current issue
Is Costa Rica Different?
Read the Spring/Summer 2024 issue
Recent Articles
Reflections on Judicial Independence, the Colombian Constitutional Court
The Colombian Constitutional Court was created in 1991 as a body independent of the Supreme Court of Justice, tasked with the unique responsibility of judicial review.
Transnational Fashion on the Frontier: Migration and Modernities in the Brazilian Amazon
When you think of fashion, you might not think of politics.
A Review of The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis
On March 19, 2010, two graduate students at the Tec de Monterrey, Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Francisco Arredondo Verdugo, were killed by members of the Mexican Army inside the university campus. To cover up the murder, the Army and Mexican authorities initially claimed the victims were armed sicarios—hitmen— with organized crime connections. An investigation later revealed that Jorge and Javier were engineering students who did not belong to any criminal group and were unarmed when the perpetrators shot them.
From Our Current Issue
Youth Unemployment Crisis in Costa Rica: A Call to Action
As a Costa Rican student at Harvard, I discovered an alarming situation back home when I returned to my country for winter break: youth unemployment.
Yes, Costa Rica is Different: A Successful Experience at Risk
Everyone knows her as “Doña Nena.” At 75 years old, she has been a leader for half a century in the community of Luzón, in Matina—one of the poorest counties in Costa Rica—on the Caribbean coast, 84 miles northeast of the capital: San José.
Voices of the Caribbean: Afro-Costa Ricans Move Towards Empowerment and Equality
Dawn begins to appear on the coast of Cocles in the Costa Rican Caribbean and the first rays of the sun reflect on the sea. With an invitation from the Brown Hudson family, local residents who are proud Afro-Caribbeans, I am on my way to a journey of discovery and connection
Spotlight
Perspectives in Times of Change
Check out these reflections on social, economic, cultural and political transformations in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latinx communities in the United States.
On Settler Colonialism: From Adam Kirsch to Latin America
In school, we may have learned that Simón Bolívar proposed expansion into northeastern Colombia in his quest for regional unification. What we may not have learned is that he blithely suggested that “the savages who live there would be civilized and our possessions increased,” using what we call today explicitly settler colonial terms, Indigenous peoples there perceived Colombian intruders as “Spanish” throughout the 19th century, and the return of Catholic missions at the end of the century followed the logic of state-sponsored religious “Hispanicization.”
An Academic in the Amazon: Sight, Sound, Touch and Taste of the Rainforest
This was not my first time in the Amazon Rainforest. I visited the Ecuadorian Amazon 13 years ago. I had recently finished my last year of Law School at the University of Chile and wanted to enjoy the last summer before preparing for the terrifying examen de grado.
Reinventing Ourselves: Art and Artificial Intelligence
For several years, seeking to renew the meaning of my new stage of life, to continue learning and living with enthusiasm, I recovered a hobby that I´ve been passionate about for a long time: watercolor. Since I rediscovered the magic of water and color, in every free moment, I try to learn a new technique, combine new colors, discover different papers or try a new brush.
StudEnt Views
Belonging and Escaping
It is Sunday, July 21, 2024. I am awake at 9 a.m., greeted by the sun and blue skies of Rio de Janeiro when I pull my shades up.
A Sea of Mud and Feelings: Bringing Visibility to the Tragedies of Mariana and Brumadinho
I still vividly remember, during my freshman year of high school, walking to the bus stop after school and seeing graffiti all over Belo Horizonte, with the message: Vale assassina (Vale [Mining Company] murderer).
Medical Hands-On in Mexico
English + Español
Every day at the lab was a learning adventure.
Book ReviewS
A Review of Mesquite Pods to Mescal: 10,000 Years of Oaxacan Cuisines
Mexican culinary nationalists have enshrined Oaxaca as the “land of seven moles,” the diverse chile stews that provide an Indigenous counterpoint to the supposed cradle of creole gastronomy, Puebla, with its chile and chocolate centerpiece, mole poblano. Although the count of seven moles is an invented tradition, Oaxaca’s culinary roots indeed reach deep into the past, as is shown by the essays in this splendid collection. The volume also effectively illustrates the advances of the archaeological study of food, from an early focus on the processes of domestication and subsistence regimes.
A Review of Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics
At a recent Harvard Petrie-Flom Center event, Law and Policy of Psychedelic Medicine, author Ayelet Waldman offered a nuanced perspective on microdosing and government policy. I asked her how we could incorporate understandings of Indigenous cosmologies into our practices of understanding psychedelic integration both in clinical and non-clinical settings. She emphasized the importance of agency, arguing that Indigenous peoples who hold these lineages sacred should lead the conversation.
A Review of From Peril to Partnership: US Security Assistance and the Bid to Stabilize Colombia and Mexico
Oxford University Press, in collaboration with The Council on Foreign Relations, published Paul J. Angelo’s much-anticipated monograph in March 2024. The book is a comparative study, focusing on U.S. security policy to two countries in Latin America at roughly the same period, i.e. during the first fifth of the 21st century. From Peril to Partnership represents a nearly 20-year focus by the author on Latin America in general, Colombia and Mexico, specifically.
DRCLAS Podcast: Faculty Voices
Join our email list
Get the latest information about ReVista!