DOCSLIB.ORG

The Mexican Neoliberal Conversion and Differen

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Mexican Neoliberal Conversion and Differen 16 Mexico DF / N A F T A 17 The Mexican Neo-Liberal Conversion ... Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Irmgard Emmelhainz secured rigid repayment and exorbitant fees. Mexico DF / N A F T A Capital flooded out of the country, while the Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexican peso lost 78 percent of its value and Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A The Mexican kept on devaluating. As a solution to enable Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A repayment, the Reagan administration found a Mexico DF / N A F T A way to assemble the powers of the US treasury Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Neoliberal and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A to roll the debt over in return for neoliberal Mexico DF / N A F T A reforms.3 President José López Portillo’s Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A government cracked under the pressure Mexico DF / N A F T A Conversion Mexico DF / N A F T A and submitted the country to draconian Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A austerity measures crafted by the IMF, which Mexico DF / N A F T A encompassed an extensive privatization and Mexico DF / N A F T A and Differen- Mexico DF / N A F T A deregulation program, as well as a series of Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A reforms liberalizing the Mexican trade regime. Mexico DF / N A F T A Also that year, the final one of López Portillo’s Mexico DF / N A F T A tiated, Mexico DF / N A F T A presidency, the banks were nationalized as a Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A nationalist measure and as means to solve the Mexico DF / N A F T A problems of speculation and capital flight, as Mexico DF / N A F T A Homogenous Mexico DF / N A F T A well as a way to impose controls on foreign Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A exchange. In his last presidential address, the Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Lives President announced the decision, famously Mexico DF / N A F T A bursting into tears and sobbing: “It is now or Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Just as we are accustomed—when not also never. We have been sacked. It is not the end of Mexico DF / N A F T A 4 Mexico DF / N A F T A subjected—to absorbing energy in different Mexico. We shall not be sacked again!” Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A forms at home, we will also find it quite This episode marks the beginning of a Mexico DF / N A F T A easy there to receive or absorb accelerated severe restructuring of the Mexican economy, Mexico DF / N A F T A Irmgard Emmelhainz Mexico DF / N A F T A changes and oscillations which our sensory inspired by the ideology and operating Mexico DF / N A F T A 5 Mexico DF / N A F T A organs pick up and integrate to form all that framework known as neoliberalism, which Mexico DF / N A F T A we know. I don’t know whether philosophers generally implies a shift away from state-led Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A have ever dreamed of a society for the industrialization and welfare state policies, and Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A domestic distribution of sensory reality. a move toward a market-led political economy. Mexico DF / N A F T A 1 Mexico DF / N A F T A —Friedrich Kittler The banks were re-privatized between 1991 Mexico DF / N A F T A and 1992 under President Carlos Salinas de Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Los blancos han forzado a los indios a Gortari, followed by the ratification of the North Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A (abandonar los valles y a) treparse a los American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Mexico DF / N A F T A cerros. 1993, which represented the continuation of Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A —Erwin Slim Torres2 Mexico’s comprehensive trade liberalization and Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A economic reform programs that began in the Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A In 1979, the US underwent a second oil crisis early 1980s. Eliminating trade barriers between Mexico DF / N A F T A and a financial shock. In October of that year, the US, Canada, and Mexico was publicized as Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Paul Volcker, Chairman of the US Federal the best way to bring economic development to Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A Reserve System, unveiled a new monetary the southern country. According to Uruguayan Mexico DF / N A F T A policy aimed at making the American dollar writer Eduardo Galeano, politicians and Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A the most sought-after currency in the world, technocrats promised that the trade agreement Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A and began forcing interest rates upwards to would finally allow the Third World to become Mexico DF / N A F T A Mexico DF / N A F T A combat in-flation. Mexico defaulted in 1982 as like the First World: “Rich, cultured, and happy”; Mexico DF / N A F T A the “Volcker Shock” was applied, and the US “We Can Be Like Them” was the mantra leading ... and Differentiated, Homogenous Lives 18 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 19 The Mexican Neo-Liberal Conversion ... from underdevelopment to modernization.6 The who drift along side by side, trying to speak energy, and resource industries. As production Experimental GMO corn crops were approved treaty covered aspects of investment, labour out and to survive in a highly fragmented and costs and wages have risen in China, efforts in the states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas in 2010, markets and environmental policies. It was the violent social landscape. are being made to position Mexico as the new putting at risk the country’s important genetic first free trade treaty signed between advanced In spite of the damage inflicted on the China, or “Aztec Tiger,” drawing manufacturing food heritage. Contaminating and destroying countries and a developing economy, creating country and its citizens, subsequent treaties away from Asia, facilitated by the Pact for the environment, transgenic seeds will soon be the world’s largest trade area in terms of total have ensured the continuation and expansion Mexico’s rewriting of the countries 1970 labour commodities patented by a few transnational gross domestic product (GDP) and the second of neoliberal reforms into other regions and laws.12 Thus, Peña Nieto’s Pact, in concert companies, polluting corn at its source of origin largest in terms of total trade volume, after the institutional domains in Mexico, such as the with production innovations such as cloud and eradicating the means for the autonomous European Union.7 Ten years after the treaty Puebla-Panama Plan (2001), later renamed the computing and open-source innovation, is production of food.16 was signed, the promise of modernization had Mesoamerican Integration and Development geared toward attracting global investment in Moreover, neoliberal reorganizational not yet been fulfilled. Most foreign investment Project (PPP-MIDP) in 2007. This agreement cars, aerospace, household goods, and even alignments in the past 30 years have meant the has gone toward maquiladora (assembly) covers “development” projects in the area manufacturing drones for civilian use.13 From mass migration of individuals to the outskirts factories, creating an export-oriented known as “Mesoamerica,” a hotspot rich in this point of view, the country’s growth implies of cities and to the border, expelling people manufacturing and assembly-plant economy resources and biodiversity. There is also the the return of the maquiladoras, as well as from their forms of life and ways of making a severed from direct economic development Mundo Maya Project, conceived under Salinas the continuation of attendant social policies: living, putting them in places where they are of the rest of the country. Moreover, as China de Gortari’s presidency in the 1990s but put into large-scale incarceration, mass surveillance, and not wanted and therefore are most vulnerable. and other regions in Latin America came to be effect in 2011, a touristic development pole in the permanent presence of the military in some The state manages and excludes portions of integrated into global trade networks, Mexico the Southeast and Yucatan peninsula.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mineral Springs, Bathing, and Infrastructure in Mexico
    5 Groundwater and Hydraulic Opulence in the Late Nineteenth Century “Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.” “A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass In the second half of the nineteenth century artesian wells tapped into ground- water, ending centuries of water scarcity and greatly expanding access to baths in Mexico City. The individualized immersion bath (placer) once offered to wealthier, more European clients was now available to almost everybody. Many of the down- town bathhouses that served humble city dwellers shuttered their temazcales and replaced them with low-cost wooden placeres grouped together in a shared room.1 These humble bathhouses charged for each bucket of hot water, but usually pro- vided all the cold water a client wished, and they used much more water for their wooden placeres than they had for the temazcales that preceded them. At the same time as the placer was being adopted by the masses in the old bathhouses of the city center, new and exclusive bathing facilities were sprouting up on the western side of the city along the Paseo de la Reforma that offered both social and individ- ual contacts with great volumes of water in a variety of forms including swimming pools, tubs, steam rooms, and showers.2 Bathers in both new and old bathhouses luxuriated in an unprecedented hydraulic opulence provided by seemingly unlim- ited groundwater from artesian wells.
    [Show full text]
  • MEXICO Tacubaya, a Traditional Area of Mexico City
    142 Mexico Heritage at Risk 2002/2003 MEXICO Tacubaya, a traditional area of Mexico City Introduction called Santa Fe and the other Chapultepec (of which several arch- es and a fountain called Salto del Agua remain today). Both were Within the most traditional areas of Mexico City is found the built to help irrigation and drinking water distribution among the ancient villa of Tacubaya, an important establishment with prehis- Aztecs established in the city of Tenochtitlan, surrounded by a panic origins, dating to before the Aztecs came to Lago de Texco- salted lake and harvest areas. Over the centuries, from 1449 to the co; a big area known as Atlacuihuayan, whose meaning gives us middle of the 19th Century, this water system worked perfectly - the idea of 'where water was taken from'; a valley surrounded by more than 900 arches connected and distributed potable water to rivers, generous in natural resources, where its population hunt the north and south of Mexico city. and trade a variety of products with their neighbours. Düring the colonial period, Spanish priests (dominicos) and Its most ancient structures include two important aqueducts, one other principal landlords worked toward the establishment of a variety of churches, water müls, haciendas and other buildings that formed Tacubaya's urban configuration, which was kept and recognised for many centuries. All of these were built over the ruins of prehispanic temples and other structures, located in the eleven districts named after saints and the corresponding church: San Juan Tlacateco, San Lorenzo Suchiguacan, Santa Maria n W Nonoalco, Santiago Tequisquinahuac, San Miguel Culhuacatzin- m go, Tlaxco, Xihuatecpa, Huitztlan, Texcoac and Coamalcatitlan.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial Study of Indigenous Women Writers in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean
    ABSTRACT NATIVE AMERICAS: A TRANSNATIONAL AND (POST)COLONIAL STUDY OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN WRITERS IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN Elizabeth M. A. Lamszus, PhD Department of English Northern Illinois University, 2015 Dr. Kathleen J. Renk, Director In the current age of globalization, scholars have become interested in literary transnationalism, but the implications of transnationalism for American Indian studies have yet to be adequately explored. Although some anthologies and scholarly studies have begun to collect and examine texts from Canada and the United States together to ascertain what similarities exist between the different tribal groups, there has not yet been any significant collection of work that also includes fiction by indigenous people south of the U.S. border. I argue that ongoing colonization is the central link that binds these distinct groups together. Thus, drawing heavily on postcolonial literary theory, I isolate the role of displacement and mapping; language and storytelling; and cultural memory and female community in the fiction of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Pauline Melville, and Eden Robinson, among others. Their distinctive treatment of these common themes offers greater depth and complexity to postcolonial literature and theory, even though independence from settler colonizers has yet to occur. Similarly, the transnational study of these authors contributes to American Indian literature and theory, not by erasing what makes tribes distinct, but by offering a more diverse understanding of what it means to be a Native in the Americas in the face of ongoing colonization. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DEKALB, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2015 NATIVE AMERICAS: A TRANSNATIONAL AND (POST)COLONIAL STUDY OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN WRITERS IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN BY ELIZABETH M.
    [Show full text]
  • Baseline Study of Land Markets in and Around Mexico City's Current And
    Baseline Study of Land Markets in and Around Mexico City’s Current and New International Airports Report to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy July 10, 2017 Paavo Monkkonen UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Jorge Montejano Escamilla Felipe Gerardo Avila Jimenez Centro de Investigación en Geografía y Geomática 1 Executive Summary Government run urban mega-projects can have a transformative impact on local property and land markets, creating significant increases in the value of land through investment by the state. The construction of a New International Airport and the redevelopment of the existing International Airport will be one of the largest public infrastructure projects in Mexico City in recent history. The potential impacts on the price of nearby land warrants consideration of a land value capture program. Regardless of the form this program takes, the city needs an accurate and well-justified baseline measure of the value of land and property proximate to the two airport sites. This report contains three parts. The first is a review of relevant academic literature on property appraisals, the impacts of airports and mega-projects on land and property values, the role of value capture in infrastructure investment, and the methods and tools through which land value impacts can be estimated. This latter component of the literature review is especially important. Much of the data on land and property values in Mexico City are from appraisals and estimates rather than actual transaction records, and the methodology governments use to assess land values plays an important role in the credibility and political feasibility of efforts to recapture value increases.
    [Show full text]
  • Capítulo 2 ORDENAMIENTO DEL TERRITORIO, ESTRUCTURA URBANA Y HABITABILIDAD
    Ciudad de México 2020. Un diagnóstico de la desigualdad socio territorial CAPÍTULO 2 ORDENAMIENTO DEL TERRITORIO, ESTRUCTURA URBANA Y HABITABILIDAD 60 Ciudad de México 2020. Un diagnóstico de la desigualdad socio territorial Capítulo 2 ORDENAMIENTO DEL TERRITORIO, ESTRUCTURA URBANA Y HABITABILIDAD El conocimiento sobre los problemas asociados con el ordenamiento del territorio, con la estructura urbana y con la habitabilidad en la Ciudad de México incluye el análisis de los asentamientos irregula- res en la Ciudad, de las condiciones de habitabilidad de las viviendas —tanto del acceso como de sus características físicas— y de la desigualdad en torno al uso de los sistemas de transporte urbano para la movilidad de las personas. 1. Las aristas de la desigualdad urbana El desarrollo urbano, en su comprensión más formal, incluye procesos de planeación y ejecución de acciones para la zonificación del tejido urbano de acuerdo con la asignación de usos del suelo y los lineamientos de construcción contenidos en los ordenamientos aplicables. Se trata, principalmente, de una política reguladora del crecimiento que debe asegurar, además, dimensiones como la protec- ción ambiental. Los criterios que rigen la normatividad al respecto son de diversa índole, pues abarcan consideraciones de racionalidad económica y de rentabilidad, pero también culturales, de preserva- ción y recuperación del entorno histórico, y de conservación ambiental. Sin embargo, la aplicación de estos marcos regulatorios no ha evitado el surgimiento y proliferación de asentamientos
    [Show full text]
  • Nuevo Polanco: Un Caso De Gentrificación Indirecta En La Ciudad De
    DIVISIÓN DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES Y HUMANIDADES Departamento de Sociología Licenciatura en Geografía Humana Nuevo Polanco: Un caso de gentrificación indirecta en la Ciudad de México. 165 pp. Investigación Terminal para obtener el título de: LICENCIADO EN GEOGRAFÍA HUMANA PRESENTA Emiliano Rojas García Lector. Dr. Adrián Hernández Cordero 1 Índice Carta de dictaminación del Lector Dr. Hernández Cordero……………..………….4 Capítulo I. Introducción................................................…............................................... 5 Construcción del objeto de investigación....................................….......8 Capítulo II. Gentrificación............................................….........................….................12 Origen..............................................................................................….....14 La complejización del concepto: debate producción-consumo.….....17 La gentrificación como un fenómeno global.............................….......27 América Latina y la entrada al nuevo milenio.…..….........................30 Conclusiones.............................................................…..........................36 Capítulo III. Metodología y origen de datos.......................................…..........................39 Definición área de estudio......................................…..........................39 Metodología.................................................................................…......41 Datos cuantitativos......................................................................…...
    [Show full text]
  • Mitikah Ciudad Viva. Actores, Toma De Decisiones Y Conflicto Urbano. Mtro
    Mitikah Ciudad Viva. Actores, toma de decisiones y conflicto urbano. Mtro. Mario Ramírez Chávez1 [email protected] Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de la UNAM. Eje Temático: Política Municipal, Desarrollo Urbano y Rural, Ciudades Incluyentes y Sostenibilidad. Trabajo preparado para su presentación en el X Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencia Política de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Ciencias Políticas (ALACIP), en coordinación con la Asociación Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas (AMECIP), organizado en colaboración con el Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), los días 21 de julio, 1, 2 y 3 de agosto de 2019. 1Candidato a Doctor en Ciencias Políticas y Sociales por la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de la UNAM, líneas de investigación: prospectiva y construcción de escenarios, políticas púbicas diseño y evaluación, gestión del desarrollo urbano. Página 1 de 29 Resumen. En los últimos 20 años en la Ciudad de México, a la par de la transición democrática se dieron una serie de procesos de apertura y democratización de los procesos de toma de decisiones y el reconocimiento de nuevos actores para la hechura de políticas públicas. Dichos fenómenos políticos y administrativos, han sido acompañados de un modelo económico y un modelo y forma de hacer ciudad de carácter neoliberales; mercantilizando el espacio público, el derecho a la vivienda y el derecho a la ciudad, construyendo una ciudad fragmentado, polarizada a partir de la ampliación de las desigualdades socioterritoriales y socioespaciales. Lo anterior ha sido posible, gracias al proceso de control y captura de los procesos y mecanismos de toma de decisiones para la hechura de políticas públicas por una serie de actores individuales y colectivos, los cuales se han aglutinado para conformar coaliciones promotoras de grandes proyectos urbanos como una nueva forma de hacer ciudad en la denominada ciudad central de la Ciudad de México.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Nevada Reno the Culture of the Good Death in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City a Dissertation Submitted in Partial F
    University of Nevada Reno The Culture of the Good Death in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by James Courtney Flaks Dr. Linda A Curcio-Nagy/Dissertation Advisor May 2010 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by JAMES COURTNEY FLAKS entitled "The Culture of the Good Death in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City" be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Linda A. Curcio-Nagy, Ph.D., Advisor Joseba Zulaika, Ph.D., Committee Member Dennis Dworkin, Ph.D., Committee Member Judith Whitenack, Ph.D., Committee Member Kevin Stevens, Ph.D., Committee Member George Thomas, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph. D., Associate Dean, Graduate School May, 2010 i Abstract This dissertation argues that most of Mexico City’s Seventeenth-century subjects believed in and practiced the Good Death. The culture of the Good Death in seventeenth- century Mexico City shows that their Mexican Catholicism represented a localized religious practice that was completely hispanicized. Death permeated Mexico City’s population base due to cyclical pandemics, seasonal natural disasters, such as inundations, agricultural crises, and the common public health issues concerning garbage in the city’s canals and streets. Most of Mexico City’s subjects often lived short and harsh lives. According to colonial citizens, the beliefs and practices of the Good Death signified the partaking of final sacraments and a courage in facing the end of life where the dying person ultimately liberated his/her soul into the purgatorial afterworld.
    [Show full text]
  • Recommended Reading: Latin America
    Recommended Reading: Latin America In our busy lives, it is hard to carve out time to read. Yet, if you are able to invest the time to read about the region where you travel, it pays off by deepening the significance of your travel seminar experience. We have compiled the following selection of book titles for you to help you get started. Many titles are staff recommendations. Titles are organized by the topics listed below. Happy reading! Bolivia Latin American Current Affairs Cuba Latin American History El Salvador Globalization Guatemala Indigenous Americans Honduras Religion / Spirituality Mexico U.S.-Mexico Border Nicaragua U.S. Policy in Central & Latin America Women & Feminism Film Literature Testimonials Latin American Current Affairs Aid, Power and Privatization: The Politics of Telecommunication Reform in Central America by Benedicte Bull Northampton, MA.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005; ISBN: 1845421744. A comparative study of privatization and reform of telecommunications in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras. The focus is on political and institutional capacity to conduct the reforms, and the role of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in supporting the processes at various stages. Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1998. Journalist Weisman tells the story of a remarkable and diverse group of individuals (engineers, biologists, botanists, agriculturists, sociologists, musicians, artists, doctors, teachers, and students) who helped a Colombian village evolve into a very real, socially viable, and self-sufficient community for the future. Latin American Popular Culture: An Introduction, edited by William Beezley and Linda Curcio-Nagy, Scholarly Resources, 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Guide 20050209
    TEACHING WITH Voices of a People’s History of the United States BY HOWARD ZINN AND ANTHONY ARNOVE TEACHING WITH Voices of a People’s History of the United States BY HOWARD ZINN AND ANTHONY ARNOVE Gayle Olson-Raymer Humboldt State University With selected chapters written by Humboldt County ap teachers: Jack Bareilles (McKinleyville High School), Natalia Boettcher (South Fork High School), Mike Benbow (Fortuna High School), Ron Perry (Eureka High School), Robin Pickering, Jennifer Rosebrook (Arcata High School), Colby Smart (Ferndale High School), and Robert Standish (South Fork High School) SEVEN STORIES PRESS New York • Toronto • London • Melbourne Copyright © 2005 by Gayle Olson-Raymer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, digital, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Seven Stories Press 140 Watts Street New York, NY 10013 www.sevenstories.com ISBN-13: 978-1-58322-683-4 / ISBN-10: 1-58322-683-4 College professors may order examination copies of all Seven Stories Press titles for a free six-month trial period. To order visit www.sevenstories.com/textbook, or fax on school letterhead to 212-226-1411. College professors who have adopted Voices of a People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove as a course textbook are authorized to duplicate portions of this guide for their students. Teaching with Voices is also avail- able in its entirety or chapter-by-chapter as a free downloadable pdf file at www.sevenstories.com/textbook/.
    [Show full text]
  • Eduardo Galeano – ¡Presente!
    Eduardo Galeano – ¡Presente! Eduardo Galeano, the world-renowned leftist Uruguayan journalist and writer made famous with the publication in 1971 of his book The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, died today at the age of 74 in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he lived. Long admired as a journalist, with his three-volume Memory of Fire in 1982, Galeano also became known as a writer of non-fiction prose who might be compared to writers of fiction such as Gabriel García Márquez, author of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabel Allende who wrote House of the Spirits. Like their novels, his trilogy captures the real spirit of Latin America’s magical history. Born Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano in Montevideo on September 3, 1940, Galeano began his career as a journalist in the early 1960s working as a correspondent for Sol and then as an editor for Marcha, which published such writers as Mario Vargas Llosa and Mario Benedetti. When a rightwing military coup took power in Uruguay in 1973, Galeano was jailed and subsequently went into exile, first in Argentina, where he edited Crisis, and then in Spain where he wrote his trilogy Memory of Fire (Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind). Memory of Fire mixed history and journalism in vignettes and biographical sketches written in a creative prose style that reminded American readers of John Dos Passos’ 1930s classic U.SA. triology (The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money). Open Veins of Latin America was a detailed, systematic, and sustained attack on European and U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossing Borders: Introducing Eduardo Galeano by Erika Zarco
    www.dulwichcentre.com.au/narrative-therapy-ezine Crossing borders: Introducing Eduardo Galeano By Erika Zarco Does history repeat itself? Or are the repetitions only penance for those who are incapable of listening to it? No history is mute. No matter how much they burn it, break it, and lie about it, human history refuses to shut its mouth. Despite deafness and ignorance, the time that was continues to tick inside the time that is. The right to remember does not figure among the human rights consecrated by the United Nations, but now more than ever we must insist on it and act on it. Not to repeat the past but to keep it from being repeated. Not to make us ventriloquists for the dead but to allow us to speak with voices that are not condemned to echo perpetually with stupidity and misfortune. When it is truly alive, memory doesn’t contemplate history, it invites us to make it. More than in museums, where its poor old soul gets bored, memory is in the air we breathe, and from the air it breathes us. (Galeano, 1998, p. 210) Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano first influenced my life when I was just turning fifteen years old. Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina (Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centures of the Pillage of a Continent, Galeano, 1971) was mandatory reading for my high school Spanish language class. I consider myself very fortunate to have been exposed to this caliber of a person, writer, political economist, activist, poet, humanitarian, philosopher, and archivist at such a young age.
    [Show full text]