Central America Books

Cronica Mexicana by Tezozomoc is a very important though neglected work. The Dastin version rated here is a true reprinting with the original archaic Spanish text. This can be difficult to follow in reading, but it does allow the reader to go beyond translator's reinterpretations which at times can be incorrect. This book is an important history of the Azteca empire and much more detailed than Duran's History of the Indies of New Spain. I highly recommend this text to students of Mexican archaeology, anthropology or history.

The memoir Crossing Border Street by Honigsberg is an excellent look into the life and times of a man committed to civil rights. Coming from NYU Law School, Honigsberg did more than legal matters, he got involved in marches and demonstrations, risking his life on several occasions. The memoir also includes interactions with the Deacons for Defense, which were the originators of the Black Panthers. Few people have ever heard of the Deacons, or of civil rights marches outside of MLK. This is a fascinating book, and I can't recommend enough!

Jere' Franco has illustrated the sacrifice and important contributions Native Americans have made to the war effort, both in combat and on the home front. This book highlights the fact that despite centuries of warfare and oppression, Native Americans revitalized the warrior code and demonstrated their patriotism by fighting for the same U.S. Government their forefathersopposed. The photos capture the faces of the dedication and purpose Indians brought to the war effort, and Franco's writing reflects the extensive research she invested into telling this important, but often neglected, segment of history. Of unique interest to me was was how the Third Reich attempted to sway Native Americans against the American government, even to the extent of declaring the Sioux Nation "Aryan" and promising to repatriate the annexed lands back to native people should they rebel against their country. The cultural observances Indian people remark on in the course of the war are particularly intriguing, and following the reading of the book one is left with a profoundly-lasting appreciation of Native people and the role they played in protecting the interests of their nation. Whether your interest is in Indian culture, military history, anthropology, government reforms, or international relations, Crossing the Pond displays all of these elements in telling detail and challenges the assumption that Indian people have not contributed to America's security. In fact, given their consecutively high-enlistment rates in the military across the 20th Century, many have given their lives to protect the land and values of the ancestors. A wonderful book and an appropriate tribute to Native veterans.

Cruel Justice: Three Strikes And The Politics Of Crime is a no-holds-barred look at the rise of the "three strikes" law in California, first instituted in 1994 in the wake of the media-followed murders of Kimber Reynolds and Polly Klaas. The vagaries and utter ruthlessness of the law have resulted in 25 year to life prison sentences for not only violent offenders, but countless individuals convinced of nonviolent crimes such as petty theft or serving as an alleged lookout for a $20 drug deal. The utterly brutal and disproportionate punishmet meted out to nonviolent offenders has caused the even the family of Polly Klaas to speak out openly against the law; yet it remains entrenched, and political interests resist every effort to amend it to apply only to "serious" or "violent" offenses. A stark and disturbing account of a very real and ongoing law that is causing tremendous impact in the state of California today. Highly recommended.

I liked te book a lot! i'm traveling to Cuba in a couple of weeks and the book helped me to decide where to go and how much money do i need. I think it's gonna be really usefell wehen i get there because it has a lot of maps and it explains clarely all the important spots you have to visit.

This book is a masterpiece by diplomat/economist/revolutionary Mr. Lechuga Hevia. His extramarital son, Martin Hevia, obtained his SJD at the U of Toronto, with his doctoral thesis being indeed a masterpiece. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
GO LECHUGA GO

This book presents the English-language text of the 1876 report of the commission sent by the Chinese government to investigate alleged abuses against Chinese laborers in Cuba. These contract laborers were brought to Cuba to help ease the labor shortages brought on by the impending end of African slavery in Cuba. The text is easily readable even with the Chinese names and characters mixed in. It is a very useful volume for the historian and genealogist since it is the result of interviews made and depositions taken by the members of the commission with actual laborers. This very revealing report brings to light the patterns of brutality and dishonest against the laborers by the plantation owners. The book is arranged thematically based on the questions asked by the commission. The Cuba Commission Report singularly stands out in the field of labor and migration history of the Caribbean and Cuba.

This book has become a classic for all of us who study Cuba's history and society. However, I must also recommend the book for any student of social and cultural anthropology interested in cross cultural interactions and acculturation ("transculturación" in Ortiz's own words. It is incredible that his ideas on this subject have been mostly ignored by the United States anthropological community, despite the strong support Ortiz received from Bronislaw Malinowsky. I highly recommend it.

I can see no possible reason for you not to buy this concise, but informative book on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Plus: if you keep a stack of several books close to your heart and you're shot at long range by a low caliber bullet, it just may save your life!

The Americas is mostly Central and South America where as in Bogota, Columbia, "no one asks what 'cultural agency' is." "The concept resonates with a variety of public practices that link creativity with social contributions." As the editor and authors of the 16 articles, most of whom are university anthropologists, approach the topic, the "link" is between scholarship and society. Scholarship takes on a social dimension, bringing benefits to the members of society. The methodology, subject matter, and intellectual character of scholarship bound with a notion of the public good is able to help overcome the traumas of the past, build bridges between antagonistic social groups, and implement performances and other activities having a part in developing a community. Chapter titles indicate the novel, imaginative, and beneficial forms "cultural agency" can take--e. g., "A City [Mexico City] That Improvises Its Globalization; Tradition, Transnationalism, and Gender in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble [a local religion]; The Cultural Agency of Wounded Bodies Politic: Ethnicity and Gender as Prosthetic Support in Postwar Guatemala. The collected pieces provide a sampling of the especially vibrant, generous, and hopeful cultural agency--which the older term social activism refers to to some extent--occurring in heterogeneous Latin American cultures seeking new social forms in the ambiance of postmodernism.