

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The article will examine the representations of Afro-Peruvians in the video "Peru Nebraska," a documentary produced as part of the launching of the advertising campaign of Marca Peru, a national branding project elaborated by the Peruvian government in 2010. By examining the participation of the Afro-descendant population in this audiovisual piece, the document will relate these representations to the discourses of diversity, race, and citizenship in Peru. The article will also explore the nature of the discourses of ethnic and racial diversity in Peru in the new construction of the national and will evaluate the construction of the social …

Sister Ursula De Jesús' Equal Economy Of Salvation, Valérie Benoist

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The article examines the diary of Peruvian sister Ursula de Jesús, the first known spiritual journal produced by a black woman in colonial Spanish America. The account, written in first person and consisting of fifty-seven folios, mainly describes sister Ursula's visions and her life inside the Lima convent where she came to be highly revered as a mystic during the seventeenth century. The recognition that this black woman gained was particularly high considering that she lived at a time when most people in the Ibero-transatlantic world associated Afro descendants with the Devil. This fact along with the richness of sister …

The Concentration Of Household Income In The United States By Race/Ethnicity, 1967 - 2018, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report studies income distribution in the United States between 1967 and 2018 by race and ethnicity.

Methods: The data were derived from the US Census Bureau's Historical Income Tables: Income Inequality

Results: The upper 5% of households controlled 17% of total household income in 1967 and 23% in 2018. The upper 20% of households accounted for 44% of all income in 1967 and 52% in 2018. Economic growth, which has been impressive in the period under consideration, did not result in rising household incomes across the social hierarchy. Between 1967 and 2018 the upper 5% of income-earning households …

Effects Of Visual Impairment On The Preparation, Response, And Recovery From The 2017 Hurricane Season In Puerto Rico, Kevin D. Mccormack

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The 2017 hurricane season in Puerto Rico brought rain and wind forces the likes of which had not been seen in 90 years on the island. Some say it will take at least ten years to recover from the damage caused to functional necessities such as roadways, assuming full recovery is possible. While the general populace in Puerto Rico struggled to recover, populations such as people with visual impairments experienced the struggle more acutely. Independent living, limited as it generally was before Hurricane Maria, was further compromised. There was a feeling of abandonment throughout the community of people with visual …

Understanding The Characteristics Of Remittance Recipients In Venezuela: A Country In Economic Crisis, Nicole A. Degla

Undergraduate Economic Review

This essay analyzes household surveys from the World Bank Global Financial Inclusion Database for the years 2011, 2014, and 2017, as a means to distinguish individual level characteristics of remittance recipients in Venezuela. Remittances are defined as “crossborder, person-to-person payments of relatively low value. The transfers are typically recurrent payments by migrant workers to their relatives in their home countries (World Bank, 2015). Through the use of a linear probability model and probit regressions, I examine the variables age, gender, education level, and income quintile. Results of the analysis find that age has a statistically significant negative effect on the …

Seventeenth-Century Spanish Colonial Identity In New Mexico: A Study Of Identity Practices Through Material Culture, Caroline Marie Gabe

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation explores how seventeenth-century Spanish colonial households expressed their group identity at a regional level in New Mexico. Through the material remains of daily practice and repetitive actions, identity markers tied to adornment, technological traditions, and culinary practices are compared between 14 assemblages to test four identity models. Seventeenth-century colonists were eating a combination of Old World domesticates and wild game on colonoware and majolica serving vessels, cooking using Indigenous pottery, grinding with Puebloan style tools, and conducting household scale production and prospecting. While assemblages are consistent in basic composition, variations are present tied to socioeconomic status. This blending …

The Bluebox Practicum: Integrating Technology, Culture, And Academic Service-Learning, Charles Braymen, Dustin Ormond

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Advancing education in marginalized communities has been more difficult compared to more privileged communities due to the lack of infrastructure, which in part results in an absence of educational materials. The BlueBox Project was created to minimize this divide by bringing a wealth of information to these communities. Using a small digital computer, faculty, staff, and students across many disciplines built the BlueBox, a stand-alone digital library which hosts an array of books, articles, educational games, and videos to inspire learning in a variety of subjects including science, technology, math, music, and literature. The BlueBox is powered by solar energy, …

Puerto Rico: Necrópolis, Yarimar Bonilla

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Carta Abierta: A Eliott Abrams (Enviado De Los Estados Unidos A Venezuela), Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An open letter, in Spanish, from Peter McLaren to Eliott Abrams, the the Special Representative for Venezuela at the U.S. Department of State.

On The Need For Human Rights To Constitute Structural Change: Lessons For Colombia From The Arab Spring’S Failures, Anthony Chase

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Transitional processes have nowhere failed as spectacularly than in the wake of the Arab Spring's "revolutions." Contrary to popular expectations, these revolutions gave way to counter-revolutions rather than transitions to democracy and pluralistic politics. This article argues that, by settling for transitions to mere formal democracies, an opportunity was lost to engage in necessary structural change. While understandable that transitional processes shied away from addressing controversial issues -- including how to translate diversity in religious, gender, sexual, and ideological domains into the foundation of new political communities -- not doing so was a fatal error as it left untouched preexisting …

The Impacts Of Warming Coffee: The Climate Change-Coffee-Migration Nexus In The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Connor Lynch

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

As climate change continues to threaten every corner of the world, millions of people find their livelihoods and food security at risk as a result of a warming planet. With their human right to livelihood and adequate nutrition at threat, some make the difficult decision to emigrate in search of economic security. The climate change-migration nexus is illustrated in this poster presentation which shows how slow-onset effects of climate change jeopardize the production of coffee in the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), a region that is particularly vulnerable. Thousands of people who depend on coffee production around Guatemala, Honduras, …

El Otro Mundo Posible En El Horizonte: El Imaginario Político Y La Política Prefigurativa De Lxs Estudiantes De Las Protestas De Otoño 2019, Lorne Carter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

October 2019, mass mobilizations erupted across Chile in a widespread rebellion against the neoliberal system of economic austerity and the current government. In such a powerful historical moment undoubtedly decisive for the direction of the country, this paper seeks to examine how student participants, an increasingly strong voice of radical dissidence in recent years of social movements, imagine a better Chile. Engaging with classic and contemporary theories of social movements, this paper analyzes the methods of organization and action utilized by the protesters and how they are influenced by institutional structures and the political opportunities available. Through interviews and the …

Chronic Kidney Disease From Non-Traditional Causes Throughout Central America, Abigail K. Watson

Senior Theses

Throughout many Central American countries, incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been on the rise. The disease mainly affects agricultural workers and differs from typical CKD. Patients in these countries often do not have preexisting conditions such as diabetes or hypertension known to be traditional causes of CKD. They also experience increased damage to the kidney tubules, rather than the glomeruli generally more heavily impacted. There has been speculation regarding the causes of CKDnT (chronic kidney disease of nontraditional causes), but no consensus has been reached. Two major hypotheses to explain the high prevalence among Central American sugarcane workers …

“Las Mamás No Son Putas”: Percepciones Y Experiencias De Embarazo Y Maternidad En Trabajadoras Sexuales En Buenos Aires / Mothers Are Not Prostitutes: Perceptions And Experiences Of Pregnancy And Motherhood Among Sex Workers In Buenos Aires, Fiona Kennedy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En Buenos Aires, la gran mayoría de las trabajadoras sexuales también son madres. Sin embargo, ha habido pocos estudios en Argentina sobre los vínculos entre el trabajo sexual y la maternidad y las experiencias de embarazo para las trabajadoras sexuales. Las trabajadoras sexuales en Buenos Aires experimentan estigmatización y violencia institucional en múltiples entornos, lo que afecta tanto el acceso a la salud como el bienestar general. Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar cómo estas vías afectan a las trabajadoras sexuales en la maternidad y el embarazo, con el fin de encontrar áreas de intervención. La mayoría de esta investigación …