Latin American Perspectives recent issues

Introduction: Memory and Popular Culture

Arias, A., del Campo, A. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Landscapes of Memory: Concentration Camps and Drought in Northeastern Brazil

Kenny, M. L. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Concentration camps were established in the Northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará in 1932 as a response to the displacement of thousands by severe drought. The experience of the camps, as reported by those who survived them, was one of privation and death. Residents of Senador Pompeu, the site of one such camp, commemorate the experience with an annual procession to the cemetery and are attempting to have the ruins of the camp declared "heritage." Marking such places as heritage is in many ways an intervention not only economically, as heritage tourism, but through the active critical processes of conscientization, communicating the violence that persists in contemporary society.

Democracy's Labor: Disjunctive Memory in a Bolivian Workers' Union

Albro, R. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Despite recent constitutional reforms, Bolivian democracy struggles to reconcile the inclusive rhetoric of state reform, the expansion of rights, and special attention to previously ignored groups, on the one hand, with continued poverty, inequality, and a history of state abandonment of the majority, on the other. This "disjunctive democracy" produced a series of standoffs, often violent, between the state and popular-indigenous coalitions between 2000 and 2005. Throughout, popular memory was one vehicle for protest in which distinct democratic commitments—one constitutional or representative, the other participatory and direct—collided. The response of one exceptional labor union to the era’s neoliberal democratization, that of the Manaco Shoe Factory in Quillacollo, highlights this disjunctive democracy. The centrality in workers’ accounts of the political struggle of the k’araku (union assembly), with its remembered ideals of reciprocity, trust, accountability, and collective unity, differentiates popular from procedural democracy. The case of Manaco emphasizes that democratic reform in Bolivia will have to take account of the way culture informs the popular political imagination.

Popular Power, Oral History, and Collective Memory in Contemporary Chile

Gaudichaud, F. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Chile’s collective memory has been brutalized by state-implemented terrorism. This historical process has resulted in, among other things, a "torn collective memory." The history and memory of the period of so-called popular power (1970—1973) continue to be largely unknown. Oral history allows us to begin a slow process of historical reconstruction as well as to reflect on the construction of militant memories.

Community Remembering: Fear and Memory in a Chilean Shantytown

Barbera, R. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

The dictatorship in Chile perpetrated massive human rights violations for 17 years, causing a rupture in social processes and engendering fear in the population. Data being gathered in an ongoing participatory action research study of the población (shantytown) La Pincoya show that while memory can be debilitating to most persons, it may empower others. Memories of the practices of the military regime continue to cause fear in some of the population, affecting community cohesion and participation in local organizations. This has led to the dismantling of social networks in the community, robbing members of their ability to be the protagonists of their own lives.

The War of Memory: The Brazilian Military Dictatorship according to Militants and Military Men

Martins Filho, J. R. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Since the mid-1970s, a number of testimonial narratives have contributed to the literature on the Brazilian military regime. These works, representing both the military and the Brazilian left, carry on the political struggles of the period (1964—1984). Through the dynamics of their publication, a tense dialogue has been established. A comparison of the memoirs of leftist militants with those of military men reveals that the practice of torture continues to be a source of apparently unending discord between the two sides.

Ricardo Piglia's The Absent City: Oppressed Memories Unearthed

Wirshing, I. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

The Argentine novelist Ricardo Piglia’s The Absent City reflects upon the retrieval of the past as a prerequisite for healing from national trauma. If postdictatorship countries are to implement a transition to democracy, their citizens must confront the past. The denial of national trauma perpetuates tyranny. Taken together, the many fragmented stories in Piglia’s novel can be viewed as a metaphor for the process of retrieving a repressed history. The central trope of the novel is Elena, a gendered machine made responsible for integrating Argentina’s past dissociations and making healing possible.

Violence and Silence in Dictatorial and Postdictatorial Chile: The Noir Genre as a Restitution of the Memory and History of the Present

Waldman M., G. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

The new Chilean narrative’s noir genre, exemplified in the work of Ramón Díaz Eterovic, is an allusive and tangential exposé of recent national history. Implicit in the detective stories of this genre are a critical approach and an attempt at reconstruction of the political and social conflicts of dictatorial and postdictatorial Chile through a criminological narrative. Situated between the authoritarianism of the dictatorial regime and the ambiguities of the transition, the noir genre enables engagement with the subject of memory as a possible tool for the strengthening of civil society.

Latent Image: Chilean Cinema and the Abject

Pino-Ojeda, W. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Central to the analysis of a corpus of films dealing with current psychosocial conditions in Chile and the challenges of communal reconciliation, are the concepts of collective memory and social trauma. Chilean cinema of the postdictatorship reflects a society whose channels of communication have been broken, in which the past continues to be a source of contestation and dispute. The neoliberal system imposed in the early 1970s has significantly contributed to an isolation and disaffection that limit the possibilities of social healing. Cinema has assumed the role of recovering a sense of community by disallowing the privatization of pain fostered by the hegemonic political practices and discourses of the period of dictatorship by returning this suffering to the social arena from which it originated.

Filming Loss: (Post-)Memory, Subjectivity, and the Performance of Failure in Recent Argentine Documentary Films

Lazzara, M. J. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

Two Argentine filmmakers of the postdictatorship generation have used the documentary as a space in which to question constructions of history, memory, and identity in the aftermath of traumatic and tumultuous experiences. Both projects foreground the idea of loss and the difficulties of writing a "truthful" version of the past when confronted by politically motivated "official histories," temporal shift, ideological change, lost referents, and missed experience. Andrés Di Tella’s La televisión y yo (2003) questions the intersections among history, identity, and the media. In it the filmmaker’s identity, fragile and tenuous, is shown to be based upon memories of the television programs of his youth that he missed because of his family’s self-imposed exile during the Onganía regime. The film is a clear critique of globalization’s effects on subjectivity. Albertina Carri’s Los rubios (2003) highlights the tenuousness of her identity by exploring the gaps and silences of memory. It raises key questions about "postmemory" and generational shifts and, more particularly, about how those at a generational remove from the traumas of dictatorship can comprehend these traumatic historical events and their own relationships to them.

State Formation and Social Memory in Sandinista Politics

Tatar, B. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:05 PDT

The 2006 Nicaraguan elections saw a victory for Daniel Ortega, who has continually been identified as an icon of the revolutionary era in which the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) destroyed the Somoza regime and formed a revolutionary government. Ortega’s success can be better understood by viewing the Nicaraguan Revolution as a state formation process in which popular culture is a field of conflict between social groups. The conflict here is between party militants and Sandinista supporters who do not enjoy the privileges of membership. Examination of oral histories reveals that the conflict between militants and popular combatants began in the Insurrection of Monimbó. The FSLN has appropriated and used the social memories of the combatants to produce its own history of that insurrection. Social memories reflect concrete processes of political subordination that result in the production of a dominant political language.

Peasant Movements in Latin America: Looking Back, Moving Ahead

Welch, C., Mancano Fernandes, B. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Agrarian Reform and Social Movements in the Age of Globalization: Latin America at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century

Teubal, M. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Although the implementation of neoliberalism would appear to have ended agrarian reform in Latin America, the problem of land distribution remains as serious as ever. New agrarian and peasant social movements are emerging that involve not just the landless but the excluded, the marginalized, and the unemployed, whether rural or urban. While they focus on resistance to the industrial agrarian model promoted by the trans-national corporations, their concerns extend to a number of democratic issues. They are more autonomous than those of the past, and they do not necessarily see power as a prerequisite for social transformation. They tend to ally themselves with antiglobalization and environmentalist movements in calling for food security and food sovereignty on a global scale.

Campesino and Indigenous Social Organizations Facing Democratic Transition in Mexico, 1938--2006

de Grammont, H. C., Mackinlay, H. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

The relations between Mexican campesino and indigenous organizations, on the one hand, and political parties and the state, on the other, have been characterized by a shift associated with the crisis of corporatist representation and the transition to democracy from a "political" to a "social-political" or a "social" approach. In the political framework, organizations are subordinated to political parties, whereas in the social-political framework both organizations and political parties enjoy autonomy of action and in the social framework only the action of organized civil society is the bearer of change. During the period of transition to democracy, organizations of the first two frameworks chose to formulate their demands and activities within the representative democratic system, while those of the third framework pursued the design of a new society and disavowed the existing political system. While the latter do not lack for arguments in support of their rejection of party politics, they fail to take into account that their survival depends on the existence of a democratic system, and their dismissal of opportunities to create institutions within the system brings them into conflict with other progressive forces.

Social Class and Ethnicity/Race in the Dynamics of Indigenous Peasant Movements: The Case of the CRIC in Colombia

Hristov, J. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Examination of the experiences of one contemporary Latin American indigenous rural movement, the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC), demonstrates the centrality to those experiences of resource expropriation, exploitation, and military repression. At the same time, it draws attention to the ways in which the cultural history of the indigenous people of Cauca has shaped their strategies of resistance. Out of this analysis arises the argument that forms of oppression along the lines of class and ethnicity/race are inextricably linked and that an intersectional approach is required to capture the dynamics and complexities of these movements.

Hacia la Alcaldia: The Municipalization of Peasant Politics in the Andes

Cameron, J. D. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Struggles for the control of rural municipal governments have become an important new element of indigenous and peasant political activism throughout the Andean region. An analysis based on field research in rural Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru conducted between 1999 and 2006 reveals that the control of rural municipal power is an important mechanism for enhancing indigenous and peasant political autonomy, improving rural infrastructure and social services, and fostering a sense of citizenship among historically excluded populations. It is also an important element in the production of administratively competent and politically experienced indigenous and peasant leaders. Indigenous and peasant struggles for municipal political power are not simply products of recent decentralization reforms but have deep historical roots in broader struggles for political autonomy and territorial control. While indigenous and peasant control of municipal power represents an important scaling-up of rural struggles in many locales, it carries with it serious dangers of bureaucratization, co-optation, and the fragmentation of indigenous and peasant struggles.

Ethno-Ecological Identity and the Restructuring of Political Power in Bolivia

Healey, S. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

On January 22, 2006, history was made in Bolivia when Evo Morales was sworn in as Bolivia's president, becoming the first indigenous leader of a rural-based social movement to govern a Latin American country. An exploration of the historical roots and contemporary sources of the decades-long struggle through which Bolivia's marginalized campesino and indigenous population succeeded in gaining the most powerful voice in the national political arena reveals the significance of identity politics combined with the institutional benefits provided by the organized campesino movement. The concept of ethno-ecological identity—a sociopolitical identity shaped by the unique human-environment relationships and struggles of highland and lowland peoples—is key to understanding the dominant political alliances in Bolivia today and visions for the future.

Indigenous Movements and the Andean Dynamics of Ethnicity and Class: Organization, Representation, and Political Practice in the Bolivian Highlands

Pape, I.S.R. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

An analysis of the Andean dynamics of ethnicity and class in historical perspective with a focus on political institutions, decision making, and organizational structure at the communal and subregional levels reveals that, in the Andean context, ethnicity and class are inextricably linked in a societal dynamic that is closely mirrored in the two main organizations representing indigenous people in the Bolivian highlands. As a result, the main differences in organization, representation, and decision-making patterns manifest themselves within organizations, between the higher and lower levels of the hierarchy, rather than between the two organizations. The two organizations cover the same social, economic, and cultural realities; they perform largely the same practical and symbolic functions and occupy the same position in relation to the state. At the communal and subregional levels, the functioning of authority, decision-making patterns, and organizational structures are highly similar in the two organizations, and so are their overarching organizational structures.

Camponeses: Brazil's Peasant Movement in Historical Perspective (1946--2004)

Welch, C. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Comparison of the histories of three leading peasant organizations in the Pontal do Paranapanema region of Brazil—the Partido Comunista do Brasil (PCB) from 1945 to 1964, the Confederação Nacional de Trabalhadores na Agricultura (CONTAG) from 1964 to 1984, and the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST) from 1984 to 2004—suggests that continuity is as important as change in understanding Brazilian peasant movements. The MST has been considered a "new social movement" in that it has eschewed partisan politics, incorporated families as members rather than just male heads of household, had a national scope and a participatory decision-making structure, and been attuned to the international struggle over globalization. Placing it in historical perspective makes it clear, however, that this is not the first time that militants have organized around the concept of peasants as a political identity; that while the representation of peasants in the leadership of contemporary rural labor organizations may be greater than in the past, earlier peasant leaders also struggled on behalf of their class; that earlier peasant organizations had, if not a national presence, a substantial presence in the agricultural states of the time; and that attempts at international organization to unite peasant struggles around the globe are not entirely new. This is not to deny the innovative features of contemporary movements but to suggest that the investigation of past achievements will contribute to a fuller appreciation of these movements' conditions and prospects.

Land Occupations, Violence, and the Politics of Agrarian Reform in Brazil

Hammond, J. L. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Landless farmworkers in Brazil typically occupy land that is legally eligible for expropriation, but the state normally does not expropriate until a land occupation forces the hand of authorities. Landowners and local authorities in the Brazilian countryside frequently respond to occupations with violent repression. Their action reflects the hybrid character of the Brazilian state, modern and rational in cities and at the federal level but, in many rural areas, still clientelistic and marked by nonlegitimate violence. Land occupiers, landowners, and authorities jointly enact a repertoire of collective action that corresponds to the backward character of the state in those areas. The action of the land occupiers, however, is legitimated by the claim of civil disobedience while the efforts to repress them cannot lay claim to legitimacy on that basis.

The Politics of the MST: Autonomous Rural Communities, the State, and Electoral Politics

Vergara-Camus, L. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Examination of the politicization of landless people in the encampments and settlements of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (Landless Rural Workers' Movement—MST) in Brazil suggests that the movement's success rest on the fact that it generates relatively autonomous rural communities organized around autonomous political structures that facilitate mobilization. These communities persist because their members, by protecting their right to land from full commoditization, ensuring an adequate production of food, and avoiding the full monetarization of their subsistence needs, are able to mitigate the effects of the market. In addition, in order to secure the survival and development of its settlements, the MST has integrated participation in institutional politics into its mobilization strategy. However, because of the nature of President Lula's policies, the continuity of the traditional alliance between the MST and the Workers' Party is bound to become a major issue.

Crisis in Latin America

Petras, J. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:36 PDT

Introduction: Political Transition(s), Internationalism, and Relations with the Left

Lutjens, S. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Continuity and Change in Cuba at 50: The Revolution at a Crossroads

Alzugaray Treto, C. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

After Fidel Castro's retirement from his main governmental positions, Cuba finds itself at a crossroads. Two main challenges emerge, one economic and one political. The economic one arises from the need to design a productive system that resolves the imbalance between workers' salaries and the actual distribution of basic goods and the imbalance between different sectors of society without destroying the revolution's social achievements. The political one must deal with the creation of a new form of governance and consensus building in the absence of the revolution's founder and leader. The changes to be introduced require the broadening of democracy. These challenges entail a national deliberation process during the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party that will identify several fundamental issues.

Cuban Internationalism, Che Guevara, and the Survival of Cuba's Socialist Regime

Harris, R. L. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Two of the most important factors that have contributed to the survival of Cuba's socialist regime are its commitment to its socialist ideals and its policies of internationalism. Cuba's socialist regime has provided substantial support for national liberation struggles against imperialism in every region of the world, humanitarian assistance to people in at least 90 countries, and solidarity with progressive governments and a wide array of progressive international movements and organizations around the globe. Cuba's socialist regime, like Che Guevara's ideas and example of socialist internationalism, will survive if the regime continues to support socialist revolutions and to struggle against imperialism. Moreover, Cuba's revolutionary example and its internationalist support for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela will be a fundamental factor in determining the outcome of the current trends toward the radical left in Latin American politics.

Why Has Cuba Become a Difficult Problem for the Left?

de Sousa Santos, B. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Both Cuba and the left—the set of transformative theories and practices that has resisted the expansion of capitalism and the economic, social, political, and cultural relations it has generated—have evolved considerably in the past half century, and the fact that they have evolved in disparate ways has created a difficult problem. Under the current internal conditions, Cuba is no longer a viable solution for the left. The problems it faces, while not insurmountable, will be very difficult to solve. If they are solved within a socialist framework, however, Cuba will be a different Cuba, bringing about a different kind of socialism from the one that failed in the twentieth century and thereby contributing to a renovation of the left that is urgently needed. To bring to fulfillment the ferment of transformation contained in its current political moment, Cuba will need the solidarity of left individuals, organizations, and movements worldwide.

Introduction: Globalization at the Community Level

Gonzalez-Caban, A. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

"Less Than Fully Satisfactory Development Outcomes": International Financial Institutions and Social Unrest in Bolivia

Kohl, B., Farthing, L. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

At five key moments, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pressured weak administrations in Bolivia to adopt policies that had a negative impact on the country's political stability. The principle of "market democracy" had become so sacrosanct within the international financial institutions that they ignored the difficulties their policies created. Changes in policy since 2006, when Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, came to power, reflect more of an accommodation in the face of a shifting context than any significant recognition of neoliberalism's limitations.

From Sugar to Blackberries: Restructuring Agro-export Production in Michoacan, Mexico

Chollett, D. L. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

In recent years, economic crisis in the sugar industry and the closure of an important sugar mill in Michoacán, Mexico, have fostered the entry of transnational agribusinesses that contract with local growers for blackberry production. Land concentration is under way as wealthy growers rent ejido (agrarian-reform) land to grow berries and small-scale growers shift to less capitalized berry production or migrate out of the region. An analysis of the impact of this transition, part of the globalization of the agro-food system, on campesinos, workers, and their communities reveals that a general improvement in the economy has been accompanied by increased inequality, concentration of land ownership, and out-migration, a division of labor by gender that is detrimental to women, and damage to human health and the environment due to increased use of pesticides.

Buying Up Nature: Economic and Social Impacts of Costa Rica's Ecotourism Boom

Horton, L. R. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

From a range of diverse political perspectives, proponents have presented ecotourism as a market-based activity that will provide income and empowerment to local communities while promoting environmental conservation. The experiences of Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, where relative isolation has limited the presence of transnational corporate capital, suggest that the impacts of community-based ecotourism expansion are far from certain and are the outcomes of struggles over access to land and natural resources, economic benefits, and representations of the environment. Ecotourism, while potentially offering new economic opportunities to Latin America's poor majority, may also reproduce preexisting patterns of stratification, particularly where state policies have favored larger and foreign ecotourism enterprises. Ecotourism may also engender processes of ideological resistance and reconfiguration that transform existing relationships of nationality, class, and gender.

Latin American Evangelicals' Attitudes about the United States' Role in the World

Melkonian-Hoover, R., Hoover, D. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Public opinion studies in the United States reveal significant evangelical Protestant support for many U.S. foreign policies. Evangelical Protestantism is growing at a rapid pace in Latin America. Given the historical and contemporary influence of U.S. evangelical Protestants in Latin America (via missionary efforts, denominational ties, etc.), some scholars presume a uniformity of outlook on U.S. policy among evangelicals in the two regions. A broad-based analysis of public opinion in Latin America evaluating links between religious affiliation and support for the U.S. role in the world reveals that, as indicated by recent groundbreaking scholarship, Latin American evangelicals are not more inclined than others to support U.S. foreign policy.

Toward Agency: Photography and Everyday Subjects in Cuzco, 1900--1940

Coronado, J. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

While the work of the photographers of the so-called Cuzco School of Photography was at times instrumentalized by the elite practices of lettered indigenismo that dominated regional and national intellectual culture in the early twentieth century, it presented ways of envisioning the future of everyday Andean subjects that went beyond and contradicted the articulation of regional and national models through the figure of the indio. In effect, the archive of everyday life that this photographic production provides documents how ordinary Andeans negotiated their selves and their environment as they were swept up in modernization's massive transformation of their world. Focusing on the images contained within this archive and the photographic technology that enabled them helps to correct aporias in the cultural history of representational practices in the Andes and in so doing to locate an important site for the construction of subalterns' agency.

Book Review: Mexican American Assimilation, Mexican Migration, and U.S. Power and Exclusion Setting the Record Straight: Edward E. Telles and Vilma Ortiz Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. Robert Joe Stout Why Immigrants Come to America: Braceros, Indocumentados, and the Migra. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. Joseph Nevins Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid. With photos by Mizue Aizeki. San Francisco: Open Media/City Lights Publishers, 2008

Ochoa, G. L. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Commentary: Challenges for the Latin American Left in 2009

Tinker Salas, M. — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:49:14 PDT

Introduction: On the Left with the Cuban Revolution

Lutjens, S. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Theorizing the Cuban Revolution

Foran, J. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

An assessment of the outcomes of the Cuban Revolution in terms of theories of both the causes and outcomes of revolutions in general reveals that that the revolution has been spectacularly successful in terms of ensuring the well-being of the vast majority of Cubans, while at the same time failing to deliver fully democratic institutions and freedoms. The success of the revolution in maintaining itself against U.S. hostility and the deepening of neoliberal global capitalism is attributed to the strength of the political culture that the revolution has forged and carried forward across the generations. The future of the revolution looks bright, especially if the Cuban people find a way to secure deeper democratic gains to match their social and economic ones.

Revolutionary Cuba at 50: Growth with Equity Revisited

Brundenius, C. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

A balance sheet of the Cuban Revolution in terms of growth performance, equity, and the satisfaction of basic needs after 50 years is a mixed bag. Growth performance has been disappointing during most of the past 25 years, although there are today some encouraging new trends. Income distribution that was quite equal in 1985 has seen some deterioration since 1990. Agriculture has been one of the failures, and the question is raised whether current reforms are sufficient to redress this situation. The success stories of the revolution are education, health, and international solidarity.

Che Guevara's Enduring Legacy: Not the Foco But the Theory of Socialist Construction

Yaffe, H. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Che Guevara's most enduring legacy in Cuba has been his indelible contribution to socialist political economy and economic management. Between 1959 and 1965, Guevara set up the budgetary finance system to prove that it was possible and necessary to develop consciousness and productivity simultaneously in the transition to socialism. The system was openly articulated as an alternative to the economic management system operating in the Soviet bloc. Thus, Guevara took up the challenge at the heart of the revolutionary process: achieving economic development with equity from a position of underdevelopment without relying on capitalist mechanisms that would undermine collective consciousness and new social relations. His approach to this problem remains relevant today in Cuba, where his ideas are associated with the vitality of Cuban socialism. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, contemporary developments, reforms, and debates are still best analyzed in terms of their proximity to Guevara's theory of socialist construction.

Manifestations of Humanism in Revolutionary Cuba: Che and the Principle of Universality

Kronenberg, C. W. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

The humanist dimension of revolutionary Cuban society owes much to the thinking and action of Che Guevara, a principal architect of the Cuban Revolution. Examination of Che's association with the humanist tradition of revolutionary thought and, in particular, the ideas of Martí and Marx reveals his resolute devotion to moral standards and human values (as promoted by José Martí) and a revolutionary "theoretical response" to defeating human alienation, oppression, exploitation, and inequality (as advanced by the Marxist tradition). Through his contributions, revolutionary Cuban society embraced a distinctively humanistic ethos despite the efforts of others to imbue it with a dogmatic, cold scholasticism. While some political doctrines have changed since his death, fundamental socialist tenets prevail in Cuba to this day.

Cuban Social Policy: Principal Spheres and Targeted Social Groups

Dominguez, M. I. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

The logic that has guided the development model of the Cuban Revolution since its inception has always prioritized social development. Significant achievements in education, health, and social security have not, however, necessarily been the result of comprehensive and systematic social planning, and therefore development in the social sphere has not progressed evenly. To strengthen what has been achieved, social policy in Cuba must become more holistic. Women and children have been the central focus of social policy from the beginning, but recent changes in Cuba's demographic structure are requiring policy attention to the needs of the elderly. New social programs introduced since 2000 are aimed at improving the quality of life for these three groups.

Opening Paths to Renewed Popular Participation

Evenson, D. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Recent events and initiatives advance the dynamic of collective participation in decision making in Cuba. The necessity of such advancement has been voiced in many sectors in Cuba for more than a decade. Over time, the multiple spaces created for broad-based participation in the 1960s turned into formalisms under the weight of centralization and hierarchical decision-making structures. Since the 1990s, programs have emerged in diverse sectors to facilitate and cultivate experiences of collective participation, and initiatives by the government, the party, the press, and organizations have stimulated activities in that direction. Given the multiple spaces that exist for broad public participation in Cuba, these programs have the potential for the development of an expansive culture of debate.

Participation and Decision Making in Local Spaces in Cuba: Notes for a Debate on the Challenges Facing Popular Power after 30 Years

Napoles Rodriguez, E. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Popular participation is one of the foundational principles of Cuba's political and social project, and the system of Popular Power—an intricate network of decision-making bodies at various levels—is its richest expression. A case study of the system as it operates in one municipality in Havana from the perspective of communication studies reveals its democratic-participatory possibilities. At the same time, it points to organizational, structural, and even subjective elements that threaten its practical implementation. These problems have not escaped the attention of the National Assembly of Popular Power, which has produced a detailed list of steps to be taken to improve the articulation of the system's various institutional components. A more participatory Popular Power, with increasingly horizontal and inclusive practices, would play a crucial role in a genuine project of social self-government.

The Cuban Revolution and the New Latin American Leadership: A View from Its Utopias

Suarez Salazar, L. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

From the early days of the revolutionary triumph of January 1959, Cuba has embraced the dream of Latin American freedom and solidarity. It has accordingly given priority to supporting Latin American and Caribbean revolutionary movements engaged in taking political power through armed struggle and the construction of socialism and groups involved in other forms of struggle for democracy, national liberation, and social justice. At the same time, it has pursued policies with regard to the reformist civilian governments of the region that have helped to reduce the influence of U.S. administrations and their hemispheric allies. It has repeatedly reaffirmed its desire for political and economic integration with the countries of the region as a step toward true independence in the face of neoliberal globalization. With the emergence in the region of new leftist leadership seeking postneoliberal economic alternatives and participatory democracy, its cooperative relations with other Latin American countries have strengthened and deepened.

Cuban Exceptionalism: A Personal View

Cole, K. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

The Municipal University Centers: Past, Present, and Future

Gonzalez Corona, J. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Cuban Solidarity and Disaster Response

Nimtz, A. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Thoughts on Cuban Education

Sabina, E. M. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:11 PDT

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution

Prevost, G. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:12 PDT

Book Review: Reading the State and Civil Society: Recent Books about Cuba

Bengelsdorf, C. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:12 PDT

Recent Books of Interest on Cuba

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:12 PDT

Articles and Reviews on Cuba in Latin American Perspectives, 1974--2008

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:12 PDT