Central America and Mexico

US Central Americans are destabilizing, reconceiving, and revitalizing the US Latina/o canon, and in doing so, they are forcing us to reconsider hegemonic ideas about Latinidad. The cultural production of Latinos/as of Central American descent has engaged in a critical denunciation of the violence that characterizes not only the history, but also the current situation, of the Central American isthmus. This essay examines the strategies used by US Central American poet William Archila and visual artist Alma Leiva to (re)construct the past and memorialize the victims of violence across Central America. I argue that Archila’s poetry collection The Art of Exile and Alma Leiva’s installation-photography series Celdas are examples of the “art of witness.” As such, their works play a key role in the reconstruction of Central American collective memory from the diaspora.

This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and environmental), it reconstructs the potential productivity of an integrated raised field, chinampa system that surrounded the polity. This exercise reveals that the system was capable of producing a sizeable caloric surplus above the needs of the kingdom's estimated total population and the number of laborers necessary to maintain full production. To situate the processes related to agricultural production, the paper considers how farmers' strategies were articulated with multiple institutions. Increased integration between political, social, and household institutions possibly fostered residents' incorporation into the body politic and provided mechanisms to finance the political economy. Such integration and dependency fractured, however, when Xaltocan was conquered.

VI Coloquio de la Red Europea de Investigaciones sobre Centroamérica (RedISCA)
“Mas allá del estrecho dudoso – intercambios y miradas sobre Centroamérica”
Universidad de Barcelona


Resumen de la conferencia titulada: Coordinadas de lo cotidiano: el caso del fotógrafo amateur Wilhelm Schirp Laabs en Yucatán
Dictada por la Dra. Alma Durán-Merk, el 12 de noviembre de 2015
En el panel discusión: Fotografiando Centroamérica- (de) construyendo imaginarios,
coordinador por la Dra. Alma Durán-Merk



Hacia finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX, buen número de europeos exploraron visualmente Centroamérica. Su motivación podía ser muy diferente:  la documentación o el estudio científico de ciertos aspectos de la vida cultural de los pueblos, la creación de obras de arte, el  visualizar los avances destinados a la creación del estado-nación, o simplemente el ganarse la vida.
En marcado contraste con aquellos fotógrafos ¬–que podríamos llamar profesionales–encontramos a los creadores de imágenes vernáculas, como Wilhelm Schirp Laabs. Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Schirp Laabs (Aachen, 1886 – México D.F., 1948) se estableció en Mérida, Yucatán, en 1905. Ahí, a la par de su empleo como trabajador administrativo de la empresa multinacional Siemens & Halske, este inmigrante fotografió intensivamente sus vivencias por mas de cuatro décadas. Schirp Laabs contaban con moderno y sofisticado equipo, tenía un buen entrenamiento técnico, experimentaban con prácticas de impresión y se preocupó por preservar su trabajo para la posteridad. Lo podemos, entonces,  considerar como un aficionado experto. 
Tomando como ejemplo el trabajo de Schirp Laabs, esta presentación explora el significado de la fotografía amateur hacia principios del siglo XX y las funciones sociales que ésta satisfizo. Al funcionar independientemente de intereses comerciales y políticos, los amantes de la fotografía gozaban de una libertad que era guiada por su curiosidad personal. Interesados en la vida diaria, esos hacedores de imágenes expandieron el campo de lo fotografiable, dejándonos una obra útil. Por una parte, plasmaron cándidamente la arquitectura de la  región en que vivieron, personajes de la región, las costumbres locales, o aquellos eventos familiares y comunitarios de interés documental. Por otra parte, al no estar comprometidos con ninguna agenda ideológica local, ni depender de una clientela que pagara por su trabajo,  estos ilustradores de lo cotidiano no temieron mostrar las tensiones entre la realidad vivida por las mayorías subalternas y las aspiraciones a la modernidad de las élites centroamericanas. Algunos de ellos captaron, también, los grandes contrastes que encontraron en las sociedades que los recibieron.
La mirada y los referentes de los fotógrafos amateur, como Wilhelm Schirp Laabs, han sido hasta ahora muy poco estudiados. Éstos son, sin embargo, de mayor importancia en la creación de la memoria familiar, étnica y comunitaria. Su análisis nos ayuda también a comprender mejor los procesos de formación de estereotipos visuales, y los mecanismos a través de los cuales éstos pueden ser reforzados o debilitados.



Contacto: [email protected]

During the 1990s and 2000s, a policy known as Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) not only became the cornerstone of education reform in El Salvador but also became a global education policy, one which is known for decentralizing to rural families the responsibility for hiring and firing teachers. As is shown in this paper, its rise to fame was not only a product of the particular political-economic context in which it was borne, but was also a product of the impact evaluations produced by the World Bank, which served as the evidence base through which this and other international institutions could legitimately promote the neoliberal model of community involvement represented by EDUCO. Problematically, however, a reappraisal of these impact evaluations reveals, first, that their findings and conclusions around significant effects were not warranted and, second, that the entire impact evaluation enterprise is fundamentally flawed due to the financial-political-intellectual complex out of which these studies emerged and back into which they fed as they were used to advocate for market-oriented policy solutions around the world. Thus, in addition to explaining the reform dynamics that gave rise to EDUCO, this paper (a) systematically reviews the findings and limitations of each of the six impact studies that constitute the international knowledge base around this policy, (b) reconsiders what we can reasonably claim to know about EDUCO, (c) reflects on the national and international implications of the critical review presented here, and (d) remarks on the shortcomings of—and the alternatives to—impact evaluations as a
means to produce policy-relevant findings.

Continuation of the Atlantic Theory of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey (part 1: Atlantic Troy; part 2:  Atlantic Ismaros-Kikones; part 3: Atlantic Kuthera-Lotophages; part 4: Atlantic Land of the Cyclopes; part 5: Atlantic Aiolia). Odysseus' wanderings after his departure from Troy: Route: from Corvo, Azores, to La Havana, Cuba. Study of Atlantic authors De Grave, Cailleux, Gideon, Wilkens, Vinci.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Capte la atención de los lectores mediante una cita importante extraída del documento o utilice este espacio para resaltar un punto clave. Para colocar el cuadro de texto en cualquier lugar de la página, solo tiene que arrastrarlo.] INFORME Desplazamiento por violencia en el Norte de Centroamérica: historias de supervivencia

Salvador in early 1991, near the end of the twelve-year civil war. It not only represented an extreme form of decentralization in that it transferred the responsibility for hiring, firing and supervising teachers to rural communities, but it was also the first reform of its kind in Latin America. During the ensuing 20 years, the program has received tremendous attention. Indeed, within the country it became the central program through which the education sector was rebuilt and expanded in the post-war era of the 1990s and 2000s. Internationally, the program has been widely recognized as a successful and desirable example of community-level education management decentralization. In fact, the program has become a "global education policy" in that it has been and continues to be recognized, promoted and adapted around the world.

Through the years and the mediums Mexican women have been depicted with different
meanings and ways. One very important medium that has been significant in capturing the
experience of Latin America women has been photography. Thus the following essay will
aim to show and analyse the way in which the experience of being a woman has been
depicted in Latin American photography.

EL 19 de abril de 2018, para sorpresa de todos, estallaron protestas impulsadas por miles de estudiantes que se manifestaban por una multitud de agravios acumulados. Las movilizaciones rápidamente se transformaron en un rechazo a la forma autoritaria, patrimonial y plutocrática de gobernar por parte de la pareja presidencial. El gobierno respondió con una desproporcionada represión.
La crisis fue inesperada, pero era previsible.

This paper focuses on community development and its relationship to eco-tourism as a means of creating a sustainable future for local Cuban communities. If communities control local resources to create economic opportunities for local goals, there is a greater chance that community development will be more effective and sustainable. Local empowerment can play a key role in community development through ecological and cultural tourism. The focus of this paper is Cuba's potential to develop into a major ecological and cultural tourism center within international tourism. Recent policy announcements regarding the intention to diversify Cuba's economy and move people into private enterprise will require new employment opportunities, especially those with lower opportunity costs and resources. The growth of small paladares (restaurants run by self-employed owners) and casas particulares (rooms for rent in private homes), which provide low environmental impact and resource use, are compatible with eco-cultural tourism's emphasis on the local. In an era of increasing environmental costs and resource scarcity, eco-cultural tourism offers a sustainable alternative to conventional tourism.

Desde o início da colonização, o trabalho compulsório dos indígenas esteve entre as questões mais debatidas na Espanha e em suas possessões americanas. Nos anos finais do século XVI, os repartimientos, instituição de recrutamento de mão-de-obra nativa, estiveram sob o julgamento de franciscanos e jesuítas. Teólogos dessas duas ordens religiosas foram chamados a dar seus pareceres a respeito da licitude e legitimidade do repartimiento no México. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar e confrontar as duas visões sobre aquela instituição, avaliando e enumerando os seus respectivos argumentos.

Depuis le début de la colonisation, le travail forcé des indigènes a été largement discuté en Espagne et ses possessions américaines. Dans les dernières années du XVIe siècle, les repartimientos, institution de recruter la main-d’oeuvre indigène, ont été examiné et jugés par les jésuites et franciscains. Les théologiens de ces deux ordres religieux ont été invités à donner leurs avis sur la légalité et la légitimité des repartimientos dans le Mexique. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser et de comparer les deux points de vue sur cette institution, en train d’évaluer et d’énumérer leurs arguments respectifs.

La frontera sur de Estados Unidos representa para el presidente Joe Biden y la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris un gran desafío humanitario, político y logístico. Exactamente igual que para todos sus antecesores en el cargo, republicanos y demócratas. Ninguno ha conseguido hasta ahora salir del laberinto. Pero si Biden quiere mejorar la gestión de la frontera deberá trabajar conjuntamente con el resto de gobiernos centroamericanos.

El descontento popular en Nicaragua es alto después de que las protestas callejeras en abril fueron aplastadas en una brutal represión gubernamental. Para evitar más disturbios, el presidente Ortega debe implementar las reformas electorales acordadas, mientras que los actores internacionales mantienen la presión diplomática para crear condiciones para el diálogo.

* Este reporte fue fruto de un proceso colaborativo por parte de un amplio equipo de analistas y editores en Crisis Group en el cual yo fui la autora principal y la responsable de la investigación de campo en Nicaragua.

This paper analyzes the historic 2013 trial against former dictator General (r) Jose Efrain Rios Montt. Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, but a controversial decision by the Constitutional Court annulled part of the proceedings, thereby vacating the verdict. The author was a trial observer at the Rios Montt proceedings, and drawing on her ethnographic research and interviews with relevant parties to the trial, argues that despite the verdict's undoing, the case remains significant historically and politically for Guatemala, and has lasting lessons for theoreticians and practitioners of transitional justice.

With a foreword by renowned novelist Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and comprised of personal essays about the impact of drug violence on life and culture along the U.S.-Mexico border, the anthology combines writings by residents of both countries. Mexican authors Liliana Blum, Lolita Bosch, and Diego Osorno write riveting, first-hand accounts about the clashes between the drug cartels and citizens' attempts to resist the criminals. American authors, including José Antonio Rodríguez and José Skinner, focus on how the corruption and bloodshed have affected the bi-national and bi-cultural existence of families and individuals. Maria Cristina Cigarroa shares her poignant memories of life in her grandparents’ home now abandoned in Nuevo Laredo.

In their introduction, editors Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso write that this anthology was “born of a vision to bear witness to how this violence has shattered life on the border, to remember the past, but also to point to the possibilities of a better future.” The personal essays in this collection humanize the news stories and are a must-read for anyone interested in how this fragile way of life between two cultures, languages and countries has been undermined by the drug trade and the crime that accompanies it, with ramifications far beyond the border region.

Este artículo describe las características del modelo de evaluación para determinar la calidad de los programas de posgrado en México; analiza las fortalezas del modelo e identifica importantes aspectos para una reflexión sobre sus implicaciones para el mejoramiento de la calidad de educación en el nivel de posgrado.

Las movilidades forzadas derivadas de situaciones de violencia como producto de un abanico multifactorial, son una constante en la historia de América Latina. Comprender sus causas y características, así como las variaciones de su acontecer en el tiempo, se ligan a la imperiosa necesidad de afrontarlas y buscar soluciones desde una ciudadanía consciente y comprometida

Using empirical material mostly from Middle America this paper will discuss some conceptual issues concerning the categories of race, ethnicity and class and their interrelationships. It will argue first, that these categories, considered clearly separated forms of social categorization and identification in current thought, where more intimately related and sometimes synonymous in earlier times. Secondly, while much of recent scholarship has stressed the political and legal spheres (citizenship, rights discourse, etc.), I will argue that important dimensions of class, especially social and economic differentiations within the indigenous population, have been unduly neglected in analyses of indigenous ethnicity and movements in much of recent scholarship.
key words: theory, ethnicity, class

İnsanlar, ekonomik, politik istikrarsızlık, şiddet ve doğal afetler gibi nedenlerle göç etmektedir. Ancak hedef ülkelerin katı göç politikaları, göçün düzensiz-leşmesine neden olmaktadır. Katı politikalar, göçü tümüyle önleyemediği gibi göçmenler açısından tehlikeli hale de getirmektedir. Küresel göç haritasında Orta Amerikalı göçmenler için Meksika, geçilmesi gereken uzun ve tehlikeli bir koridordur ve Meksika'daki göçmen evleri (casas del migrante), göçmen-lere sundukları hizmetlerle göç sürecinde stratejik bir konuma sahiptir. Bu ça-lışmada, düzensiz göçün kentlerde göçmen evleri aracılığıyla nasıl "düzenlen-diği" açıklanmaktadır. Araştırmanın verileri ise Temmuz-Aralık 2017 arasında ziyaret edilen San Luis Potosí, Tijuana, Saltillo ve Tapachula kentlerindeki dört göçmen evine ilişkin gözlemlerden ve buradaki yetkililerle yapılan görüşmelerden derlenmiştir.

Abstract
People migrate due to economic, political instability, violence and natural disasters. However, strict migration policies of receiving countries cause irregular migration. On the global migration map, Mexico is a long and dangerous corridor for Central American immigrants, and the “migrant shelters” (casas del migrante) have a strategic position in the migration process with the services they offer to immigrants. In this study, it is explained how irregular migration is “organised“ by migrant shelter in Mexican cities. The data of the study were compiled from the observations of the four migrant shelters in the cities of San Luis Potosí, Tijuana, Saltillo and Tapachula, which were visited between July-December 2017, and from the interviews with the authorities of shelters.

This section consists of lesson materials for secondary students related to the Maya society, particularly government, commerce, religion, and military. Lesson components can be used together as an entire unit, individually as needed, or as differentiated activities for groups within your classroom. These may be used in sequence with other parts of this unit or in isolation.

Spanish language translation added June 2019 here: https://www.academia.edu/39350235/Sociedad_Maya

View the full book here: https://www.academia.edu/41244430/The_Ancient_Maya_For_Teachers_and_Learners

Nicaraguan Spanish is characterized by the reduction of coda /s/ to glottal
frication, elision, and glottal constriction, but the latter variant has never been
explored in depth. The present study fills this void by analyzing the word-final,
intervocalic /s/ environment in sociolinguistic interviews, reading tasks, and
image identification tasks conducted with 36 Nicaraguans with the goal of
detailing the social patterning of glottal constriction. I find that glottal constriction
patterns like sibilance, a hyperarticulated variant, and a statistical analysis
reveals two distinct hyperarticulation strategies in formal tasks based on age
and education. Given their differing responses to formality, I propose that more
educated and younger speakers with more exposure to prescriptive norms apply
sibilance, a global hyperarticulation strategy, to signal their education and power
on an international scale, while less educated and older speakers utilize glottal
constriction to construct an identity associated with regional articulateness.

This paper focuses on local perceptions of wellbeing, their underlying social and power relations and the resulting cultural resistance by Rarámuri indigenous people in the Tarahumara region, Mexico. It is based on findings from doctoral research that argues that understandings of wellbeing must be analysed in conjunction with its socio-cultural and political context and in relation to ethnic differences.  In this sense, the paper presents evidence that shows how Rarámuri people hold discursive understandings of wellbeing which evoke differentiated ways of living compared to those accounts described both in mainstream development thinking and those which occur in the national society in Mexico. Similarly, the paper considers the value of ethnography, semi-structured interviews and participant observation as a tool in documenting notions of wellbeing and what Rarámuri people value, as well as exploring reflections, fieldwork experiences, and methodological challenges encountered while doing fieldwork research.

En El material humano (2009), Rodrigo Rey Rosa recupera la ya tradi-cional figura del archivo para abordar el tema de la violencia política en Guatemala y cuestionar una serie de discursos del pasado —la ley judicial, la ciencia criminológica o la modernización del estado nacional— que han servido para legitimar la persecución de campesinos, pobres e indíge-nas. Sin embargo, la posición de Rey Rosa es muy distinta a la de los escri-tores del boom estudiados por González Echevarría en Mito y archivo. Al renunciar a la forma novelesca, el autor guatemalteco renuncia también a una perspectiva mistificadora de la historia y la literatura. Por el contra-rio, en su ficción el archivo aparece deslavado de cualquier aura literaria y el mismo proyecto trunco de novela del narrador puede ser interpretado como un vestigio más dentro del gran archivo de la literatura hispanoame-ricana: el del discurso novelesco. Asimismo, la imagen del intelectual latinoamericano que encarna el na-rrador dista bastante de aquella otra ofrecida por algunos de los jerarcas del boom (los que escribían con el overol puesto). Aunque se ha impuesto la grave tarea de narrar el horror, solo puede hacerlo de manera accidentada, parcial y contradictoria. Aunque es una persona non grata para los poderes fácticos de su país, de todos modos goza sin mucha culpa de sus privilegios de clase o encuentra entre los oprimidos a algunos de sus " enemigos natura-les ". En definitiva, su posición es ambigua y su heroísmo irónico. Finalmente, el espacio laberíntico del archivo sirve de metáfora a la com-pleja memoria histórica del país, cruzada por la violencia. En él se con-frontan y confunden distintos intereses (incluso los del propio narrador), desde la censura al esforzado rescate de la verdad histórica. En otras pala-bras, la memoria se presenta como un terreno siempre en disputa. PALABRAS CLAVE: Rodrigo Rey Rosa, archivo, laberinto, intelectual latinoamericano, discurso novelesco.

This book presents an innovative model linking insights from democratization, development and conflict studies to explain personalist behavior and their violent transitions.

Based on multiple case studies from Sub Saharan Africa, the author maps and predicts regime transitions, presenting examples of how states can avoid such vicious circles of conflict and tyranny. By integrating decades of specialist literature from various subfields of political science, the book models personalist behavior, its impact on the states they govern, and their future transitions. By systematizing regime behavior (coup-proofing, gatekeeping, repression and hoarding), the model identifies the mechanics on how personalist regimes establish vicious circles of personalism and explains how exactly they end up again in authoritarianism or in new personalist tyrannies after their demise, and so seldom transition to democracy.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of African politics, democratization and democratic consolidation, authoritarian rule and more broadly to political science, comparative politics, area studies, political leadership, peace and conflict studies and development studies.

A section with background information and activities related to the Maya calendar suitable for use in middle and high school classes.

Spanish language translation is here: https://www.academia.edu/39332108/Calendario_Maya

See the entire Maya Sciences section here: https://www.academia.edu/23909358/Maya_Sciences

A related resource is the Mayan Language &  Writing activity, located here: https://www.academia.edu/34585504/Mayan_Language_and_Writing

View the full book here: https://www.academia.edu/41244430/The_Ancient_Maya_For_Teachers_and_Learners

The coastal Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca, Mexico – known locally as the Istmo – is regarded as one of the best wind energy generating sites in the world. Marketed as a preeminent solution to mitigating climate change, wind energy is now applying increasing pressure on indigenous groups in the region. The article begins by outlining a definition of colonialism that assists in identifying the temporal continuity of the colonial project to understand its relationship with wind energy development. The next section briefly reviews colonial genocide studies, discussing disciplinary debates between liberal and post-liberal genocide scholars, the relevance of self-management within colonial systems, the genocide-ecocide nexus and the ‘intent’ of destructive development projects. This leads into reviewing the claims and findings that emerged from fieldwork in the Istmo, which is divided into the north and south to show the different, yet similar dynamics taking place in the region. Finally, the article concludes that wind energy development as a ‘solution’ to climate change not only distracts from its dependence on fossil fuels and mining, but renews and continues a slow industrial genocide, assimilating and targeting (indigenous) people who continue to value their land, sea and cultural relationships.

"La Bestia" (aka "el tren de la muerte"): A report done in 2014 in Guadalajara, México, based on interviews with desperate young immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who had been riding "La Bestia" till the trains slowed down going by a particular colonia in Guadalajara, where they'd jump off for a few of days of rest and begging for food and money before getting back on La Bestia again, headed for the US border.  This brief illustrated report recounts my encounters with them.

En la ltima parte de su vida, el escritor guatemalteco Miguel Angel Asturias -Premio N6bel de literatura 1967se vio envuelto en polemicas y ataques que no dejaron de opacar su producci6n literaria. Por un lado, su initil disputa con Garcia Mairquez acerca de la originalidad o plagio de Cien anos de soledad no hizo sino desprestigiarlo ante los ojos de los narradores mAsj6venes, entonces en el apogeo del boom. Por otra, la aceptaci6n de la embajada de Guatemala durante el periodo 1966-1970 se atrajo en contra suya la furia de la izquierda latinoamericana.