Heart-Stopping U.S. Food Festivals
State fairs are traditional summertime family attractions across the United States. With agricultural themes, rodeos, carnival rides, and music, they’re also notorious for their artery-clogging food. The national winner in the latter category is the Texas State Fair, which attracts 2.6 million visitors every September to a competition for the most “original” deep-fried concoctions. Some … Read more
10 Things to Do: Ponce, Puerto Rico
Located on the southern coast, Ponce—La Perla del Sur (the Pearl of the South)—is Puerto Rico’s second-largest city. Founded in 1692 by Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the legendary Spanish explorer’s great-grandson, Ponce’s museums and colonial buildings date to when it was Spain’s capital for the island’s southern region. 1. Stroll through Plaza las … Read more
American Sabor
Rhythms of salsa, merengue, boogaloo, and Cuban son will be drifting out of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts this summer as part of the Experience Music Project’s American Sabor, a traveling exhibit that celebrates the influence of Latino musicians on music and culture in the United States. The exhibit, sponsored by … Read more
World Games, Cali
In July 2013, athletes from all over the world will gather to compete for gold medals and a chance to make their country proud. This isn’t the Olympics, but the World Games—a quadrennial competition that highlights unconventional sports such as artistic roller skating, canoe polo, sumo wrestling, tug of war, billiards, and parachuting. This year’s … Read more
Mexico is Still Waiting for “Los Bitles”
The Beatles never played a concert in Mexico, yet no other country in the region has been able to match its Beatlemania. Forty-three years after the band dissolved, Mexico boasts more than 50 Beatles tribute bands and holds the record for radio time—12 hours weekly—dedicated to music of “Los Bitles,” as they are known in … Read more
Emerging Debt Markets: Still on Strong Footing
The search for higher returns has drawn international investors in droves to emerging market debt and to Latin American debt markets, specifically during the past few years. Data collected by EPFR Global show that money flows toward emerging market bond funds quadrupled from 2011 to 2012—a trend that remained strong through May 2013. In Latin … Read more
Telecommunications: Mexico’s New Reform
On June 10, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a constitutional amendment that transformed the government’s role in telecommunications and expanded its power to curtail media monopolies. The amendment has seismic potential for Mexico’s telecom industry and for its political future. One of two flagship reforms that emerged from the Pacto por México, an informal … Read more
E-Commerce: Easing Cross-Border E-Commerce
The age of digital commerce is dawning in Latin America, with cross-border marketers looking to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Brazil as opportunities to connect with online shoppers. Will the region capitalize on its e-commerce potential? The cross-border e-commerce math is simple. More online traffic means more sales opportunities, especially for digitally … Read more
The Limits of Legacy: The Post-Chávez Challenge and Electoral Legitimacy
In April 14, Venezuelans turned out en masse for a special presidential election. More than 79 percent of the electorate voted to fill the 2013–2019 term left vacant by Hugo Chávez’ March 5 death from cancer. The photo-finish surprised and captivated the country, with interim President Nicolás Maduro defeating opposition Governor Henrique Capriles by a … Read more
30,000 and Counting: The Long and Winding Road of Peace-Building in Colombia
After more than half a century of conflict, efforts to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate Colombia’s warring groups are just beginning to take hold. While a few small left-wing guerrilla groups were demobilized in the 1990s, successful reintegration of thousands of ex-combatants—most of them right-wing paramilitaries—into peaceful society has remained elusive. But that seems to be … Read more
Some Contradictions in Contemporary Cuban Economic Development
In an August 2010 address to the Cuban National Assembly, President Raúl Castro unveiled a plan that would irrevocably alter the Caribbean nation’s trajectory. As part of a broader package of economic changes to increase productivity and exports in a number of sectors, the government planned to lay off 1 million state workers over the … Read more
Affirmative Action in the Americas
Read a sidebar on affirmative action and public opinion in the hemisphere. The Americas present many contrasting approaches to affirmative action. In the United States, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its constitutionality, while at the same time narrowing the ability to use race in the Fisher v. Texas case. In contrast, several Latin American countries are … Read more
Is Brazil the Energy Power of the Future (and always will be)?
Read sidebars on wind, solar and geothermal energy. Brazil’s pro-álcool (pro alcohol) policy, which for decades had sought to substitute gasoline with locally produced sugarcane ethanol—a goal once dismissed as folly—suddenly became a world model. Brazil was hailed as the “Saudi Arabia of biofuels,” and massive investment plans were launched. That year, my firm, Garten-Rothkopf, … Read more
Power Shift
The energy landscape in the Americas has shifted dramatically in just a few years. Only a decade ago, experts expected most of the world’s new oil supplies to come from the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Now the odds are that most of the growth in global oil supplies will come from North … Read more
The Irrelevance of Global Climate Talks
Climate change has been called the biggest global challenge of the current generation. As scientific uncertainty has diminished, climate change has emerged as an important item on the international institutional agenda. But efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize the effects of human-caused climate change through binding international agreements often miss key emitter nations … Read more
