The Literate Universe and the Pandemic
English + Español
When my father tested positive for Covid-19 we became a worried, and lost, family. We didn’t know how he had become infected or what we could do to help him…
Theme: History
Where Were the Women in Colonial Brazil?
Exploratory archival research can be a solitary – not to mention thankless – task. Most of the time, we spend many hours going through very old manuscripts whose historical value we can’t even determine for sure. The goal is usually to find some sort of primary source…
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A Tale of the Three Canudos
English + Español
When we arrived it was still daytime. It had taken us twelve hours to get there, almost twice as much as expected. As I got off the bus, I felt a heat wave slap me on the face. The air was humid,
Between America and Europe
On Tuesday, September 9, 1645, at 12 noon, the cocoa trader Antonio Méndez Chillón was arrested at his home in Veracruz (New Spain) by the Inquisition commissioner and charged with Jewish heresy. This episode, which was far from being isolated, helps shed…
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Small (Labor) Truths
In 2005, a company named Taza debuted a new way to do chocolate. The disc-shaped bars produced in their Somerville, Massachusetts factory were minimally processed from from ethically-sourced cacao and contained only ingredients that might…
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