Central America Books

Wonderful book on the history of the Aztecs & Mayas as well as the Olmecs and others in Meso America. It also has many beautiful color photographs of cultural artifacs and art. As a former history teacher and cultural admirer I would recommend this book as both a gift or for your own enjoyment.

This excellent little book is a first rate guide to Yosemite. Virginia and Ansel lived in the Valley for years, traversed it from one end to the other and explored its meadows and peaks. Although it was written years ago, it remains an insightful guide. You'll certainly want to supplement it with current maps and other guides but the writing and descriptions here are clean and clear.

Ansel's photographic notes remain notable even in the digital age of image capture. He loved Yosemite and his work reflects his intimate knowledge of his craft and the Valley. Virgina and Ansels' guide is to be used and treasured.

The Ozarks are known for their natural beauty and grace. No book can more fully capture both the complexity and simplicity of the area as well as Images of the Ozarks. Travel the area with some of the region's best photographers as they capture the Ozarks in their full splendor. With each turn of the page, the reader will find themselves more and more eager to visit each scene in person.

This is an excellent, comprehensive account of the forces that led to the ascencion of Evo Morales. Morales himself is not the focus, instead the authors examine the history of liberalism (as a social order) and neoliberalism (as an economic order) in Bolivia. They aptly relate the effects of liberalism to the clamour for change.

Dr. Alexander Skutch passed away in 2004 just short of his 100th birthday.
He was an acclaimed biologist and had published a multitude of studies, articles and books on tropical botany, nature and ornithology.

In this book he describes his early days in Costa Rica just after concluding his work with the banana producing companies in the 1930's. In 1941 he purchased a farm in the rich San Isidro Valley in the South Central part of the country and named it Los Cosingos after the Fiery-billed Aracari, a species of Toucan that was common in the area. Skutch then devoted his time to studying the birds and plants of the area and worked to save some of the forests and preserves of the country. He along with Dan Janzen were two of the most influencial biologists that helped Costa Rica shape a system of national parks that may be the best of any country in the world.

In this book Skutch writes of the early days on the farm, what the area was like before the main rush of settlers and how it changed into an agricultural center. His farm, or better called his sanctuary is the last forest left in the area and still shelters many of the birds, animals and plants once found in the valley before it changed to cropland.
He describes journeys across the Cerro Muerte before the road when it was just a horse trail and travelers would sometimes freeze on its heights here in the tropics. He describes fantastic natural phenomena such as migrations of irridescent winged butterflys that stretched from horizon to horizon that sadly dwindled with time and are no more.

I had noticed that no one had reviewed this book which I imagine is an indicator of the present interest in this book. This is very unfortunate as it is an excellent read and will illuminate aspects of tropical life that have all but disappeared in Central America.

Presents a compilation of information from a worldwide pool of experts on their practical experiences in telecommunications sector reform.

This study compiles a wealth of information from a worldwide pool of experts on their practical experiences in telecommunications sector reform. It provides an up-to-date account of approaches to the major policy and structural issues and describes developments in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. The study also examines issues related to investment, regulation, and implementation.

While each of the eight parts centers on a particular aspect of telecommunications sector reform, the study highlights several recurring themes and looks at a number of country experiences from the perspective of policymakers, regulators, investors, operators, the international development community, and other industry specialists.

This volume provides valuable information on how to implement telecommunications reforms, offers insights into the effectiveness of these reforms, and identifies critical areas in which further discussion of related policy and implementation issues in this increasingly important economic sector.

Expertly compiled and knowledgeably edited by anthropologist John Martin Campbell In A Hungry Country: Essays By Simon Paneak, showcases the extraordinary expertise and life experiences of Simon Paneak (1900-1975), a Nunamiut hunter who was a uniquely valuable source of information on inland Eskimo history and cultural heritage. Provided with paper and pens by Jack Campbell, Peneak drew a series of pictures documenting Nunamiut life from 1969 until 1971. He also recorded his own earliest memories of life in the Brooks Range before the disastrous dispersal of his people to the coastal area in the early 1900s. Of special note is Paneak's retelling of a Nunamiut legend of flying whales, along with grim stories of warfare ad hunger. Illustrated with color photography, black-and-white illustrations, maps, bibliography, and an index, In A Hungry Country (also available in a hardcover edition - 1889963593, $59.95) is a treasury of anthropological and historical information, and a welcome contribution to academic Native American Studies collections and supplemental reading lists.

IN A LONELY PLACE is one of the most complex film Hollywood has ever produced about it self. At the cross-road of the director's own biographical effort and a satirical view about our culture of celluloid, fame and celebrity, Nicholas Ray meditates about the value of why he (and they) make movies. It's in many way, one of the most disturbing and profoundly emotional film ever made.

Dana Polan's aproach to analyze this film is quite orthodox, but probably the best way about this particular film. He goes deep inside the production history and describes the evolution of the story that happened through Ray's re-working on the script and improvising with his actors in pre-production and the actual production itself; a good example is the last scene, which was completely changed near the end of the production schedule, reflecting what had happened between the characters, as well as what happned between Ray and his leading actress Gloria Grahame, who was then his own wife.

At the same time, Polan also argues Hollywood then as reflected in the film, both in its contents and it's narrative style; mixing a murder WhoDunit, Film Noir, Screwball Comedy, and Melodrama which resulted in a unique and truthful vision of humanity that belongs to none of these genres. He reveals that not only that the story of the film is about movie making, but the film itself, its style and narrative structure are also a shrewed commentary about the way Hollywood make their movies.

I recommend IN A LONELY PLACE as a must see film for everybody who loves films, and this book as an invaluable companion for a better understading of this profound, emotional and haunting work of art.

The young author gives up his boring job in a bank to head off to the jungles of Bolivia in search of a tree turkey that was supposed to have been extinct for several decades. It's a crazy thing to do, and Oliver sometimes wonders about the sanity of undertaking such an adventure.

He is part of a team, who do succeed in tracking down the elusive Unicorn Bird of the title. For those who are interested, ornithologists would know the bird as the Horned Curassow (Pauxi unicornis). The discovery and census of this bird is only the beginning of the author's adventures in South America. He links up with a novice priest, Dennis, and travels around several other countries on a voyage of discovery like no previous explorer ever enjoyed.

To tell you what he got up to would spoil your read, but I can tell you that he had a lot of fun along the way, and his account will make you laugh out loud.

It takes two minutes to read the first chapter. You should do that and then decide whether it is worth reading the rest. If you take my advice, I am positive that you will want to read on to the end of the book

This is a more interesting book than you might think from the usual superlatives on the back cover. Because the U.S. government supported a rightwing dictatorship against Marxist guerrillas in the 1980s, and tens of thousands of civilians died in massacres, North American scholarship on Guatemala tends to suffer from political correctness. Complexities often drop out of the picture. But these did not get left out of In Search of Providence, whose author Patricia Foxen follows K'iche' Mayas from their paranoia-inducing home town in Quiché Department to their paranoia-inducing existence in Providence, Rhode Island.
The town of Xinxuc (a pseudonym) is the kind of place that the army struck preemptively, killing off Catholic catechists and their families as suspected subversives before the guerrillas could make inroads. Xinxucians began reaching Providence in the mid-1980s, after most of the army killing had ended, but rife with traumatic memories of what they had done to each other at the army's command. Ironically, the first to make it to Providence were not the most direct victims of army persecution--such people were already dead or too repressed to have the money needed to go north. Instead, the first to arrive were in large part the agents of army repression--the local civil patrol leaders who had helped the army do all that killing.
One of the first Xinxucians to reach Providence was an ex-civil patrol leader named Cipriano. He offers hospitality to newcomers in order to charge them exorbitant prices and reputedly combines pastoring an evangelical church with witchcraft, with the result that Xinxucians are still afraid of him, not just at home but in the supposed safety of Rhode Island. In both locations, Foxen stresses, victims and victimizers have continued to live side by side. Illegal migration to the U.S. has become a common project for both, with non-judgementalism as a requirement for their precarious moral community. Unfortunately, their history of fratricide and their illegal status also require lives of subterfuge that are highly vulnerable to extortion. Meanwhile, back home enormous expectations and neglected family responsibilities feed what Foxen calls a "vicious transnational rumor mill." Still, in Providence the Xinxucians have found a city that welcomes cheap foreign labor. They desire a sixty to eighty hour work week and are viewed as respectful, hardworking employees. Despite anti-immigrant backlashes at the national level, U.S. institutions have offered them far more social services than they would receive in Guatemala. So Providence has delivered on some of its promises.
Like many anthropologists, Foxen is preoccupied with the problem of identity, which I doubt is how Xinxucians describe their problems, but she uses it to pull together important issues. One is that the K'iche's of Providence tend to be very ambivalent about their hometown, switching back and forth between nostalgia, traumatic memories, and shame over their indigenous origins, which they are completely disinterested in advertising in Providence, let alone deploying for political purposes. They have little interest in the Maya movement, one reason being that most of them don't identify as Mayas. Youth in particular are more focused on what they hope to find in Providence than on revitalizing K'iche' culture, which many of them seem to view as cruel and harmful, not least because of the way the army forced neighbors to betray each other during the violence. As for the violence, the first thing that most Xinxucians say about it is that they don't want to talk about it and many have little interest in the peace process or human rights groups.
Foxen has a keen ear for the contradictions of Guatemalan existence. If you know anyone who is heading to Guatemala with her head full of human rights and Mayan culture, this book would make an excellent choice, along with Daniel Wilkinson's Silence on the Mountain.