Having broken from the previous chronological format of this podcast, one of things I have been thinking about is the potential lack of context for subsequent episodes.

This then, is a series which provides a very rough overview of the major events and ideas which shaped Latin America from the end of the conquests to the present day. Hopefully it will help listeners place future episodes into the greater story, and make them more enjoyable.

This first episode looks at the colonial era.

Guatemala is not usually thought of as an oil county, and that is of course, largely because it is not one. Today’s interviewee however, traces the fascinating story of a largely forgotten – and largely unrealised – oil rush which threatened to take place there, based on a resource which wasn’t there – or to put it more precisely – wasn’t there in the quantities needed to properly exploit.

There is much more to this story, however. Connected to that interest in oil and the desire of US corporations to make profit from it, were the games of the cold war and fears of communism, dictatorships, civil war, and personal ambition

Today’s story is not about a specific event, but rather an overview of a place which might have been about as far from the forefront of the big events in Latin American history as it is possible to get, yet which saw a succession of bizarre occurrences across its history.

Despite being uninhabited for most of human history, this remote atoll has drawn in everyone from pirates to presidents on fishing trips, would-be tyrants and people hoping to make their fortune collecting animal dung.

Several nations have claimed it, and its story has been shaped by the first circumnavigation of the globe, the Mexican revolution, world war 2, and an international arbitration overseen by a pope.

Today we have a special interview episode with Marcos Colón about his new book The Amazon in Times of War.

The book is a collection of essays which detail Marcos' work in the Amazon rainforest, and chronicle the threats which the region, its people, and its non-human inhabitants face.

In the interview we talk about how Brazil's recent political history, the pandemic, its colonial legacy, and how popular and scientific conceptions have impacted the Amazon and its prospects for the future.

More information about the book can be found here: https://practicalactionpublishing.com/book/2997/the-amazon-in-times-of-war

Marcos' website Amazonia Latitude can be found here: https://www.amazonialatitude.com/

In the final part of our mini-series on Juan de Onate's time in New Mexico we follow him on his third journey, westwards in search of the Pacific Ocean, and then look at his fate and that of his colony.

Today we start a three part series on the conquest of New Mexico. In this first episode we introduce Juan de Onate - the conquistador tasked with incorporating the territory into the Spanish empire, and follow him through the deserts of northern Mexico.

In the second and final part of our mini-series on Mesoamerican food, we look at how West Africa, the USA, and the rest of Latin America have influenced the region's cuisine.

Then, we look at drinks. Everyone and everything from protectionist tax laws and Filipino immigrants to Russian religious sects and smuggler-priests have played a role in the liquids consumed in Mesoamerica.