The 1970s were particularly fruitful for the field of Puerto Rican historiography. A number of works were published, not only on the Island but abroad, which showed the trend of current and future research. New topics were being dealt with from a variety of updated viewpoints and methodologies, and previously studied problems were revised in the light of newly available sources, as was the case, for example, with slavery. Various factors have contributed notably to this situation: the assiduous exchange of ideas among Puerto Rican, Latin American, North American, and European researchers, a process which, although slow, has served to involve Puerto Rico in recent historiographical trends; the involvement of the Island in international affairs; the opening of new collections of valuable historical materials; the institutionalization at the university level of graduate study in the field of history; and, in general, a greater emphasis on Puerto Rican cultural identity.

During the early 1960s, when U.S.-Cuban relations reached their nadir and threatened to embroil this planet in the ultimate superpower showdown, a prophetic cartoon appeared in one of the then-popular U.S. feature magazines. It showed a bearded, fatigue-clad newscaster seated at the microphone in the Radio Cuba studios, telling his audience, “And now for the baseball scores from the hated imperialistic Yankee mainland.” The cartoonist had no way of knowing that a quarter of a century later, his whimsical sketch would exemplify the controversy over alleged U.S. cultural penetration of Latin America through its own mass media, in some cases transcending even political barriers. The purpose of this study is to examine what role, if any, the Latin American printed mass media are playing in the intrusion of foreign cultures.

Este trabajo analiza de qué manera la guerra de Malvinas (Falklands) afectó los planes de la Internacional Socialista (IS) para consolidar un esquema de alianzas flexibles entre partidos políticos de distinta procedencia geográfica e ideológica como sostén de su expansión extra europea, en el marco de un entorno internacional cambiante. Se avanza en la caracterización de las posiciones adoptadas por los partidos políticos latinoamericanos y europeos miembros de la IS, profundizando en sus diferentes visiones del conflicto y evaluando qué impacto tuvo en las relaciones interpartidarias y en las estrategias regionales de la IS.

In this article, I explore the creation of the Mexico pavilion that opened in 1982 at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center theme park in Orlando, Florida. I show how designers created a representation of Mexico intended to be recognizably authentic to EPCOT Center visitors by drawing on established touristic images of Mexico in the United States. I then discuss Disney's decision to hire Mexican American artist Eddie Martinez to oversee the design of the pavilion's main attraction, a boat ride through Mexican history and culture. Specifically, I examine Martinez's involvement in the Goez Art Studio and Gallery in East Los Angeles to explain how Mexican Americans gained cultural authority as interpreters of Mexico in the United States. Finally, I show how the pavilion reflected ways in which Mexican Americans read and reconstructed established visions of Mexico in the United States, particularly in relation to pre-Columbian cultures.

Los manuales de conducta surgieron durante el siglo XIX cubano como un instrumento de la élite criolla en ascenso, para imponerse como modelo de un sujeto nacional imaginado en construcción. Estos textos, también llamados de “urbanidad y buenas maneras” fueron importantes símbolos de las aspiraciones de la élite criolla, en tanto tecnologías para la conformación de un tipo de cuerpo —burgués, blanco, heterosexual, cubano— moldeado para habitar las nuevas configuraciones espaciales urbanas que trajeron consigo las tendencias modernizadoras de inicios de siglo. El presente artículo examina las formas sinérgicas en que los manuales de conducta, y su ideología motora, la urbanidad, se desarrollaron en estrecha relación con otra importante tecnología de gobierno y diferenciación de cuerpos en el espacio: el ornato. Bajo la premisa de adecentar, las políticas de ornato tenían como objetivo transformar La Habana en una elegante capital, colonial y moderna a la vez, concebida como una imagen limpia de referencias sensoriales a cuerpos negros y femeninos marginales. Al examinar las conexiones discursivas entre el ornato y la urbanidad se evidencian las formas en que la respetabilidad moderna burguesa se negociaba, no sólo en un plano simbólico sino también a través de la regulación de las sensaciones y emociones.

The past two decades have seen an enormous proliferation in writings on economic development, planning, and programming. Equipped with the aggregative tools of economic analysis acquired since the Thirties, economists have searched for methods and policy measures by which to further economic development. In many developing countries the government has assumed the responsibility of pursuing a deliberate, rational, and consistent economic policy in achieving the objectives of development, in accordance with established priorities, by direct and/or indirect interventions into the performance of the economy. With this expanded role of the public sector, the budget has come to acquire an important role as a policy instrument, since it reflects the qualitative and quantitative aspects of public policy, and puts into effect public policy measures influencing economic activity.

This essay reviews the following works:

Oil and Nation: A History of Bolivia’s Petroleum Sector. By Stephen C. Cote Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2016. Pp. ix + 195. $26.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781943665471.

Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian Capitalism in Costa Rica. By Ryan E. Galt Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2014. Pp. vii + 284. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816506033.

Soybeans and Power: Genetically Modified Crops, Environmental Politics, and Social Movements in Argentina. By Pablo Lapegna. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 217. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780190215149.

Social Mobilization, Global Capitalism and Struggles over Food. A Comparative Study of Social Movements. By Renata Motta. New York: Routledge, 2016. Pp. xiv, 190. $149.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9781472479082.

Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs: How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach. By Douglas Southgate and Lois Roberts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 215. $59.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780812248074.

Blood of the Earth: Resource Nationalism, Revolution, and Empire in Bolivia. By Kevin A. Young Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. Pp. vii + 265. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477311653.

Approximately five years have now elapsed since the establishment of Latin American studies in British universities on an institutional basis and, since the next quinquennium begins in less than two years' time, in 1972, and universities in Britain are already preparing their plans for that period, this may be an appropriate moment for taking stock of developments to date, and for speculating about the future. But in order to appreciate the current situation, it would be useful to set the subject in its historical context and to consider first the state of Latin American studies in Britain before the establishment of Centres and Institutes, and the reasons why they came into being.

Half of all urban dwellers and eight out of every ten rural inhabitants in developing countries live in inadequate and badly equipped housing, crowded together and subjected to unacceptable environmental conditions. This means that in the countries of the Third World alone more than 2,300 million people live in housing that is without (or has only insufficient) services and that is marked as well by varying degrees of deterioration. The need to construct new units to absorb the natural increase in the population, to overcome gradually the qualitative deficit indicated above, and to renew existing stock makes housing and complementary services the major investment that must be made if one of the basic needs of the population is to be met. “A house is something more than a simple or complex construction, detached or grouped, forming an agglomeration that might have diverse forms and functions. Defined as a dwelling, this construction is converted into an essential aspect of man's existence as a social being and his way of life on earth.”

This article contends that previous research has failed to consider resources that are systematically collected by way of informal taxation and channeled to support the provision of public services. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the markets for stolen auto parts and counterfeit clothing in Greater Buenos Aires, this article describes how state agencies informally tax these economies, and “follows the money” extracted. While a portion of these resources does end up in private pockets, the article shows that a greater share of the resources are directed toward enhancing state performance: welfare programs, everyday police duties, and political activities. An analysis of informal state financing schemes helps us to understand a state’s true capacities and its structural transformation over time.