El Niño Ready Nations and Disaster Risk Reduction


Book Description

El Niño can have drastic effects on livelihoods in affected regions. As the climate changes, there will also be changes in El Nino behavior and therefor in its impacts around the globe on human activities such as agriculture, water resources and weather extremes. The country-specific studies covered in this book are undertaken by experts on climate, water and weather-related fields in the countries being studied. Furthermore, aspects from other disciplines, for example from social sciences have been drawn upon in order to cover crosscutting themes which are identified: depicting similarities and differences in responses to El Nino's impacts such as drought, floods, famines, health-related issues and the like.




El Niño Fidencio and the Fidencistas


Book Description

El Nio Fidencio and the Fidencistas: Folk Religion on the U.S.-Mexican Borderland, is an biographical ethnography examining the life of Mexicos most famous folk healer as well as the folk religious healing cult that has followed him since his death in 1938. Dr. Zavaleta examines curanderismo, the transmigrational patterns of Mexicans in the United States as well as Latino/a social psychology and importance of folk beliefs and practices in their daily lives. In 2009, Zavaletas lifetime of research supporting Mexican nationals living abroad, Mexicanos en el Extranjero earned him the prestigious Ohtli, a Nahuatl(Aztec) word meaning pathfinder. The Ohtli is regarded as the highest community-minded awards which the Republic of Mexico bestows to non-Mexican citizens for their service to Mexico. In 2010, Zavaleta was appointed by President Obama to the Good Neighbor Environmental Commission of the EPA which reports directly to the President and dedicated to observing and analyzing ongoing events within the cross-border eco-systems of the United States-Mexico borderlands. Zavaleta studied anthropology at The University of Texas a Austin completing a doctoral degree in 1976. For the past 40 years he has been a faculty member and administrator at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Zavaleta retired in 2016 and lives in Brownsville, Texas.




New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema


Book Description

This volume explores the recent ‘adolescent turn’ in contemporary Latin American cinema, challenging many of the underlying assumptions about the nature of youth and distinguishing adolescence as a distinct and vital area of study. Its contributors examine the narrative and political potential of teenage protagonists in a range of recent films from the region, acknowledging the distinct emotional registers that are at play throughout adolescence and releasing teenage subjectivities from restrictive critical and theoretical emphases on theories of childhood. As the first academic study to examine the figure of the adolescent in contemporary Latin American film, New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema thus presents a timely and innovative analysis of issues of sexuality and gender, political and domestic violence and social class, and will be of significant interest to students and researchers in Latin American Studies, Cultural Studies, World Cinema and Childhood Studies.










The Child in Contemporary Latin American Cinema


Book Description

What is the child for Latin American cinema? This book aims to answer that question, tracing the common tendencies of the representation of the child in the cinema of Latin American countries, and demonstrating the place of the child in the movements, genres and styles that have defined that cinema. Deborah Martin combines theoretical readings of the child in cinema and culture, with discussions of the place of the child in specific national, regional and political contexts, to develop in-depth analyses and establish regional comparisons and trends. She pays particular attention to the narrative and stylistic techniques at play in the creation of the child's perspective, and to ways in which the presence of the child precipitates experiments with film aesthetics. Bringing together fresh readings of well-known films with attention to a range of little-studied works, The Child in Contemporary Latin American Cinema examines films from the recent and contemporary period, focussing on topics such as the death of the child in ‘street child’ films, the role of the child in post-dictatorship filmmaking and the use of child characters to challenge gender and sexual ideologies. The book also aims to place those analyses in a historical context, tracing links with important precursors, and paying attention to the legacy of the child’s figuring in the mid-century movements of melodrama and the New Latin American Cinema.




Affect, Gender and Sexuality in Latin America


Book Description

This book emphasizes the significance of affects, feelings and emotions in how we think about politics, gender and sexuality in Latin America. Considering the complex and even contradictory social processes that the region is experiencing today, many Latin American authors are turning to affect to find a key to understand our present situation, to revisit our history, and to imagine new possibilities for the future. This tendency has shown such a specificity and sometimes departure from northern productions that it compels us to focus more deeply on its own arguments, methods, and critical contributions. This volume features essays that explore the particularities of Latin American ways of thinking about affect and how they can shed new light into our understanding of, gender, sexuality and politics.




Latin America


Book Description




The Anthropology of Disasters in Latin America


Book Description

This book offers anthropological insights into disasters in Latin America. It fills a gap in the literature by bringing together national and regional perspectives in the study of disasters. The book essentially explores the emergence and development of anthropological studies of disasters. It adopts a methodological approach based on ethnography, participant observation, and field research to assess the social and historical constructions of disasters and how these are perceived by people of a certain region. This regional perspective helps assess long-term dynamics, regional capacities, and regional-global interactions on disaster sites. With chapters written by prominent Latin American anthropologists, this book also considers the role of the state and other nongovernmental organizations in managing disasters and the specific conditions of each country, relative to a greater or lesser incidence of disastrous events. Globalizing the existing literature on disasters with a focus on Latin America, this book offers multidisciplinary insights that will be of interest to academics and students of geography, anthropology, sociology, and political science.




Rural Agroindustry in Latin America


Book Description

Rural Agroindustry in Latin America: An evaluation of the PRODAR network