New Books in Latin American Studies
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com
Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/
Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork
901
Caterina Pizzigoni, “The Life Within: Local Ind...
Caterina Pizzigoni’s book The Life Within: Local Indigenous Society in Mexico’s Toluca Valley, 1650-1800 (Stanford University Press, 2012) provides a close examination of indigenous society in central Mexico.
51 min
902
Kirsten Weld, “Paper Cadavers: The Archives of ...
Kirsten Weld‘s book Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala (Duke University Press, 2014) tells the story of the 2005 discovery of a vast police archive in Guatemala. Officials had long denied that it existed, and for good reason,
63 min
903
Marcia Ochoa, “Queen for a Day: Transformistas,...
Marcia Ochoa‘s book Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela (Duke University Press, 2014) is a detailed ethnography of Venezuelan modernity and nationhood that brings two kinds of feminine performa...
61 min
904
Gregory Weeks, “Understanding Latin American Po...
What factors compel Central American residents to flee their home countries and head to the United States? What do national elections in Latin America mean, and why should the U.S. be concerned? Which Latin American nations are emerging international p...
48 min
905
Roger Kittleson, “The Country of Football: Socc...
Passion. Flair. Instinct. Improvisation. As the World Cup advances to the knockout stage, you’ll hear these terms associated with the football styles of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico rather than those of Belgium and Germany.
52 min
906
Omar Valerio-Jimenez, “River of Hope: Forging I...
Historically speaking, who you were depended on who your rulers were and the ethnic identity (including language, religion, and folkways) of “your” people. In the era of nation-states–that is, our era–these two characteristics have, for most people,
60 min
907
Cymene Howe, “Intimate Activism: The Struggle f...
With Intimate Activism: The Struggle for Sexual Rights in Postrevolutionary Nicaragua (Duke University Press, 2013), Cymene Howe offers an ethnography of activism. Woven into Nicaragua’s political history of revolution and U.S. intervention,
70 min
908
David Nemer, “Favela Digital: The Other Side of...
Inherently problematic in most mainstream discussions of the impact of technology is the dominant western or global northern perspective. In this way, the impact of technology on societies in developing countries,
37 min
909
Daniel Altschuler and Javier Corrales, “The Pro...
Daniel Altschuler and Javier Corrales are the authors of The Promise of Participation: Experiments in Participatory Governance in Honduras and Guatemala (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2014). Altschuler is a visiting scholar at the New School for Public Engagemen...
17 min
910
Jason Ruiz, “Americans in the Treasure House: T...
In Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire (University of Texas Press, 2014), Jason Ruiz explores the role of a distinct group of actors in the relationship between the United States and Mexico: A...
57 min
911
Miranda Spieler, “Empire and Underworld: Captiv...
54 min
912
Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Terror in the Land of...
I have a colleague at Newman who takes students to Guatemala every summer. Since I arrived she’s encouraged me to join her. I would stay with the order of sisters who sponsor our university. I’d learn at least a few words of rudimentary Spanish.
40 min
913
Jose Angel Hernandez, “Mexican American Coloniz...
Americans talk a lot about the flow of Mexican immigrants across their southern border. To some that flow is seen as patently illegal and dangerous. To others it’s seen as unstoppable and essential for the functioning of the U.S. economy.
59 min
914
Thomas H. Guthrie, “Recognizing Heritage: The P...
New Mexico is a cultural borderland, marked by the interaction of Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American peoples over the past four hundred years. The question of how to commemorate this history and promote the traditions that arose from it is th...
52 min
915
Eduardo Kohn, “How Forests Think: Toward an Ant...
When you open Eduardo Kohn‘s How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human (University of California Press, 2013), you are entering a forest of dreams: the dreams of dogs and men, dreams about policemen and peccaries,
69 min
916
Erica Cusi Wortham, “Indigenous Media in Mexico...
Videography is a powerful tool for recording and representing aspects of human society and culture, and anthropologists have long used – and debated the use of – video as a tool to study indigenous and traditional peoples.
44 min
917
Scott Ickes, “African-Brazilian Culture and Reg...
From the sounds of Samba to the spectacles of Carnival, Afro-Brazilian traditions are today seen as emblematic of Brazil and especially of Salvador de Bahia, the northeastern city where many Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions were first established.
53 min
918
Ioan Grillo, “El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Crimina...
Today I spoke to Ioan Grillo about his book El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (Bloomsbury, 2012). This book is an excellent introduction to the state of conflict between drug cartels themselves, the government and the Mexican community.
40 min
919
Ron Schmidt (et al.), “Newcomers, Outsiders, an...
Ron Schmidt is the co-author (with Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, Andrew L. Aoki, and Rodney Hero) of Newcomers, Outsiders, and Insiders: Immigrants and the American Racial Politics in the Early 21st Century (University of Michigan Press, 2013).
21 min
920
Lance R. Blyth, “Chiricahua and Janos: Communit...
Most people today think of war–or really violence of any sort–as for the most part useless. It’s better, we say, just to talk things out or perhaps buy our enemies off. And that usually works. But what if you lived in a culture where fighting was an im...
57 min
921
Paul Kan, “Cartels at War: Mexico’s Drug-Fueled...
The violence in Mexico is receiving a lot of media attention internationally. Paul Rexton Kan has produced a book that provides us with a comprehensive and comprehendible introduction to the background to the conflict and its effects.
50 min
922
Ilan Stavans and Steve Sheinkin, “El Iluminado:...
Are you looking for a good Hanukkah gift? A good Christmas gift? Heck, any gift? Or maybe you just want to read a terrific book? Well I’ve got just the ticket: Ilan Stavans and Steve Sheinkin‘s, El Iluminado: A Graphic Novel (Basic Books, 2012).
56 min
923
Daniela Bleichmar, “Visible Empire: Botanical E...
Daniela Bleichmar‘s new book is a story about 12,000 images. In Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2012), Bleichmar uses this vast (and gorgeous) archive of botanical ima...
65 min
924
Isaac Campos, “Home Grown: Marijuana and the Or...
Isaac Campos is the author of Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs (University of North Carolina Press, 2012). Campos is an assistant professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.
37 min
925
Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, “Mexico’s Indigenous Comm...
In my work with pre-Hispanic and colonial Mexican pictorial texts, I often wish I could talk with the people who authored them. In the academic setting, sometimes we forget that these documents represent conversations about what was happening in the li...
60 min