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Inequality
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Recent Articles

Decriminalizing ‘Colonial’ Laws in the Anglophone Caribbean – ‘Buggery’
The moment I stepped foot back on the island, I was no longer the 14-year-old boy who once proudly wore his school uniform to Wolmer’s Boys High School—the oldest school in the Caribbean—and to Maranatha Gospel Hall, my local church. I had become something else entirely in the eyes of the state: a criminal. An illegal presence.

Tearing Down the Walls of Education: The Maya Struggle against Colonialism
Students at the Chan Santa Cruz program in Mexico are getting their degrees in Bilingual Education (Maya/Spanish) and Historical and Cultural Heritage in Mexico.

A Review of Afrocentroamérica: Entre memoria y olvido
In graduate school at UC Berkeley in the 1980s, I knew that I wanted to work on Central America, on U.S. involvement there, and on social or labor history. What I knew about Central America came from the news, from the Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees whom I worked with as a volunteer with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and from local solidarity events, visiting speakers and documentaries.
From Our Current Issue
Weaving Memory through Fashion: The Magical Genesis of Equihua
Growing up in California, I spent so much time gazing at the sky, often losing myself in its vastness.
Unsubmissive Images
Hemetério José dos Santos (1858-1939), a Black grammarian and teacher at Rio de Janeiro's most important schools suffered racist attacks in the press because of the way he dressed.
Transnational Fashion on the Frontier: Migration and Modernities in the Brazilian Amazon
When you think of fashion, you might not think of politics.
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.

Affirmative Action and Discrimination: A Look at Brazil
We believe that education is a means to overcome inequalities and improve the quality of life. However, if you are Black and poor in Brazil, even if you manage to access a good education, you must still be cautious.
Dear reader, I am Winnie Santos, a Black woman from Brazil, and I want to discuss something not particularly pleasant but very important to share, as we can think together about ways to overcome this challenge.
Affirmative action policies in my country have enabled a significant number of Black people to access universities, including the most prestigious ones.
Danza Azteca Guadalupana: Beyond Borders
Natalie Navarro, 29, the lead drummer, anchors the circle with precision and grace. Her hands strike the drum rhythmically, summoning the energies of heaven and earth. Her sister Samantha, 26, along with her husband, Eduardo Galarza, 29, join in dancing with dynamic movements embodying the vibrancy of life. Eduardo serves as both lead dancer and instructor. He reflects, “This dance is for the water, fire, wind, spirit, and Mother Earth. Through our steps, we call upon a higher power—with flowers, through songs, and in the sound of the drums’s heartbeat. Flowers symbolize our humanity and the beauty of creation. Yet, we often forget that the earth is our home, and we’re causing its destruction.”
Disability, Care, and Support in Colombia and Beyond Challenges and Hopes for Change
I remember vividly that day in Cali in 2013. I was very new to the world of people with disabilities, their families and caregivers, trying to decipher that language that needs no words. As national director of a research project on “accessible television for deaf people” (INSOR-ANTV, 2013-2014), I met a mother who was a caregiver and whose presence said it all. Her eyes bore the weight of too many sleepless nights, of a tiredness that was not only physical. In a low voice, almost a whisper filled with contained resentment, she told me, “Luis Miguel, the laws are designed to protect our children, but what about us? We are the population abandoned by the legislator.”
StudEnt Views

Decolonizing Global Citizenship: Peripheral Perspectives
I write these words as someone who teaches, researches and resists in the global periphery.

From European Union to the Dominican Republic: A Case for Humanizing Environmental Policy in Latin America
I read these words as I gaze from a car window, looking out at colorful, animated drawings of smiling elephants, toucans, and parrots, outside of a school building in San Francisco de Macorís, the Dominican Republic’s primary cocoa-producing region.

A Call to Action for the U.S.-Mexico Binational Community
When I think about Mexico, my family’s home country, I think about Jalpa, Zacatecas, where my family migrated from so many years ago.
Book ReviewS

A Review of From South Central to Southside: Gang Transnationalism, Masculinity and Disorganized Violence in Belize City
In 2013, I took a repurposed U.S. school bus from the south of Mexico, my adopted home country, to Belize City. Once across the border, we ended up making a lengthy stop when passengers with pre-purchased tickets found themselves unable to board the crammed vehicle and began to protest the perceived injustice. In the scorching heat, the initial exasperation among locals both on and off the bus quickly turned into visceral anger. The episode would stay with me as I wandered around Belize City, shocked by the generalized poverty.

A Review of Hopped Up, How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity
About ten years ago, when I arrived at the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery in the mountain town of Orizaba, Veracruz, in Mexico, I was excited that the administrator I’d spoken with earlier had arranged a private tour for me. Founded in 1896, the Moctezuma Brewery was saved from bankruptcy when it was bought out by Mexico’s behemoth Cuauhtémoc Brewery in 1985. It is best known globally for its Dos Equis amber lager and for Sol, the light, golden, pilsner-style beer now sold in over 70 countries around the world.

A Review of The Other Border Wars: Conflict and Stasis in Latin American Culture
I remember reading with emotion during my adolescence “Juan López and John Ward,” the poem that the great writer of fantastic literature Jorge Luis Borges dedicated to the Falklands War of 1982. What moved me, I think, was the idea that two young men who could have been friends (united by their love of literature, in addition to belonging to the same generation and sharing the same name) saw each other face-to-face only once, but since that one encounter was during a war, each became both Cain and Abel.
DRCLAS Podcast: Faculty Voices
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