winter 2011 | volume xlii | issue 1 in this issue Debates The Road to Same-Sex Marriage in Mexico City by Rafael de la dehesa Ni más ni menos. Los mismos derechos, con los mismos nombres por esteban Paulón Nuevos derechos para LGBT en Argentina y Brasil por hoRacio sívoRi On LARR Living in Actually Existing Democracies An Introduction to LARR Volume 45, Special Issue, 2010 by PhiliP oxhoRn and nancy PosteRo President Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida, Universidade de São Paulo [email protected] Vice President Evelyne Huber, University of North Carolina Past President John Coatsworth, Columbia University Table of Contents Treasurer Cristina Eguizábal, Florida International University ExEcuTive council by Maria HerMínia Tavares de alMeida 1 From the President | For term ending April 2012 Roberto Blancarte, Colegio de México debates Gwen Kirkpatrick, Georgetown University Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University 2 The Road to Same-Sex Marriage in Mexico City | by rafael de la deHesa For term ending october 2013: Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo, Centro de Investigaciones 5 Ni más ni menos. Los mismos derechos, con los mismos nombres y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social por esTeban Paulón Maxine Molyneux, University of London Gioconda Herrera, FLACSO/Ecuador 7 Nuevos derechos para LGBT en Argentina y Brasil | por Horacio sívori Ex officio Gabriela Novzeilies, Princeton University on larr Timothy J. Power, University of Oxford Milagros Pereyra-Rojas, University of Pittsburgh Philip Oxhorn, McGill University 11 Living in Actually Existing Democracies: An Introduction to LARR Volume 45, Special Issue, 2010 | by PHiliP oxHorn and nancy PosTero Forum EdiToriAl committee Editor Calling all members Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida, Universidade de São Paulo 20 Nominations Invited: Bryce Wood Book Award; Premio Iberoamericano Book managing Editor Award; LASA Media Award; LASA/Oxfam America Martin Diskin Memorial Milagros Pereyra-Rojas, University of Pittsburgh Lectureship; LASA/Oxfam America Martin Diskin Dissertation Award Forum EdiToriAl AdVisory committee 24 Luciano Tomassini Latin American International Relations Award Carlos Ivan Degregori, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos Katherine Hite, Vassar College Hilda Sábato, Universidad de Buenos Aires news from lasa lAsA Staff 25 LASA2010 Survey Report | by Milagros Pereyra-rojas membership coordinator 26 LASA Voluntary Support | by sandy Klinzing María Soledad Cabezas, University of Pittsburgh congress coordinator on lasa2012 Melissa A. Raslevich, University of Pittsburgh Assistant director for institutional Advancement 30 From Toronto to San Francisco: Looking Ahead to LASA2012 Sandra Klinzing, University of Pittsburgh by gabriela nouzeilles and TiMothy j. Power communications specialist Ryan Lincoln, University of Pittsburgh lasa seCtions Executive director Milagros Pereyra-Rojas, University of Pittsburgh 32 Section Reports Administrative coordinator Israel R. Perlov, University of Pittsburgh 46 Section News The LASA Forum is published four times a year. It is the official vehicle for conveying news about the Latin American Studies Association to its members. Articles appearing in the On the Profession and Debates sections of the Forum are commissioned by the Editorial Committee and deal with selected themes. The Committee welcomes responses to any material published in the Forum. Opinions expressed herein are those of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Latin American Studies Association or its officers. ISSN 0890-7218 President’s Report by Maria HerMínia Tavares de alMeida | Universidade de São Paulo | [email protected] Some thirty years ago, it was far from societal changes that go far beyond the certain that democracy would replace acceptance of the democratic rules of authoritarianism in Latin America. political exchange, since they suppose the O`Donnell, Schmitter and Whitehead´s transformation of the core values, beliefs seminal study, published in 1986, was and behaviors that have sustained cautiously named “Transitions from patriarchal conservatism in Latin America. Authoritarian Rule,” a title implying that the This is because, in fact, it is a specific The quality of these three contributions crisis of authoritarian rule could be resolved idea—and a specific ideal—of family that is should certainly help compensate for in a number of different ways. Political at stake. These developments also expose the absence in this issue of the section democracy, that is, was only one of the not only the resistance of traditional On the Profession. It will be back in our possible outcomes of the transition from the conservative elites, both secular and Spring issue. crisis of Latin American autocracies, the religious, but also the internecine others being totalitarian forms of socialism contradictions of progressive political forces, or reversion to dictatorship. Indeed, the such as left-wing parties and progressive LASA2012 region’s past experience of democracy’s branches of the Catholic Church, which, in frailty and political instability, especially several countries, played an important role Preparations for the LASA 2012 during the Cold War period, endorsed a in the resistance against authoritarian International Congress in San Francisco are prudent attitude regarding the political regimes. gaining momentum under the leadership of prospects for Latin American countries. chairs Timothy Power and Gabriela The three articles we publish here disclose Nouzeilles, who have selected a host of But against all odds, democracy prevailed. the complexity of the process through which committed track chairs. You will find all the Free and fair elections, allowing for the the very model of family is being information you need to participate on the shifting of groups in power, have become transformed. They are as informative as they LASA Website: <http://lasa.international.pitt. the norm in the region, even when excessive are insightful. edu>. Also, LASA´s various award concentration of power in the presidency committees have been appointed and are may ring an alarm. Indeed, political Rafael de la Dehesa analyzes with great ready to receive nominations. competition and a decent amount of respect political sensibility and richness of detail the for civil liberties have extended the limits of process through which Mexico City became The San Francisco Congress will be the last the public realm, permitting the expression the first city in Latin America to legalize to be run on a once-every-eighteen-months of new social forces, some of them built same-sex marriage. basis. At Toronto, the Executive Committee around new identities and agendas. While voted to move to an annual meeting, which it remains a territory of multiple and Horacio Sívori compares the Argentine and we hope will increase the opportunity for entrenched inequalities—of income, of Brazilian experiences, their different participation and, at the same time, allow gender, of ethnicity, of “color” and of trajectories and results, emphasizing the role for meetings of a more manageable size, cultural recognition—Latin America today of LGBT militant groups, their capacity to facilitating personal and informal exchange has become an arena where new rights are build an intelligible and convincing discourse among participants. It will be certainly a formulated, demanded and fought for. for public opinion, and their strategies huge challenge for everybody, from our towards governments, courts and legislative Executive Director and LASA staff to In this issue of LASA Forum we have chosen bodies. Congress and track chairs. But we are to focus on recent developments regarding confident and optimistic regarding the the successful struggles for, and remaining Esteban Paulón brings the force and academic results. It will be a great step we obstacles to full recognition of the rights of freshness of the LGBT movement to the invite you to take with us. n same-sex couples. Recently, legislation in center of his analysis. He traces its history the largest countries of the region has in Argentina since the 1970s, and reminds us grappled with the issue and made undeniable that the approval of the same-sex legislation progress in the matter. Those developments, it is not the end, but some point on the road important in themselves, also shed light on towards equality. 1 lasaforum winter 2011 : volume xlii : issue 1 debates The Road to Same-Sex Marriage in Mexico City by Rafael de la dehesa | CUNY-College of Staten Island | [email protected] On December 21, 2009, Mexico City Transformations on the Left federal congress, marking the movement’s legalized same-sex marriage. By a vote of electoral debut. In recent elections, a series thirty-nine to twenty in the Legislative Same-sex marriage was ultimately passed in of smaller parties on the left have made Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF), Mexico City by a coalition on the left that feminism and sexual diversity a centerpiece with five abstentions, a center-left coalition united the PRD, with an absolute majority in of their campaigns, all short-lived led by the Party of the Democratic the ALDF, and the small Workers Party (PT). expressions of alliances articulated originally Revolution (PRD) overcame opposition to This disciplined backing of same-sex around the feminist political association the bill spearheaded by the conservative marriage was particularly striking given the Diversa, founded by Patricia Mercado, a National Action Party (PAN) of President less-than-forthcoming