Latin America Politics

Enslaved West Indian women had few opportunities to record their stories for posterity. Yet from their dusty footprints and the umpteen small clues they left for us to unravel, there's no question that they earned their place in history. Pick any Caribbean island and you'll find race, skin color, and rank interacting with gender in a unique and often volatile way. In A Kick in the Belly, Stella Dadzie follows the evidence and finds women played a distinctly female role in the development of a culture of slave resistance - a role that was not just central, but downright dynamic.

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. Here, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Forcing us to confront this history, America for Americans explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.

Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos‚ Laura Gomez illuminates the fascinating race-making‚ unmaking‚ and remaking of Latino identity that has spanned centuries‚ leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.

Carlos "Calica" Ferrer relata por primera vez el viaje que compartió con su amigo Ernesto Guevara en 1953, en los meses previos a su transformación en el revolucionario Che. En este recorrido por Bolivia, Perú y Ecuador, alternan el entusiasmo viajero y las diversiones juveniles con reveladores descubrimientos sobre la realidad social y política latinoamericana.

Kensington, Philadelphia, is distinguished only by its poverty. It is home to Ryan, Giancarlos, and Emmanuel, three Puerto Rican children who live among the most marginalized families in the United States. This is the story of their coming-of-age, which is beset by violence—the violence of homelessness, hunger, incarceration, stray bullets, sexual and physical assault, the hypermasculine logic of the streets, and the drug trade. In Kensington, eighteenth birthdays are not rites of passage but statistical miracles.

¡México es el mejor país del mundo…! O eso dijo en marzo de 2024 la entonces candidata presidencial Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. Pero ahora, como presidenta, le tocará reducir la cantidad récord de homicidios con que cerró el sexenio de Andrés Manuel López Obrador; dar solidez a las finanzas públicas y manejar la deuda, así como contener la aún presente corrupción. También deberá revertir el derrumbe en la expectativa de vida de los mexicanos y la caída de los niveles educativos y de salud del país, así como crear condiciones para acabar con décadas de un comportamiento mediocre.

This hybrid collection of short crónicas, journalism, and personal essays on systemic violence in contemporary Mexico and along the US-Mexico border draws together literary theory and historical analysis to outline how neoliberalism, corruption, and drug trafficking - culminating in the misnamed “war on drugs” - has shaped Mexico. Working from and against this political context, Cristina Rivera Garza posits that collective grief is an act of resistance against state violence and that writing is a powerful mode of seeking social justice and embodying resilience.

An insightful investigation of how and why the two major political parties have failed to appeal to the Latino vote—the largest ethnic voting group in the country—and the impact it will have on American democracy and politics for decades to come.

Could it be that for the first time in history, the United States needs Latin America more than the other way round? Since the early 1800s, the United States regarded the region as its backyard, but in the past decade South Americas leaders have increasingly snubbed US efforts to persuade them to adopt free-market economics and sign trade agreements. While Washington has been distracted by military campaigns elsewhere, rivals such as China, Russia, and Iran have expanded their clout in Latin America.

Latinos are already the largest minority group in the United States, and experts estimate that by 2050, one out of three Americans will identify as Latino. Though their population and influence are steadily rising, stereotypes and misconceptions about Latinos remain, from the assumption that they refuse to learn English to questions of just how "American" they actually are.

The arguments are concise, and the information is overwhelming. The first two lectures examine the persistent and largely invariant features of foreign policy, the overall framework of order. The third discusses Central America and its foreign policy pattern. The fourth looks at national security and the arms race. And the fifth examines US domestic policy.

Power Shift charts the rise of Latino political power and its impact, from the breakthrough election of the first Mexican American to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949 to today’s leadership of California and its heavyweight role in polarized America. This inspiring story recounts the origins and development of 10 LA-based Latina and Latino leaders who transformed politics and government, forging a progressive political tradition in the process.

One of Argentina's 30,000 "disappeared", Alicia Partnoy was abducted from her home by secret police and taken to a concentration camp where she was tortured, and where most of the other prisoners were killed. Her writings were smuggled out of prison and published anonymously in human rights journals. The Little School is Alicia Partnoy's memoir of her disappearance and imprisonment in Argentina in the 1970s.

A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez's farm workers' movement - both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration - has remained buried beneath the hagiography.

Contar la verdad de Venezuela, un ejercicio imprescindible para hacer justicia al ejemplo del pueblo venezolano, pero también para entender qué implica en el actual momento histórico tratar de hacer una revolución.

Although he is unquestionably one of the most studied leaders of the 19th century, Simón Bolívar remains today as enigmatic as he was two centuries ago, when his vision and presence largely inspired the overthrow of the Spanish Empire in the New World.

Este audiolibro, en registro teatral, apunta a "pensar" la historia política del pueblo chileno a partir de su memoria y, sobre todo, de su deliberación soberana. Está focalizado en el período 1911-1924, cuando, al abrirse un proceso constituyente de cambios radicales, las bases populares y ciudadanas activaron a alto nivel sus vínculos solidarios y su capacidad deliberativa. En ese período y por su fondo social deliberativo, surgió el único "intelectual orgánico" de la historia política del pueblo chileno: Luis Emilio Recabarren.

América Latina está molesta. Lo recogen las encuestas, lo confirma la sucesión de "estallidos sociales" en diferentes países, lo ratifica una ciudadanía que vota sin ilusión. En este libro —escrito con la urgencia del periodista y el juicio del académico— Alberto Vergara propone que este malestar se debe a que América Latina está estancada. O, mejor, presa de un estancamiento múltiple: político, económico, social. Como consecuencia, las ciudadanías influyen poco en la política de sus países y las personas cuentan con cuotas de libertad muy desiguales. Es decir, vivimos en repúblicas que no son dignas de ese nombre.

En Colombia vale más un pedazo de tierra que la vida de quienes lo habitan. Desde la ciudad el conflicto se ve ajeno. El humo no nos deja ver los cadáveres y la distancia nos aleja del dolor de las víctimas. Juan Miguel Álvarez ha viajado por toda Colombia con la misión de develar historias de profundo dolor y también de reconciliación. Federico Rios lo acompañó para registrar las imágenes de esta aventura que es a veces dura y a veces esperanzadora.

Um livro corajoso que traz uma visão arejada e acessível sobre a economia brasileira. Entre 2006 e 2017, a economia brasileira viveu numa montanha russa. Do segundo mandato de Lula ao impeachment de Dilma Rousseff, o país passou por alguns dos anos de maior prosperidade de sua história, mas também viveu uma crise Sem precedentes. O que aconteceu? Este livro sugere uma resposta. Segundo a autora, os obstáculos para a continuidade do crescimento inclusivo de 2006 e 2010 eram superáveis, mas optou-se por fazer deles pretexto para uma malsucedida mudança de rumo.