Spotlight
Perspectives in Times of Change
Photo by Lisette Morales McCabe
“Perspectives in Times of Change” reflects on social, economic, cultural and political transformations in these times of change in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latinx communities in the United States. The Spotlight is an outgrowth of the former Spotlight, Perspectives in the Era of Covid, which ran throughout the pandemic.
If you would be interested in contributing articles or photographs, please contact June Carolyn Erlick, jerlick@fas.harvard.
Browse Articles by Month
Articles
Crime and Punishment in the Americas
As 2024 ushered in, newly-elected Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa issued a state of emergency in his country, citing a wave of gang violence spurred by the prison escape of a local criminal leader with ties to Mexico’s ruthless Sinaloa Cartel.
Women CEOs in Latin America: Overcoming obstacles, navigating through challenges
I first arrived in Latin America in 1997, and since then, I’ve been involved in education and the development of leadership and governance issues in the region. During these 27 years—12 of them from Spain—I have had the opportunity to interact with leaders from the region, the private and public sectors, multinationals and small and medium-sized enterprises, and various industries.
Alvarado, Arbenz, Arévalo: The Repair of Guatemala
Almost exactly 500 years ago Hernán Cortés dispatched his brother-in-arms Pedro de Alvarado from newly subdued Tenochtitlán to conquer Guatemala. Violent and monumentally willful, Alvarado was a key lieutenant in the Spanish Crown’s conquest of Cuba in 1511 and Cortés’ deputy in defeating Moctezuma’s empire in 1521.
Safety For Whom? The Cost of El Salvador’s Latest Quest for Peace
On January 3, 2024, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele ordered the destruction of San Salvador’s Monument of Reconciliation, an enormous sculpture on the west side of the capital that had been inaugurated in 2017 under Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) President Salvador Sánchez Cerén. Intended to celebrate 25 years since the signing of the Peace Accords, which brought El Salvador’s civil war to an end, the monument featured two bronze figures—an FMLN fighter and a soldier with arms interlocked and releasing a flock of aluminum pigeons.
Photovoice Dances/Land Relationship of Indigenous Peoples
This powerful quote drew my attention, echoing what authors have written about the crucial connection between Indigenous bodies and their territories, and how colonialism has disastrous consequences affecting this connection.
The Honduran Electric Sector Debacle: 30 Years of Confusion and Fraud
Samuel “Koko” Erazo is a Honduran artist who understands that his country’s electric sector is not an abstract thing for the citizens of his country, particularly the poor.
Recreating a Silenced Newspaper
I first explicitly began to explore the theme of Cuban Blackness in 2014 at BE.BOP 14, Spiritual Revolutions & “The Scramble for Africa,” a theoretical and anti-colonial event in Berlin, Germany, organzied by the late Dominican writer and curator Alanna Lockward. I presented my project “Túmbenlo,” which supported the duo rap group Obsesión in their 2010 demands on the Cuban government to demolish the statue that glorifies racism in Cuba: the statue erected in 1936 of José Miguel Gómez, the second president of Cuba, responsible for the 1912 massacre of thousands of Afro-Cubans who were members of the Independent Party of Color (PIC, after its Spanish acronym).
Reclaiming their Indigenous Languages: Female University Students’ Experiences
Grendy Isabel Nina Huaycane, who comes from the southern Peruvian Andean region of Puno, grew up in an urban area of Puno, where she heard both Spanish and Aymara, though she remembers that most of her interactions where “only in Spanish.” Her entrance to university was a turning point in her life.
Tears and Bullets: A Photoessay by Gabriele Rossi
I read in a recent report by the Norwegian Refugee Council that the violence in Honduras is similar to that experienced in war zones.
Navigating the Diversity of Indigenous Cultures in Mexico: A Personal View
Mexico, a country of extraordinary cultural richness, is a place where ancestral roots intertwine with the present in a unique way. I remember a childhood where even the names of streets evoked history and tradition.