by Haley Schroer By focusing on the relationship between race and physical space, Nemser analyzes colonial concepts of race through an unexpected and innovative lens. His investigation of concrete structures and their effect on the creation of Mexico’s caste society spans the Spanish colonial period, from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Examining the dynamic […]
Mapping the Country of Regions: The Chorographic Commission of Nineteenth-Century Colombia, by Nancy P. Appelbaum (2016)
By Madeleine Olson What occurs when elite driven narratives about national identity dramatically different differ from the realities people experienced? During the nineteenth century throughout Latin America, when national boundaries were just beginning to become coherent, the upper echelons of society constructed tales about their nations that often vastly differed from lived experiences. Between 1850 […]
History and Advocacy: Brazil in Turmoil
Edward Shore considers the implications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment for the social and environmental rights of of Brazil’s traditional peoples, including three thousand rural black communities descended from fugitive slaves called “quilombos.” He underscores the need for historians to use scholarship for the advancement of social justice. He addresses current threats to the territorial and environmental rights of quilombo communities in São Paulo’s Atlantic Rainforest.
The Disappearing Mestizo, by Joanne Rappaport (2014)
From Mexico to Chile, Latin American intellectuals, artists, and activists proudly proclaim that they, their nations, and their cultures were born from a mix of Spanish and Indian heritage. The adjective for this mix is “mestizo;” individuals of Spanish-Indian descent are “mestizos.”