Browse by Subject: Latin American Studies

Framed by the stories of Hurricane Maria evacuees, Tossed to the Wind is the gripping account of the wreckage, despair, and displacement left in the wake of one of the deadliest natural disasters on U.S. soil. It is also a story of hope and endurance as Puerto Ricans on the island shared what little they had and the diaspora in Florida offered refuge.

Updated in this revised edition to include major recent events, new data, and new research, The Politics of Language in Puerto Rico analyzes the controversial language policies passed by the Puerto Rican government in the 1990s, exploring the connections between language and cultural identity and politics on the Caribbean island.

The Insubordination of Photography is the first book to analyze how various collectives, organizations, and independent media used photography to expose and protest the crimes of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Featuring never-before-seen photos and other archival material, this book reflects on the integral role of images in public memory and issues of reparation and justice.

In this book, Cecilia Tossounian reconstructs different representations of modern femininity from 1920s and 1930s Argentina, a time in which the country saw new economic prosperity, a growing cosmopolitan population, and the emergence of consumer culture. Tossounian analyzes how these popular images of la joven moderna—the modern girl—helped shape Argentina’s emerging national identity.

An award-winning collection from an acclaimed contemporary poet  

Encompassing works by Cubans on the island, in exile, and born in America, this volume delves into defining moments in Cuban art across three centuries, offering a kaleidoscopic view of the island’s people, culture, and history.  

Set against the sweeping backdrop of one of the most dramatic refugee crises of the twentieth century, The Mariel Boatlift presents the stories of Cuban immigrants to the United States who overcame frightening circumstances to build new lives for themselves and flourish in their adopted country.  

In this extensively researched book, Anna Clayfield challenges contemporary Western views on the militarization of Cuba. She argues that, while the pervasiveness of armed forces in revolutionary Cuba is hard to refute, it is the guerrilla legacy, ethos, and image—guerrillerismo—that has helped the Cuban revolutionary project survive. The veneration of the guerrilla fighter has been crucial to the political culture’s underdog mentality.  

This book explores the many ways in which the island of Cuba has been immortalized in ceramic pieces. While the works of several Cuban ceramists are present in these pages, this is not a book about Cuban ceramics featuring Cuban artists working in that medium. The protagonist of this book is Cuba itself, seen through the eyes of ceramists—native and foreign.

Abundantly illustrated, this volume is a pioneering survey of the ancient art of the entire Caribbean region. While previous studies have focused on the Greater Antilles—Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica—this is the first book also to include the islands of the eastern Caribbean and their ties to pre-Columbian Venezuela.