CLACS Blog

Last week the King Juan Carlos I Center hosted a symposium organized by NYU’s Hemispheric Institute, NYU CLACS and CU ILAS on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Titled “After Truth: Justice, Truth, and Reconciliation Commissions, and Related Aftermaths”, the symposium was organized around the opening of two photographic exhibits at the KJCC. One of the exhibits which was originally done in conjunction with and sponsored by Peru’s TRC was titled “Yuyanapaq” which in Spanish means “para recordar” and in English means “in order to remember”. The exhibit that opened at the KJCC is a much condensed version of the original exhibit that was staged in Lima, Peru and featured photographs depicting the “manchay tiempo” or “time of fear”, in reference to the 20 year period of internal armed conflict in Peru. The reality of that time in Peru is that an estimated 70,000 people were killed, many of whom remain disappeared (according to the symposium presentation by forensic anthropologist José Pablo Baraybar, who leads the Equipo Peruano de Antropología, only 2.2% of those have been identified). The photo exhibit is a collection of photos taken by several photographers during that time period, and are meant to foster memory and remembrance of the atrocities that took place. The other exhibit that opened is titled “Si no vuelvo, busquénme en Pútis” or in English “If I don´t return, look for me in Pútis”. Putis is a small village located in the Ayacucho region of Peru. During the “manchay tiempo” the Peruvian Army had established a counter-insurgency post in Pútis, and was responsible for many atrocities carried out against the people of Pútis, sometimes because they suspected them to be terrorists or sympathetic to the terrorists, and sometimes because they desired their goods or herds. The photographic exhibit showcases photographs taken of clothing that had been removed from the victims of a massacre in Pútis carried out by the Peruvian army in which 123 men, women, and children were executed inside of a mass grave. In fact, the grave was dug by the victims, as they had been told it was part of a development project the army was carrying out in the village, and that it would be a trout farm. Once the hole was dug, the soldiers demanded people to enter the hole and then executed them. The army then took their cows. As part of the TRC, an exhumation of the mass grave site, which was right behind the church in Pútis, was conducted in which community members were allowed to observe and be involved in. Some were able to claim their dead based on the clothing that was removed from the bodies. The exhumation was followed by ceremonial burials of the uncovered dead. Later, photographs were taken of the process as well as the articles of clothing that were recovered.

Margara Millan, Mexican sociologist and Professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, visited NYU last month to discuss the role of indigenous women within the Zapatista movement in Mexico. What I found most interesting about her lecture was the way in which she described the various roles played by women within the Zapatista civilian governments—called the Juntas de Buen Gobierno. Each of these Juntas requires 30 percent of the members to be female and the role of women extends much further than simply filling a quota. Women were integral in shaping a feminist Zapatista discourse, the topic of Millan’s dissertation, and the policies adopted in Zapatista territory.
For example, Millan discovered during her research in Chiapas that women played an important role in banning alcohol within Zapatista communities. When the Zapatistas first rose up against the Mexican government in 1994, the Zapatistas enforced strict prohibition because they were at war. Once the Juntas formed, however, the indigenous women belonging to the communities discovered that by enforcing the sobriety of indigenous men, the rate of domestic abuse drastically decreased. Thus, they strongly pushed to enforce sobriety within the civilian territory.
Millan’s research is important in challenging the perception shared by some that passing laws protecting indigenous people’s “usos y costumbres” (roughly translated as culture and traditions), essentially legalizes the abuse of women when such abuse is a part of indigenous culture. Millan’s research demonstrates that at least in the case of the Zapatistas, women are slowly shaping those existing usos y costumbres to empower women and create more egalitarian communities.
After her presentation some of the attending students accompanied Millan to lunch. Overall, it was an exciting and thought-provoking event.

On December 14, CLACS ended its Fall 2009 Research Colloquium “Cuba: History, Culture and Revolution.” Timed to coincide roughly with the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the colloquium included a course organized by Professors Ada Ferrer (History) and Ana Dopico (Spanish and Comparative Literature), as well as public lectures by scholars from Cuba, Spain, and the United States. Speakers included: musicologist Ned Sublette, literary critics Roberto González Echevarría (Yale) and Jean Franco (Columbia); writer Antonio José Ponte (Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, Madrid) who spoke on questions of censorship in recent Cuban literature and the arts; sociologist Sam Farber (Brooklyn College), who analyzed the process of rapid radicalization of the revolution from 1959 to 1961; anthropologist Noelle Stout (NYU), who spoke about contemporary issues regarding gays, sex workers, and police; and historians Alejandro de la Fuente (University of Pittsburgh), who spoke on the uses of history and especially of the so-called Race War of 1912 by contemporary Afro-Cuban activists and cultural workers, and Marial Iglesias Utset (University of Havana) who spoke on her new research on the memory of the Haitian Revolution in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Cuba. Videos of some of the lectures will be made available shortly.

Ada Ferrer, Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU

Folks at NYU, as everywhere, have been riveted by the unfolding crisis in Haiti. The NYU Haiti response page gives people in the NYU community information on how it can help as well as updates on benefits and other events at NYU. Please click here for more information

Photo Credit: ©UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0025/LeMoyne
UNICEF Child Protection Specialist Cecilie Modvar speaks with children in a makeshift camp in Canapé Vert, a central plaza in the city.

On February 12, 2010—one month after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti—CLACS hosted a talk with Nadine Perrault, UNICEF’s Regional Advisor on Child Protection for Latin America and the Caribbean. Perrault had recently returned from Haiti after being immediately deployed from UNICEF's Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office in Panama following the earthquake. She discussed the current situation on the ground in Haiti, particularly as it affects children, as well as UNICEF’s role in coordinating efforts for child protection and security, in both the short and long term. She explained that UNICEF is not only responding to immediate needs like food and water, but is leading efforts to identify and protect unaccompanied children from trafficking and to reunite families. Unfortunately, Perrault said that family tracing will be the hardest part of their mission in Haiti, as the task of identifying unaccompanied children is complicated by an assortment of obstacles.

Paramilitary Politics In Colombia: A Talk With Claudia Lopez from Latin America News Dispatch on Vimeo.

Colombian political analyst Claudia López visited New York University’s Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies on Thursday, where she presented research on the infiltration of paramilitary groups in Colombia’s political system. While left-wing guerrillas have sought to push the state out of areas where they operate, leading to their isolation, right-wing militas have infiltrated the political system to such an extent that López says they are “capturing” the state. López’s research played an important role in prompting the investigations of over one third of Colombia’s Congress members for ties to illegal groups since 2006. She took some time to discuss her work with The Latin America News Dispatch.

The talk was sponsored by the NYU Wagner Graduate School for Public Service’s Alliance for Latino and Latin American Students and the NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

The Latin America News Dispatch

This semester the CLACS Speakers Series and the CLACS Interdisciplinary Regional Seminar were titled “Decolonization in the Andes: Contemporary Debates and Transformations”. The series was coordinated by Sinclair Thomson (History Department, NYU) and Carmen Medeiros (CLACS, NYU). The corresponding course was taught by Professor Medeiros. I had the wonderful opportunity of taking the course with Professor Medeiros, which covered both the history of the Andean countries, but more specifically looked at questions of the “Coloniality of Power” (term coined by Quijano) and the “Colonial Difference” (term coined by Mignolo). We read contemporary works on race and racism, issues of gender, as well as issues around development and education.

The speaker series featured some amazing presentations, many by local activists, intellectuals and scholars from the Andes. Here is the schedule of the events linked to the Seminar:

February 16, 2010- Luis Tapia (Development Studies Program, CIDES, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia)
“El ciclo de democratización pluricultural en Bolivia”
March 29, 2010- Marisol de la Cadena (Anthropology Department, University of California-Davis)
“Indigenous politics: Beyond politics as usual”
April 5, 2010- Julieta Paredes (Activist, Writer, Co-founder of Mujeres Creando and Asamblea Feminista, La Paz, Bolivia)
“Hilando fino desde el feminismo comunitario”
April 12, 2010- Hernán Ibarra (History Department, FLACSO, Quito, Ecuador)
“Estado nación y crisis del discurso del mestizaje en Ecuador”
April 19, 2010- Bret Gustafson (Anthropology Department, Washington University in St. Louis)
“Epistemic rupture, affirmative action or 'reverse racism'?: Decolonizing knowledge in Evo's Bolivia”
April 26, 2010 –Rodrigo Montoya (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú) and Mario Palacios (President, CONACAMI, Lima, Peru)
“Rebelión en los Andes y la Amazonía del Perú”
May 3, 2010- Daysi Zapata (Vicepresident, Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana-AIDESEP)
“La lucha de los pueblos indígenas de la Amazonía peruana”

The theme of the seminar, decolonization, is by no means a new concept, but in recent years it has been gaining traction in the Andes as a deliberate project by governments, especially that of Bolivia. This series attempted to propose the questions- what is decolonization? -and how are Andean countries using the concept and what kind of practices are they employing?
The events were filmed by CLACS and they should be up soon on NYU’s Youtube channel for anyone to watch. Anyone interested in the topics of the series and seminar should definitely check them out!

Rebecca Fisher, MA Candidate, CLACS

CLACS is participating as a co-organizer for a film series entitled "Indocumentales/Undocumentaries: The US-Mexico Interdependent Film Series." In collaboration with Cinema Tropical and what moves you?, the series aims to broaden the scope of the discussion around immigration, opening up dialogue on related themes, providing additional teaching resources to interested organizations and schools, and incorporating diverse voices in this discussion. The series is currently ongoing in New York City, and will soon travel to new destinations across the United States.

See our website here:
http://indocumentales.com

See a blog entry from a recent screening posted by Alison Bowen, CLACS GloJo alum, posted on the Latin American News Dispatch:
http://latindispatch.com/2010/07/29/film-spotlights-child-migrants-lonely-journey-north/

When I tell people that I study the Quechua language, the news often inspires a feeling of surprise: Here? In New York City? I used to study Quechua as a graduate student at CLACS, but now that I’ve finished the program I have to take more personal initiative if I want to continue developing my language skills. Fortunately, I’m able to attend Quechua Conversation Night – a monthly event that asks participants to engage with the language in a variety of ways that are suitable for beginner and advanced-level Quechua language learners.

Dr. Gustavo Solis Fonseca is a professor at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and at the Center for Research and Applied Linguistics in Lima, Peru. He will also be speaking during NYU's Quechua Week - December 13th-17.

Dr. Solis holds both a PhD and M.A in Linguistics, specializing in Amerindian languages. Dr. Solis has been the director of the Center for Research in Applied Linguistics (CILA) at the UNMSM for several years. He has also twice been the recipient of the Medal of Scientific Merit from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.