Lowell Bergman
“Mexico: Crimes at the Border”
Lowell Bergman examines the increasingly lucrative business of human smuggling at the U.S.–Mexico border and the American border officials corrupted by the trade. Drawing upon interviews conducted in Tijuana and San Diego as well as dramatic undercover surveillance video from U.S. law enforcement, he will discuss how this illicit and growing business has spurred an increase in corruption cases investigated by the FBI and other federal agencies.
Lowell Bergman is the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Professor of Investigative Reporting at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary series “Frontline.” He has spent 30 years covering stories that touch on Mexico, the war on drugs, money laundering and the CIA.
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Monday, February 2, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
554 Barrows Hall
Alberto Diaz-Cayeros
“Indian Identity, Poverty and Colonial Development in Mexico”
This presentation will report on the initial findings of a new project dealing with geographic poverty traps and the survival of Indian ethnic identity in Mexico. The study correlates institutional variation in forms of encomienda exploitation during the 16th century with the location of those institutions in space as determined by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The results do not support the thesis of a “reversal of fortune” emerging from the colonial experience, in which rich areas of the country became impoverished as a consequence of Spanish rule. Rather, it seems that the preexisting geographic concentration of poverty was reinforced through the interaction of inherited social structures, natural geographic conditions and variations within colonial political institutions.
Alberto Diaz-Cayeros is Associate Professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and Director of the Center for U.S.–Mexico Studies at UC San Diego. His work deals with the political economy of federalism, decentralization, poverty relief and social policy in Mexico and Latin America.
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Monday, February 9, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
Bryan S. Graham
“Banana Company Railroads and the Economic Development of Honduras”
In the early 20th century the United and Standard Fruit Companies, now respectively Chiquita Brands International and the Dole Food Company, laid hundreds of kilometers of railroad track across the north coast of Honduras. While ostensibly built to satisfy the terms of land concessions granted by the Honduran government, the railroads’ primary purpose was to transport bananas from company plantations to coastal towns for shipment to the United States. An incidental consequence of their construction, however, was the connection of hundreds of previously isolated rural communities to the cities of San Pedro Sula, Puerto Cortes, Tela, La Ceiba and Trujillo. This talk explores the long term consequences of these “banana railroads” for the socioeconomic development of the North Coast.
Bryan S. Graham is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at UC Berkeley.
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Monday, February 23, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
Lisa García Bedolla
“Why U.S. Foreign Policy Matters: Latino Migration and Political Adaptation in the United States”
Most studies of U.S. immigration begin at the border. Yet, when looking at the migration and adaptation patterns of Latin American-origin immigrants in the United States, it becomes clear that which national origin groups migrate, when they choose to migrate and how they are treated under U.S. law upon arrival are strongly influenced by the economic and geopolitical relationships the United States has with their countries of origin. This talk explores this relationship, examining the experiences of the largest Latino national origin groups in the United States: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Cubans.
Lisa García Bedolla is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at UC Berkeley. She is author of Fluid Borders: Latino Power, Identity, and Politics in Los Angeles.
Monday, March 2, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
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Jorge Bravo
“The Political Economy of Mexico–U.S. Migration: A View From the Source Country”
A common, if often only implicit, assumption is that recent out-migration from Mexico to the U.S. has been politically neutral in the sending country. My research shows that this assumption is untenable: migration has not been politically neutral, especially at the sub-national level. Its effects can be seen in such disparate arenas as: partisan competition for local office; the demand for, and supply of, good local governance; levels of political participation and patterns of political recruitment at the local level; and the dynamics of gender roles, local marriage markets and female political participation.
Jorge Bravo is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at UCLA and a Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His current work examines the political economy of contemporary Mexico–U.S. migration, particularly the ways in which migration and remittances have reshaped the lives of Mexicans in Mexico.
Monday, March 9, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
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Beatriz Magaloni
“Assessing the Political Returns of Social Spending Strategies: Mexico 1988–2006”
What is the payoff of electoral investments in antipoverty programs? Do voters respond more favorably to transfers that benefit individuals directly or to the provision of public goods and social infrastructure projects? Do clientelistic antipoverty programs generate more votes for incumbent parties than non-clientelistic ones? Prof. Magaloni will analyze the vote-buying potential of various social programs implemented in Mexico between 1988 and 2006.
Beatriz Magaloni is Associate Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. Her book, Voting for Autocracy, won the 2008 Leon Epstein Award for the best book written in the previous two years on political parties and organizations and the Comparative Democratization Award.
Monday, March 16, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
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Maiah Jaskoski
“Army Security Work for the Private Sector in Peru and Ecuador”
This talk addresses the question of who benefits from army security services in Peru and Ecuador in the contemporary period. In both countries, regional and local army commanders have worked as entrepreneurs, providing additional security for paying clients. Largely as the result of these local deals, the private sector has disproportionately benefited from army security services relative to the “public.”
Maiah Jaskoski is an assistant professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and a visiting scholar at CLAS. Her research interests include state-society relations, military roles and security for natural resource sectors, particularly in the Andes.
Monday, April 27, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street
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