LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015 Latin American Studies Center

Fall 2014 / Spring 2015 Newsletter

Letter From the Director

May 12, 2015 Dear Fellow Latin Americanists at CU: Greetings and best wishes to all of you. I am writing to thank you for participating in our fledgling and steadily growing community of Latin Americanists at CU. This has been a fantastic year for the Latin American Studies Center (LASC). For the first time ever, the Center was awarded Tinker Foundation Field Research Grants for pre- dissertation graduate student research in . Tinker awarded Inside CU's LASC at the $10K level, which was then matched with $10K by generous contributions from the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Anthropology Department. With this Tinker Grant, CU Page 2 Fall 2014 LASC Events joined the ranks of other universities with vibrant Latin American Centers, such as San Diego State, Stony Brook, UC Davis, University of Georgia, University of Miami, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt and Yale. Funding Page 3 Spring 2015 LASC to 15 graduate student research projects has been distributed this Spring Events 2015. Stay tuned for the Fall Newsletter where we will report on these diverse and fascinating projects. Our Center has supported a number of activities related to research and Page 7 Spotlight on events in Latin America and these are highlighted in the pages ahead. We Collaboration are proud to support three ongoing LASC Research Clusters that have been developing scholarly ideas for research in particular areas of interest, and in Page 9 LASC-CU Tinker the Fall we will announce a competition and Call for Proposals for new Foundation Grants Research Clusters. We hope in this manner to foster inter- and trans- disciplinary dialogue across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Page 10 Mission, Goals, Steering We are grateful for the support provided to LASC by our Graduate Research Committee, Contact Assistant, Dani Merriman, as well as technical support from our administrative staff member, Nancy Neumann, both of whom will continue working with us in the Fall of 2015. I wish you all a peaceful and productive summer and we look forward to seeing you in the Fall!

Sincerely, Donna M. Goldstein Director, LASC at CU Associate Professor, Anthropology LASC Director Donna Goldstein in Angra dos Reis, March 2015

LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

Fall 2014 LASC Events

Sept. 18th – Reading by Michael Nava from his latest novel, The City of Palaces

Michael Nava is a lawyer and novelist. His Henry Rios novels, published between 1988 and 2000, followed the life and cases of a gay criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles during the tumultuous period of the AIDS epidemic and the movement for gay rights. In 2000, he was awarded the Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in LGBT literature. Previously he was awarded six Lambda literary prizes.

“The City of Palaces is a city of stories. It is the story of two people, one of them lost in his guilt, the other surrendered to her solitary fate, who find each other and create a marriage of loving equals. It is the story of the clash between the traditional Mexico represented by Alicia’s mother, a shrewd old aristocratic, and Don Porfirio’s modern Mexico represented by Alicia’s rags-to-riches brother-in-law who grows rich from backroom deals. It is the story of Miguel’s cousin Luis who is hounded out of Mexico for being a “sodomite,” only to return a decade later making no apologies for his nature. It is out of these stories that award-winning novelist Michael Nava has created the glittering mosaic that is The City of Palaces.”

Sponsored by: Department of Ethnic Studies, GLBTQ Resource Center, Women and Gender Studies, LGBT Studies, Latin American Studies Center, The Creative Writing Program at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Oct. 22nd - “'s : Rethinking Models of Urban Sustainability” Dr. Theresa Williamson, Founder and Executive Director of Catalytic Communities

Dr. Williamson offered a deep look at qualities/assets from a sustainability orientation, introducing the concept of LEED-UP (applying LEED principles to upgrading informal settlements); then quickly contrasting this to what is actually happening in Rio’s favelas. Dr. Williamson’s organization, Catalytic Communities, makes strategic use of media and networks to link grassroots community groups in with networks of exchange and support. CatComm works at the intersection of urban planning, community development, social media and global networks, providing community organization workshops, strategic communications and advocating on politics on behalf of Rio’s favelas.

Additionally, Dr. Williamson met with students to discuss the dynamics of urban change and community responses to eviction, gentrification and police violence surrounding the 2014 World Cup and Pre-Olympic Rio de Janeiro.

Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, International Affairs Program, Environmental Studies Program, CU International Affairs Club, Global Studies, RAP, Environment and Society Program of IBS, and Presidents Leadership Class

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

Oct. 27th - Lecture by Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein, editors of Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movements

Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein presented material from their recently published book, Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movement. Clifton Ross is a freelance writer and videographer who has been reporting on revolutionary movements in Latin America for over 25 years. Marcy Rein is a writer, organizer and editor who has engaged with a wide range of social movements and organizational forms over the last 40 years, including publication collectives, labor and community organizations, and electoral campaigns.

Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Center and G-RAP

Spring 2015 LASC Events

February 20th – Hidden in Plain Sight: Children Born of Wartime Sexual Violence Dr. Kimberly Theidon, Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Associate Research Professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University

Over the past decade, there has been increased international attention to conflict-related rape and sexual violence. A series of UN Security Council Resolutions, collectively known as the Women, Peace and Security agenda, have overwhelmingly focused on women and girls as victims of sexual violence. Strikingly absent in this agenda are two groups: men and boys as victims of sexual violence, and children born as a result of wartime rape. What do we know about these children? During the last decade alone, it is estimated that tens of thousands of children have been born worldwide as a result of mass rape campaigns or wartime sexual exploitation. What about these living legacies of rape and sexual violence? Although children born of wartime rape have remained largely invisible on the international agenda, empirical data indicates they are not so invisible in the families and communities in which they live. At the local level, these children are likely to be hidden in plain sight.

Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

March 31st – “Critical Pleasures, Critical Risks: A Conversation about Art Criticism Today”

Maria Elena Buszek (Art historian, UCD), M.S. Dansey (Art critic, Buenos Aires), and Guido Ignatti (Artist, Buenos Aires) considered the pleasures and risks of arts writing - and discussed the place of politics, polemics, gossip, activism, feminism, and sexuality in their critical practices.

April 1st – “Cabeza de ratón, cola de león: Anatomía del arte contemporáneo argentino”

Esta conversación propone pensar los caminos que se atravesaron en Argentina para llegar a la producción de su arte actual. Se discutirán unas ideas breves sobre la tradición pictórica europea tan arraigada en este país sudamericano con fuertes culturas nativas. La abstracción geométrica argentina de los 40’s y 50’s, los happenings y experimentaciones en los 60’s y 70’s y el arte de los 90's. Una suerte de post, post, post vanguardias. Crítica, relación con la institucionalización e independencia ante el dilema contemporáneo: estrategias de internacionalización o autonomía. Será una charla informal con preguntas del public, moderada por el Prof. Peter Elmore.

M.S. DANSEY and GUIDO IGNATTI are two of the cofounders and coeditors of Sauna, an online journal whose independent, critical, and irreverent perspective has broadened the spectrum of contemporary art criticism in Argentina. M.S. DANSEY is an art critic based in Buenos Aires. He is a regular contributor to many newspaper and magazines, including Revista Ñ and Diario Clarín, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Argentina. GUIDO IGNATTI is an artist. His works are ephemeral, site-specific and time-based installations that explore the tensions between conceptualism and raw materiality. Since 2008, he has exhibited widely in Argentina, and has participated in exhibitions in London and Barcelona. He is also the coordinator for temporary public art exhibitions for the city of Buenos Aires. He lives and works in Buenos Aires. http://www.guidoignatti.com.ar/

MARIA ELENA BUSZEK is a scholar, critic, curator, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches courses on modern and contemporary art. Her recent publications include the books Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture (Duke, 2006) and Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art (Duke, 2011). Her current book project, Art of Noise, explores the ties between contemporary activist art and popular music – and argues that art critics should look to the embodied, deeply personal work of music critics as a model. http://www.mariabuszek.com/

PETER ELMORE is Professor and Chair of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Colorado Boulder, and he is the author of five books of literary criticism and three books of fiction, as well as four co-authored plays.

Event sponsors: President’s Fund for the Humanities, the Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the Latin American Studies Center, the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literature, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of English, the Department of Art and Art History, the Humanities Program, and the LGBT Studies Certificate Program

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

April 2nd – “Dogos y lobos: Eduardo Gutiérrez y la invención del detective porteño” Juan Pablo Canala, Universidad de Buenos Aires – Biblioteca Nacional Argentina

Eduardo Gutiérrez (1851-1889) was the first professional writer in Argentine literature and he was the most successful popular writer in Latin America. Towards the end of the 1870s he achieved fame with his highly controversial (and wildly popular) crime novels, which were published in the newspapers La Patria Argentina and La Crónica. The materials for these novels (in particular those devoted to urban thieves and con men) were mined from police archives, thus allowing Gutiérrez to bring famous criminal affairs from the recent past back to life. In the process, Gutiérrez founded the genre of popular crime fiction in Argentina. Juan Pablo Canala’s presentation explained how Gutiérrez crafted his fiction by examining the many intersections between archival information, narratives in the press produced by and for police personnel, the “police genres” and the European popular novel. In particular, the presentation showed how Gutiérrez fictionalized a series of real-life police characters, thus creating, for the first time in Argentine literature, the figure of the “porteño” detective, a figure that will have a long life spanning from Rodolfo Walsh to Jorge Luis Borges.

Juan Pablo Canala teaches Argentine Literature at the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, and he is in charge of the manuscript collection at the National Library of Buenos Aires. He specializes in Eduardo Gutiérrez, on whom he has published extensively, and he is renowned as a practitioner of genetic criticism. He has produced critical editions of Leopoldo Lugones, Roberto Arlt, Miguel Cané, Jorge Luis Borges and David Viñas. He is currently working on a critical edition of Eduardo Gutiérrez’s Juan Moreira (together with Juan Pablo Dabove) for the Archivos Collection.

Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, University Libraries, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Latin American Studies Center.

April 3rd – Weaponizing Maps: Counterinsurgency and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas Dr. Joe Bryan, Department of Geography, UC-Boulder

Professor Joe Bryan presented on his co-authored book Weaponizing Maps (2015). “Maps play an indispensable role in indigenous peoples’ efforts to secure land rights in the Americas and beyond. Yet indigenous peoples did not invent participatory mapping techniques on their own; they appropriated them from techniques developed for colonial rule and counterinsurgency campaigns, and refined by anthropologists and geographers. Through a series of historical and contemporary examples from Nicaragua, Canada, and Mexico, this book explores the tension between military applications of participatory mapping and its use for political mobilization and advocacy. The authors analyze the emergence of indigenous territories as spaces defined by a collective way of life—and as a particular kind of battleground.” Geography Colloquia Series, co-sponsored by Latin American Studies Center and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

April 16th – ¡Pa’ las que sea, Parce! Limites y Alcances de la Sicaresca como Categoría Estética Book presentation by Carlos Germán van der Linde, PhD Candidate, Spanish Department, UC-Boulder

Héctor Abad Faciolince, a Colombian writer and columnist, said, “In sixteenth- and seventeenth- century peninsular literature, the poor man, to survive, became a pícaro (rogue or rascal). During the last decade of twentieth- century Colombian literature, the poor man, to escape poverty, becomes a sicario (hired killer or assassin).” The relationship between these literary characters is called sicaresca. In the current globalized world, sicarios (hired assassins from Colombia and Mexico) have become the protagonists of many novels, reports, movies, and TV series. ¡Pa' las que sea, parce! invites readers to analyze on the relationship between literature and society, both of which reflect violence as a product of cultural consumption. This perspective makes it possible to understand sicaresca not only as a literary theme but also as a social matter that is intriguing for intellectuals and for the general public. Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Center Graduate Student Research Cluster.

April 17th – Lecture and Film Screening with Jonathan Warren, Department of Sociology, University of Washington The Poison of Progress: Discourses and Development in Brazil and Vietnam Development economists and practitioners, as well as a number of critical development scholars, usually overlook the interpretative. One example of this acultural theorization of politics and markets is the failure to consider the discursive constructions of subalterns in developing economies. In this talk I juxtapose Vietnam and Brazil to illuminate how these narratives vary and how these differences profoundly impact economic growth. One lesson that emerges from this comparative study is that the religious leaders, educators, artists, and antiracist activists who have been working to redefine the poor in Brazil are the unsung vanguard of modernity. The problem, of course, is that the development establishment does not appreciate this fact. Such cultural work is regarded as irrelevant, if not an impediment, to economic progress. Film Screening of “From the Bottom Up” Introduction and Post-Screening Q&A with Jonathan Warren, Director/Producer “From the Bottom Up.” The film illuminates the links between cultural work and socio-economic change in the Jequitinhonha Valley in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Until the 1990s, this region was ruled by a white, planter-class, called Colonels, whose power originated in a nineteenth century ethnic cleansing campaign against indigenous people that was followed by environmental destruction and monocultural agriculture that depended upon slavery. From the Bottom Up documents how educators, religious leaders and artists have been able to undo this autocratic order primarily by valuing the culture of the poor. It's a story that offers inspiration and invaluable lessons for those trying to bring about economic development and progressive change in other parts of the world. Geography Colloquia Series co-sponsored by the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences and the Latin American

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

Spotlight on Collaboration: Research Clusters

Gender, Race, and Ethnicity Research Cluster

The research cluster on Gender, Race, and Ethnicity is interdisciplinary in nature and includes research on various Latin American countries including Mexico, Cuba, and Peru. Its members also hold expertise in Central America and on Latin American migration to the U.S. The group’s members include Lorraine Bayard de Volo (WGST/POLISCI), Joe Bryan (SOCY), Fernando Riosmena (GEOG/IBS), Kaifa Roland (ANTH), Christina Sue (SOCY), and Tamara Hale (ANTH). This year the group discussed members’ current work in progress which includes research on women, revolution, and war in Cuba; practices of Cuban jineteros (street hustlers) in post- Soviet Cuba; and contemporary identities of Mexicans of African descent.

Graduate Student Research Cluster

This interdisciplinary group of graduate students included: Joel Correia (Geography), Max Counter (Geography), Jennifer Cullison (History), Jessica Hedgepth Balkin (Anthropology), Jennifer Ida (Anthropology), Ximena Keogh (Spanish and Portuguese), Aaron Malone (Geography), Pascale Meehan (Anthropology), Dani Merriman (Anthropology), and Shawnna Mullenax (Political Science). This group meets regularly to give feedback on papers and grant proposals and to share knowledge on research preparation (fieldwork, IRB, etc.). The group discussed national research applications for Fulbright, Social Sciences Research Council, and Fulbright-Hays. Additionally, students met to discuss applications for the new LASC-CU Tinker Foundation Field Research Grants. On April 17, 2015 the cluster sponsored a well-attended lecture by Carlos Germán Van der Linde, PhD Candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. See a full description of the lecture in our “Spring Events” section.

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

Brazil-US Network For Environment, Society, and Governance Research Cluster

This interdisciplinary group of faculty includes: Tania Martuscelli (Spanish and Portuguese), Marcelo Schincariol (Spanish and Portuguese), Colleen Scanlan-Lyons (International Affairs, IBS, Anthropology), and Donna Goldstein (Anthropology).

The Brazil-US Network research group on "Nuclear Energy in Brazil" met in October of 2014 at the University of Colorado and began working on research plans for a site visit to Brazil in the Spring. The research project is focused on the health effects and safety issues related to Brazil's nuclear energy plants. This meeting involved participants and consultants from CU, including Jerry Peterson (Physics), Stan Deetz (Communication), Donna Goldstein (PI, Anthropology), Matthew McQueen (Integrative Physiology), and Meryleen Mena (Anthropology), as well as co-PI Nelson Novaes Pedroso Junior from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in São Paulo, Brazil. In March of 2015, Goldstein, Pedroso Junior, and Mena carried out a research visit to the Brazilian nuclear site in Angra dos Reis and Goldstein reports on this trip in the following : The Nuclear Option: For Anthropologists Who Have Considered Humor When the Drive to Modernity is Not Enough

In August 2014, Brazil-US Network research group “Society, Environment, and Literature” - (“SAL” in Portuguese) – presented at the 12th Brazilian Studies Association’s conference in London, at the King’s College. Professors Benedito Souza Filho (UFMA), Marcelo Schincariol (UCB), and Tania Martuscelli (UCB) organized the panel on Ecocriticism, titled “Sociedade, Ambiente e Literatura no Brasil”. In Benedito’s paper (“A trama dos Tambores: classe, raça e trajetória”), he discussed how the life trajectory of a quilombola who became a professor of Latin in Josué Montello’ Realist novel can be read as a portrait of Maranhão’s society from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Marcelo Schincariol presented a contemporary view of nature in the so-called “urban marginal literature”, based on Sacolinha’s literary productions. Tania Martuscelli’s paper was titled “Para uma ‘literatura do cerrado’”, in which she focused on the discussion of a literary tradition that goes beyond the canonized “literatura do sertão” (literature of the semi-arid), or the Northeastern literature. She presented a study based two works by Ricardo Guilherme Dicke, an author from the Midwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

In October 2014, Marcelo Schincariol represented SAL at the 9th American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA). He delivered a paper on Ecocriticism titled “Por uma outra noção de ecologia: A representação da natureza em Carolina Maria de Jesus e em Ademiro Alves de Sousa, o Sacolinha” (For another notion of ecology: the representation of nature in Carolina Maria de Jesus and in Ademiro Alves de Sousa, a.k.a. Sacolinha). This conference was held at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque.

Revista Pós-Ciências Socias, vol. 11, n. 22, published by our partners at the Federal University of Maranhao (profs. Maristela Andrade and Benedito Souza Filho) will bring papers presented by the members of our Network at the “First International Social Sciences Conference and Second Meeting of the Brazil-US Network on Environment, Society, Governance” in São Luís, Brazil.

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015

LASC – CU Tinker Foundation Field Research Grants This year LASC was the proud recipient of a Tinker Foundation Grant to support graduate student pre-dissertation field research. The $10,000 Tinker Funds were generously matched by the School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School and the Department of Anthropology. The following students were recipients of this year’s grant:

• Miluska Benavides (Spanish and Portuguese) “The imagination of the Evil in religious art in 16th- 17th Colonial Peru” • Jeffrey Brzezinski (Anthropology) “Examining Regional Political Integration on the Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico” • Jennifer Cullison (History) “Demonstrating Immigrant Foreign Relations Agency in Response to Increasing U.S. INS detention: Mexican State and National Archives, 1952-1996” • Rachel Egan (Anthropology) “Statement of the problem: Did the Ilopango eruption cause the 6th Century world-wide cultural disasters?” • Lauren Gifford (Geography) “From conservation to markets: The hidden power of carbon accounting” • Nathan Gordon (Spanish and Portuguese) “Ophir de España: Colonial Archival Research in Peru” • Jessica Hedgepth Balkin (Anthropology) “A Preliminary Study of Formative Period (1800 BC-AD 250) Settlement Ecology in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico” • Rebecca Kennedy (History) “Transnational Discourses of Black Consciousness Movements in Brazil, Colombia, and the US, 1940- 2000” • Aaron Malone (Geography) “Collective Remittances as Development: Evaluating Institutionalization effects in Mexico's 3x1 Program” • Daniela Marini (Geography) “Political Agroecology: Opening Spaces for Political Innovations on Food Systems in Río Cuarto, Argentina” • Pascale Meehan (Anthropology) “Pilot Study Research at the Archaeological Site of Zacatepec (Yucu Satuta), Oaxaca, Mexico” • Dani Merriman (Anthropology) “Visualizing Victimhood in María la Baja, Colombia” • Shawnna Mullenax (Political Science) “Explaining Women's Representation in Latin America” • Cecilia A. Valenzuela (Education, Curriculum & Instruction Literacy) “Pedagogical Intercambios: Cuban Education in Virtual Collaborations” • Alan Zarychta (Political Science) “It Takes More than a Village: Polycentric Governance and the Performance of Local Health Systems in Central America”

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LASC Newsletter Fall 2014/Spring 2015 Mission LASC Steering Committee LASC’s mission is to provide an institutional space for research, teaching, and discussion on Latin America at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Its general purpose is to bring together Donna Goldstein CU faculty, students, and visiting scholars interested in Latin American issues, supporting the Director, Latin American Studies research, teaching, and study of Latin America and strengthening CU’s links with Latin Center; Associate Professor, Anthropology America with communities of Latin American origin in the U.S. Lorraine Bayard de Volo Goals Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies • Enhancing interdisciplinary faculty teaching and research on Latin America • Promoting interaction among CU Latin Americanists with the goal of securing external David Brown grants to fund collaborative faculty research Professor, Political Science • Attracting graduate students interested in Latin American Studies and fostering Joe Bryan interdisciplinary graduate work on Latin America Assistant Professor, Geography • Promoting undergraduate interest in Latin American Studies and providing more Study Abroad opportunities in the region Robert Buffington Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies How we can help: • Co-sponsor talks, films, symposiums Peter Elmore • Meet with potential faculty hires to discuss CU’s strengths in the study of Latin America Associate Professor, Spanish and • Speak with potential graduate students regarding LASC Portuguese • Provide support for internal and external grant submissions for research, performances, Christina Sue and scholarly activities relating to Latin America Assistant Professor, Sociology • Coordinate works in progress groups for intellectual exchanges on research • Help advertise classes, seminars, and study abroad programs.

Latin American Studies Center University of Colorado at Boulder

246 UCB Boulder, CO 80309 www.lasc.colorado.edu [email protected]