Violence
Winter 2008 | Volume XII, Number 2
Table of Contents
Editor’s Letter →
by June Carolyn Erlick
Thinking on Violence
Escuelas de Perdón y Reconciliación
Escuelas de Perdón y Reconciliación Un proyecto de la memoria en AméricaLa geografía del continente americano está atravesada por relatos de violencia, de dolor y de injusticia. La memoria ingrata en el recuerdo de pueblos, culturas y personas,...
Restoring Humanity
There was an eerie darkness that flooded the room except for the spotlights that the BBC engineer aimed directly at our faces. We were in a makeshift studio in a private home 40 miles…
Violence is a Public Health Issue
When you think of violence and how to control it, often the first thing that comes to mind is security. However, violence control is no longer seen as the exclusive domain of the police and…
Challenges of Violence and Insecurity
It does not seem that long ago that optimism flowered about prospects for democracy and sustained economic development in Latin America. But hopes for the future have dimmed over…
Preventing Violence
Some countries in Latin America are among the most violent and crime-ridden in the world. The crime problem is of such magnitude that fighting it is among the top policy priorities of Brazil…
Women, Sexuality, and Families
Ending Violence Against Children
Violence against children is not a new subject for the international community. Since the enactment of the first human rights treaties, concerns for the protection of children from…
Fictions and Facts of Identity and Gender-Based Aggression
I never imagined that my short films about transsexual and transgender life in Boston would lead to human rights work in Latin America. But the truth is that film is a powerful medium through…
Magaly’s Legacy: The San Ramón Network Against Domestic Violence
On the cool morning of November 25, 2004, Magaly Jara, 34, walked along the dusty lanes of Población La Bandera, a working-class neighborhood in the municipality of San Ramón 20…
Beyond Victims and Aggressors
Cecilia was still in her teens when she accompanied her husband Roberto to California and had a baby. Like millions of other Mexicans, Cecilia and Roberto lacked immigration papers, but…
Feminicide in Guatemala
The last time Claudina communicated with her parents was around 11:45 p.m. on August 12, 2005. Around 2 a.m. on August 13, Zully Moreno, the mother of Claudina’s boyfriend Pedro…
The Other Side of the Ciudad Juárez Femicide Story
For the last dozen years, fronteriz@s (border people) in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso metropolitan area have heard shocking reports about women-killing, known as femicide (or in…
Photoessay: Documenting Violence
Photoessay: Documenting Violence
have file drawers filled with dramatic photographs of broken bodies, rage, terror, anguish and mayhem. These images map nearly two decades covering revolution, urban crime and state…
Daily Violence and Security
Salvadoran Youth, Transnationalism’s Other Product
English + Español
A completely distraught junior high school teacher in the Washington DC area approached her assistant principal—a highly-educated white middle-class man—one morning for urgent…
Justice For All
In January, 2007, Mexican president Felipe Calderón ordered the Federal Army to the southwestern state of Guerrero. The order was part of his plan to rein in crime and corruption…
Violent Souls
Skyrocketing poverty and public fears of rising crime have put the policing strategies of “mano dura” (the heavy hand) and “mete balas” (just shoot ‘em) back on the Argentine political agenda…
Looking at Violence
It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time that a group of Harvard faculty has focused on the issue of violence…
“Entertaining” People with Violence
More than three million Paraguayans wake up each morning to watch the latest television news. During the night, each of three television stations has trained its cameras on Asunción’s…
Violence and Violence Prevention in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas
In Rio de Janeiro’s Rocinha favela (shantytown), fireworks celebrate a victory for a beloved soccer team or warn of imminent urban-guerrilla style police operations and tiroteios (gunshots)…
Between Drug Gangs, the Police and Militias
On June 27, 2007, 1.350 troops from the civil and military police and the newly constituted National Security Force invaded a conglomeration of favelas known as the Complexo de…
Dangers of Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala
Though the country’s internal armed conflict ended over a decade ago, Guatemala is an increasingly violent place. The issue of violence permeates everyday conversation. Tabloid newspapers feature images of bullet-ridden cars and…
Invasion
I woke up to the sounds of helicopters and firecrackers. Having tossed and turned throughout the morning, my first sense was that I was dreaming, but when my roommate rolled over an…
Seguridad ciudadana en las Américas
The 2006 Latinobarómetro poll found that crime and insecurity topped the list of concerns for most Latin American citizens. Their worries are well-founded. According to most measurements…
After the Violence
Sobre Envíos Epistolares y Violencias
A través del proyecto “Cartas de la Persistencia”, liderado por la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango del Banco de la República, la Secretaría Distrital de Cultura y Turismo de Bogotá y el Instituto Pensar…
Novelas
La hora azul de Alonso Cueto es la historia de Adrián Ormache, un destacado abogado limeño que, luego de la muerte de su madre, comienza a descubrir una pasado familiar ciertamente…
The Symbolic as Strategy
It is now more than a decade since Peru suffered devastating political violence, which left about 70,000 dead. Years have passed since the Report of the Commission of Truth and…
Making a Difference
Making A Difference: Literacy in Calca
Seated on the floor of their school house twenty attentive first grade eyes watch as Martha turns the pages and asks aloud about the fate of David a friendly llama…
Maintaining Academic Excellence in Latin American Universities
The Iniciativa para el Desarrollo de la Innovación Académica (IDIA), a teaching and learning initiative of LASPAU, helps higher education institutions in Latin America address the perennial…
Book Talk
Cuba on the Edge: Short Stories from the Island
If you want to read contemporary Cuban fiction and do not have access to the Spanish original, an increasing number of excellent translations will now allow you to become acquainted with…