The Cultural Crossroads of Colonial Central America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Central America ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Central American ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
And Gender ◽  
American Society ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Directed Research

The study of colonial Central American history, particularly its cultural history, remains in a nascent stage of development compared to that of other parts of colonial Spanish America such as Mexico and Peru. This partly reflects historical study’s “center–periphery paradigm,” which has tended to concentrate scholarly attention on powerful political and economic centers while neglecting places like Central America, deemed as peripheral. Twentieth-century civil wars and political violence impeded archival research and also directed research agendas toward modern historical topics. Over the last thirty years, a small but lively field has expanded in exciting directions including the following four: colonial religious encounters and the emergence of diverse Mayan Christianities; Afro-Central American society and culture; women, sexuality, and gender in urban society; and the images, ideas, and innovations that brought Central Americans closer together but also sparked controversies and conflicts over the long eighteenth century, here defined roughly as 1670 to 1820.

Kissinger and Central America

2020 ◽  
pp. 152-182
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter explores U.S. relations with Central America during the Kissinger years. In the 1980s, civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala frightened the Reagan administration into reasoning that the Cold War had come to the doorstep of the United States. The civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua erupted during Henry Kissinger's tenure (in 1972 and 1974, respectively). Wholesale political violence carried out by “death squads” continued to characterize life in Guatemala in the 1970s. Examining the U.S. response to the mounting right-wing oppression in Central America provides historical background to the crisis of the 1980s and deepens an understanding of Kissinger's worldviews. Whereas Kissinger may have been impervious to Central American violence, he acted boldly toward Panama, pushing both of his presidents to renegotiate U.S. control of the canal and the Canal Zone.

scholarly journals Central American Rivers as Sites of Colonial Contestation

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-199
Author(s):  
Adrian Taylor Kane
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Central America ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
Central American ◽  
Testimonial Literature ◽  
Psychological Suffering ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Del Rio

In the introduction to Troubled Waters: Rivers in Latin American Imagination (2013), Elizabeth Pettinaroli and Ana María Mutis have argued that rivers in Latin American literature constitute a “locus for the literary exploration of questions of power, identity, resistance, and discontent.” Many works of testimonial literature and literature of resistance written during and about the Central American civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s as a means of denouncing and resisting various forms of oppression would support their thesis. In the 2004 film Innocent Voices, directed by Luis Mandoki, Mario Bencastro’s 1997 story “Había una vez un río,” and Claribel Alegría’s 1983 poem “La mujer del Río Sumpul,” the traumatic events in the protagonists’ lives that occur in and near rivers create an inversion of the conventional use of rivers as symbols of life, purity, innocence, and re-creation by associating them with violence, death, and destruction. At the same time, the river often becomes a metaphor for the wounds of trauma, which allude to the psychological suffering not only of the protagonists, but to the collective pain of their countries torn asunder by war. Arturo Arias’s 2015 novel El precio del consuelo also features a river as the site of state-sponsored violence against rural citizens during the civil war period. In contrast with Bencastro’s and Alegria’s texts, however, Arias’s novel highlights issues of environmental justice related to the use of rivers in Central America that continue to plague the region to date. In the present essay, I argue that these works are compelling representations of the ways in which rivers have become sites of contestation between colonial and decolonial forces in Central America.

State-Making and Nation-Building in Central America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Díaz Arias
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Central American ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Nation States

Central America experienced the construction of multiple forms of new identities from independence in 1821 to the present. Between 1825 and 1840, Central American politicians formed a Federal Republic to keep the region integrated as a single country but failed by getting involved in civil wars. Only Costa Rica remained relatively peaceful during the first decades after independence. During much of the nineteenth century, the other four countries confronted the problem of how to achieve political centralization. But local caudillos, the confrontations between elites, internal civil wars, economic weakness, and imperial interventions limited their plans. After 1870, the Central American nation-states started developing three patterns of racial identities: first, a liberal state in Costa Rica which was able to secure the image of a homogenous, white society with juridical institutions and electoral democracy; second, mestizo nations with limited citizenship in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras where politicians and intellectuals managed to rule with the military; and third, a nation-state in Guatemala where indigenous people remained outside the national identity during most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After 1954, social exclusion promoted revolutions commanded by guerrilla groups with the support of indigenous communities. During the 1980s, most of Central America was in civil war as a consequence of illegitimate states, a weak popular identification with national identities, and the legacy of decades of social exclusion, state violence, and inequality. By the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, local elites, political authorities, and guerrilla warriors in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua negotiated peace. During the 1990s, access to power was decided through elections throughout Central America, and state institutions, such as supreme courts, legislative assemblies, ministers, and press, had the opportunity to bloom. Yet, democracy is still weak in this region.

Prospects for Democratisation in a Post-Revolutionary Setting: Central America

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos M. Vilas
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Central American ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Structural Differentiation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Post War

AbstractProspects for democratisation in those Central American countries that experienced revolutionary processes are discussed in the light of recurrent structural constraints – such as incipient structural differentiation, overwhelming poverty, dependence on foreign financial subsidies – and specific sociopolitical variations, i.e. uneven modernisation of traditional rule; tensions between the recent mobilisation of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ social actors, and political institutions and actors (such as parties, unions, parliaments, government and multilateral agencies) which in some cases lead to current social demobilisation and electoral apathy and in others prevent the effective uprooting of political violence; persistence of traditional authoritarian culture and its articulation to the new ingredients of the post-war political and socioeconomic setting.

Marginalization, Assimilation, and Resurgence: Indigenous People in Central America since Independence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Gabbert
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Central American ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Land Loss ◽  
Agricultural Export

While the end of colonial rule brought formal equality it did not end discrimination and marginalization of the indigenous population in independent Central America. Many suffered land loss and proletarianization in the emerging agricultural export economy. However, indigenous people were not mere victims of exploitation, displacement, and ladinization but played an often active role in Central American politics. Participation in the market economy and access to education fostered stratification within the indigenous population. The emergence of well-off and educated Indians and changes in international politics promoting multiculturalism contributed to the emergence of indigenous movements in recent decades. While some progress has been made concerning the recognition of cultural difference and autonomy, land rights are still a much disputed issue.

Exploring ethno-racial policy for the Garinagu in Central America: making the case for Black Indigeneity

2020 ◽  
pp. 117718012097900
Author(s):  
Sheryl Felecia Means
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Central American ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Land And Water Rights ◽  
Racial Policy

Across the Central American region, several groups received political autonomy by the end of the 20th century. By granting autonomy to these groups, countries like Nicaragua acknowledged certain populations as members of distinct ethnic groups. This was not the case for every country or group in the region, and the lack of effective ethno-racial policy-making considerations across Central America has led to language attrition, loss of land and water rights, and commodification of historic communities. This article focuses on Honduras and Belize as unique sites of ethno-racial and socio-cultural policy making, group identity making and unmaking, and group rights for the Garinagu. Specifically, this work forwards a re-examination of national ethno-racial policy and a critical assessment of political models based on ethno-cultural collective rights intended to combat racial discrimination.

UNICEF in Central America

1960 ◽  
Vol 329 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Alice C. Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Central America ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Central American ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Integrated Programs ◽  
Regional Basis ◽  
The United Nations

Central America has been one of the pioneer areas for the United Nations Children's Fund assisted pro grams. When the United Nations Children's Fund, under a broadened mandate from the United Nations, shifted the emphasis of its aid from emergency to long term and from war-torn countries to those economically less developed, Cen tral American governments immediately requested its assist ance to strengthen and extend services to children and mothers. As one of the first areas in the world to aim at the eradication of malaria and to have engaged in an inten sive campaign against malnutrition on a regional basis, the Central American experiences in these fields have become known, watched, and studied by people from many countries. Against this background, international and bilateral organi zations are working together with governments as they broaden the scope and the extent of their programs. Ten years of co-operative action have highlighted the need for train ing of personnel, both professional and auxiliary. This period has also made clear the value of more integrated programs with wider collaboration both within the ministries of government and between the international organizations.

Sir Lionel Carden's Proposed Agreement on Central America, 1912

1959 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-295
Author(s):  
Walter V. Scholes
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Central America ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Central American ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Foreign Office

As American economic interests expanded in Central America in the early twentieth century, many British representatives concluded that the Foreign Office would have to devise some method to protect existing British investments against American encroachment. When Secretary of State Knox visited Central America in 1912, he and Sir Lionel E. G. Carden, the British Minister to Central America, discussed Central American affairs when they met in Guatemala on March 16. Knox could scarcely have been very sympathetic as Carden expounded the British point of view, for the Department of State believed that the greatest obstacle to the success of its policy in Central America was none other than the British Minister. As early as April, 1910, Knox had unsuccessfully tried to have Carden transferred from his post; the attempt failed because Sir Edward Grey backed up his Minister.

Our Policy of Non-Recognition in Central America

1931 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandler P. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Central American ◽  
Treaty Obligation

The treaty obligation, which the Central American countries have imposed upon themselves, to refuse recognition to new governments established in those countries in certain specified circumstances, was first adopted in their General Treaty of Peace and Amity of December 20, 1907, and their supplemental treaty of the same date.2 The stipulations of these treaties were restated and consolidated in their later General Treaty of Peace and Amity of February 7, 1923, which treaty is still in force.3

The United States and the Rise of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez

1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Grieb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
American Politics ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Central American ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
The Military

The militarycoup d'étatwhich installed General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez as President of El Salvador during December 1931 created a crisis involving the 1923 Washington Treaties. By the terms of these accords, the Central American nadons had pledged to withhold recognition from governments seizing power through force in any of the isthmian republics. Although not a signatory of the treaty, the United States based its recognition policy on this principle. Through this means the State Department had attempted to impose some stability in Central America, by discouraging revolts. With the co-operation of the isthmian governments, United States diplomats endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the leaders of any uprising, to deny them the fruits of their victory, and thus reduce the constant series ofcoupsandcounter-coupsthat normally characterized Central American politics.

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