North America Archives - Page 50 of 61

Snubbing the U.S., Brazil Turns its Foreign Policy to the Global South

Brazil’s postponement of its White House state dinner–seen as a long-awaited wedding ceremony for the two countries after a very drawn out courtship–may signal more than just President Rousseff’s anger with revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on her personal life and Petrobrás, the state oil company. Since the postponement … Read more

Monday Memo: Protesters & Police Clash in Brazil – Train Crashes in Buenos Aires – Hurricane Raymond Nears Mexico – Bachelet Leads Polls in Chile – U.S. Surveillance in Mexico

Likely top stories this week: Protesters clash with Brazilian police forces in Rio de Janeiro; A commuter train crash injures 30 in Buenos Aires; Hurricane Raymond builds strength near Mexico’s Pacific coast; Michele Bachelet leads the polls in next month’s presidential elections in Chile; Newly leaked documents reveal that the U.S. spied on former Mexican … Read more

Los migrantes que no importan by Óscar Martínez

In Los migrantes que no importan (The Migrants that Don’t Matter), Óscar Martínez depicts a dark side of Mexico that few people know. The book, based on stories published in El Faro—an El Salvadoran digital newspaper whose founder is interviewed on page 53 of AQ—describes the hardships experienced by thousands of undocumented Central American migrants … Read more

Education: Dual Language Instruction in the United States

A non-English speaker who walked into a U.S. classroom today may well feel at home. As the U.S. has become less monolingual, so has classroom instruction. Students today are just as likely to recite their multiplication tables in any number of languages other than English. Over the past five decades, dual language programs in elementary, … Read more

Infrastructure: U.S. Seaport Expansion

U.S. seaports are in an enhancement and expansion mode. While the widening of the Panama Canal may serve as the catalyst for some of the anticipated $9.2 billion in annual facilities investment in the foreseeable future, this is only part of the story. Several other factors are propelling this huge investment of private capital into … Read more

Arts Innovator: Gopher Illustrated, Venezuela and the United States

In the age of on-demand entertainment and Internet memes, Latin America’s rich cultural achievements often get lost in the cloud of information available in the English-speaking world. But Michelle Benaím Steiner, 26, and Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz, 31—two Austin, Texas–based Venezuelans—have found a way to penetrate the cloud: start their own print journal. The two editorial and … Read more

El Barrio Tours

East Harlem—also known as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio—located in northeastern Manhattan, has long been a destination for immigrants settling in New York City. Once a hub for recent arrivals from Germany and Italy, the neighborhood became a primarily Puerto Rican enclave after World War II. Andrew Padilla, a 23-yearold filmmaker who was born and … Read more

Skip Traffic with EcoBici

In 1992, Mexico City was dubbed “the most polluted city on the planet” by the United Nations. Ever since, city officials have been struggling to lose that tag. One of their most innovative (and successful) ideas is a bicycle-sharing program called EcoBici. Not only is EcoBici, launched in February 2010, the largest bikeshare system in … Read more

Squeeze Play

From the high-profile cases of the Wikileaker U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) and the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden to a series of lesser-known cases, the U.S. government has increased the investigation and prosecution of officials who have leaked government information. In many of these cases, the recipient of the … Read more

Panorama

Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and events from around the hemisphere with AQ‘s Panorama. Each issue, AQ packs its bags and offers readers travel tips on a new Americas destination.

Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s Second Wind

While thousands of federal workers in the U.S. went back to work today after grappling with the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis, Canada’s Parliament has just now reopened for business, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s second Throne Speech since his party won a majority government mandate in May 2011. Coming at mid-term, the speech … Read more

Policy Updates

A snapshot of policy trends and successes in the region.

Innovators

Some of our hemisphere’s emerging leaders in politics, business, civil society, and the arts.

Deadly Gas Explosion in Mexico

Six people were reported dead after a massive gas explosion at a natural gas storage plant near Puebla, Mexico yesterday. Over 100 local residents were immediately evacuated from the surrounding areas and a major highway connecting Mexico City and Veracruz was closed for over four hours. Officials have not yet confirmed what caused the two … Read more

Latin America’s New Friend, Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen, nominated by President Obama last week to be the new chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, might not know it yet, but she has friends in high places in Latin America. This is because many in the region rightly believe that Yellen’s forecasted doveishness will give Latin America time to make the necessary … Read more