AQ Interview: Heraldo Muñoz
Correction appended below AMERICAS QUARTERLY: What are Chile’s views on bringing together the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur? HERALDO MUÑOZ: Chile has proposed and led an initiative to strengthen the different integration schemes of Latin America with the idea of improving consultation and dialogue—an effort we have called “convergence in diversity.” True, there are different economic … Read more
The Peruvian Success Story
Trade and investment are vital for a middle-income economy like Peru, which requires access to export markets and a steady supply of external capital flows in order to thrive. Peru’s foreign trade of goods and services measured by value is equivalent to 48 percent of its GDP.1 For over a decade, Peru has sustained an … Read more
Getting to Win-Win: FTAs in the Americas
Over the past several decades, many of the hemisphere’s trade agreements have included impressively robust provisions on labor and the environment, but gaps in both implementation and enforcement have raised concerns about their effectiveness. Those concerns are especially timely as the region’s economic policymakers begin discussing efforts to facilitate greater international trade and investment, such … Read more
From Stumbling Blocks to Building Blocs
With negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nearing a conclusion, proponents of free trade are increasingly optimistic about the numerous trade and commercial opportunities this new pact—which would link 12 Pacific Rim countries in a free-trade bloc—will create. Other regional trade discussions, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the more aspirational Free … Read more
Marco Antonio Ramírez, Peru
“In Peru, blacks are soccer and volleyball players, musicians, dancers, or policemen, but they never become doctors, mayors or presidents,” says Marco Antonio Ramírez. “We need to change the mindset.” At just 23, Ramírez is the president of Ashanti— an Afro-Peruvian youth organization dedicated to combating racism and discrimination against Afro-descendants—and believes his community can … Read more
Latoya Nugent, Jamaica
Correction appended below A few years after publicly coming out as a lesbian, Latoya Nugent, 33, was defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities in Jamaica. In July 2013, she became the education and training manager at J-FLAG—the island’s leading LGBT rights organization. Those who knew her weren’t surprised. Though her … Read more
José Santos Caicedo, Colombia
Ethnicity is more than just an identity issue; it’s an ethical one. José Santos Caicedo, a national coordinator of the Proceso Nacional de Comunidades Negras (Black Communities Process— PCN)—an umbrella group of more than 110 Afro-Colombian grassroots organizations that seek to defend the territorial, cultural and human rights of Afro-Colombians—is a vivid example: “You do … Read more
Gregoria Flores, United States
While many were surprised when tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children arrived at the U.S. southern border seeking asylum last year, it had a sadly familiar resonance for Gregoria Flores. “I know what it’s like to apply for asylum here when you have no one supporting you,” said Flores, 47, who arrived alone … Read more
Edgardo Ortuño, Uruguay
First black member of parliament, undersecretary and interim minister of industry and energy, champion of Afro-Uruguayan culture—those are Edgardo Ortuño’s historic achievements in a country where the marginalization of Afro-descendants, comprising approximately 10 percent of Uruguay’s population, remains a major challenge.1 Ortuño, 45, who grew up in a working- class neighborhood in Montevideo, leveraged his … Read more
Christiane Taubira, French Guiana
Christiane Taubira has been France’s minister of justice since May 2012—a position that has turned her into a symbol for the left and a target for the right. She most famously made headlines during the heated debates in parliament and in the streets, leading to the legalization of same-sex marriage in France in May 2013. … Read more
AQ Afro-Descendant Innovators: Alessandra Ramos, Brazil
As a black trans woman in Brazil, Alessandra Ramos fights discrimination on two fronts
Ask the Experts: Trade is Back!
Antoni Estevadeordal answers: The June 2015 summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) made clear that countries on both sides of the Atlantic are thinking of ways to revamp their increasingly stagnant political and economic ties. While Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) exports to the EU … Read more
Dispatches: Lost in the Maze
As Latin American children play in the front room of an office in Brixton in London’s southern borough of Lambeth, their parents are equally raucous in the back, attending a February 2015 workshop hosted by a U.K.-based NGO called the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation (IRMO). There isn’t enough space in the low-ceilinged, dimly lit … Read more
Rescuing Mexico’s Floating Gardens
Technicolor boats bumping their way along crowded canals. Floating mariachis. Big Gulp-size micheladas. For many visitors—whether they come from across town or across the globe—this trinity of elements is at the core of Xochimilco’s appeal. Forgotten by most is the fact that the rows of chinampas (manmade islands) that form the famous canals of this … Read more
Festival: Tango Buenos Aires Festival y Mundial
Tango is loved the world over, but if you’re looking for a city to host a competition for the world’s greatest dancers, there’s really only one candidate: Buenos Aires. Every August, Argentina’s capital draws thousands of dancers, musicians and enthusiasts from around the world for the Tango Buenos Aires Festival y Mundial from August 17 … Read more
