Central America Books

This recent book by a very talented writer, Donald Johnson, lacks some of the marketing gimmicks of modern exploration books - there is no breathless blurb on the front cover and there are no obseqious peer reviews on the back. Nevertheless this is an excellent history of LaSalle, the French explorer who discovered the Mississippi - only to lose it. In 1682, LaSalle was the first European explorer to sail (by canoe) all the way down the great river, all the way through the Delta, to modern New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico itself - and then go through the labor of paddling all the way back up to French Canada. He named the newfound Mississipi country "Louisiana" - a label that has stuck to this day, albeit for a smaller geographic zone. La Salle's voyage was a simply staggering feat, and Johnson tells the story very well indeed.

Perhaps more remarkable is the tragic story of La Salle's attempted return to the river in 1684, sailing this time from the west coast of France, via Haiti and into the Gulf of Mexico from the open sea - seeking to create a new French colony there. Despite all efforts, La Salle was unable to locate the river mouth, and his expedition ended up marooned in a particularly difficult stretch of Gulf coast in what today is Texas. La Salle ended up being murdered by his own shipmates.

A masterful account of La Salle's voyages, with an interesting end-note on the recent efforts to locate the site of his Texan camp.

La aparicion de este libro, reimpreso varias veces, constituyo un nuevo aporte en los estudios del pasado indigena de Mexico. Senala, en efecto, una de esas grandes sintesis que las disciplinas de la cultura exigen cada cierto tiempo, para revisar conclusiones y verificar supuestos. Desde este punto de vista, La vida cotidiana de los aztecas puede considerarse como la obra que pone al dia, ordenados, sistematizados y expuestos metodicamente y con elegancia, los resultados a que ha llegado la investigacion sobre el tema.

El autor considero indispensable situar el tema de estudio dentro del marco geografico e historico adecuado para su comprension cabal, y por ello comienza por describir la ciudad, sus calles, sus templos y monumentos, los mercados, etcetera, y termina por estudiar "la vida civilizada"; es decir, utiliza todo aquello que rodea al hombre comun, circunscribiendolo pero dotandolo al mismo tiempo de los atributos que le son propios y que lo caracterizaran como miembro activo de un cultura particular.

Jacques Soustelle ha investigado no solo al individuo, sino tambien se ha ocupado de las instituciones; el soberano y su consejo, el matrimonio, el sacerdocio, la propiedad, los tribunales; estudia a los funcionarios, los comerciantes, los guerreros, los artesanos, los esclavos, la plebe, los campesinos, el tributo, las ciudades aliadas y el papel que desempenan, y aun llega a descubrir y destacar datos fundamentales tan precisos como son los necesarios para estimar el "costo de la vida" en Tenochtitlan. Para ello se vale de las numerosas fuentes indigenas y espanolas, que combina y maneja con la soltura y destreza que solo son propias del especialista.

Ademas, no todo es descripcion, Soustelle tiene ideas propias acerca del mundo indigena. Con Spengler y Toscano cree, a diferencia de Toynbee, que la civilizacion azteca murio asesinada en la plenitud de su desarrollo; discrepa de Vaillant y de los arqueologos norteamericanos en general que equiparan al imperio azteca con las aldeas indigenas que existieron en el territorio de los Estados Uidos; cuenta a los aztecas entre los hombres privilegiados que han creado una cultura, situandolos asi junto a sus semejantes de otros continentes, incluso Europa.
--- from book's dustjacket

Francisco Serrano's La Virgen de Guadalupe is not just a well-written historical piece for children, but a beautiful keepsake to be passed down through the generations. The book chronicles the age-old legend of how the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor indigineous boy hundreds of years ago -- an encounter that would forever alter how Catholicism was practiced in Mexico and by Latinos worldwide today. The significance of the Virgin Mary appearing to Diego was momentous. The Virgin Mary was brought to Mexico via the Spanish conquest's Catholicism. The fact that a dark-skinned Virgin Mary would appear to an indio demonstrated Catholicism's accessibility to the masses in Mexico. Mexico was able to claim a part of the conquerer's religion as their own. La Virgen de Guadalupe became Mexico's patron saint.

Serrano's book breaks down the story in a straightforward manner that children of all ages can understand and appreciate. The pictures and pop-up images are beautifully illustrated and are a whimsical touch to a magical story. The reader looks forward to every page's clever pop and pull items. The book is certainly a treasure for older family members who want to share an important piece of spiritualism of the Latino culture with their children.

I read this book for my Intro into Bilingualism class. This book has interesting material on adult language learners and US general policy and historical practices on bilingual/ESL education.

Hilary Masters' memoir Last Stands exhibits uniqueness in writing with a universal appeal. Whether it be upper class zeal, lower class pride, war stories, grandparents, grandchildren, health, humor, abuse, neglect, tolerance, strength, or even food, there is something in it for everyone.

Overall, Last Stands is a patchwork piece--a memoir and indirect autobiography glittered with several familial biographies. Masters constantly switches scenes and elements of focus, but he overlaps his storyline, keeping the reader grounded, despite a sequence of simultaneous events. Thus, history is tied together in a busy but logical manner.

Although Masters reveals disturbing events, he adds tidbits of humor to lighten the mood. In addition, he compares and contrasts fictitious characters, such as Odysseus, to events in his own life--a technique that grants him boundless points-of-view. Furthermore, his ingenuity unfolds with his use of secondary sources: letters, poems, epitaphs, and invitations. Finally, his use of dialogue carries the story where it might otherwise seem bland.

Even where memory falls short in the author's mind, he entertains the reader with his image of how a situation could have happened. Thus, Masters offers creative details of a picture that might have been there, and even if it wasn't, he proves that the truth is as real as the writer's true imagination.

This book of essays, written by professor Lynch, has surprised me. Indeed. Because of that i rated it with 5 stars.

As a peruvian citizen, and having a university degree in economics, i had to read several articles and chapters from several books on, for instance, the Bourbonic Reforms and their consequences on latin american nationalism, or the key role the Catholic Church had during that years, as an institution of social control. But the quiet and accurate approach that Mr. Lynch has developed on these topics let me understand more, and lead me to wonder myself about more questions and make more associations with other facts from that time.

I realized that i knew of these facts, but i didn't understand them.

After reading these essays your view on latin american history will be more specific, less easy of putting into some classification, and you will understand better the recent history of the continent (the social reforms from the XX century and their flaws).

Probably the best example of the "latin american specificity" is the approach towards social change that Simon Bolivar had. Only him understood that the political independence was not made for changing the colonial society, but for keeping the profits of that model of social organization at home, and for few people. Only a disappointed Bolivar, always loyal to his high ideals, could think of a Constitution for Bolivia, in 1826, that at the same time it creates a Presidency for life ends the slavery and protects native peasants rights. Contradiction?. Not at all. It would be one for the Thirteen Colonies, but not for a weak national society, where the public interest seems always weak and the conservative ones seems so strong. If the political independence had to change the colonial society, it had to do that with very strong governments and leaders committed to make the promises of liberty real things, social achievements. But the latin american elites read the classical textbooks from the european enlightment with no malice, or with no intelligence, and trying to copy the models they read they lost the north, they crashed against a reality, and in the aftermath the colonial society survived, but with new bosses. Only Bolivar read, not only the books, but the culture and the hearts of all those who claimed to be patriots. He understood his time. Unfortunately, he was not followed.

Mr Lynch devotes two essays to Bolivar and his thoughts. In this book you will find more topics well developed and explained.

If you are interested in understanding the "old" topics of latin american history, don't waste your time searching for other titles. This is the book you are looking for. A great one.

According to the Preface, this book is a sequel to Mares and Genoways' (1982) highly successful "blue book," complementing it in aspects that were scantily or definitely not covered there; namely, history, biodiversity, and conservation. Of course, the latter two topics started receiving attention from mammalogists only during the 1980s, and the first one demonstrates the increasing maturity of the discipline: when one starts thinking about origins, ancestors and forerunners, becomes humbled by the foresight of the ancient few and the follies of the numerous contemporaries. Due consideration to the history of Mammalogy makes us all a little wiser and is therefore is a welcome complement in this book.

The book is organized into those three major sections mentioned in the subtitle, though conservation is split into policy/management and education, thus yielding four parts. Overall, history takes up 16% of the book; biodiversity (and biogeography) account for 35%, conservation policy/management (26%), and conservation education (23%). Each of the four sections is preceded by an overview that is translated into Spanish. Every chapter has a summary, which is also translated into Spanish. The presentation and format of the book is attractive, same as the typesetting. The quality of the graphs and photos (black and white only) is uneven, probably owing to the different means at hand to the contributors rather than to the publisher. All headings, subheadings, and captions are perfectly standardized, including references in the literature cited sections. The English text is remarkably free of typographic errors. In what follows I concentrate on the different sections and chapters that compose the book.

Part I: Historical background, consists of four chapters. Rollin Baker opens this section with an historical résumé of the classification of Neotropical mammals, from Columbus arrival until 1957. This is an excellent synoptic view of the progress made in classifying Neotropical mammals by taxonomists from many nations. Keith Sterling tells the story of Edward Nelson and Edward Goldman, who together did pioneering work on the mammalogy of Mexico. This is an interesting tale on two regular guys who were part of the infantry that developed the discipline in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Knox Jones analyzes the academic branching pattern of a single mammalogical root in the U.S., that of Joseph Grinnell of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California-Berkeley. Grinnell (1877-1939) indeed was an intriguing and charismatic leader of U.S. mammalogy, but what bearing has this chapter on Grinnell and descendants for Latin America? In isolation, none; in conjunction with the following chapter, very much. Grinnell was an undisputed leader of U.S. mammalogy yet he is not known for having used his academic substantial weight in discouraging graduate students or "disciplining" critics or strays. Quite different is the personality of those who Michael Mares coins as "sapos" (sic, Spanish in the original). They are uncontested leaders of the discipline, who use their heavy weight to hammer down on underlings and strays the notion of who is the boss. These "sapos" are truly interested in the development of their science, but they want to be the one, only, and undisputed authority in the field. His/her associates will always be just that (but at least they will have an assured survival under the beneficial umbrella of their mentor) and his/her imagined enemies will receive relentless pressure until they cave in, migrate or die (academically speaking) in utter isolation. Poker-faced, "sapos" conveniently use the argument of nationalistic pride and patriotic honor when dealing with potential intruders from foreign countries. Mares must have observed very closely the behavior of several "sapos" because he not only describes them in great detail, but also even provides a key on "How to recognize a sapo," which I found very perceptive.

Part II: biogeography and biodiversity, consists of seven chapters. It opens with the contribution by Michael Willig and Elizabeth Sandlin, wherein they compare quadrat and band methodologies for assessing bat species diversity gradients and turnover along the Americas. I found this to be an enlightening analysis focused on a relevant problem. This chapter is followed by the long and rambling research report by Carleton Phillips and coworkers. I found it overly technical, dealing with a biogeographical issue involving two species of bats in the Caribbean (is this Latin America?). Bruce Patterson examines the role of biogeographic theory in dealing with down to earth conservation issues. He makes the point that there is not enough time left for studying areas one by one (the empiricist approach), and that theory will have to compensate for missing time. In contrast, William Boecklen presents a rather despairing litany on the limitations of biogeographical models. His is a neatly packed state-of-the-art chapter that it should have preceded Patterson's chapter. Gerardo Ceballos and Daniel Navarro present a scholarly review of the diversity and conservation status of Mexican mammals. This is a solid piece of work that will likely represent a benchmark for future studies of the same type. Although more restricted in scope, the contribution of John Fa and Luis Morales is a good companion to the preceding chapter. These authors examine the conservation status of mammals in the Trans-Mexican Neovolcanic Belt, a complex physiographic area across southern Mexico. In a commendably short chapter, Kent Redford and John Robinson recycle old information for a new purpose, that of determining the park size that assures the continuous existence of at least 500 individuals of a given mammal species. The conclusion is that most Brazilian parks (the only ones analyzed) seem to have an adequate size for most of the species examined.

Part III: Conservation policy and management consists of six chapters. Virgilio Roig describes how desertification brought about by man since the Spanish conquest, has resulted in decreased distributional ranges for several of the most conspicuous mammals in the southern cone of South America. Cleber Alho and Thomas Lacher report another case in conservation, on pantanal mammals. Although no mammal species seems to be endemic to the pantanal, the interdigitation of xeric and mesic vegetation and of terrestrial and aquatic habitats results in a rich mammalian fauna, even richer than that of typical tropical areas. The chapter by Jose Fragoso, on the effect of logging on a Belize tapir, seems out of place in this book. This is a plain progress report. In contrast, Jorge Cajal offers a synthetic and painstakingly documented work on the past and current distribution of guanacos and vicuñas. Although Cajal concentrates on the Argentine setting, he places his findings in the broader scope of neighboring countries. The contribution by Jeffrey Jorgenson and Amanda Jorgenson refers to imports of CITES-regulated mammals from Latin America to the U.S. This is an interesting chapter that succinctly explains CITES and then examines the statistics on importations of live specimens and parts, products and derivatives of mammals. Alisa Shull describes the role of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in preserving endangered mammals in that country. Although this agency and its mission have nothing to do with Latin America itself, it is interesting to be informed about its charter and operational mode --particularly the process of "listing."

Part IV: conservation education, is composed of six chapters. Don Wilson proposes that OTS (Organization for Tropical Studies), a consortium of universities and institutions, physically based in Costa Rica and administratively in the U.S., is a paradigm for tropical ecology and conservation education programs. According to Wilson, there is much to be learned from OTS, and that the experience developed in over 25 years of existence "could easily be transferred to similar programs in other tropical countries." Thomas Lacher and coauthors describe how international cooperation is helping the establishment of a program in Wildlife Management and Conservation at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). Although of rather local interest, this chapter will become useful in providing the baseline against which the success of the above mentioned program could be gauged. Patricia Morton's chapter is on how to carry out an educational campaign to develop awareness of bat conservation in tropical America. I found that the guidelines proposed by Morton were good and adaptable to many organisms. Jane Packard and David Schmidly tell us about the role that mammalogists should play in promoting graduate training that integrates conservation and sustainable development. Although the authors carefully restrict their advice to U.S. universities, I found numerous words of wisdom throughout the chapter that are perfectly applicable to Latin American universities. Paisley Cato analyzes the value of natural history collections in Latin American conservation. Cato does an excellent rendition of the myriad of information pieces that well sampled, well curated, and well-conserved specimens may convey to the astute researcher. The final chapter of this section (and of this book) is by Janet Braun and Michael Mares. They call attention to the concept that natural history museums should not be mere repositories of dusty objects, but should instead become instrumental in promoting the development of a conservation ethic. Probably most museums do some of this through their exhibits, in-house education and research programs, and the dissemination of results in the literature. Braun and Mares are of the opinion that museums should do more. They make a compelling case for the establishment of outreach programs that take museum exhibits to the people, instead of waiting for them to attend at its central location. They further emphasize the importance of children education, which at tender ages are more susceptible of marveling at the wonders of nature. When grown up, these children may become advocates or even benefactors of the museums that once took the bother of reaching out to them.

In closing, I think this is a worthy companion of Mares and Genoways' blue book, and complements its coverage in precisely those areas most needed of immediate attention.

In Latin America during the 1980s, the widely accepted model of economic development based upon import-substitution colapsed, triggering profound changes in relations among the state, civil society, and the market. In its palce, neoliberal strategies pursued market-oriented restructuring to achieve external adjustment, tame hyperinflation, and discipline public sector finance. However, more people are now poorer with only marginal opportunities for equality, and a few people still hold most of the wealth and control productive resources. Frequently, governments have implemented new stabalization and structural adjustment policies autocratically, undermining democratic politics and the broadening of citizns' rights. This volume advocates a fundamental rethinking of central issues in Latin American political economy. Prominent political scientists, and sociologists from Latin America and the United States provide critical perspectives on the successes and failures of neoliberal reform. Several chapters explore alternative strategies for achieving economic growth along with enhanced equity and deepening democratic consolidation.
--- excerpt from book's back cover

despite its academic rigor, this book simultaneously entertains and elevates. it provides accessible perspective on the actions and reactions of the latin american avante garde during a period that has been sadly and negligently neglected by others.

reading his book is a transformative experience. the author's deft wit makes the complex comprehensible. her style can only be characterized as sublime.

Dr. Hansis manages to evaluate the role of all involved with the development of Latin America. Rather than adhere to the strict European version of history, Hansis incorporates the methodology behind several historical disciplines. This structure allows the reader to comprehend the myriad of roles played by indigens as well as Europeans in the creation of modern day Latin America. A great text for anyone interested in gaining knowledge about the region.