Central Americans are the third largest and fastest growing Latino population in the United States. And yet, despite their demographic presence, there has been little scholarship focused on this group. Constituting Central American-Americans is an exploration of the historical and disciplinary conditions that have structured U.S. Central American identity and of the ways in which this identity challenges how we frame current discussions of Latina/o, American ethnic, and diasporic identities. By focusing on the formation of Central American identity in the U.S., Maritza E. Cárdenas challenges us to think about Central America and its diaspora in relation to other U.S. ethno-racial identities.
In this milestone work, William Fowler uses archaeology, history, and social theory to show that the establishment of cities was essential to Spanish colonialism. Fowler draws upon decades of archaeological research on the landscape, built environment, and architecture of Ciudad Vieja, a sixteenth-century site located in present-day El Salvador and the best-preserved Spanish colonial city in Latin America. Fowler compares Ciudad Vieja to other urban sites in the region and to the tradition of urbanism in early modern Spain to determine how the Spanish grid-plan layout was modified and implemented in the Americas. Using extensive archival material, Fowler describes how this layout reflected and perpetuated power structures that benefited the Spanish although the city’s Indigenous population was greater in number. Fowler analyzes recorded interactions between colonists, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans to demonstrate the ways the cityscape affected the relationships among individuals and cultural groups. Offering an unparalleled view into a critical moment in Latin American history, this book offers new ways of looking at urbanism and colonialism as intertwined forces in the emergence of the early modern world.
Winner of the Barrington Moore Jr. Prize for the Best Book in Comparative and Historical Sociology from the American Sociological AssociationWinner of the Best Book Award in the Comparative Democratization Section from the American Political Science Association Despite their many similarities, Central American countries during the twentieth century were characterized by remarkably different political regimes. In a comparative analysis of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua, James Mahoney argues that these political differences were legacies of the nineteenth-century liberal reform period. Presenting a theory of "path dependence," Mahoney shows how choices made at crucial turning points in Central American history established certain directions of change and foreclosed others to shape long-term development. By the middle of the twentieth century, three types of political regimes characterized the five nations considered in this study: military-authoritarian (Guatemala, El Salvador), liberal democratic (Costa Rica), and traditional dictatorial (Honduras, Nicaragua). As Mahoney shows, each type is the end point of choices regarding state and agrarian development made by these countries early in the nineteenth century. Applying his conclusions to present-day attempts at market creation in a neoliberal era, Mahoney warns that overzealous pursuit of market creation can have severely negative long-term political consequences. The Legacies of Liberalism presents new insight into the role of leadership in political development, the place of domestic politics in the analysis of foreign intervention, and the role of the state in the creation of early capitalism. The book offers a general theoretical framework that will be of broad interest to scholars of comparative politics and political development, and its overall argument will stir debate among historians of particular Central American countries.
Two interrelated essays dealing with the economic, social, and political changes that took place in Central America Central America and its ill-fated federation (1824-1839) are often viewed as the archetype of the “anarchy” of early independent Spanish America. This book consists of two interralted essays dealing with the economic, social, and political changes that took place in Central America, changes that let to both Liberal regime consolidation and export agricultural development after the middle of the last century. The authors provide a challenging reinterpretation of Central American history and the most detailed analysis available in English of this most heterogeneous and obscure of societies. It avoids the dichotomous (Costa Rica versus the rest of Central America) and the centralist (Guatemala as the standard or model) treatments dominant in the existing literature and is required reading for anyone with an interest in 19th century Latin America.
Why El Salvador - Hidden Truths? In writing this book, I propose to explore these Salvadoran histories, pages hidden in dust which we have been denied by the economic power and its Governments since the time of the Spanish Invasion. We have systematically been denied the truth of this history, which is part of our being as the original peoples, which belongs to us, to our identity. We have been robbed and badly treated for more than 528 years; which has caused trauma and suffering across our lives. And so I undertook to look beneath the debris of the past with its enigmas to find the truth in our past history from our ancestors, colonization, independence, the first peoples uprisings, genocide and ethnocide against our ancestors. As well as crimes against humanity. The role of the Catholic Church, in the colonisation and imposition of Christianity and its Holy Inquisition. I also want you to be prepared, because in this book you will encounter many surprises and facts which are going to collide with your beliefs and notions of being human. I am not talking about to be Christians, because that is much deeper. But of the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors, with the lies and falsehoods with which the Salvadorans have been educated. Honour and Glory brothers and sisters: Nahuas, Maya, Lencas Chortis, Pocomames, Xincas, Kakawiras, Chorotegas and Izalcos who offered their blood for us and future generations. This Lent without resurrection to which our ancestors were subjected to, began with the Spanish Invasion and has continued till this day in 2020. What you will find in the following pages, are not sweet nor cheap announcements from the Salvadoran power base, in its communication mediums: Newspaper, Television, digital media and many other lying media. For the first time, there are voices of our ancestors in the presence of our current generations- the grandfathers and grandmothers, the young and their actual leaders.
General chapters on Central America 1821-1870, 1870-1930 & 1930 to the present, are followed by chapters on each of the five Central American republics -- Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras & Costa Rica -- since 1930. Excerpted from the Cambridge History of Latin America.
This ambitious book examines Saint Oscar Romero's words to understand how his thoughts fit into the broader context of Catholic theology. On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated as he celebrated mass in El Salvador. He was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis on October 14, 2018. Edgardo Colón-Emeric explores the life and thought of Romero and his theological vision, which finds its focus in the mystery of the transfiguration. Romero is now understood to be one of the founders of liberation theology, which interprets scripture through the plight of the poor. His theological vision is most succinctly expressed by his saying, “Gloria Dei, vivens pauper”: “The glory of God is the poor who lives.” God’s glory was first revealed through Christ to a landless tenant farmer, a market woman, and an unemployed laborer, and they received the power to shine from the church to the world. Colón-Emeric’s study is an exercise in what Latino/a theologians call ressourcement from the margins, or a return to theological foundations. One of the first Latin American Church Fathers, Romero’s theological vision is a sign of the emergence of Christianity in the Global South from “reflection” Church to “source” Church. The hope for this study is that scholars in the fields of theology, religious studies, and Latin American studies will be captivated by the doctrine of this humble pastor and inspired to think more clearly and act more decisively in solidarity with the poor.
