The Presence of Coloniality in Central American-American Fictions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriel María Siu
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Central American ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Social Classification ◽  
Social Domination ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The 19Th Century

The Spanish invasion of 1492 was the first marker and constitutive element of coloniality. The presence of coloniality is critical for the explication and reflection on racialized and subalternized relations of dominance/subordination in the Americas and all other places affected by European colonization. In 1992, Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano introduced the category of coloniality of power, further developed in 2000 by Walter Mignolo in his work Local Histories/Global Designs. Coloniality not only constituted a pattern of continual production of racialized identities, and an unequal hierarchy whereby European identities and knowledge were considered superior to all others in what amounted to a caste system; it also generated mechanisms of social domination that preserved this social classification into the present. Coloniality is not limited to the colonial period, which ended for most of Latin America in the first quarter of the 19th century. Despite political independences from Spain and Portugal, the pattern articulated by Quijano continues to our day, structuring processes of racialization, subalternization, and knowledge production. This is the reason Mignolo labels coloniality a “matrix of power.” The literature examined in this article concerns itself with revealing the markers of coloniality on the Central American social body in diaspora. This article contends that diasporic Central American literatures produced within the United States represent not only the experience of exile and migration, but also an experience of continued war and perpetual violence, as Central American bodies discover in this US diasporic landscape, the racialization of their bodies, and how they in turn become disposable as a result of their status.

Decoloniality and Identity in Central American Latina and Latino Literature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Arias
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Central American ◽  
Central Americans ◽  
The North ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Social Classification ◽  
Latino Literature ◽  
Epistemic Change ◽  
The 19Th Century

The presence of coloniality is critical for the explication, and reflection, on racialized and subalternized relations of dominance/subordination. The Spanish invasion in 1492 was the first marker and constitutive element of modernity. In 1992 Peruvian sociologist Anibal Quijano introduced the category of coloniality of power, further developed by Walter Mignolo. This epistemic change not only constituted a pattern of continual production of racialized identities and an unequal hierarchy whereby European identities and knowledge were considered superior to all others in what amounted to a caste system but also generated mechanisms of social domination that preserved this social classification into the present. Coloniality is not limited to the colonial period, which ended for most of Latin America in the first quarter of the 19th century. Despite political independence from Spain or Portugal, the pattern elaborated by Quijano continues to our day, structuring processes of racialization, subalternization, and knowledge production. This is the reason Mignolo labels it a “matrix of power.” Central American–American literature represents the nature of colonialized violence suffered by U.S. Central Americans and constitutes racialized and subalternized migrants as a form of interpellating agency deployed in the name of the excluded subjects. Novelist Mario Bencastro’s Odyssey to the North, Sandra Benítez’s Bitter Grounds, Francisco Goldman’s The Divine Husband, and the EpiCentro poets mobilize in different fashions and directions the inner contradictions of identitary and decolonial issues in reaction to colonialized perceptions of textual subjectivities—or their traces—manifested in their respective discursive practices. These phenomena cannot be understood outside of the historical flux generated by the coloniality of power.

scholarly journals U.S. Migration Policy Radicalization (2017-2019): Case of Mexico and Central America

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-118
Author(s):  
Arkadiy Alekseevich Eremin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central America ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Political Economic

This article is an attempt to critically analyze the policy of the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump regarding the southern border of the USA with Mexico. The paper analyzes the approach of Washington under the administration of D. Trump to the problem of the joint border between USA and Mexico, as well as conducts a comprehensive assessment of the main programs underlying the most pressing changes in D. Trumps policy in this area. In particular, the paper focuses on the structure of migration flows between 2017 and 2019, as well as on the reasons behind those changes. The author looks at the root causes of the unprecedented increase in the flow of potential migrants and refugees, and correlates them with the ongoing political, economic and humanitarian crises in the Central American sub-region. An important focus is given to the increasing role of Mexico in the settlement of this issue, as well as to the potential impact of such cooperation between the authorities of the United States and Mexico on the situation in Central America and Latin America in general. The significance of this paper is determined by the objective necessity of academic evaluation of the Donald Trumps administration impact on the United States governmental and foreign policy course. The author argues that the approach of the 45th president of the United States regarding traditionally sensitive issues like US - Mexico border control and migration has been mostly based on coercive tactics with obvious disregard towards social basis and root-causes of the issue at hand. One of the most distinguished traits of this approach is the practice of outsourcing managing the problem of refugees from Central America to the border-country, which in this specific case is Mexico.

Emerging Modernities in 19th Century Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Shumway
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Slave Ships ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
Private Entrepreneurs ◽  
The 19Th Century

While the single most consequential event in Africa during the 19th century was European colonization of the continent, most of the century was characterized by tremendous growth and innovation in African political and economic institutions, as well as the expansion of literacy and the development of enduring intellectual traditions. Many African societies were making strides toward the creation of new self-governing nations over the course of the 19th century, as the ending of the transatlantic slave trade made way for the development of new industries and commercial systems. Large powerful states governed in numerous places across the continent, including the Sokoto and Tukulor Empires, Asante, Dahomey, Egypt, Buganda, Bunyoro, and Ethiopia. Many African states had powerful armies and distinct political identities. The emergence of modernities in 19th-century Africa also came in the form of religious change. This era saw the expansion of Islam in rural areas of western, northern, and eastern Africa, accompanied by the rapid growth of Islamic education and literacy. At the same time, Christian mission societies facilitated the establishment of mission schools and colleges based on European institutions of higher education. The new class of mission-educated African elites included teachers, clergymen, doctors, civil servants, law clerks, journalists, private entrepreneurs, and academics. These individuals, mostly men, had a profound influence on African visions of modern nationhood, particularly in West and Southern Africa. In many ways, Africa was becoming modern in the decades prior to the European conquests of the late 19th century. For the purposes of this article, “modernity” refers to the cultural and social revolution that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism and included an expansive universalism. The development of modernity in Africa and elsewhere was linked to the new age of science, economics, realism, rationalism, and humanism dawning toward the end of the 18th and start of the 19th century. In particular, the newly founded colonies of Sierra Leone and Liberia became centers for the diffusion of African-American cultural influence, as liberated former slaves and their descendants from the British Empire, the United States, maroon communities, and captured slave ships settled there. In order to appreciate the 19th-century development of African modernity, it is important to remember, as A. Adu Boahen once explained, that European colonization of the African continent occurred suddenly and unpredictably. As late as 1880, there was little indication that European nations intended to dramatically alter the map of Africa by force. Most African states and societies were entirely autonomous and controlled by their own rulers. The unexpected European conquest of African territories at the end of the 19th century thwarted much of the progress Africans had made throughout that century and arguably reversed key processes of modernization. And while colonial regimes also introduced new modernities into Africa, these were mainly destructive and exploitative in nature.

“Salía de uno y me metí en otro”: Exploring the Migration-Violence Nexus Among Central American Women

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 677-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Cook Heffron
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Central American ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
American Women ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
And Migration

Increasing numbers of Central American women cross the U.S.–Mexico border, prompting social service providers, advocates, and policy makers to investigate motivations and appropriate responses. Drawing from a constructivist grounded theory study and in-depth qualitative interviews, this article explores women’s experiences of domestic and sexual violence in relation to migration. Findings reveal interconnections across multiple and interconnecting categories of violence as precipitating factors for migration, during border-crossing, and following arrival in the United States. This study fills gaps in our understanding of the violence-migration nexus and provides direction for policy, practice, and advocacy, in the context of shifting political landscapes and migration trends.

scholarly journals The digital life of the #migrantcaravan: Contextualizing Twitter as a spatial technology

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395172097848
Author(s):  
Margath A Walker ◽  
Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The Us ◽  
And Migration ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
Spatial Technology

The Central American migrant caravans of 2018 are best understood as having been precipitated by entangled multi-scalar geopolitical histories among the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Unsurprisingly, the migrants traveling north to the United States garnered widespread attention on social media. So much so that the reaction to the caravan accelerated plans to deploy troops to the US southern border and deny Central Americans the opportunity to seek asylum. This example showcases how the digital world can have exponential material effects. While coverage on border security and migration has been extensive, within political geography, such concerns have rarely been paired with social media. In this article, we take as our object of analysis the digitality or “digital life” of the migrant caravan. Mapping the patterns of migrant caravan-related tweeting paired with the exploration of Twitter’s networked dimensions reveals the platform to be a fundamentally spatial technology. Rather than reflect, refract or distort, Twitter produces and (its power) is in turn produced through spatial mechanisms. We present multiple cartographic visualizations in support of this claim and highlight the ways in which a contextual knowledge of the subject under study—the migrant caravan—can further inform analyses of Big Data.

Labor in the Spanish and Early US–Mexican Borderlands (1540–1848)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric V. Meeks
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Border States ◽  
The North ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Debt Peonage

The forced, coerced, and voluntary labor systems of the Spanish and early US–Mexico borderlands were as diverse as the territories where they predominated, and they evolved substantially over the course of three centuries. Spanish borderlands refers to an immense region that encompassed New Spain’s northern “interior provinces.” They were mostly inhabited and controlled by Indigenous peoples. In the 19th century, these provinces would become the modern border states and territories of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Texas to the north; and Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south. Thousands of Indigenous, Black, mulatto, and mestizo people worked in coerced and unfree labor systems that ranged from outright slavery to encomienda, repartimiento, and debt peonage. New labor forms emerged with expanding global trade, economic reform, and industrialization in Europe and the United States. Compensated labor coexisted alongside forced labor in the colonial period, until it came to rival and, in some cases, replace involuntary labor by the early 19th century. Yet debt peonage and chattel slavery grew in importance during the same period. Workers themselves struggled to maintain autonomy and resisted through means that ranged from flight, malingering, and migration to outright rebellion.

American Religious Empire and the Caribbean

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. McKee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Santo Domingo ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
And Control ◽  
The 19Th Century

America has been closely linked to the Caribbean since at least the Age of Revolutions. Across the Atlantic World, revolutions in France, Santo Domingo, and the eastern United States drastically changed interlocked understandings of citizenship, religion, and freedom. From the 19th century onward, imperial views and laws about religions developed from prerevolutionary era roots. The dominant understandings of Caribbean religious history are those of migration, diaspora, syncretism, and diversity. Studying how the American religious empire worked to regulate and control the religious practices in the Caribbean shows how the distinct religions associated with the region—Obeah, Santeria, and Vodou, for example—developed. It is impossible to study the Caribbean without centering on the processes of Anglo-European colonization and the forced migration of enslaved peoples predominantly, but not only, from Africa. Labor and economic concerns underline nearly every Caribbean religious culture that exploded in the region from the colonial period onward.

Nineteenth-Century Foreign Travelers to Central America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Taracena Arriola
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Central America ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Market ◽  
Central American ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
The Third ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Federal Administration

Foreign travelers, mainly from Europe and the United States, did not come to Central America until the founding of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823 after independence from Spain. They had been previously unknown in the Central American isthmus despite the impression that Alexandre von Humboldt’s achievement made on Latin Americans at the beginning of the 19th century. From 1823 to 1870, the foreign travelers in three characteristic cycles: the first, from 1823 to 1838, during the federal administration, attracted consular agents, merchants, and foreign adventurers, especially former soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars; the second, from 1839 to 1850, brought publicists, canal and timber entrepreneurs, and promoters of diverse kinds of colonization; and the third, which ran from 1851 to 1870, saw the arrival of naturalists, archeologists, entrepreneurs, and diplomats. All of them contributed to the integration of the short-lived Federal Republic of Central America and the division into five nations into the world market and concert of western nations. In fact, the victory of the liberal reforms beginning in 1871 would mean a new cycle of travelers, not discussed here, characterized by the positivist goal of progress, secularity of the state, freedom of religion, the banner of Central American reunification, and the gamble on mono-exportation centered on coffee and banana cultivation.

Slavery, Race, and the Construction of the Imperial Order

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hebe Mattos
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Market ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Constitutional Monarchy

Despite moral criticism of the institution of slavery from the second half of the 18th century, slavery, racism, and liberalism would be mutually defined throughout the 19th century. The slave economy in the Americas grew in the 19th century as a result of the expansion of the world market, sustained by constitutional states, including two national ones: the Brazilian Empire, a constitutional monarchy, and the United States, a republic. In these national states, representative systems would shape the legitimacy of the institution of slavery, relating the adoption of citizenship rights to processes of racialization. In Brazil’s late colonial period, more than one-half of the free population was defined as “black” or “brown,” and manumission rates were as high as 1 percent per year. Under Portuguese colonial rule, this population of color was denied access to public offices and ecclesiastical positions, but allowed to own slaves. The rallying cry of “equality for people of all colors” served as a cornerstone of popular nationalism in the liberal uprisings of the late Brazilian colonial period. Popular liberalism also called for the passage of laws that would recognize the Brazilian-born sons and daughters of enslaved people as free persons. After independence, the Brazilian Empire experienced more than twenty years of political struggles and localized civil wars around the construction of representative political institutions. The Brazilian coffee production boom inaugurated in 1830, allowed the consolidation of the monarchical order in Brazil with the rise to power of a conservative party, the Party of Order, in 1837. From 1837 to 1853, this conservative party consolidated a slave-based national identity. During these years of conservative pro-slavery leadership, political strategies to legitimate the continuation of the Atlantic slave trade were developed and illegal enslavement was tolerated and even encouraged. Liberalism, race, and slavery shaped the history of the Atlantic world in a very interconnected way. Despite the non-race-based legitimation of slavery in a Catholic and constitutional monarchy, race was a central issue in 19th-century monarchical Brazil. Slavery was legitimated as a historical institution in the Brazilian Constitution of 1824 in the right to own property. The same constitution guaranteed civil rights to the freedmen born in the country and their descendants, denying, however, Brazilian citizenship for free Africans and political citizenship to former slaves born in Brazil. Eventually, after the end of the transatlantic slave trade in 1850, the state bureaucracy adopted a norm of racial silence for the free population, racializing slave experience and reinforcing the precariousness of freedom of the Brazilian citizens of African descent. These practices shaped crucial aspects of structural racism still present in 21st-century Brazilian society.

scholarly journals Hurricane Strikes and Migration: Evidence from Storms in Central America and the Caribbean

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nekeisha Spencer ◽  
Mikhail-Ann Urquhart
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study estimates the impact of hurricanes on migration from 30 Central American and Caribbean countries to the United States from 1989 to 2005. In contrast to previous studies, hurricane destruction indices are employed to study the relationship of hurricanes and migration. These indices measure geographical destruction, which gives a more comprehensive and accurate view of the damage and impact that hurricanes have on the movement of people to international destinations. Controlling for the host country’s migrant stock and the home country’s income, country fixed-effects estimation shows that hurricanes have a positive impact on the ratio of the number of migrants to the home country’s population. On average, hurricanes increase migration by roughly 6%, but the impact is greater for more damaging storms. Estimating the geographical effects reveals that the size of this impact varies across countries. The most damaging storms are related to an increase up to 540% in the ratio of migrants to the home country’s population.

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