BY LUIS ZAPATA When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake. —Allen Ginsberg, paraphrasing Plato ROCK ’N’ ROLL has been the soundtrack of youth rebellion for almost eight decades. It is one of the United States’ most powerful cultural exports to the world. It may seem cliché to … [Read more...] about Louder Than Hell: The Rise of Latinx and Native American Metal
Features
Tan Cerca y Tan Lejos: Cómo un Grupo de Deportados Está Creando Solidaridad en la Ciudad de México
Leer en inglés. POR ALVARO CÉSPEDES Ana Laura López, de 43 años, estaba por abordar un avión de Chicago a México el 30 de septiembre de 2016. Ella recuerda la fecha claramente, ya que su vida nunca volvería a ser la misma. “Nunca pensé que me fuera a pasar a mí”, dijo López, sentada en un … [Read more...] about Tan Cerca y Tan Lejos: Cómo un Grupo de Deportados Está Creando Solidaridad en la Ciudad de México
A Matter of Perspective: Violence, Victims, and the Quest for Dignity in Memory
BY RICARDO CASTRO AGUDELO COUNT TO FOUR. One number per second. One . . . Two . . . Three . . . Fo . . . Nearly four seconds. That’s how long it took for the Monaco building to collapse amidst a slow-rising cloud of gray dust on February 22, 2019, in Medellín, Colombia. The Monaco, an … [Read more...] about A Matter of Perspective: Violence, Victims, and the Quest for Dignity in Memory
Enclaves of Science, Outposts of Empire
BY MEGAN RABY At the end of 1960, near Cienfuegos, Cuba, on the Soledad estate of a US-owned sugar company, the American Director and Cuban staff of Harvard’s Atkins Institution began packing up their scientific equipment. The Cuban Revolution had caught up with them. Director Ian Duncan Clement, … [Read more...] about Enclaves of Science, Outposts of Empire
Faculty Spotlight: Jason Borge
BY SUSANNA SHARPE In his new book, Tropical Riffs: Latin America and the Politics of Jazz (Duke, 2018), Jason Borge uses jazz as a way to interrogate the complex intersections of North and South, race and class, cultural identity, and even politics and foreign policy. The very earliest seeds … [Read more...] about Faculty Spotlight: Jason Borge
Faculty Spotlight: Kelly S. McDonough
BY SUSANNA SHARPE There is a term in the Nahuatl language that means learned person, sage, or knowledge keeper: itxtlamati (plural, ixtlamatinih), a compound of the words meaning face and to know. The concept of knowledge gleaned from experience is central in the work of Kelly S. McDonough, … [Read more...] about Faculty Spotlight: Kelly S. McDonough
Alumni Spotlight: A Language Is Not a Widget
BY JOSEPH M. PIERCE It has been five years since I completed a PhD in Spanish American Literature, and seven since completing the MA in Latin American Studies at LLILAS. A lot has changed in the past decade. But change is always a matter of perspective. I was recently at LLILAS for a conference … [Read more...] about Alumni Spotlight: A Language Is Not a Widget
Four Centuries of Rare Documents Will Be Digitized in Partnership with Puebla Archive
BY SUSANNA SHARPE August 8, 2018, was an auspicious day for students of Mexican history. An agreement signed between LLILAS Benson and the Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Estado de Puebla marks the official start of a project to digitize a large collection of archival materials from the Fondo … [Read more...] about Four Centuries of Rare Documents Will Be Digitized in Partnership with Puebla Archive
“To die little by little”: Disappearance and Ambiguous Loss in the Lives of Activist Mothers in Contemporary Mexico
Leer en español. BY MORAVIA DE LA O Margarita1 has spent the last nine years looking for her son, Mauricio. She keeps a manila folder with photos and articles about his case that she brings when I interview her in June 2017. In one of the photos that she shows me, a young man in glasses is … [Read more...] about “To die little by little”: Disappearance and Ambiguous Loss in the Lives of Activist Mothers in Contemporary Mexico
María Luisa Puga: A Life in Diaries
BY JOSÉ MONTELONGO Deciding how to end a novel is the author’s privilege. To write novels for a living is a volatile career choice, at least when it comes to paying rent, but the destiny and shape of your characters is not volatile at all, it’s your prerogative—you are the one choosing when and … [Read more...] about María Luisa Puga: A Life in Diaries
