Spotlight
Upstairs, Downstairs
“Upstairs, Downstairs” gives us a glimpse of the rich, domestic workers and the middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also takes a look at social mobility, especially in the Covid era.
This Spotlight will become the Winter issue of ReVista, Volume XXI, No. 2, later this winter.
Articles
Editor’s Letter
Editor's Letter Upstairs, Downstairs (and In-Between)When Argentine biologist Otto Solbrig was interim DRCLAS faculty director many years ago, he commented more than once that ReVista did not feature enough photos of middle-class people. I tried to respond to his...
Paid Domestic Workers, Women and Democracy
I first visited Peru in 1995 as a graduate student and junior member of a Latin American Studies Association delegation to examine the state of democracy in that country on the…
Invisible Commutes
English + Español
Belén García, a Colombian domestic worker, wakes up at five in the morning every day in her home in the chilly mountains of southeastern Bogotá. After taking a shower, she dresses in several…
Slavery Upstairs, Slavery Downstairs
On February 14, 1800, someone slipped an anonymous letter to the solicitor general of Lima’s high court via one of his domestic servants. When he opened it, the solicitor (fiscal)…
Qualified but Rejected
English + Español
As of 2021, more than six million Venezuelans had left a crisis-ridden country in search of a decent life that is not plagued by food insecurity and the lack of other basic needs. Close to five million of them…
Let’s Talk about Resilience
English + Español
When I joined the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) family in October 2019, I never imagined that a few months later I would experience both the pain and…
The Challenges of Yenny Hurtado
English + Español
Yenny Hurtado is a tall, slim woman whose skin does not reveal her history and much less, her age. She sports a red and pink turban with much grace and simplicity. The naturalness with…
Savoring the Maya Past
Every now and then, a book review request lands at just the right time to contemplate, even savor the work. I read and mused over Her Cup for Sweet Cacao as part of my journey from the United…
Waiting for Rain
Just before the beginning of the pandemic, I traveled to Sevilla, Colombia, to meet with Yudith Leguí, a participant in my sociological research, whom I first interviewed in 2016 in El…
“We are Not Part of Your Family; We Have Our Own”
English + Español
In 2003, shortly before I (Adriana Paz) emigrated from my native country, Bolivia, for the first time ever, a law regulating domestic work (Law 2450) was approved, despite the fact that this…
Caregiving, Domestic Work and Migration
English + Español
We often think of caregiving as an highly individual issue, but actually care is “what’s done to conserve and repair our world to live in the best possible form,” to paraphrase political scientist…
A Few Shocks Away from Poverty
English + Español
Growing up in Lima Peru, I can remember people saying, “There is no middle class.” This was an exaggeration. Not all the non-poor were rich—far from it—but the differences in the living …
Review of Sonorous Worlds: Musical Enchantment in Venezuela
Sonorous Worlds is anthropologist Yana Stainova’s memoir (not her term) of her experiences while researching music among marginalized communities in…
The Brazilian Middle Class and Its Illusory Search for an Elite Identity
English + Português
But there are plenty more we could consider elite. They are generally white, male, owners of manufacturing assets, large corporations and rent-seekers. We consider elites to be…
What is The Middle Class in Mexico?
English + Español
“El Santuario”—the sanctuary—is an exclusive residential gated community in the town of San Pedro Garza García in northern Mexico. Tucked into the hills, the neighborhood is home to mansions worth…
COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE MIDDLE CLASS IN MEXICO
English + Español
I’m from the state of Puebla, a medium-sized city in central Mexico. Over the past two years, I’ve observed as at least one out of every ten local residents has fallen from the middle class into poverty…
Firefly Dynamics
As the mestizo grandson of Bolivian Indigenous farmers and Scottish aristocratic landowners, I’ve long been fascinated by social mixing and mobility. Growing up in the…
Studying the Middle Class in Lima as the Wall Fell in Berlin
English + Español
Any academic who reaches a certain age can attest to having lived through at least one or two revolutions within their disciplines. Work can be divided into a before and an after, signalled…
A Perfect Labyrinth? The Last Half Century in Argentina
English + Español
I remember reading in high school the play by Florencio Sánchez, “M’hijo, el dotor” [My son, the doctor], the story of a peasant’s son who studies at the university and becomes…
Concentration of Wealth in Latin America in Times of Covid-19
English + Español
The number of super-wealthy—those with a fortune of US$1,000 million or more, as reported…
A Review of Mapping the Amazon
English + Español
In her book Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography after the Rubber Boom, Amanda M. Smith renews the critical readings about the corpus canónico of the 20th-century novels about the…