Browse

A close study of six major public religious festivals, including carnival, African-Brazilian Culture and Regional Identity in Bahia, Brazil, explores the cultural politics of regional identity in the state of Bahia in northeast Brazil. The author shows how, after 1930, the festivals provided a platform for African-Bahians and their allies to re-formulate Bahian regional identity to allow for a greater degree of cultural inclusion for Bahians of African descent. The book emphasizes the agency of African-Bahians as samba, capoeira, and Candomblé ritual were performed during the festivals and describes how politicians, journalists, song writers, and public intellectuals came to celebrate African-Bahian culture as a defining feature of what it meant to be Bahian. The nature of this cultural inclusion, however, was such that, although it was an improvement on the prejudice and persecution of the 1920s, it led to very little, if any, improvement in the political and economic position of working-class people of African descent. As such, the book explores the possibilities and limitations of cross-class alliances based around cultural inclusion in a specific historical setting and the potential of cultural politics for the social inclusion of people of African descent in multi-racial, multi-cultural communities within Brazil and the African diaspora.

Cuban Costumbrista writers reported the strong presence of African traditions developed by slaves and by freed Blacks as agents of a vigorous popular culture that was highly visible throughout the nineteenth century. In their handling of Black themes, Costumbristas addressed four main subjects: (1) the particularities of the sugar-cane plantation, rich in slave cultures (as performed in different formats of acculturation by both African and Creole or Cuban-born slaves); (2) the development of religious systems within rural and urban settings; (3) documentation of Black musical expressions; and (4) the incorporation of certain Black social types as literary characters, as workers of specific trades assigned to slaves or to freed Blacks, or as marginal outcasts living in slum areas of major Cuban cities. Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo intends to examine the special qualities that the nineteenth-century Costumbristas observed as eyewitnesses of the making of a new racial hybridity, known today as “mulattoness.” Although mulattoness was a racial concept handled in various types of documents (for example, in ecclesiastical and civil regulations against mixed marriages), it was in Costumbrista literature that the concept took on literary presence. Although Blacks as depicted by Costumbristas had little literary significance, their presence in these politically infused texts covertly addresses the influence of Black Creole culture on developing Cubanía.

Afro-Cuban Religious Arts traces the religious art created by four generations of Afro-Caribbean women from Havana, Cuba, to Spanish Harlem, New York, from 1899 to 1969. Through an examination of archives featuring photographs, notes, and surviving altar fragments belonging to Tiburcia Sotolongo y Ugarte, Hortensia Ferrer, Iluminada Sierra Ortiz, and Carmen Oramas Caballery, a history of women’s leadership roles within Afro-Cuban religious arts practices emerges. To this end, their work reveals the critical interaction between the arts of different Afro-Caribbean belief systems, particularly Espiritismo and Santería. With careful documentation of this work, these leaders created an impressive account of hybrid cultural identities that references African, native Caribe, and European cultural inheritances. This exploration of Caribbean Creole identity prompted critical dialogue among their audiences during highly turbulent social and political changes of the twentieth century. Such popular discourse proves to be exemplary of the dynamic exchange of histories that led to the explosion of African diasporic religious arts throughout the Americas and beyond.

This book compares Cuban American and African American religiosity, arguing that Afro-Cuban religiosity and culture are central to understanding the Cuban and Cuban American condition. The book interprets this saturation of the Afro-Cuban as transcending race and affecting all Cubans and Cuban Americans in spite of their pigmentation or self-identification. Building on a historical overview of the intersection of race, religion, and nationhood, the book explores the manner in which devotion to La Caridad del Cobre, popular religion, and Cuban letters inform an Afro-Cuban theology. This interdisciplinary study draws from various theological schools as well as the disciplines of history, literary studies, and ethnic studies. The primary discipline is systematic theology, with special attention to black and Latino/a theologies. Far from being disconnected subfields, they are interrelated areas within theological studies. The book provides a broad overview of the Cuban and Cuban American communities, emphasizing the manner in which the intersection of race and religion has functioned within the construction of Cuban and Cuban American identities. The Roman Catholic Church's role in this history, as well as the preservation of African religious practices and consequent formation of Afro-Cuban religions, are paramount. Also new is the collaborative spirit between black and Latino/a that underlines this work. The book proposes an expansion of racial identity recognizing the different cultures that exist within U.S. racial contexts—specifically a model of collaboration versus dialogue between black and Latino/a theologies.

This volume presents examples of how digital technologies are being used by people of African descent in South America and the Caribbean, a topic that has been overlooked within the field of digital humanities. These case studies show that in the last few decades, Black Latinx communities have been making themselves visible and asserting long-standing claims and rights through digital tools and platforms, which have been essential for enacting discussions and creating new connections between diverse groups. Afro-Latinx Digital Connections includes both research articles and interviews with practitioners who are working to create opportunities for marginalized communities. Projects discussed in this volume range from an Afrodescendant digital archive in Argentina, blog networks in Cuba, an NGO dedicated to democratizing technology in Brazilian favelas, and the recruitment of digital media to fight racism in Peru. Contributors demonstrate that these tools need not be state of the art to be effective and that they are often most useful when employed to sustain a resilience that is deep and historically grounded. Digital connections are shown here as a means to achieve social justice and to create complex self-representations that challenge racist images of Afrodescendant peoples and monolithic conceptions of humanity. This volume expands the scope of digital humanities and challenges views of the field as a predominantly white discipline.

The struggle for racial justice by Afro–civil society in Brazil and Salvador da Bahia is the main concern of this book. Theoretically this research aims to contribute to Latin American critical racial theory and Afro-Brazilian social movements by providing deep insights regarding cultural politics in Salvador da Bahia by exploring the following: various and different of forms of Black consciousness and cultural expressions; different levels of political action and social mobilization by Afro-Brazilian groups; the role of Afro–civil society in relation to the state; and to critically analyze current debates on racial and gender discrimination as well as social inequality. Conceptually, this research seeks to break new ground by examining how Black politics both cultural and formal are articulated and the ways in which the state is responding to various Black demands in Brazil, particularly in Salvador da Bahia.

Michelle Bachelet was the first elected female president of Chile, and the first woman elected president of any South American country. What was just as remarkable, though less noted, was the success and stability of the political coalition that she represented, the Concertaciόn. Though Bachelet was the fourth consecutive Concertaciόn president, upon taking office her administration quickly faced a series of crises, including massive student protests, labor unrest, internal governmental divisions, and allegations of ineptitude and wrongdoing as a result of a major reorganization of Santiago's transportation system. Candidate Bachelet promised not only different policies but also a different policymaking style—a style characterized by a kinder and gentler approach to politics in a country with a long tradition of machismo and strong male rulers. Bachelet promised to listen to the people and to return power to those who had been denied it in the past. Her attitude enhanced the influence of existing social movements and inspired the formation of new ones. This book examines the policies, political issues, and conflicts of Bachelet's administration, and provides analyses of the challenges, successes, and failures experienced by the Concertaciόn since 1989.

In the late 19th century, many Central American governments and countries sought to fill low-paying jobs and develop their economies by recruiting black American and West Indian laborers. This book offers a revisionist interpretation of these workers, who were often depicted as simple victims with little, if any, enduring legacy. The Guatemalan government sought to build an extensive railroad system in the 1880s, and actively recruited foreign labor. For poor workers of African descent, immigrating to Guatemala was seen as an opportunity to improve their lives and escape from the racism of the Jim Crow U.S. South and the French and British colonial Caribbean. Using primary and secondary sources as well as ethnographic data, the author details the struggles of these workers who were ultimately inspired to organize by the ideas of Marcus Garvey. Regularly suffering class- and race-based attacks and persecution, black laborers frequently met such attacks with resistance. Their leverage — being able to shut down the railroad — was crucially important to the revolutionary movements in 1897 and 1920.

In Black Women, Citizenship, and the Making of Modern Cuba, Takkara Brunson traces how women of African descent battled exclusion on multiple fronts and played an important role in forging a modern democracy. Brunson takes a much-needed intersectional approach to the political history of the era, examining how Black women’s engagement with questions of Cuban citizenship intersected with racial prejudice, gender norms, and sexual politics, incorporating Afro-diasporic and Latin American feminist perspectives. Brunson demonstrates that between the 1886 abolition of slavery in Cuba and the 1959 Revolution, Black women—without formal political power—navigated political movements in their efforts to create a more just society. She examines how women helped build a Black public sphere as they claimed moral respectability and sought racial integration. She reveals how Black women entered into national women’s organizations, labor unions, and political parties to bring about legal reforms. Brunson shows how women of African descent achieved individual victories as part of a collective struggle for social justice; in doing so, she highlights how racism and sexism persisted even as legal definitions of Cuban citizenship evolved.

Since 1992 — the end of the Cold War — Brazil has been slowly and quietly carving a niche for itself in the international community: that of a regional leader in Latin America. How and why is the subject of this study. Under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil embarked on a new direction vis-à-vis foreign policy. Brazilian diplomats set out to lead South America and the global south without actively claiming leadership or incurring the associated costs. They did so to protect Brazil's national autonomy in an ever-changing political climate. The author utilizes recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews with Brazilian leaders to track the adoption and implementation of Brazil's South American foreign policy and to explain the origins of this trajectory. Leadership and desire to lead have, until recently, been a contentious and forcefully disavowed ambition for Brazilian diplomats. The author dispels this illusion and provides a framework for understanding the conduct and ambitions of Brazilian foreign policy that can be applied to the wider global arena.

Brazilian Propaganda is the first English language study to uncover how the official propaganda organs justified the civilian-military regime in Brazil between 1964 and 1985. Based on a variety of sources including propaganda short films, intelligence files, and oral history interviews with key propagandists, the book contributes to our understanding of recent Brazilian politics, history, and culture. Schneider brings nuance to scholarly understanding of the Brazilian dictatorship by reconstructing internal frictions within the military regime and raising the complex question of civilian collaboration. Between 1968 and 1979 authoritarian propaganda in Brazil was multifaceted and contradictory: the official propaganda organs coexisted with other state and private propaganda-makers, all with varying intentions, strategies, and styles. Brazilian Propaganda initiates discussion of the subtle issue of degrees of perpetratorship during the civilian-military regime and offers refreshing and provocative discussion of the concept of propaganda by engaging the blurred line between state and private propaganda on one hand and authoritarian and democratic propaganda on the other. Breaking new theoretical ground by offering a holistic approach to propaganda, the book encompasses an examination of the propagandists' intentions and their campaigns' reception.

This detailed analysis of the poetry associated with the Afrocubanismo movement of the late 1920s infuses new life into the study of these remarkable works. Focusing on the representations of carnival and its comparsas (carnival bands and music), this book offers thought-provoking new readings of poems by seminal Cuban poets, demonstrating how their writings on and about these traditions both contributed to and detracted from the development of a recognizable Afro-Cuban identity. It is the first book to examine, from a literary perspective, the long-running debate between the proponents of Afro-Cuban cultural manifestations and the predominantly white Cuban intelligentsia, who viewed these traditions as “backward” and counter to the interests of the young Republic. Including analyses of the work of Felipe Pichardo Moya, Alejo Carpentier, Nicolás Guillén, Emilio Ballagas, José Zacarías Tallet, Felix B. Caignet, Marcelino Arozarena, and Alfonso Camín, this volume offers a fresh look at the canon of Afrocubanismo and gives surprising insights into Cuban culture during the early years of the Republic.

Does a civil society actually exist in Cuba today and if so what is its nature and role? In seeking answers to this contested and politicized question, the editors of this book have assembled a diverse group of contributors. The essays range from general discussion of the private sector to case studies about volunteer work, religious entities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis in 1990, the Cuban state has experienced severe challenges, and individuals have been forced to respond in unexpected ways to ensure their economic survival. Avoiding polemics and preconceptions, this volume brings a fresh perspective to one of the most vexing issues in Cuban society today.

Throughout the Americas black social movement groups are increasingly using sophisticated strategies and tactics to challenge racial and gender inequality. Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America offers a new, dynamic discussion of the experience of blackness and cultural difference, black political mobilization, and state responses to Afro-Latin activism across Latin America.

This book explains how Argentines came to conceive of human rights after 1976—in antagonism to, in sympathy with, and with indifference toward the dictatorship that governed. It documents the emergence of human rights as a set of ideas stressing the military’s building of a chilling justification for state terror. As ludicrous as the military’s pro–human rights rationale became in the face of its horrifying record, the dictatorship narrative registered an important success overseas. By and large, Argentina was able to convince a majority of its international trade and diplomatic partners of its fanciful pro–human rights narrative. In most countries, the Argentine military staved off the international human rights related critique that entered the language of foreign policy makers in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. As a result, the dictatorship suffered minimal damage economically and diplomatically from human rights-related fall-out. The positive foreign relations legacy of military rule leads to one further stage of analysis. In early 1984, there was no more important factor in the transition from dictatorship to democracy than human rights. Even so, through the 1980s, the new democracy faced some of the same domestic and international pressures confronted by the dictatorship over rights. Weakened by a shaky 1980s economy, the new government often confirmed and defended the military’s international human rights record suggesting that the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Argentina was not the firm break with the past that Argentines had sought.

For decades, a succession of military regimes and democratic governments in Brazil sought to shape the future of their society through the manipulation of urban spaces. Planned cities were built that reflected the ideals of high modernism, and urban designers and planners created clean-cut minimalist spaces that reflected the hope for an idyllic future in a still-developing nation. But these cities were criticized as “utopian dreams” in a country plagued with the urban realities of rampant sprawl and the infamous slums known as favelas. In this international collection, architects, urban planners, and scholars assess the legacy of Brazilian urbanism to date. Chapters evaluate the country's experiments with modernism and examine how Brazilian cities are regenerating themselves within a democratic political framework that meets market and social demands, and respects place, culture, and history.

This book examines Haitian American relations from 1915 to 2015 in light of American control. In 1915 began the first American occupation of Haiti that lasted two decades enabling them to lay the foundation of control. In 1934 took place the Désoccupation or the second Haitian independence in tune with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Good Neighborhood policy. Yet American policies towards Haiti and the legacies of its first occupation have contributed to the gradual erosion of Haitian Independence culminating in a second occupation and the current UN peacekeeping mission. The ongoing American occupation of Haiti is markedly evident in three distinct areas: politics, economics, and culture. Politically, the Cold War led the United States to institute policies that are more in line with American national security interests than with Haitian independence. From 1957 to 1986, the United States supported, for instance, three decades of brutal dictatorship of the Duvalier dynasty. Haiti’s political sovereignty further declined during the American reoccupation for the purpose of reinstating President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Since 29 February 2004, United Nations forces of MINUSTAH have virtually maintained reoccupation. Economic dependency is related to politics. Over the past four decades, Haiti became more and more financially dependent on American foreign aid. With the aid came the obligation that the United States imposed a neo-liberal economic policy that has driven the country to a near socioeconomic disaster.

For more than 50 years Cuba has occupied a unique position in global affairs, with a steadfast prominence that at first glance might seem unlikely for a small developing island country nestled in the Caribbean. Indeed, Cuba has long had a significant, highly active place not just in the foreground of international relations—where Cubans found themselves at the center of the three-decade Cold War geopolitical struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union—but, equally important, within the constructs of internationalism—the promotion of increased economic and political cooperation amongst nations—and transnationalism—people-to-people rather than government-to-government relationships. These constructs of international relations, internationalism, and transnationalism are not only intertwined but also central to the country’s revolutionary project. Cuban foreign policy, Cuba’s efforts to establish greater cooperation with friendly powers, and the people-to-people contacts that have occurred despite the policies of its adversaries and even its own government have combined in a process that has seen the country occupy a position greater than its small size and geographical position would otherwise have merited. The revolution is admittedly incomplete; still, despite the recent reforms to its economy and travel for Cubans, and the political transition to post–Fidel Castro governance, its importance will not diminish for the foreseeable future. New domestic considerations and the advent of an evolving new international order simply provide a different setting for how and why the Cuban government, its people, émigré Cubans, and other states and peoples interact.

This book travels deep inside the everyday life of middle-class Cubans—arguably the majority of citizens on the island. Un-theorized and under-described, it is a group that is portrayed honestly, accurately, and empathetically. The political and economic systems of Cuba in the post-Soviet period pose ongoing challenges to ordinary Cubans as they struggle in the waning years of the Castro regime. The book demonstrates that the major reason they have been ignored in the scholarly literature is because remaining obscure is one of their strategies for coping with these challenges. The author of this book made many visits to the island, frequently living in local communities along with her family. Thus, the ethnography of this “shadow public” is based upon traditional participant-observer methodology. Being based on experiences—from the clothesline, the back bedroom, the kitchen table, and the living room sofa—allow this book to bring to outsides the reality of daily life in Cuba. The book includes an epilogue that addresses citizen and consumer changes that have taken place since Raúl Castro became president in February 2008, revealing the anxieties and clandestine plans that have shaped Cubans' lives during the final years of the Fidel Castro era.

The triumph of the Cuban Revolution gave the Communist Party a monopoly over both politics and the mass media. However, with the subsequent global proliferation of new information and communication technologies, Cuban citizens have become active participants in the worldwide digital revolution. While the Cuban internet has long been characterized by censorship, high costs, slow speeds, and limited access, this volume argues that since 2013, technological developments have allowed for a fundamental reconfiguration of the cultural, economic, social, and political spheres of the Revolutionary project. The essays in this volume cover various transformations within this new digital revolution, examining both government-enabled paid public web access and creative workarounds that Cubans have designed to independently produce, distribute, and access digital content. Contributors trace how media ventures, entrepreneurship, online marketing, journalism, and cultural e-zines have been developing on the island alongside global technological and geopolitical changes. As Cuba continues to expand internet access and as citizens challenge state policies on the speed, breadth, and freedom of that access, Cuba’s Digital Revolution provides a fascinating example of the impact of technology in authoritarian states and transitional democracies. While the streets of Cuba may still belong to Castro’s Revolution, this volume argues that it is still unclear to whom Cuban cyberspace belongs.