Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies, Fall 2012

Ricardo Lagos, Harley Shaiken, and Robert Reich at a talk for CLAS, September 2012. (Photo by Jim Block.)

COMMENT: Fall 2012

By Harley Shaiken |  Introducing the Fall 2012 edition of the Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies.

A homeless man sleeps on a bench just across the street from the luxurious Tiffany & Co jewelry store. in San Francisco. (Photo by Paula Steele.)

INEQUALITY: A Dialogue for the Americas

By Kirsten Sehnbruch and Harley Shaiken |  Breaking the ground for a new series from CLAS connecting Berkeley with experts from Latin America in live video conferences. The featured topic for this semester: inequality.

Ricardo Lagos and Robert Reich speaking for CLAS at UC Berkeley, September 2012. (Photo by Jim Block.)

INEQUALITY: A Challenge for Prosperity

By Mathias Poertner| Examining the causes and consequences for democracy and the economy of the huge increase in income inequality over the past 30 years with Ricardo Lagos and Robert Reich.

Emmanuel Saez speaks in Berkeley while, on a screen behind him, Sergio Fajardo listens from Colombia. (Photo by Jim Block.)

INEQUALITY: Catching Up With Colombia

By Erica Hellerstein | Growing global discontent with the status quo, triggered by rising rates of economic inequality, has played a major role in framing the political discussion.

Lifestyles of the “transnational global plutocratic overclass”: a Ferrari parked in front of a row of yachts, Monaco. (Photo by Damian Morys Photography.)

INEQUALITY: The New Plutocrats

By James Gerardo Lamb | Talking about the policy underpinnings of and possible responses to economic inequality in Chile and the United States with Berkeley professor and prominent economics blogger Brad DeLong and Oscar Landerretche, a professor at the Universidad de Chile.

Brazilian workers in rubber aprons with steam hoses clean vaporizing tanks in a São Francisco ethanol and sugar plant. (Photo by Ricardo Funari.)

LABOR: The Low-Skill Trap

By Andrés Schipani | Explaining the "low-skill trap," political scientist Ben Ross Schneider describes how workers in unequal societies have little opportunity or incentive to improve their job skills and contribute more to economy.

Nicaraguan kids point guns at each other and the camera while playing cops and robbers. (Photo by Eric Molina.)

CENTRAL AMERICA: Citizenship Under Siege

By Wendy Muse Sinek | Looking at the roots of domestic insecurity in Central and Latin America, Princeton's Deborah Yashar argues for a more detailed view of the role of drug trafficking.

Ricardo Lagos points at the camera and accuses Pinochet of torture, murder, and human rights violations before the 1988 Chilean plebiscite that deposed the dictator. (Photo courtesy of Rubén Ignacio Araneda Manríquez.)

CHILE: A Memoir About the Future

By Ernesto Muñoz-Lamartine | Talking about his country and his role in its history, Ricardo Lagos, President of Chile from 2000-2006, shares his vision for his country's future.

A crowd of mostly light-skinned people in the city council chamber of Salvador, one of Brazil’s most diverse cities. (Photo by Valter Pontes/Coperphoto.)

DEMOCRACY: The Puzzling Whiteness of Brazilian Politicians

By Jean Spencer | Asking why are the city councils of major cities in Brazil generally so much lighter-skinned than their constituents? Thad Dunning describes some experiments to find out why.

"Abu Ghraib" works wait silently for visitors in its exhibition hall in Santiago. (Photo courtesy of Paula Leonvendegar.)

CHILE: Botero and the Museum of Memory

By Harley Shaiken | Traveling with Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib exhibition travels from its home in Berkeley to Santiago's Museo de la memoria, and changes the conversation about human rights and art when it arrives.

A student walks by Botero’s “Abu Ghraib 57” hanging outside the library of the Berkeley Law School. (Photo by Jim Block.)

CHILE: Art and Law in a Time of Torture

By Christopher Edley | Protecting human rights and the role of art and the law in doing so: Christopher Edley, the Dean of the Berkeley Law School, speaks as part of the opening of the Abu Ghraib exhibition in Santiago.

An urban waterway runs down the middle of the Eje Ambiental de la Avenida de Jiménez de Quesada. (Photo by René Davids).

COLOMBIA: Restoring Bogotá’s Waterscapes

By René Davids | Reclaiming and renewing the waterscapes in the Colombian capital: Berkeley professor René Davids investigates.

Migrant workers follow along a combine to cut and pack a celery field in the Salinas Valley. (Photo by Dan Long.)

LABOR: A Long Dry Season

By Philip Martin | Unionizing California's farm workers has a mixed history in the eyes of Philip Martin, professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at UC Davis.

Mara Salvatrucha graffiti featuring tombstones in Guatemala City. (Photo by Anthony Fontes.)

GUATEMALA: El Fish and the General

By Anthony Fontes | Spinning out the concurrent stories of El Fish, a small-time gang member, and Otto Pérez Molina, the ex-general and now president of Guatemala, with Berkeley student Anthony Fontes.

A sign reading “enough insecurity” over the form of the Argentine flag hangs from a tall fence. (Photo by Asa Perry.)

ARGENTINA: The Politics of Insecurity

By Hernán Flom | Using and abusing insecurity as an issue lies close to the heart of Argentine politics, says political scientist Hernán Flom.

Fernando Birri, starring as Remoro Barroso, sits facing a blank wall in a scene from the movie. (Photo courtesy of Orgon Films.)

FILM: The Method in the Madness

By Erica Hellerstein | Bringing his film "Vanishing Landscapes" to Berkeley, director Eliseo Subiela discusses its portrayal of memory and madness and the movies.

Platini Queiroz is put into makeup as he gets ready for the show at the circus. (Photo courtesy of Kelly J. Richardson.)

FILM: Life on the Tightrope

By Débora Silva | Documenting her time with an urban circus in Brazil, Berkeley alum Kelly J. Richardson traces its affect on neighborhood young people in "Without A Net."

Highrise buildings march toward the horizon as part of the vast cityscape of São Paulo. (Photo by Ana Paula Hirama.)

LITERATURE: On the Impossibility of Narrating

By Luiz Ruffato | Writing about the sprawling megalopolis of São Paulo with award-winning author Luiz Ruffato, who was the Distinguished Brazilian Writer in Residence at UC Berkeley in Spring 2012.