Chilean Folk Music
In Chile, a gentler style of music is starting to flow through venues that were originally opened to accommodate hard rock guitar riffs. Dubbed Nu Folk, it is the sound of a folk music revival that springs from both traditional Andean music and the works of world-renowned Chilean artists such as Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara … Read more
Rising Tide: On the Islands of the Kuna
Early one morning last October, my husband and I boarded a small 20-seater plane in Panama City and headed to Usdup, a village in the Kuna Yala archipelago. The fog was receding through mountain valleys as the sun peeked over the horizon. Only 45 minutes northeast of the capital, this island was a world away. … Read more
U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchange
Many of the restrictions on educational and cultural travel to Cuba enacted by former President George W. Bush officially remain in place, even under President Barack Obama. But there is evidence that travel by U.S. and Cuban academics, musicians, artists, writers, and athletes is growing. Since 2009, a number of Cuban musicians and scholars have … Read more
No Ordinary Trade Agreement
Anyone who remembers the 2004 debate in the U.S. Congress over the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) likely recalls a contentious and emotional tug of war over the commercial merits and the adequacy of labor provisions in the bill. Nearly five years, $84 million to support labor capacity building and more than … Read more
Eight Steps to Reduce Crime
Twenty years ago, U.S. citizens had lost confidence in our ability to control crime and disorder on the streets of our cities. Urban crime had been rising steadily since the 1960s, and by the late 1980s, violent crime appeared to be taking off at an accelerating rate. The lethal combination of lucrative narcotics markets driven … Read more
Dirty Money
Politics has long been a magnet for drug money in Latin America. In the 1970s, Costa Rican politicians were accused of accepting contributions from the late Robert Vesco, a U.S. financier who settled in Costa Rica after fleeing prosecution at home. Vesco, some of whose money purportedly came from heroin smuggling, was a major backer … Read more
Let’s Get Engaged
The future of inter-American affairs is anything but certain. Our divisions and struggles are not new, but our troubles and interests have become increasingly intertwined. The challenges facing our hemisphere—poverty and inequality, political stability and citizen insecurity—have not dissipated. But for too long, we have been unable to settle our differences to find common ground … Read more
Did Success Spoil the [i]Concertación[/i]?
Latin America’s political pendulum has shifted markedly to the Left in the last decade, with presidents of populist or social democratic bents sweeping into power across the region. But some analysts have pointed to the election of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera as the beginning of what could be a swing back to the Right. They’re … Read more
[i]Migration from the Mexican Mixteca: A Transnational community in Oaxaca and California[/i] edited by Wayne A. Cornelius, David Fitzgerald, Jorge Hernández-Díaz, and Scott Borger
Indigenous people have been migrating to the U.S. from Oaxaca for nearly a century. The first documented large-scale migration began in 1942, when the Bracero Program opened the U.S. border to temporary agricultural workers from Mexico. Although that program ended in 1966, the flow northward continues. But there have been few academic studies exploring how … Read more
[i]Political Competition, Partisanship, and Policy Making in Latin America Public Utilities[/i] by Maria Victoria Murillo
International markets, in today’s inter-connected world, play an increasingly important role in shaping domestic economic policy. In Latin America, the impact of economic globalization is especially apparent. But while Latin America scholars have long assumed connections between international political economy and domestic politics, they have only now begun to rigorously explore the linkage. Maria Victoria … Read more
[i]Kissinger e o Brasil[/i] by Matias Spektor
These days it seems Brazil can do little wrong in Washington. But what happened the last time the South American giant was in vogue in U.S. policy circles? This is the subject of Matias Spektor’s Kissinger e o Brasil (Kissinger and Brazil), a fascinating and insightful book by the Argentine-born professor of international relations at … Read more
Medellín: Front Line of Colombia’s Challenges
Nestled in the Andean foothills of northwestern Colombia, more than 250 miles of mountainous terrain from Bogotá, Medellín is a city transformed. A unique combination of progressive businesses, an active and engaged civil society and visionary political leaders have worked together to lead what was once the poster child for narcotics trafficking, lawlessness, corruption, and … Read more
From the Think Tanks
The online Plataforma Democrática library—featured in the Spring 2009 AQ—has reached a new milestone: 8,000 freely-available publications on Latin American democracy. Plus, a new video library has over 50 hours of conference footage An English-language Web portal launched by the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute in November 2009 provides up-to-the-minute analysis on topics ranging from … Read more
The Environment: Green Sandals
Brazil, already a world leader in biofuels, has found a way to make walking both comfortable and eco-friendly. Sandals made from recycled tires by Goóc, a company founded in 2004 by a Thai refugee, have attracted customers from Angola to the United States. Today the company has factories in São Paulo and Bahia. Over three … Read more
Film: [i]La Hora Cero[/i]
La Hora Cero (The Zero Hour), a movie set and filmed in Caracas, is the big-screen debut of Venezuelan-born and U.S.-raised director Diego Velasco, whose short films have won over 26 awards. Set during the real-life, 24-hour national health strike that paralyzed the city’s public hospitals in 1996, it follows a fictional hitman (sicario) who … Read more
