Spotlight
Animals
Animals in Latin America and the Caribbean are everywhere, from stray dogs to endangered wildlife to innovative conservation projects. This Spotlight, which will become the Winter 2023 issue of ReVista, takes a panoramic view of animals in the region. We’ve also asked Latin American and other authors to reflect on dogs, cats and other animals.
Articles
Editor’s Letter – Animals
Editor's LetterANIMALS! From the rainforests of Brazil to the crowded streets of Mexico City, animals are integral to life in Latin America and the Caribbean. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, people throughout the region turned to pets for...
Where the Wild Things Aren’t Species Loss and Capitalisms in Latin America Since 1800
Five mass extinction events and several smaller crises have taken place throughout the 600 million years that complex life has existed on earth.
A Review of Memory Art in the Contemporary World: Confronting Violence in the Global South by Andreas Huyssen
I live in a country where the past is part of the present. Not only because films such as “Argentina 1985,” now nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, recall the trial of the military juntas…
A Review of Making Better Coffee: How Maya Farmers and Third Wave Tastemakers Create Value
Three waves of global coffee regimes have influenced production landscapes extensively during the past century.
DRAGONS ON THE LANDSCAPE
English + Español
Seen from above the volcanic range—19 volcanos strung across the Pacific coast of Nicaragua—, it feels as if one is looking at fire-breathing beasts in a precarious sleep, awaking every so often with a tectonic symphony waving the land as in liquid matter.
A Review of Health in Ruins: The Capitalist Destruction of Medical Care at a Colombian Maternity Hospital
I should say at the outset that I was involved in the “neoliberal” reform described by César Ernesto Abadía-Barrero in his book Health in Ruins: The Capitalist Destruction of Medical Care at a Colombian Maternity Hospital.
A Review of Minoritarian Liberalism: A Travesti Life in a Brazilian Favela
Minoritarian Liberalism is a beautiful and troubling ethnography. As an intimate ethnography of life in Rocinha, a Brazilian favela in Rio de Janeiro, this book weaves a beautiful narrative that showcases Moisés Lino e Silva’s talents as a writer.
A Review of Constructing Latin America. Architecture, Politics and Race at the Museum of Modern Art
Harvard architectural historian Patricio del Real’s latest book analyzes the development of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) between the 1930s and the 1960s, emphasizing the construction of the notion of Latin America from the peculiar perspective offered by architectural and curatorial practices.
Searching for the Rarest of the Rare in the Amazon rainforest
I write this on my way to Tasmania to look for two of my favorite groups of invertebrates, velvet worms (Onychophora) and harvestmen or daddy longlegs (Arachnida, Opiliones).
Hidden Treasures of the Antilles
English + Español
The Antilles and treasures… the Antilles and treasures….these are perhaps the most frequent associations everyone makes with the group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, whether due to the genius of Robert Louis Stevenson or the charisma of Jack Sparrow…
Tracking Crocodiles in Markets, Farms, and Mangroves. Study of Exotic Animals in Archaeological Contexts
While on the run, Indiana Jones once said “If you want to be a good archaeologist, you have to get out of the library.”
Estrellita the Woolly Monkey and the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court: Animal Rights Through the Rights of Nature
English + Español
We didn’t think the case could succeed. When Ecuadorian environmental law attorney Hugo Echeverría…
The Legal Protection of Animals in Brazil: The Awakening of a Giant Potential
Wildlife trafficking, biodiversity loss, bullfighting are all in the news about Brazil. So is the increase in export of live cattle and sheep, along with the accompanying intensification of livestock production.
Animal Sacrifice and Religious Racism: Afro-Brazilian Religions on Trial
Slavery left bloody wounds in Brazil, and prevalent racism prevents them from healing. National debates on animal rights— at first sight seemingly disconnected from racial issues—at a closer glance reveal the nefarious operations of discrimination against Black citizens.
Advocating for Animals in South America
As young boy growing up in Chile, I remember constantly asking my parents and other adults about the horse-drawn carriages known as Victorias.
Bolivia’s Mother Earth Laws: Is the Ecocentric Legislation Misleading?
I distinctly remember sitting in the audience of a well-known animal law conference in the United States a few years ago.
Multispecies Families in Latin America
Petunia, the three-year-old pig, lived with her human family in the Peruvian region of Junín. Then one day in 2018, the municipality of San Ramón ordered her family to transfer her to a farm in ten days under penalty of confiscation.
The Growing Latin America-to-Asia Wildlife Crisis: Can targeted action stop illegal trade in time to prevent widespread losses?
Our local guides directed us to the periphery of Iquitos’ notorious outdoor Belén market, a known wildlife trafficking hotspot at the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. There, sequestered in the back, vendors sold “natural” products.
Traffickers, Consumers and Protectors : Addressing Gender Disparities in the Illegal Wildlife Trade
English + Español
A hush came over the crowded room as we awaited the results of the vote—a culmination of months of planning and a week of frenzied negotiations.
A Journey to the Universe of Bees: From the Archives to the Fields
Beekeepers in the Yucatán Peninsula have historically interacted with two species of bees for extracting honey and beeswax.
A Reflection on Violence, Human Beings and Animals: A View from Latin American Literature
English + Spanish
“Incredible the first animal that dreamed of another animal. Monstrous the first vertebrate that succeeded in standing on two feet and thus spread terror among the beasts still normally and happily crawling close to the ground through the slime of creation.”
Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra
A Review of Essays on 20th Century Latin American Art
Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig’s slim new volume offers a dip into various topics of modern and contemporary Latin American art aimed at a mass audience unfamiliar with the region’s culture (other than perhaps Salma Hayek’s version of Frida Kahlo).
Pink Fairy Armadillos
I discovered the existence of the pink fairy armadillo in a childhood visit to London’s Natural History Museum, Gazing into a cabinet filled with long-dead, moth-eaten taxidermy specimens, I wondered at a tiny gnomic creature perched on a shelf towards the back of the exhibit.
Echoes of Noah’s Ark
English + Español
There’s never been an oceanic trip in the history of the world more terrible than that of the patriarch Noah.
The Relationship between Animal Cruelty and Domestic Violence
English + Español
What do serial killers such as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Charles Cullen (the “New Jersey Nurse”), Jeffrey Dahmer (the “Milwaukee Cannibal”), David Berkowitz, and Alberto DeSalvo (“the Boston Strangler”) have in common besides the number of their murders?
Ronco
English + Español
He wakes up suddenly, the rosettes on his back shaking as if in an earthquake. It takes him a minute to figure out where he is.
Taking the Long View in Cuba:
Luces Largas
In 2014, I had the good fortune to teach a class in Cuba called “From Cows to Sea Cows.” In this travel course, we examined the connections between agriculture, marine ecology, and conservation with Patricia González-Díaz, one of Cuba’s leading coral biologists.
Animals and Writing: Unveiled Unconscious
English + Português
Ramon’s Night
English + Español
Sometimes he folds his body up and sometimes he curls into a ball and, other times, he sleeps all stretched out.
Unrequited Love and the Instinctive Kind
I am in love with Charles Darwin. This is a fact that guides my life. I included it in my profile for a dating site.
Pelusa
English + Español
This is the first time that I am living with a dog that will outlive me. Or at least, this is the first time I am living with a dog that I see as someone who might outlive me.