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This digital document is an article from Social Education, published by National Council for the Social Studies on May 1, 2002. The length of the article is 2310 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Resources for Latin American cultural studies.
Author: Ron W. Wilhelm
Publication: Social Education (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2002
Publisher: National Council for the Social Studies
Volume: 66Issue: 4Page: 221(3)

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Professor Kim Clark explores a time period and country for which little has been published in English. By studying the dimensions of politics and culture as one, Professor Clark argues that the local railroad case served as a demonstration of some of the problems that were most important during the liberal period.

At the turn of the century, diverse political, economic, and social conditions divided Ecuador. During the construction of the Guayaquil-Quito Railway, the people of Ecuador faced the challenge of working together. The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895-1930 examines local, regional, and national perspectives on the building of the railway and analyzes the contradictory processes of national incorporation.

Rather than examining the formation of Ecuador’s national identity, Professor Clark analyzes the methods of two groups working on the same project but with opposing goals. The elite landowners of the highlands were concerned with the transportation of their agricultural products to the coast, while the agro-export elite of the coast were more interested in forming a labor market. Because the underlying objectives were contradictory, only a partial consensus was reached on the nature of national development. This tense agreement channeled the conflicting opinions but did not eliminate them. The Redemptive Work is the first text to deal with these complex issues in Ecuador’s history. ... Read more

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Modernity in the Andes
Geographically Ecuador has a long coast with a narrow coastal plane. Moving eastward, high mountains restrict access to the Alto Plano and the Amazon jungles beyond accentuate climate variations. Large indigenous populations share a common Inca heritage and historically Ecuador was a Spanish colony. As Ecuador was transformed and modernized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, elites envisioned national reform. The discourse was about how a railroad could tie the country together. Historically, it should be noted, railroads are marked as the quintessential icon of modernity in Latin America.

A. Kim Clark traces the development and construction of the rail link between Guayaquil, a port city on the coast and Quito, the capital in the interior. The railroad was seen as redeeming because it represented "for Ecuador, her moral resurrection and emancipation as a people."(43) Differences between the "principal dominant groups in Ecuador - the landowning elite of the highlands and the agro-export elite of the coast" (2) were overcome as each group perceived an advantage from the railroad. The insular land holding elite in the interior were tempted by expanding markets for their crops and livestock. Coastal elites, on the other hand, badly need labor to produce cocoa for export. The railroad alone was a technological achievement, but more significantly it served as a unifying link for nation building.

Clark notes three important aspects of the railroad in Ecuador: "First, the construction of the railway was associated with important political-economic transformations in Ecuador.... Second, the railway, and the broader discourse of movement and connection that surrounded it, allowed for consensus about the nature of national development....Third, the processes of national economic, political, and social integration through the railway had contradictory and uneven effects on different social groups and regions."(1-2)

If constructing the railroad was fraught with difficulty, the discourse necessary to achieve a consensus to even build it, likewise was not easy. It was the conservative leader, Gabriel Moreno, who came up with the very liberal idea to develop road and rail transportation as a means of uniting the country. Unlike most other Latin American countries, he did this by bringing the church and state closer together, rather than using the military to pressure the country toward modernization. (24)

Not until 1895 when General Eloy Alfaro and other coastal liberals wrested power from the dominant conservatives in Quito did Ecuador finish the task when they contracted with North American entrepreneur Archer Harmon. "The major difficulty was...due to the climatic conditions and the nature of the rocks." (36) When the Guayaquil-Quito link was inauguration in 1908, Ecuadorian liberals preened triumphantly. Hope for the nation sprang from optimism for national unity when the railroad opened up the interior to bring people together.

Clearly the building of the railroad was redeeming in that Ecuador was for all practical purposes disunited by geographic and ideological barriers. High mountains had separated the costal lowlands from the plateau and the more insular interior elites differed in outlook from the progressive export oriented coastal elites. As such the railroad was an "arena" of discourse between a geographical and ideological divide. The quickening of movement and communication would help promote the idea of an Ecuadorian national identity.

In reading The Redemptive Work, there is very little discussion directly about consumption as a mechanism of modernization, but in talking about the effect of the railroad on labor, agriculture, urbanization, movement, and connection, it is possible to extract some clues from the text.
Cocoa production for export did little to stimulate Ecuador's domestic economy. There was little foreign investment and the capital generated went overseas or went to support a luxurious life style for a few local elites. Cocoa production did stimulate growth in the population of Guayaquil where labor was in short supply due to the climate and illness associated with coastal living. Relatively high wages were offered to laborers there, compared to agricultural workers in the interior. Similarly higher wages for rail workers did not translate into more consumption. Intermediaries took a cut and left the workers with about half of their pay.

Other factors did not help build an internal economy. "As cocoa production expanded on the coast, it did not mean that highland food production was developed through transfer of earnings from the export sector to the non-export economy." (27) Despite the fact that Ecuador was an agricultural country, it was cheaper to import foreign food staples than to acquire them from the interior. What little industry developed had an agricultural basis and this was not significant.

The railroad did create a labor market for people from the interior to seek work on the coast and, by means of the railroad, interior elites were able to expand internal agricultural and livestock markets while easing access to imported goods, which presumably benefiting themselves more than others. Exactly how these factors effected the consumption patterns of peasants and indigenous people is unclear, but most likely it was minimal.

Nevertheless Clark concludes, "The railway stimulated the internal market by improving transportation in three ways. First, it allowed rapid transportation, which facilitated the commercialization of fresh vegetables and dairy products in coastal cities and towns. Second, the railway made it possible to transport heavy or bulky products such as onions, potatoes, grains, and corn. Third, the reduced cost of transportation permitted an increase in the profit margins for certain products destined for the internal market: livestock, dairy products, and some legumes (especially lentils and peas)." (110)

Clark makes one explicit reference to expanding the internal market in a program of the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura to create additional consumers along with the elimination of debt peonage. Underscoring its proposals was a concern that "indigenous peasants frittered away their earnings in unproductive ways." (128) Thismove to expand consumerism also served as a racist argument against Chinese merchants moving to Quito, accusing them of being "'meager consumers'" and "restricting costs to such extremes that they prevent legitimate competition'" (168-69) In this instance it does not seem the railroad was redemptive. ... Read more

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This innovative history utilizes the built environment as a means of tracing the path of the consolidation of the Mexican Revolution. Patrice Olsen considers the physical changes in Mexico City's built environment, using them to evaluate the extent and direction of regime consolidation of successive governments during the critical period from 1920 to 1940. Architects, engineers, politicians, and entrepreneurs alike expressed visions of what modern Mexico should be and sought to improve the nation through an array of initiatives. Their successes and failures, and thus the direction of the revolution, is written in the capital city. The author's interdisciplinary approach offers an important contribution to the study of Mexican political history; and the aesthetics of modernity. ... Read more

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Author Patrice Elizabeth Olsen gives an in-depth and intriguing account of how the political and sociological milieu of post-Revolution Mexico City had a profound effect on the city's built environment.A must-read for any student of 20th century Mexico, the book is also an enjoyable way to understand this era of Mexican history for the more casual reader. ... Read more

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While there is a strongly held belief that Latin American societies are highly discriminatory, the economic profession has found relatively little evidence for this perception, and until recently other social sciences had prevailed in the discussion of this timely and relevant topic. The development of new tools for analyzing the economic mechanisms underlying discrimination, however, has opened up several avenues for research.This book presents a set of studies on contemporary discrimination in Latin America that takes advantage of these new tools by focusing on social interactions that range from cooperation, group formation, and the impact of migration in poor families to specific markets such as housing and labor. The techniques applied include traditional regression analysis, experimental approaches, and audit studies, as well as structural methods. This wide range of analytical approaches leads to findings that confirm some of the common perceptions regarding discrimination but challenge the conventional wisdom in other regards.In some instances the long-held conventional wisdom may not hold at all. Latin Americans do not discriminate more or less than inhabitants of other regions, and the discrimination that does occur appears largely to stem from lack of information on individuals a result of great interest in colleges and universities that teach courses on Latin American development both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Furthermore, this book s findings extend to the political arena, as they challenge standard policies that have been ineffective for decades. Finally, this book should be of interest to researchers, as the empirical methods employed are at the vanguard of the profession. In fact, in addition to the contribution that this volume makes to the literature on discrimination, it also has the potential to contribute more broadly to labor economics, development economics and experimental economics, as well as to Latin American studies. ... Read more

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"When things move, things change." Starting from this deceptively simple premise, Silvia Spitta opens a fascinating window onto the profound displacements and transformations that have occurred over the six centuries since material objects and human subjects began circulating between Europe and the Americas.

This extended reflection on the dynamics of misplacement starts with the European practice of collecting objects from the Americas into Wunderkammern, literally "cabinets of wonders." Stripped of all identifying contexts, these exuberant collections, including the famous Real Gabinete de Historia Natural de Madrid, upset European certainties, forcing a reorganization of knowledge that gave rise to scientific inquiry and to the epistemological shift we call modernity. In contrast, cults such as that of the Virgin of Guadalupe arose out of the reverse migration from Europe to the Americas. The ultimate marker of mestizo identity in Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe is now fast crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and miracles are increasingly being reported. Misplaced Objects then concludes with the more intimate and familial collections and recollections of Cuban and Mexican American artists and writers that are contributing to the Latinization of the United States.

Beautifully illustrated and radically interdisciplinary, Misplaced Objects clearly demonstrates that it is not the awed viewer, but rather the misplaced object itself that unsettles our certainties, allowing new meanings to emerge.

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Brazil's first World Cup win since 1970 in the United States this year, promoted widespread interest in international fooball and the Latin-American game. This book combines social history and reportage to explore the place of the world's most popular game in the life of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The book examines the historical and political role of football on an international level, from colonial times to the present, up to and including the controversial Argentina appearance in the World Cup Final of 1990. It reveals how various dictators have used the game to ensure political passivity, and considers whether the game is declining in importance in Latin America, both as a spectator and a participatory sport. Tony Mason is the author of "Sport in Britain: A Social History" and "Association Football and English Society". ... Read more

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Critiques lingering manifestations of colonialism in contemporary Latin America. ... Read more

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Considers the problems of uneven development in Latin America where some areas have become very industrialised and urbanised with high rates of economic growth. This growth has brought prosperity to a minority, but for the mass of people, poverty and unemployment remain and inequality seems to be greater than ever. This text places emphasis on society and the social implications of this path of development; argues that development cannot be thought of solely in economic terms, but must embrace the welfare of the people; relates Latin America to development issues, and to the rest of the Third World; new sections on environment, gender issues and health. ... Read more

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The regime of Juan Perón is one of the most studiedtopics of Argentina’s contemporary history.This new book—anEnglish translation of a highly popular, critically acclaimed Spanishlanguage edition—provides a new perspective on the intriguingArgentinian leader.

Mariano Plotkin’s cultural approach makes Perón’s popularityunderstandable because it goes beyond Perón’s charismatic appeal andanalyzes the Peronist mechanisms used to generate political consentand mass mobilization.Mañana es San Perón is the first book to focuson the cultural and symbolic dimensions of Peronism and populism.Plotkin also presents important material for the study of populism andthe modern state in this region.

Mañana es San Perón explores the creation of myths, symbols, andrituals which constituted the Peronist political imagery.Thispolitical imagery was not designed to reinforce the legitimacy of apolitical system defined in abstract terms, but to assure theundisputed loyalty of different sectors of society to the Peronistgovernment and to Perón himself.The evolution of the institutionalframework that made the creation of this symbolic apparatus possibleis also discussed.

This well-researched book shows the methods designed by the Peronistregime to broaden its social base through the incorporation andactivation of groups which had traditionally occupied a marginalizedposition within the political system—nonunion workers, women, andthe poor.

Plotkin investigates how Perón used the education system to build hispopularity.He examines the public assistance programs financedthrough the Eva Perón Foundation, and demonstrates how they were usedto politicize women for the first time.He explains how Eva Perón andthe Peronist regime not only tried to gain the support of women asvoters but also as potential "missionaries" who would spread thePeronist word in the privacy of their homes.

This well-written and engaging account of one of Latin America’s mostcolorful and appealing leaders is an excellent resource on Argentinaand Latin American history and politics. ... Read more

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All of human experience flows from bodies that feel, express emotion, and think about what such experiences mean. But is it possible for us, embodied as we are in a particular time and place, to know how people of long ago thought about the body and its experiences? In this groundbreaking book, three leading experts on the Classic Maya (ca. AD 250 to 850) marshal a vast array of evidence from Maya iconography and hieroglyphic writing, as well as archaeological findings, to argue that the Classic Maya developed a coherent approach to the human body that we can recover and understand today. The authors open with a cartography of the Maya body, its parts and their meanings, as depicted in imagery and texts. They go on to explore such issues as how the body was replicated in portraiture; how it experienced the world through ingestion, the senses, and the emotions; how the body experienced war and sacrifice and the pain and sexuality that were intimately bound up in these domains; how words, often heaven-sent, could be embodied; and how bodies could be blurred through spirit possession. From these investigations, the authors convincingly demonstrate that the Maya conceptualized the body in varying roles, as a metaphor of time, as a gendered, sexualized being, in distinct stages of life, as an instrument of honor and dishonor, as a vehicle for communication and consumption, as an exemplification of beauty and ugliness, and as a dancer and song-maker. Their findings open a new avenue for empathetically understanding the ancient Maya as living human beings who experienced the world as we do, through the body. ... Read more

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When three of the most renowned mayanists join to write a book it must turn out great. Well, it did, despite the rather cheap paper it was printed upon. Lavishly illustrated which helps to get their point and written in a very readable style, the topic is one of the most fascinating in maya studies. Basically, the book resumes what was elaborated by the authors over several years in a series of articles on mind, body and senses of the ancient -mostly classic- maya. Their conclusions sometimes seem to be a little far-fetched, though, but that's part of the show. ... Read more

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Framing Latin American Cinema was first published in 1997.Framing Latin American Cinema embraces multiple modes of scholarship, juxtaposing feature films and documentaries, and locating cinema within larger cultural debates. Considering works from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela, the contributors address a range of topics including studies of directors like Roman Chalbaud and Fernando Pérez, examinations of viewer patterns and critical tendencies, and analyses of Mexican melodrama, revolutionary films, and such internationally acclaimed works as Doña Herlinda and A Place in the World . Framing Latin American Cinema provides an essential guide to cinema in the region, successfully bridging the gap between cultural criticism and praxis even while creating a necessary dialogue within the Americas and beyond. Contributors: José Carlos Avellar, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Beat Borter, Filmpodium, Switzerland; Julianne Burton-Carvajal, U of California, Santa Cruz; David William Foster, Arizona State U; Néstor García Canclini, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City; Ilene S. Goldman; Gilberto Gómez Ocampo, Wabash College; Teresa Longo, College of William and Mary; John Mraz, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico; Paulo Antonio Paranaguá; Laura Podalsky, Bowling Green State U; Patricia Santoro, Montclair-Kimberley Academy. Ann Marie Stock is associate professor of modern languages and literatures at the College of William and Mary. ... Read more

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Over the last decade, visibility and sexuality have become a major theme in Spanish and Cuban cinema, literature and art. Vision Machines explores this development in the light of contemporary history and recent theoretical accounts of sight by writers including Paul Virilio, Gianni Vattimo and Teresa de Lauretis. The very visible women of Almodovar's cinema are Paul Julian Smith's first subject. He shows how, in his early Dark Habits, lesbianizes the look, putting women's pleasure at the centre of the frame, and then examines Almodovar's recent film, Kika, where the conflict between cinema and video is played out in the bodies of women: good, bad and ugly. Moving the focus to Cuba, Smith discussed the reception in Europe and North America of Nestor Almendro's remarkable documentary on gays in Cuba, Improper Conduct, and traces the trial of visibility to which effeminate men were exposed. He compares Amendor's work with the autobiography of exile novelist Reinaldo Arenas, which revels in graphic sex, and also looks at the first Cuban film with a gay theme, Gutierrez Alea's Strawberry and Chocolate.Smith returns to Spain to consider the response of artists and intellectuals to the public invisibility of AIDS in a country with one of the highest rates of HIV transmission in the Eurpean Union. Drawing on Anglo-American debates on the representation of AIDS, he concentrates on the one major intervention by Spanish scholars and artists, Love and Rage, and on the only figure in any medium to address AIDS in his aesthetic practice, the conceptual artist and video-maker Pepe Espaliu. He concludes with a fascinating account of Julio Medem's pathbreaking film from 1993, The Red Squirrel, which has opened up a new approach to two formerly taboo subjects: Basque nationalism and female sexuality. ... Read more

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This book examines the demographic and economic history of slavery in Minas Gerais, the single largest slave-holding region in Brazil, from its settlement in the early eighteenth century until the abolition of Brazilian slavery in 1888. This slave population was remarkable in its ability to diversify economically as well as to increase through natural reproduction, rather than through importation via the trans-Altantic slave trade. Extensively researched and finely documented, this book places the history of a unique Brazilian slave community into comparative perspective. ... Read more

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A study of agrarian changes in Costa Rica's Central Valley. It examines the settlement of land by peasant farmers, their production and marketing of commodities locally and internationally, land use and tenure, the organization of rural labour, social relations and inheritance systems. ... Read more