Jorge Bayona | El Colegio de México (original) (raw)
Papers by Jorge Bayona
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2023
The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) attracted more than passing interest in the pages of El Renaci... more The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) attracted more than passing interest in the pages of El Renacimiento in the Philippines and Bintang Hindia in the Dutch East Indies. Both publications featured pieces with editorializing tones that indulged in a significant degree of delight at the spectacle of Russian defeats and humiliations at the hands of the Japanese. This article engages in a close reading of this coverage to insert these instances of colonial schadenfreude into the broader trajectories of shaping communities of readers and nationalist awakenings in both colonies. Filipino nationalists in El Renacimiento dropped clear clues likening Russian aggression against Japan, an archipelagic Asian nation like the Philippines, to that which Filipinos experienced under the Americans, thus engaging in a symbolic displacement of that international event into their own historical present. Mocking Russians was part of a nationalist reading of the war that allowed for delight in the spectacle of White humiliation and the prospects of Japanese aid in anti-colonial struggle. The way the Russo-Japanese War was commented on by Bintang Hindia less than ten years before the 'national awakening' period was remarkably similar to the reporting in El Renacimiento. This isomorphism between two different historical contexts allows us to examine the role that mockery of Europeans played in forming a community of readers, nationalism, and the gradual undermining of the ideas of White supremacy on which colonialism was predicated.
Anuario Asia Pacífico El Colegio de México, 2024
Para quienes observan a Filipinas, la principal preocupación del periodo 2022-2023 ha si... more Para quienes observan a Filipinas, la principal preocupación del periodo 2022-2023 ha sido el rumbo del nuevo gobierno de Ferdinand Marcos Jr. con Sara Duterte (la hija de Rodrigo Duterte) como su vicepresidenta. Con la sombra del autoritarismo de su propio padre parecía verosímil que las políticas internas y externas de su predecesor podrían continuar. Si bien el gobierno de Marcos no ha constituido un cambio radical, tampoco ha seguido sus pasos en todos los puntos. En política exterior, Filipinas ha virado hacia un realineamiento con Estados Unidos; en temas internos ha habido algunas mejoras marginales. Es todavía el primer año de gobierno, así que es difícil predecir lo que ocurrirá después.
For observers of the Philippines, the main concern during the 2022–2023 period was the course that Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s new administration would take. With Sara Duterte (daughter of Rodrigo Duterte) as his vice president and the looming shadow of his own father’s authoritarianism, it seemed plausible that his predecessor’s domestic and foreign policies would continue. While the Marcos administration has not proven a radical shift, neither has it followed the previous administration’s path on all fronts. In foreign policy, the Philippines has realigned itself with the United States; in domestic affairs, there have been some marginal improvements. With the administration being only one year old, it is difficult to predict what the future holds.
World History Bulletin, 2021
As tensions rose to a boiling point between American and Filipino soldiers in the environs of Man... more As tensions rose to a boiling point between American and Filipino soldiers in the environs of Manila, the Philippine capital that the Americans had captured from the Spanish during the Spanish-American War of 1898, El Tiempo, a Jewish, Ladino-language newspaper published in Constantinople, took on a bold editorializing tone that stood out from the usually more staid writing style they used when reporting on foreign affairs.
Asia/AméricaLatina, 2020
Entre 1903 y 1927, las élites en Lima y Manila se movilizaron en torno a la defensa de su amenaza... more Entre 1903 y 1927, las élites en Lima y Manila se movilizaron en torno a la defensa de su amenazada integridad territorial. La creación de una administración militar estadounidense separada para las poblaciones musulmanas y lumad (no cristianas) en el archipiélago de Sulu y en el centro y sur de Mindanao fue seguida por conversaciones sobre la separación permanente de estos territorios de las Filipinas, e incluso sobre la anexión completa por parte del recientemente llegado poder colonial (Gowing, 1977; Abinales, 2000). Más o menos en el mismo período, las élites peruanas en Lima también expresaban sus preocupaciones por la posibilidad de la desposesión territorial, en su caso, de los vastos territorios de selva a lo largo de las orillas del río Putumayo, que podrían cometer secesión o acabar en manos de la vecina República de Colombia (Basadre, 1961). La enorme distancia geográfica que separa a Perú de las Filipinas, así como la diferencia en el estatus político entre una república independiente y lo que era aún una posesión colonial, podrían verse como condiciones que impiden un estudio comparativo fructífero entre ambos. No obstante, en este artículo propongo analizar estos procesos dentro de un marco discursivo que puede trascender estas distancias: el del «destino heredado».
Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia 56:1, 2020
Jorge Bayona’s essay yields interesting perspectives on the practice of area studies in Latin Ame... more Jorge Bayona’s essay yields interesting perspectives on the practice of area studies in Latin America, which has only recently begun to pay attention to Southeast Asia, even if such scholarship has largely been Latin America-centric. The essay explains why, and usefully reflects on the fate of Asian studies outside the US and Europe.
Asia/América Latina, 2018
Fake news (or in this case, fake history) is an issue that scholars must take seriously, as it ha... more Fake news (or in this case, fake history) is an issue that scholars must take seriously, as it has the potential to have real effects on our daily lives. In recent years, a fake history of Singapore has taken the Spanish-language internet by storm, arguing that this Southeast Asian nation was until very recently overrun by crime and drug-trafficking; that is, until the death penalty was implemented in 2004, which quickly led to first world living standards. We seek to explain just how fabricated this narrative is, as well as to what degree the success of such fake history is a symptom of struggling educational systems across the region, and the potentially deleterious effects that allowing those conditions in general (and this narrative in particular) to fester could have on our societies.
Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 2017
Between 1903 and 1928, élites in Lima and Manila had to face the prospect of losing their remote ... more Between 1903 and 1928, élites in Lima and Manila had to face the prospect of losing their remote territories in the Putumayo and Sulu-Mindanao regions to Colombia or the United States. This essay proposes the concept of Inherited Destiny as a framework to analyze the rhetoric deployed by these élites to claim as inheritance territories over which the Spanish state never truly exercised sovereignty or only did so in an indirect or very diffuse, temporary, and precarious manner. As a result of this process, a profound contradiction permeated their relationship with these territories: they were understood by said élites as simultaneously already owned, yet also destined for conquest and assimilation.
Revista del Instituto Riva-Agüero, 2017
Esta nota es un breve resumen de la vida y obra de Benedict Anderson, uno de los preeminentes esp... more Esta nota es un breve resumen de la vida y obra de Benedict Anderson, uno de los preeminentes especialistas en el sudeste asiático, cuyas contribuciones al estudio de Indonesia, Tailandia y Filipinas siguen influyendo en nuevas generaciones de académicos. Al conocer algunos de los factores claves de su vida y obra académica −tales como su crianza multicultural, dominio de múltiples lenguas y vigoroso compromiso con los principales acontecimientos políticos que ocurrieron durante su vida− podremos comprender cómo estos dieron pie a la aparición de un libro como Comunidades imaginadas.
Abstract
This is a brief overview of Benedict Anderson’s life and work. As one of the world’s preeminent Southeast Asianists, his contributions to the study of Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines continue to influence newer generations of scholars. Knowledge of some of the key factors of his life and intellectual work −such as his multicultural upbringing, mastery of multiple languages, and vigorous engagement with the major political events of his lifetime− we may understand how a book such as Imagined Communities came about.
Este trabajo estudia la visión de Jorge Basadre acerca del efecto del azar en el desarrollo de la... more Este trabajo estudia la visión de Jorge Basadre acerca del efecto del azar en el desarrollo de la historia y la naturaleza de la historia misma. Su visión es subsecuentemente comparada con la corriente de las más recientes publicaciones en el campo de la historia contrafactual, y se hace un intento por armonizar ambas aproximaciones al tema.
Book Reviews by Jorge Bayona
Pacific Affairs, 2024
A well-known scholar of Vietnam, Christopher Goscha’s latest book, The Road to Dien Bien Phu, is ... more A well-known scholar of Vietnam, Christopher Goscha’s latest book, The Road to Dien Bien Phu, is a tour de force dealing with the lead-up to the decisive battle of Điện Biên Phủ. Broad and ambitious in scope, the book focuses on the challenges faced by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) to survive in the early phases of the First Indochina War, followed by the huge effort it took to face down and defeat French colonialism in a major set-piece battle. Goscha proves to be up to the task of writing a book of this monumental scope.
Estudios de Asia y África, 2023
Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia, de John T.... more Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia, de John T. Sidel, promete una historia “desnacionalizada, internacionalizada y transnacionali-zada” (17) de tres revoluciones del Sureste de Asia: la filipina, la indonesia y la vietnamita. A lo largo de sus páginas, Sidel ubica estas tres revoluciones en marcos cosmopolitas que van más allá de las formulaciones nacionalistas que buscan explicarlas principalmente como resultado de procesos (y heroísmos) in-ternos o “nacionales”. El cosmopolitismo que trabaja Sidel es, sin embargo, transimperial. No se trata de buscar conexiones entre Madrid y Manila, La Haya y Batavia, o París y Hanoi; en las páginas del texto vemos más bien cómo Luzón dialoga con Bohemia, Java con Bakú, y Vietnam con Guangzhou. Asimismo, Sidel hace énfasis en la integración de estas colonias en redes comerciales globales que facilitaban el movimiento de personas e ideas. El libro es un verdadero tour de force en el que se demuestra un manejo impresionante no sólo de la producción académica pertinente para estos tres países, sino también de procesos históricos transnacionales
Pacific Affairs, 2021
A sociologist by training, Erin L. Murphy has worked on issues of sex, race, and colonialism, par... more A sociologist by training, Erin L. Murphy has worked on issues of sex, race, and colonialism, particularly in the context of the Philippine-American War. In her first book, No Middle Ground, she expands on this research agenda to explore the fascinating trajectory of United States anti-imperialists vis-à-vis the military conquest and colonization of the Philippines through a lens of “ethical witnessing.” As defined by Murphy, ethical witnessing is “a way of practicing citizenship that honors our human connections to one another, allowing us to show up for our own integrity by showing up for one another” (3). The author seeks to bring light to this historical case of ethical witnessing, the value of which is not only intrinsic, but also relevant in the long present of controversial wars and practices of indefinite detention and torture engaged in by the United States abroad, and white supremacist violence, mass incarceration, and the detention of migrant children at home. The “No Middle Ground” in the title refers to the firm position taken by members of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL), whereby they would refuse to find a “middle ground” of compromise with those who engaged in abusive practices and systems. In her book, Murphy seeks to expand the chronological and social scope beyond what previous scholars have focused on, bringing light to the later stages of the trajectory of AIL and on the contributions of white women, Black men and women, and Filipino activists to the movement (9)
Philippine Social Sciences Review, 2018
Si Nerissa Balce ay Propesor sa Departamento ng Asian and American Studies sa Stony Brook Univers... more Si Nerissa Balce ay Propesor sa Departamento ng Asian and American Studies sa Stony Brook University at ang Body parts of empire: visual abjection, Filipino images, and the American archive ang kanyang unang libro. Sa akdang ito, idinidiin niya ang kahalagahan ng konsepto ng abjection upang pagtibayin ang kanyang argumento. Ayon kay Balce nangangahulugan ang abjicere na "to expel, to cast out or away" (p. 21) sa wikang Latin, at ginagamit niya ang konseptong ito sa dalawang paraan. Abject bodies ang mga Pilipino-lalaki, babae, bata, insurrecto, amigo-para sa mga mananakop na Amerikano dahil sa itinuring nilang mga mabagsik (savage) ang mga Pilipino at kung gayon dapat silang baguhin o kung hindi ma'y tuluyang alisin. Para kay Balce, hindi lang ang mga Pilipino ang abjected, kundi ang buong digmaan din. Sa kabila nito, tila nakalimutan na ng mayorya ng mga kasalukuyang Amerikano ang digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano, dahil hindi ito bumabagay sa sariling imahen nila ng Estados Unidos na isang "bayang makatarungan".
Afro-Ásia, 2021
A coletânea organizada por Maj Nygaard-Christensen e Angie Bexley, Fieldwork in Timor-Leste, tem ... more A coletânea organizada por Maj Nygaard-Christensen e Angie Bexley, Fieldwork in Timor-Leste, tem dois objetivos: prover aos pesquisadores que fazem suas primeiras pesquisas no Timor-Leste reflexões críticas sobre as categorias que foram utilizadas para estudar este país e envolver pesquisadores experientes nas conversas e reflexões sobre os trabalhos de campo mais recentes (p. 5). Neste sentido, reúne onze artigos em que vários especialistas em Timor-Leste refletem sobre os desafios e dificuldades (tanto práticas como teóricas) na hora de fazer pesquisa histórica e etnográfica sobre esse país. As editoras do volume são pesquisadoras experientes em temas do Timor-Leste: Nygaard-Christensen tem dez anos de trabalho de campo no país e é professora associada na Universidade de Aarhus, Dinamarca, e Bexley é pesquisadora na Universidade Nacional de Austrália; ambas publicaram numerosos artigos sobre temáticas relacionadas ao Timor-Leste. A coletânea que elas editaram inclui alguns dos nomes mais importantes nesse campo de estudos, como Douglas Kammen e Judith Bovensiepen, e também estudantes de pós-graduação. Certamente não era a intenção das organizadoras fazer um manual prático de trabalho de campo, mas uma obra de reflexão crítica sobre o trabalho de campo, e os autores o fazem com êxito.
Histórica, 2020
It would not be altogether inaccurate to describe Peru as a Pacific nation whose eyes are clearly... more It would not be altogether inaccurate to describe Peru as a Pacific nation whose eyes are clearly turned towards the Atlantic. While there may be solid reasons for our historians to engage in such a practice—the Andes were, after all, colonized by Spaniards—the almost exclusive focus on Atlantic histories cannot be denied. In most of our universities, non-Peruvian history courses (often referred to as «Universal History») are either explicitly or tacitly circumscribed to the histories of Europeans and their descendants. The rest of humanity may occasionally make appearances, but these are often limited to that of the victims or foils of the White «protagonists» of history. This phenomenon is, of course, not necessarily the result of malice, but rather the lack of local special-ists in other fields of history who have undergone specialized training in non-Western histories (with the important exception of the Andes, of course). In this respect, the books included in Duke University Press’s series Design Principles for Teaching History—such as Matt K. Matsuda’s A Primer for Teaching Pacific Histories: Ten Design Principles—can help fill an important gap among Peruvianist historians who wish to expand the scope of their non-Peruvian history classes beyond the traditional focus on Europeans and their descendants.
Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 2021
Although at first glance Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico may appear to fit in Latin American Stud... more Although at first glance Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico may appear to fit in Latin American Studies—it was, after all, published in the Cambridge Latin American Studies series—its subject matter also places it firmly in Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, or Global Asian Studies. Tatiana Seijas—now an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University—explores the fascinating trajectory of the slaves of Asian descent in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, particularly how they navigated Spanish ethno-legal categories to transform their ethnic identity to achieve freedom. In many ways, it may act as a companion piece or prequel to Rick Baldoz’s The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946. Both deal with the movement of Asian peoples across the Pacific—with Filipinos as the main component—within the frameworks of empire and racialized categories of labor. Also, in both volumes, race and the imperial state’s ways of seeing play major roles. Nevertheless, while the (Anglo) American imperial state emphasized the exclusion of Asian immigrants, the (Hispanic) American Viceroyalty studied by Seijas favored the mass inclusion of Asians into the classification of native indios, which eventually led to the almost complete disappearance of their communal
identity.
Pacific Affairs, 2020
Although Christian Lentz’s online profile at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, (where... more Although Christian Lentz’s online profile at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, (where he is an associate professor of geography) describes his first book, Contested Territory, as “the definitive account of one of the most important battles of the twentieth century, and the Black River borderlands’ transformation into Northwest Vietnam,” readers hoping for a detailed account of the horrors and glories of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ will be disappointed. This is by no means a bad thing, however. It is the second half of the description that is more accurate, as Lentz explicitly turns away from the tendency of some military historians, or historians of the Cold War, to study Điện Biên Phủ as a site of world-historical importance while neglecting its history as an ethnically diverse borderlands region between Vietnam, Laos, and China. In Contested Territory, the battle becomes a backdrop for other—arguably more interesting—actors, such as ethnic Tai cadres drumming up support for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), Kinh cadres trying to negotiate the intricacies of ethnic difference with mountain peoples and peasants—highland and lowland—trying to find a balance between materially supporting the anticolonial movement with dân công labour and being able to survive and reproduce themselves.
H-net reviews, 2020
Peter Keppy is a senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies,... more Peter Keppy is a senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, where he studies revolutions and nation building in the twentieth century. While some of his previous work has focused on issues of compensation for war victims in Indonesia and the Philippines, he has also written previously on matters of popular music in Southeast Asia, having co-authored Popular music in Southeast Asia: Banal Beats, Muted Histories (2017) alongside Bart Barendregt and Henk Schulte Nordholt. In Tales of Southeast Asia’s Jazz Age, Keppy brings to bear an impressive amount of primary source research in a remarkable array of languages to craft a narrative of the trajectories of two major characters in popular music and theater in maritime Southeast Asia: Luis Borromeo in the Philippines and Miss Riboet in Indonesia. Meticulously sourced and clearly presented, Keppy’s book gives an insight into how his protagonists articulated a popular culture that engaged with some of the political and social issues of the day until their ultimate eclipse as a result of the Great Depression, competition from “talkies,” and political developments surrounding nationalism.
H-net reviews, 2019
Cynthia Milton is a professor of history and the Canada Research Chair in Latin American history ... more Cynthia Milton is a professor of history and the Canada Research Chair in Latin American history at the Université de Montréal. She has published extensively on topics relating to the Andean nations and specializes in issues of memory, truth, and violence. In her latest book, Conflicted Memory: Military Cultural Interventions and the Human Rights Era in Peru, she examines how a Latin American military has attempted to appropriate the tropes of memory and human rights to advance its own counternarrative and understanding of the conflict within the public sphere. This runs counter, she argues, to the more widespread trend of victims and their advocates being the ones advancing the cause of memory in postconflict democracies. As expounded by Milton, the Peruvian case is fascinating due to its anomalous characteristics in the broad picture of Cold War-period insurgencies and counterinsurgencies in Latin America. Rather than act as a bulwark for elite rule and preservation of the social status quo, the Peruvian military in the late 1960s and early 1970s took power to embark on an ambitious plan for agrarian reform and (at least temporarily) crippling the old landholding elite. This was followed by another reversal: unlike the right-wing dictatorships that characterized Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, the Peruvian administrations that had to face the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s were democratically elected civilian governments. Finally, and unlike most other cases in the region, the insurgent forces committed more human rights violations than those of the state—though the latter are still estimated to have committed a large amount. The atypical nature of both the conflict and the postconflict context make this a valuable book to be put in conversation with scholarship on violence and memory across regions.
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2023
The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) attracted more than passing interest in the pages of El Renaci... more The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) attracted more than passing interest in the pages of El Renacimiento in the Philippines and Bintang Hindia in the Dutch East Indies. Both publications featured pieces with editorializing tones that indulged in a significant degree of delight at the spectacle of Russian defeats and humiliations at the hands of the Japanese. This article engages in a close reading of this coverage to insert these instances of colonial schadenfreude into the broader trajectories of shaping communities of readers and nationalist awakenings in both colonies. Filipino nationalists in El Renacimiento dropped clear clues likening Russian aggression against Japan, an archipelagic Asian nation like the Philippines, to that which Filipinos experienced under the Americans, thus engaging in a symbolic displacement of that international event into their own historical present. Mocking Russians was part of a nationalist reading of the war that allowed for delight in the spectacle of White humiliation and the prospects of Japanese aid in anti-colonial struggle. The way the Russo-Japanese War was commented on by Bintang Hindia less than ten years before the 'national awakening' period was remarkably similar to the reporting in El Renacimiento. This isomorphism between two different historical contexts allows us to examine the role that mockery of Europeans played in forming a community of readers, nationalism, and the gradual undermining of the ideas of White supremacy on which colonialism was predicated.
Anuario Asia Pacífico El Colegio de México, 2024
Para quienes observan a Filipinas, la principal preocupación del periodo 2022-2023 ha si... more Para quienes observan a Filipinas, la principal preocupación del periodo 2022-2023 ha sido el rumbo del nuevo gobierno de Ferdinand Marcos Jr. con Sara Duterte (la hija de Rodrigo Duterte) como su vicepresidenta. Con la sombra del autoritarismo de su propio padre parecía verosímil que las políticas internas y externas de su predecesor podrían continuar. Si bien el gobierno de Marcos no ha constituido un cambio radical, tampoco ha seguido sus pasos en todos los puntos. En política exterior, Filipinas ha virado hacia un realineamiento con Estados Unidos; en temas internos ha habido algunas mejoras marginales. Es todavía el primer año de gobierno, así que es difícil predecir lo que ocurrirá después.
For observers of the Philippines, the main concern during the 2022–2023 period was the course that Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s new administration would take. With Sara Duterte (daughter of Rodrigo Duterte) as his vice president and the looming shadow of his own father’s authoritarianism, it seemed plausible that his predecessor’s domestic and foreign policies would continue. While the Marcos administration has not proven a radical shift, neither has it followed the previous administration’s path on all fronts. In foreign policy, the Philippines has realigned itself with the United States; in domestic affairs, there have been some marginal improvements. With the administration being only one year old, it is difficult to predict what the future holds.
World History Bulletin, 2021
As tensions rose to a boiling point between American and Filipino soldiers in the environs of Man... more As tensions rose to a boiling point between American and Filipino soldiers in the environs of Manila, the Philippine capital that the Americans had captured from the Spanish during the Spanish-American War of 1898, El Tiempo, a Jewish, Ladino-language newspaper published in Constantinople, took on a bold editorializing tone that stood out from the usually more staid writing style they used when reporting on foreign affairs.
Asia/AméricaLatina, 2020
Entre 1903 y 1927, las élites en Lima y Manila se movilizaron en torno a la defensa de su amenaza... more Entre 1903 y 1927, las élites en Lima y Manila se movilizaron en torno a la defensa de su amenazada integridad territorial. La creación de una administración militar estadounidense separada para las poblaciones musulmanas y lumad (no cristianas) en el archipiélago de Sulu y en el centro y sur de Mindanao fue seguida por conversaciones sobre la separación permanente de estos territorios de las Filipinas, e incluso sobre la anexión completa por parte del recientemente llegado poder colonial (Gowing, 1977; Abinales, 2000). Más o menos en el mismo período, las élites peruanas en Lima también expresaban sus preocupaciones por la posibilidad de la desposesión territorial, en su caso, de los vastos territorios de selva a lo largo de las orillas del río Putumayo, que podrían cometer secesión o acabar en manos de la vecina República de Colombia (Basadre, 1961). La enorme distancia geográfica que separa a Perú de las Filipinas, así como la diferencia en el estatus político entre una república independiente y lo que era aún una posesión colonial, podrían verse como condiciones que impiden un estudio comparativo fructífero entre ambos. No obstante, en este artículo propongo analizar estos procesos dentro de un marco discursivo que puede trascender estas distancias: el del «destino heredado».
Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia 56:1, 2020
Jorge Bayona’s essay yields interesting perspectives on the practice of area studies in Latin Ame... more Jorge Bayona’s essay yields interesting perspectives on the practice of area studies in Latin America, which has only recently begun to pay attention to Southeast Asia, even if such scholarship has largely been Latin America-centric. The essay explains why, and usefully reflects on the fate of Asian studies outside the US and Europe.
Asia/América Latina, 2018
Fake news (or in this case, fake history) is an issue that scholars must take seriously, as it ha... more Fake news (or in this case, fake history) is an issue that scholars must take seriously, as it has the potential to have real effects on our daily lives. In recent years, a fake history of Singapore has taken the Spanish-language internet by storm, arguing that this Southeast Asian nation was until very recently overrun by crime and drug-trafficking; that is, until the death penalty was implemented in 2004, which quickly led to first world living standards. We seek to explain just how fabricated this narrative is, as well as to what degree the success of such fake history is a symptom of struggling educational systems across the region, and the potentially deleterious effects that allowing those conditions in general (and this narrative in particular) to fester could have on our societies.
Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 2017
Between 1903 and 1928, élites in Lima and Manila had to face the prospect of losing their remote ... more Between 1903 and 1928, élites in Lima and Manila had to face the prospect of losing their remote territories in the Putumayo and Sulu-Mindanao regions to Colombia or the United States. This essay proposes the concept of Inherited Destiny as a framework to analyze the rhetoric deployed by these élites to claim as inheritance territories over which the Spanish state never truly exercised sovereignty or only did so in an indirect or very diffuse, temporary, and precarious manner. As a result of this process, a profound contradiction permeated their relationship with these territories: they were understood by said élites as simultaneously already owned, yet also destined for conquest and assimilation.
Revista del Instituto Riva-Agüero, 2017
Esta nota es un breve resumen de la vida y obra de Benedict Anderson, uno de los preeminentes esp... more Esta nota es un breve resumen de la vida y obra de Benedict Anderson, uno de los preeminentes especialistas en el sudeste asiático, cuyas contribuciones al estudio de Indonesia, Tailandia y Filipinas siguen influyendo en nuevas generaciones de académicos. Al conocer algunos de los factores claves de su vida y obra académica −tales como su crianza multicultural, dominio de múltiples lenguas y vigoroso compromiso con los principales acontecimientos políticos que ocurrieron durante su vida− podremos comprender cómo estos dieron pie a la aparición de un libro como Comunidades imaginadas.
Abstract
This is a brief overview of Benedict Anderson’s life and work. As one of the world’s preeminent Southeast Asianists, his contributions to the study of Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines continue to influence newer generations of scholars. Knowledge of some of the key factors of his life and intellectual work −such as his multicultural upbringing, mastery of multiple languages, and vigorous engagement with the major political events of his lifetime− we may understand how a book such as Imagined Communities came about.
Este trabajo estudia la visión de Jorge Basadre acerca del efecto del azar en el desarrollo de la... more Este trabajo estudia la visión de Jorge Basadre acerca del efecto del azar en el desarrollo de la historia y la naturaleza de la historia misma. Su visión es subsecuentemente comparada con la corriente de las más recientes publicaciones en el campo de la historia contrafactual, y se hace un intento por armonizar ambas aproximaciones al tema.
Pacific Affairs, 2024
A well-known scholar of Vietnam, Christopher Goscha’s latest book, The Road to Dien Bien Phu, is ... more A well-known scholar of Vietnam, Christopher Goscha’s latest book, The Road to Dien Bien Phu, is a tour de force dealing with the lead-up to the decisive battle of Điện Biên Phủ. Broad and ambitious in scope, the book focuses on the challenges faced by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) to survive in the early phases of the First Indochina War, followed by the huge effort it took to face down and defeat French colonialism in a major set-piece battle. Goscha proves to be up to the task of writing a book of this monumental scope.
Estudios de Asia y África, 2023
Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia, de John T.... more Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia, de John T. Sidel, promete una historia “desnacionalizada, internacionalizada y transnacionali-zada” (17) de tres revoluciones del Sureste de Asia: la filipina, la indonesia y la vietnamita. A lo largo de sus páginas, Sidel ubica estas tres revoluciones en marcos cosmopolitas que van más allá de las formulaciones nacionalistas que buscan explicarlas principalmente como resultado de procesos (y heroísmos) in-ternos o “nacionales”. El cosmopolitismo que trabaja Sidel es, sin embargo, transimperial. No se trata de buscar conexiones entre Madrid y Manila, La Haya y Batavia, o París y Hanoi; en las páginas del texto vemos más bien cómo Luzón dialoga con Bohemia, Java con Bakú, y Vietnam con Guangzhou. Asimismo, Sidel hace énfasis en la integración de estas colonias en redes comerciales globales que facilitaban el movimiento de personas e ideas. El libro es un verdadero tour de force en el que se demuestra un manejo impresionante no sólo de la producción académica pertinente para estos tres países, sino también de procesos históricos transnacionales
Pacific Affairs, 2021
A sociologist by training, Erin L. Murphy has worked on issues of sex, race, and colonialism, par... more A sociologist by training, Erin L. Murphy has worked on issues of sex, race, and colonialism, particularly in the context of the Philippine-American War. In her first book, No Middle Ground, she expands on this research agenda to explore the fascinating trajectory of United States anti-imperialists vis-à-vis the military conquest and colonization of the Philippines through a lens of “ethical witnessing.” As defined by Murphy, ethical witnessing is “a way of practicing citizenship that honors our human connections to one another, allowing us to show up for our own integrity by showing up for one another” (3). The author seeks to bring light to this historical case of ethical witnessing, the value of which is not only intrinsic, but also relevant in the long present of controversial wars and practices of indefinite detention and torture engaged in by the United States abroad, and white supremacist violence, mass incarceration, and the detention of migrant children at home. The “No Middle Ground” in the title refers to the firm position taken by members of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL), whereby they would refuse to find a “middle ground” of compromise with those who engaged in abusive practices and systems. In her book, Murphy seeks to expand the chronological and social scope beyond what previous scholars have focused on, bringing light to the later stages of the trajectory of AIL and on the contributions of white women, Black men and women, and Filipino activists to the movement (9)
Philippine Social Sciences Review, 2018
Si Nerissa Balce ay Propesor sa Departamento ng Asian and American Studies sa Stony Brook Univers... more Si Nerissa Balce ay Propesor sa Departamento ng Asian and American Studies sa Stony Brook University at ang Body parts of empire: visual abjection, Filipino images, and the American archive ang kanyang unang libro. Sa akdang ito, idinidiin niya ang kahalagahan ng konsepto ng abjection upang pagtibayin ang kanyang argumento. Ayon kay Balce nangangahulugan ang abjicere na "to expel, to cast out or away" (p. 21) sa wikang Latin, at ginagamit niya ang konseptong ito sa dalawang paraan. Abject bodies ang mga Pilipino-lalaki, babae, bata, insurrecto, amigo-para sa mga mananakop na Amerikano dahil sa itinuring nilang mga mabagsik (savage) ang mga Pilipino at kung gayon dapat silang baguhin o kung hindi ma'y tuluyang alisin. Para kay Balce, hindi lang ang mga Pilipino ang abjected, kundi ang buong digmaan din. Sa kabila nito, tila nakalimutan na ng mayorya ng mga kasalukuyang Amerikano ang digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano, dahil hindi ito bumabagay sa sariling imahen nila ng Estados Unidos na isang "bayang makatarungan".
Afro-Ásia, 2021
A coletânea organizada por Maj Nygaard-Christensen e Angie Bexley, Fieldwork in Timor-Leste, tem ... more A coletânea organizada por Maj Nygaard-Christensen e Angie Bexley, Fieldwork in Timor-Leste, tem dois objetivos: prover aos pesquisadores que fazem suas primeiras pesquisas no Timor-Leste reflexões críticas sobre as categorias que foram utilizadas para estudar este país e envolver pesquisadores experientes nas conversas e reflexões sobre os trabalhos de campo mais recentes (p. 5). Neste sentido, reúne onze artigos em que vários especialistas em Timor-Leste refletem sobre os desafios e dificuldades (tanto práticas como teóricas) na hora de fazer pesquisa histórica e etnográfica sobre esse país. As editoras do volume são pesquisadoras experientes em temas do Timor-Leste: Nygaard-Christensen tem dez anos de trabalho de campo no país e é professora associada na Universidade de Aarhus, Dinamarca, e Bexley é pesquisadora na Universidade Nacional de Austrália; ambas publicaram numerosos artigos sobre temáticas relacionadas ao Timor-Leste. A coletânea que elas editaram inclui alguns dos nomes mais importantes nesse campo de estudos, como Douglas Kammen e Judith Bovensiepen, e também estudantes de pós-graduação. Certamente não era a intenção das organizadoras fazer um manual prático de trabalho de campo, mas uma obra de reflexão crítica sobre o trabalho de campo, e os autores o fazem com êxito.
Histórica, 2020
It would not be altogether inaccurate to describe Peru as a Pacific nation whose eyes are clearly... more It would not be altogether inaccurate to describe Peru as a Pacific nation whose eyes are clearly turned towards the Atlantic. While there may be solid reasons for our historians to engage in such a practice—the Andes were, after all, colonized by Spaniards—the almost exclusive focus on Atlantic histories cannot be denied. In most of our universities, non-Peruvian history courses (often referred to as «Universal History») are either explicitly or tacitly circumscribed to the histories of Europeans and their descendants. The rest of humanity may occasionally make appearances, but these are often limited to that of the victims or foils of the White «protagonists» of history. This phenomenon is, of course, not necessarily the result of malice, but rather the lack of local special-ists in other fields of history who have undergone specialized training in non-Western histories (with the important exception of the Andes, of course). In this respect, the books included in Duke University Press’s series Design Principles for Teaching History—such as Matt K. Matsuda’s A Primer for Teaching Pacific Histories: Ten Design Principles—can help fill an important gap among Peruvianist historians who wish to expand the scope of their non-Peruvian history classes beyond the traditional focus on Europeans and their descendants.
Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 2021
Although at first glance Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico may appear to fit in Latin American Stud... more Although at first glance Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico may appear to fit in Latin American Studies—it was, after all, published in the Cambridge Latin American Studies series—its subject matter also places it firmly in Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, or Global Asian Studies. Tatiana Seijas—now an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University—explores the fascinating trajectory of the slaves of Asian descent in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, particularly how they navigated Spanish ethno-legal categories to transform their ethnic identity to achieve freedom. In many ways, it may act as a companion piece or prequel to Rick Baldoz’s The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946. Both deal with the movement of Asian peoples across the Pacific—with Filipinos as the main component—within the frameworks of empire and racialized categories of labor. Also, in both volumes, race and the imperial state’s ways of seeing play major roles. Nevertheless, while the (Anglo) American imperial state emphasized the exclusion of Asian immigrants, the (Hispanic) American Viceroyalty studied by Seijas favored the mass inclusion of Asians into the classification of native indios, which eventually led to the almost complete disappearance of their communal
identity.
Pacific Affairs, 2020
Although Christian Lentz’s online profile at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, (where... more Although Christian Lentz’s online profile at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, (where he is an associate professor of geography) describes his first book, Contested Territory, as “the definitive account of one of the most important battles of the twentieth century, and the Black River borderlands’ transformation into Northwest Vietnam,” readers hoping for a detailed account of the horrors and glories of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ will be disappointed. This is by no means a bad thing, however. It is the second half of the description that is more accurate, as Lentz explicitly turns away from the tendency of some military historians, or historians of the Cold War, to study Điện Biên Phủ as a site of world-historical importance while neglecting its history as an ethnically diverse borderlands region between Vietnam, Laos, and China. In Contested Territory, the battle becomes a backdrop for other—arguably more interesting—actors, such as ethnic Tai cadres drumming up support for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), Kinh cadres trying to negotiate the intricacies of ethnic difference with mountain peoples and peasants—highland and lowland—trying to find a balance between materially supporting the anticolonial movement with dân công labour and being able to survive and reproduce themselves.
H-net reviews, 2020
Peter Keppy is a senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies,... more Peter Keppy is a senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, where he studies revolutions and nation building in the twentieth century. While some of his previous work has focused on issues of compensation for war victims in Indonesia and the Philippines, he has also written previously on matters of popular music in Southeast Asia, having co-authored Popular music in Southeast Asia: Banal Beats, Muted Histories (2017) alongside Bart Barendregt and Henk Schulte Nordholt. In Tales of Southeast Asia’s Jazz Age, Keppy brings to bear an impressive amount of primary source research in a remarkable array of languages to craft a narrative of the trajectories of two major characters in popular music and theater in maritime Southeast Asia: Luis Borromeo in the Philippines and Miss Riboet in Indonesia. Meticulously sourced and clearly presented, Keppy’s book gives an insight into how his protagonists articulated a popular culture that engaged with some of the political and social issues of the day until their ultimate eclipse as a result of the Great Depression, competition from “talkies,” and political developments surrounding nationalism.
H-net reviews, 2019
Cynthia Milton is a professor of history and the Canada Research Chair in Latin American history ... more Cynthia Milton is a professor of history and the Canada Research Chair in Latin American history at the Université de Montréal. She has published extensively on topics relating to the Andean nations and specializes in issues of memory, truth, and violence. In her latest book, Conflicted Memory: Military Cultural Interventions and the Human Rights Era in Peru, she examines how a Latin American military has attempted to appropriate the tropes of memory and human rights to advance its own counternarrative and understanding of the conflict within the public sphere. This runs counter, she argues, to the more widespread trend of victims and their advocates being the ones advancing the cause of memory in postconflict democracies. As expounded by Milton, the Peruvian case is fascinating due to its anomalous characteristics in the broad picture of Cold War-period insurgencies and counterinsurgencies in Latin America. Rather than act as a bulwark for elite rule and preservation of the social status quo, the Peruvian military in the late 1960s and early 1970s took power to embark on an ambitious plan for agrarian reform and (at least temporarily) crippling the old landholding elite. This was followed by another reversal: unlike the right-wing dictatorships that characterized Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, the Peruvian administrations that had to face the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s were democratically elected civilian governments. Finally, and unlike most other cases in the region, the insurgent forces committed more human rights violations than those of the state—though the latter are still estimated to have committed a large amount. The atypical nature of both the conflict and the postconflict context make this a valuable book to be put in conversation with scholarship on violence and memory across regions.
Jurnal Sejarah, 2019
World War One in Southeast Asia merupakan karya Heather Streets-Salter. Beliau adalah dosen North... more World War One in Southeast Asia merupakan karya Heather Streets-Salter. Beliau adalah dosen Northeastern University di Amerika Serikat yang mendalami sejarah Imperium Britania dan sejarah dunia. Bukunya mencerminkan cakrawala yang luas tentang sejarah seperti terlihat dalam buku ini yang mendiskusikan Perang Dunia I dalam tiga arus sejarah, yaitu Perang Dunia I sebagai konflik global, imperium sebagai fenomena global, dan sejarah dunia. Untuk sang penulis, walaupun kebanyakan sejarawan menempatkan Perang Dunia I semata-mata sebagai perang Eropa, Streets-Salter dengan keahliannya dalam sejarah dunia berpendapat bahwa perang tersebut memberikan dampak yang luas, termasuk pada Asia Tenggara, yang merupakan lingkup pembahasan buku ini. Berbeda dengan sebagian besar ahli sejarah imperium memprioritaskan hubungan antara koloni dan metropol, Streets-Salter mencoba menyingkap bagaimana hubungan antara koloni—yang berperang dan netral—dan negara berdaulat (Siam), yang terjalin melalui informasi intelijen, bantuan militer, dan gerakan antikolonial. Metodologinya juga menggunakan lensa sejarah dunia tempat fenomena sejarah besar digabungkan dengan peristiwa yang lebih kecil. Melalui peristiwa kecil tersebut, kita bisa melihat pengaruh dan akibat fenomena global. Sang penulis mencapai tujuan penelitian tersebut dengan berhasil, melalui penelitian yang mencakup arsip di beberapa negara. Fokus daerah yang dibahas dalam buku Streets-Salter yaitu Singapura, Hindia Belanda,
H-Net reviews, 2018
For a reader in 2018, Eric Jennings’s book, Escape from Vichy: The Refugee Exodus to the French C... more For a reader in 2018, Eric Jennings’s book, Escape from Vichy: The Refugee Exodus to the French Caribbean seems to strike a haunting chord whose root note lies in the past but whose harmonies ring in the present. An analytical narrative of refugees whose lives were in danger at the hands of violent radicals, who fled a war-torn land only to find that those who purported to stand for the opposite values of those they escaped from had set up hurdles of their own, this book informs the way we see refugee crises in the present. Tragically, in both the time period studied by Jennings as in our day, the uninformed, unfounded—and also racist—fear of enemy agents infiltrating among the tide of refugees cost numerous lives and caused untold suffering.
Anthropologica, 2018
Dentro de las líneas de investigación de género, memoria e identidad, el libro de Ann Marie Leshk... more Dentro de las líneas de investigación de género, memoria e identidad, el libro de Ann Marie Leshkowich, Essential trade: Vietnamese women in a changing marketplace ofrece una profunda perspectiva etnográfica de cómo modernidad colonial, revolución socialista, y reformas de mercado han afectado la cultura, vida cotidiana, en especial la cultura familiar y concepciones populares de la moda y el comercio, modificando también las nociones de lo que la condición de mujer y comerciante debería parecer. Leshkowich muestra los espacios liminares en que deben operar y las formas en que las mujeres de Ben Thanh negocian las ventajas y desventajas de los esencialismos de género.
Historica, 2016
Este libro estudia las complejidades del océano Pacífico o «lago español» desde el siglo XVI hast... more Este libro estudia las complejidades del océano Pacífico o «lago español» desde el siglo XVI hasta el XIX. Para ello, los autores emplean dos ejes: el primero son las diferentes maneras en que se puede interpretar el término «lago español»; y el segundo, la manera en que se llevó a cabo lo que ellos llaman la «hispanización archipelágica» de este, empleando miradas «macro» al Pacífico como región, así como miradas culturales «micro» a regiones específicas tales como Filipinas y Guam. En este sentido, si bien las exploraciones europeas en el Pacífico tienen un papel importante, este libro no es propiamente una historia de la navegación, sino más bien una exploración de la historia cultural y social de dicho «lago español». El texto empieza argumentando que el mundo del Pacífico español no debería ser visto como secundario —o separado— del Atlántico español. El volumen del intercambio cultural y del comercio transpacífico —75% de la plata americana en la modernidad temprana terminaba en China por medio de Manila (5)— hace que ello sea insostenible. Asimismo, enfatiza el papel que tuvieron los virreinatos americanos de Nueva España y Perú (sobre todo el primero) en la exploración, la administración y el sostenimiento de las posesiones españolas en las zonas más remotas del «lago español». De esta manera, su intervención en las discusiones más amplias en torno a la naturaleza del Imperio español es que este no debería ser visto como un Imperio transatlántico centralizado cuyas posesiones en el Pacífico no serían más que apéndices, sino como una entidad bioceánica y multicéntrica. Así, se subraya que «la monarquía española se entiende mejor como una federación de virreinatos y reinos» (39). En los dos primeros capítulos, los autores proponen y exploran dos maneras contrapuestas de entender este cuerpo marítimo: el «lago español literal» y el «lago español conceptual». El primero sentido hace referencia a los territorios concretos bajo control imperial español (o mexicano) durante este periodo, es decir, además de las costas americanas del Pacífico, las islas Marianas, el archipiélago filipino y, por momentos, Ternate y Maluku.
Histórica, 2007
Andean Tragedy, de William F. Sater, se propone ser una síntesis completa de las causas y el desa... more Andean Tragedy, de William F. Sater, se propone ser una síntesis completa de las causas y el desarrollo de la guerra del Pacífico entre el Perú, Bolivia y Chile (1879-1884). Existiendo ya numerosos libros con un objetivo similar —entre ellos algunos de autores clásicos como Jorge Basadre, Clemente Markham, Gonzalo Bulnes y Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna—, ¿cuál es el sitio que le corresponde a la obra de Sater?
En primer lugar, lo más novedoso de este libro es que intenta contextualizar la guerra del Pacífico en el curso más amplio de la historia mundial. De esta forma, la guerra es un antecedente en pequeño de lo que sería aún más dramático en las postrimerías del siglo XIX y, particularmente, en 1914: los militares de las potencias mundiales obviarían las lecciones dejadas por la guerra de secesión en Estados Unidos (1861-1865) y la guerra franco-prusiana (1870-1871). En vez de reconocer que los avances tecnológico-militares en el alcance y precisión de los nuevos rifles y cañones de retrocarga y ánima rayada hacían que las antiguas tácticas de la era napoleónica —como el atacar frontalmente en columnas cerradas— quedaran obsoletas, los tres países beligerantes insistieron en ellas, con funestos resultados. Posteriormente, y a pesar de tener observadores en la guerra del Pacífico que informaran sobre ello, los ejércitos europeos insistieron en las tácticas de vieja escuela. Esto último se dio quizás por el desdén con el que observaron a los combatientes del Pacífico sur, a los cuales consideraron poco más que huestes relativamente primitivas.
Histórica, 2005
La vocación de Marcos Cueto por temas de historia de la salud es conocida gracias a sus libros an... more La vocación de Marcos Cueto por temas de historia de la salud es conocida gracias a sus libros anteriores, entre los cuales destacan El regreso de las epidemias: salud y sociedad en el Perú del siglo XX y Culpa y coraje: historia sobre las políticas sobre el VIH/Sida en el Perú. En el trabajo que se reseña, el autor nos presenta una historia de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) y, por medio de sus páginas, nos guía por los diversos avatares por los que esta institución ha pasado desde sus modestos inicios en el siglo XIX hasta la actualidad.
Histórica, 2004
264 HIsTORICA XXVIII.2 VILLALOBOS, Sergio. Chile y Perú. La historia que nos une y nos separa 153... more 264 HIsTORICA XXVIII.2 VILLALOBOS, Sergio. Chile y Perú. La historia que nos une y nos separa 1535-1883. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 2004, 279 pp. Sergio Villalobos es un entendido de la historia chilena, particular-mente del siglo XIX, como se puede apreciar en sus libros Barros Arana: formación intelectual de una nación y La época de Balmaceda. En el libro que se reseña, el autor señala que busca realizar una historia libre de los mitos nacionalistas que han empañado las relaciones entre ambas naciones: «En lugar de mantener posiciones antagónicas, pa-rece más deseable comprender los fenómenos» (p. 11). Para Villalobos, el medio para llegar a esta historia integradora sería reve-lar la «verdad desnuda» (p. 9). La verdad que busca el autor consiste en determinar cuán válidas son las diversas interpretaciones, y tiene el fin de adjudicarle la razón a uno u otro en cada instancia de enfrentamiento. Renuncia a lo que podría haber resultado una empresa un poco más manejable y útil: el estudio de cómo y por qué ciertos grupos en cada país estudiado guardan un antagonismo de corte nacionalista frente al otro, más allá de la justicia de cada interpretación. Es a partir de este punto que el libro de Villalobos se aparta irreme-diablemente de su objetivo inicial. En lugar de buscar superar genera-ciones de hostilidad entre ambas tradiciones historiográficas, su libro se convierte en una erudita defensa de las interpretaciones de los sectores tradicionales de la historiografía chilena. Casi siempre, el martillo de la justicia del autor falla a favor de su país de origen. La reconciliación para Villalobos se basaría, entonces, en que los peruanos reconozcan que han estado completamente equivocados y que se sometan-con pocas reservas-a la posición chilena tradicional. A pesar de que el libro expone algunos puntos válidos (como la reducción del gasto militar chileno en los años anteriores a la gue-rra), estos se pierden en el mar de reivindicaciones prochilenas del autor. Es cierto que la guerra del Pacífico requiere urgentemente de
Histórica, 2001
La laguna de los villanos es el resultado de la investigación llevada a cabo por Daniel Parodi pa... more La laguna de los villanos es el resultado de la investigación llevada a cabo por Daniel Parodi para su tesis de licenciatura en la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. En este libro se estudian los rasgos principales que tuvo lo que él denomina la segunda fase de la guerra del Pacífico-el periodo posterior a la caída de Lima en manos chilenas a inicios de 1881, hasta el fin de la guerra-, en la cual habría predominado la acción diplomática sobre la militar, y habría continuado vigente la alianza peruano-boliviana. El libro se encuentra dividido en cinco capítulos, en los cuales se trata la mediación norteamericana para poner fin al conflicto del Pacífico, las iniciativas bolivianas para una tregua conjunta y la resistencia que ofrecieron los aliados al reanudarse las hostilidades. Cada capítulo empieza con un resumen del mismo, e incluye al final sus conclusiones, lo cual hace que la lectura no se torne fatigosa y que las ideas centrales queden bien planteadas. Para la investigación, el autor ha recurrido a varios archivos peruanos y bolivianos, así como a fuentes publicadas y a bibliografía secundaria. La idea principal que motiva el libro es la necesidad que se tiene de hacer nuevas investigaciones acerca de esta guerra, de la cual se ha escrito mucho, pero de la que quedan aún varios aspectos sin conocer. Es precisamente a esta situación a la que hace referencia el título del libro: existen lagunas de conocimiento historiográfico que han sido cubiertas creando villanos que sirven de chivos expiatorios para explicar el resultado negativo de la guerra. Estas ideas que se tienen de la guerra del Pacífico se encuentran profundamente enraizadas en la percepción corriente, tornándose más difícil su extirpación. Las lagunas que Parodi busca eliminar son las que se tienen acerca de la participación boliviana posterior a la batalla del Alto de la Alianza (1880), de la gestión de Lizardo Montero como jefe del gobierno peruano, y de la actuación de Arequipa como foco de resis
En el curso se discutirá el papel de la guerra y el conflicto en la formación del Sureste de Asia... more En el curso se discutirá el papel de la guerra y el conflicto en la formación del Sureste de Asia moderno. En este sentido, engloba textos recientes y clásicos que dan cobertura desde la temprana modernidad hasta el pasado muy reciente, tanto del Sureste de Asia continental como el insular. Algunos de los temas a cubrir serán las conquistas coloniales europeas y la resistencia anticolonial, las guerras y revoluciones de independencia en Indonesia, Vietnam y Filipinas, así como conflictos más recientes. Entre las lecturas habrá también memorias que servirán como fuente primaria para la elaboración de ensayos por parte de los estudiantes. En el transcurso de la materia, los estudiantes continuarán refinando sus capacidades de lectura y escritura crítica.
Este curso explora la política, historia y sociedad en el Sureste de Asia continental (Birmania/M... more Este curso explora la política, historia y sociedad en el Sureste de Asia continental (Birmania/Myanmar, Tailandia, Laos, Camboya, Vietnam) desde 1850 hasta tiempos recientes, cubriendo el periodo del alto colonialismo hasta la independencia y más allá. Este curso cubrirá la consolidación final del colonialismo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, el surgimiento del nacionalismo y la resistencia, la ocupación japonesa durante la segunda guerra mundial, los procesos independentistas y la post-independencia. El curso mostrará asimismo las diversas trayectorias seguidas en la incorporación al sistema económico y político global y examinará regiones y pueblos que se han mantenido en las periferias o resistido este proceso.
El Perú es un país ubicado en las orillas del Océano Pacífico, pero cuya mirada suele estar enfoc... more El Perú es un país ubicado en las orillas del Océano Pacífico, pero cuya mirada suele estar enfocada en el Atlántico, lugar desde donde se impusieron lengua, religión y cultura. Historia del Pacífico busca introducir a los estudiantes a la historia de los pueblos que habitan el Océano Pacífico. El curso les permitirá un manejo de los complejos procesos históricos que dieron forma a este interconectado y cosmopolita espacio de encuentro entre pueblos del este y sureste de Asia, oceánicos, americanos y europeos.
En el curso se discutirán temas como los vínculos marítimos entre los pueblos del Pacífico antes de la llegada de los europeos, la formación de una primera globalización por medio del galeón de Manila, el continuado dinamismo de los pueblos asiáticos y oceánicos en medio del colonialismo europeo, las diásporas transoceánicas, el impacto de la 2ª guerra mundial y las guerras de independencia, y el impacto del cambio climático.
Course description Examines the transition to Spanish and Portuguese rule in Latin America and th... more Course description Examines the transition to Spanish and Portuguese rule in Latin America and the establishment, and eventual demise, of colonial systems linking Latin America to Europe and Africa. Asks how "colonized" groups mediated forms of colonial oppression and contributed to the development of colonial political culture. The course aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the ways colonial society was structured in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how subaltern groups negotiated and contested their positions within it. Through the analysis of both primary sources (those left behind by people who lived in the corresponding time period) and secondary sources (scholarly texts written by academics from the present), we will discuss a number of issues, such as the meaning and implications of colonialism, forms of colonial rule and oppression, the complexities ethnicity and mestizaje, religious conversion and the survival of non-European belief systems, and the intersections between race and enslavement of peoples. The course has a special emphasis on the agency and resilience of the American, African, and Asian peoples subjected to European colonial rule in what would become Latin America and the Caribbean. Unusual circumstances under which the course is taking place As we all know, this quarter is taking place under unusual circumstances that have made face-to-face learning impractical for the time being. The approach we will take in this class will be synchronous lecture sessions through Zoom. Since students could potentially be in any time zone, Zoom sessions will be recorded and made available to you. Given that in-person exams are impractical in an online format, this class will rely on written assignments as a way to evaluate your progress.
Course description The course gives an overview of Latin American and Caribbean history, from the... more Course description The course gives an overview of Latin American and Caribbean history, from the pre-Columbian period to the present. Through the lens of race, gender, and class, it will study the complexities of how native, pre-contact societies dealt with the shock of conquest, how colonized and enslaved populations resisted and adjusted to Iberian imperial projects, and finally, how these issues are yet to be resolved in the post-independence period, when immigration from other parts of the world continued to make Latin America an increasingly diverse region. With such a vast amount of territory and time to cover, it will be impossible to focus in detail on every single country and event that transpired, but the course attempts to find representative cases that inform our understanding of the history of the region as a whole. Grade breakdown for the course Participation 20% Mid-term exam (August 8) 40% Final exam (August 22) 40% Outline of assignments Participation: Attending lectures and participating in discussions of readings is a crucial component of the class, and is thus included in the grading scheme. There will be online discussions to make up for classes students are unable to attend or for those who have difficulty participating in classroom discussions. Students who attend and participate do not need to join in online discussions. Exams (August 8 and August 22): These will involve identifying terms and answering essay questions. When identifying terms you will be expected to define the term and explain its significance for the overall history of colonial Latin America. The terms will come from a list I will distribute during the class preceding the midterm and final exams. Essay questions will propose more complex, reflective questions to which you will have to answer in an analytical, critical fashion, weaving together ideas and knowledge gained from the textbooks (Townsend and Danner) primary sources, and readings. Each of these exams will be worth 40% of your final grade. Do not forget to bring bluebooks.
Examines the transition to Spanish and Portuguese rule in Latin America and the establishment, an... more Examines the transition to Spanish and Portuguese rule in Latin America and the establishment, and eventual demise, of colonial systems linking Latin America to Europe and Africa. Asks how "colonized" groups mediated forms of colonial oppression and contributed to the development of colonial political culture. The course aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the ways colonial society was structured in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how subaltern groups negotiated and contested their positions within it. Through the analysis of both primary sources (those left behind by people who lived in the corresponding time period) and secondary sources (scholarly texts written by academics from the present), we will discuss a number of issues, such as the meaning and implications of colonialism, forms of colonial rule and oppression, the complexities ethnicity and mestizaje, religious conversion and the survival of non-European belief systems, and the intersections between race and enslavement of peoples. The course has a special emphasis on the agency and resilience of the American, African, and Asian peoples subjected to European colonial rule in what would become Latin America and the Caribbean.
pesar de que las posesiones ibéricas en Asia constituyeron piezas claves de los imperios español ... more pesar de que las posesiones ibéricas en Asia constituyeron piezas claves de los imperios español y portugués, dicho continente suele aparecer en un plano secundario en las discusiones académicas en torno a los colonialismos ibéricos. En este curso intentaremos llenar este vacío por medio del estudio de fenómenos como el mestizaje, evangelización, nacionalismo y caudillismo en lugares como Filipinas, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Goa y Macao. La mirada cronológica abarcará desde tiempos anteriores al contacto hasta el pasado reciente, lo cual nos permitirá discutir el impacto del colonialismo ibérico y sus efectos a largo plazo en las sociedades asiáticas en las que se implantó.
Course description The course attempts to give an overview of Latin American and Caribbean histor... more Course description The course attempts to give an overview of Latin American and Caribbean history, from the pre-Columbian period to the present. Through the lens of race, gender, and class, it will study the complexities of how native, pre-contact societies dealt with the shock of conquest, how colonized and enslaved populations resisted and adjusted to Iberian imperial projects, and finally, how these issues are yet to be resolved in the post-independence period, when immigration from other parts of the world continued to make Latin America an increasingly diverse region. With such a vast amount of territory and time to cover, it will be impossible to focus in detail on every single country and event that transpired, but the course attempts to find representative cases that inform our understanding of the history of the region as a whole. Learning objectives • Understanding, analyzing, and critiquing primary sources as the building blocks of historical scholarship. • Identifying the main arguments of secondary sources-i.e., historical scholarship-engage with them, and use them in dialogue with primary sources.