The Perverse Justice of São Paulo’s Slums
Paperback, 192 pages Graham Denyer Willis doesn’t go as far as calling Brazil a failed state in his book The Killing Consensus, but anyone looking to support such a claim would find plenty of evidence in this examination of a São Paulo crime syndicate and the underpaid and often corrupt homicide investigation unit tasked with … Read more
Dr. Douglas Rodrigues on Protecting the Amazon’s Remaining Isolated Peoples
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here I have worked as a doctor and researcher with indigenous communities in central Brazil’s Xingu National Park since 1981, and I have witnessed how contact with vulnerable, isolated groups results in high rates of violence, disease and … Read more
Stephen Corry on Protecting the Amazon’s Remaining Isolated Peoples
The only way to protect uncontacted tribal peoples is to ensure their lands are properly secured. If their territories are not invaded and stolen, they have a good chance of survival; when their lands are taken, they are unlikely to survive at all. There are many examples where territories have been protected, and Survival International … Read more
Mark J. Plotkin on Protecting the Amazon’s Remaining Isolated Peoples
The U.S. writer H.L. Mencken famously remarked, “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and wrong.” The question of how to protect the Amazon’s isolated tribes — which encompasses such difficult issues as human rights, rain forest conservation, preservation of cultural integrity, sustainable development, national sovereignty and addressing threats … Read more
A Colombian Recipe for Peace and Reconciliation
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Elcielo, in Medellín, stands out for more than the quality of its food. One of Latin America’s top 50 restaurants, it has also become a symbol of Colombia’s efforts to return to normalcy after more than five … Read more
10 Things to Do in Quito, Ecuador
Ecuador has embarked on a strategic campaign to draw international visitors, spending a record $60 million on tourism in 2014. Rising from the remains of the Inca empire, with a newly opened airport and a subway in the works, Ecuador’s capital blends colonial history, Andean culture and contemporary infrastructure. 1. Go colonial Quito’s historic center, … Read more
Corona Capital
Eighty thousand people trudging around a rain-lashed muddy field may sound like a scene from a bleak World War I docudrama, but it’s actually a pretty fair description of last year’s Corona Capital music festival in Mexico City. The perseverance of the fans in the face of a meteorological wet blanket says something about the … Read more
Film Review: Dólares de Arena
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here “I like your body, did you know?” Anne tells Noelí as they lie in bed with the sun shining through the windows. “How much does it cost?” The scene occurs toward the beginning of Sand Dollars, a … Read more
The Food World’s Hottest Ingredient Has “Roots” in Seduction
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here What began as an aromatic oil used by indigenous tribes in the art of seduction has quickly become one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most popular exports. At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the priprioca, a grass-like … Read more
Hello! from the Amazon’s Noise Capital
A visitor to the Amazon rain forest might expect to hear the call of birds, the buzz of insects and the screech of monkeys — but probably not car horns and roaring motors. Yet those are the predominant sounds echoing through the streets of Iquitos, a metropolis deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Iquitos has a … Read more
Turning a Slash-and-Burn Capital into One of the Amazon’s Greenest Places
In 2007, the Brazilian government named the municipality of Paragominas, in Pará state, one of the biggest culprits for deforestation of the Amazon. Ranchers there were responsible for the loss of 156 square miles of forest per year. But just a few years later, Paragominas was being hailed as a model for sustainable development in … Read more
Vamos reduzir o desmatamento a zero. Saiba como.
Read in English Quando Theodore Roosevelt explorou a Amazônia um século atrás, ele ficou encantado com o poderoso rio que corria “de oeste a leste, do poente à aurora, dos Andes ao Atlântico”. No diário de viagem do ex-presidente americano, Nas selvas do Brasil, de 1914, ele descreve poeticamente “as frondosas árvores, o emaranhado de … Read more
Let’s Cut Amazon Deforestation to Zero. Here’s How.
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Versão em português When Theodore Roosevelt explored the Amazon a century ago, he was enthralled by the mighty river that ran “from west to east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic.” … Read more
Brazil Progressing in Fight Against Deforestation, Says Environment Minister
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here A milestone has been reached in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon. Over the last five years, Brazil has seen the lowest deforestation rates since measurements began in 1988 — capping more than 10 years of … Read more
A Train through the Amazon…What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Mad Maria, by the Brazilian author Márcio Souza, is not a new book. But 35 years after its publication, this historical novel about building a railway through the Amazon feels more relevant than ever. Brazil, Peru and … Read more
