Central America Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

US Central Americans are destabilizing, reconceiving, and revitalizing the US Latina/o canon, and in doing so, they are forcing us to reconsider hegemonic ideas about Latinidad. The cultural production of Latinos/as of Central American descent has engaged in a critical denunciation of the violence that characterizes not only the history, but also the current situation, of the Central American isthmus. This essay examines the strategies used by US Central American poet William Archila and visual artist Alma Leiva to (re)construct the past and memorialize the victims of violence across Central America. I argue that Archila’s poetry collection The Art of Exile and Alma Leiva’s installation-photography series Celdas are examples of the “art of witness.” As such, their works play a key role in the reconstruction of Central American collective memory from the diaspora.

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- American Literature, Latino/A Studies, Latin American Studies, American Studies

Este Dossier es el resultado del encuentro y trabajo conjunto entre investigadores de México,
Centroamérica y Argentina interesados en analizar los procesos sociopolíticos centroamericanos a
partir de un eje problemático compartido: identificar las raíces históricas así como las razones
actuales de la reproducción de la violencia social y política en los países centroamericanos, en el
periodo inaugurado por la finalización de los conflictos armados y la democratización política en la
década de 1990.
En ese sentido, fueron dos los ámbitos colectivos de discusión en donde tuvieron lugar las
discusiones cuyos resultados se ven reflejados en los artículos del presente dossier.
El primero de ellos fue el Coloquio sobre Violencia y Seguridad en Centroamérica, organizado
por Kristina Pirker y Silvina Romano en agosto de 2012 en el Centro de Investigaciones sobre
América Latina y el Caribe (CIALC) de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. El Coloquio
tuvo el propósito de reunir a académicos especialistas en la región para plantear los principales retos
que enfrentan las sociedades centroamericanas en materia de seguridad, identificar las causas y
manifestaciones de la inseguridad, pero a la vez reflexionar con respecto a las continuidades y
quiebres en prácticas y políticas por medio de las cuales los gobiernos de turno han intentado
controlar la violencia y conflictividad social.* En este coloquio participaron tanto académicos con una
larga trayectoria en la investigación sobre Centroamérica (desde la década de 1980), como
investigadores cuyo acercamiento a la región es mucho más reciente, lo cual permitió también
entrecruzar y contrastar miradas y perspectivas generacionales en torno a un mismo objeto de
estudio. Los trabajos de Mónica Cerón Díaz, Guillermo Fernández Ampié, Carlos Figueroa Ibarra,
Kristina Pirker, Silvina Romano y Rodrigo Véliz surgieron de dicho evento.
El segundo ámbito de reflexión lo constituye el Grupo de Estudios sobre Centroamérica del
Instituto de Estudios de América Latina y el Caribe de la Universidad de Buenos Aires
(http://geca.sociales.uba.ar). Dirigido por Julieta Rostica y Esteban de Gori, el Grupo constituye,
desde hace cinco años, un espacio de discusión e intercambio entre estudiantes, investigadores y
docentes de diversas universidades y trayectorias académicas. Orientados a la comprensión de los
procesos sociohistóricos que configuran la actualidad centroamericana, este grupo se fue
consolidando con una sostenida producción académica de sus miembros y la participación y
organización de diversas actividades abiertas, como charlas, foros y proyecciones. Los trabajos de
Esteban de Gori, Lucrecia Molinari, Julieta Rostica, Laura Sala y Manuel Yañez son resultado del
trabajo en este ámbito.
La variedad y riqueza de las producciones que en ambos espacios surgieron, sumado a la
preocupante actualidad del tema y el interés del público en el mismo, impulsaron el trabajo conjunto
de los mencionados grupos de investigadores, con el objetivo de dejar constancia del trabajo
realizado, permitir a un público más amplio acceder a estas reflexiones y aportar críticamente a un
debate vigente e ineludible. Con el objetivo de ampliar el panorama se invitó además a investigadores
de la región a participar de esta publicación. Los aportes de Francisco Bautista, Azael Carrera H.,
Marta Elena Casaús Arzú, Marcia Esparza, Daniel Feierstein, Marco A. Gandásegui (hijo) y Eugenio
Sosa son resultado de dichas invitaciones.

- by Lucrecia Molinari and +2
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- Violence, Security, Central America

During the 1990s and 2000s, a policy known as Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) not only became the cornerstone of education reform in El Salvador but also became a global education policy, one which is known for decentralizing to rural families the responsibility for hiring and firing teachers. As is shown in this paper, its rise to fame was not only a product of the particular political-economic context in which it was borne, but was also a product of the impact evaluations produced by the World Bank, which served as the evidence base through which this and other international institutions could legitimately promote the neoliberal model of community involvement represented by EDUCO. Problematically, however, a reappraisal of these impact evaluations reveals, first, that their findings and conclusions around significant effects were not warranted and, second, that the entire impact evaluation enterprise is fundamentally flawed due to the financial-political-intellectual complex out of which these studies emerged and back into which they fed as they were used to advocate for market-oriented policy solutions around the world. Thus, in addition to explaining the reform dynamics that gave rise to EDUCO, this paper (a) systematically reviews the findings and limitations of each of the six impact studies that constitute the international knowledge base around this policy, (b) reconsiders what we can reasonably claim to know about EDUCO, (c) reflects on the national and international implications of the critical review presented here, and (d) remarks on the shortcomings of—and the alternatives to—impact evaluations as a
means to produce policy-relevant findings.

- by D. Brent Edwards Jr.
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- Latin American Studies, Education, Knowledge Management, Globalization

Salvador in early 1991, near the end of the twelve-year civil war. It not only represented an extreme form of decentralization in that it transferred the responsibility for hiring, firing and supervising teachers to rural communities, but it was also the first reform of its kind in Latin America. During the ensuing 20 years, the program has received tremendous attention. Indeed, within the country it became the central program through which the education sector was rebuilt and expanded in the post-war era of the 1990s and 2000s. Internationally, the program has been widely recognized as a successful and desirable example of community-level education management decentralization. In fact, the program has become a "global education policy" in that it has been and continues to be recognized, promoted and adapted around the world.

Evolutionary studies in plant and animal breeding are aimed at understanding the structure and organization of genetic variations of species. We have identiWed and characterized a genomic sequence in Phaseolus vulgaris of 1,200 bp (PvSHP1) that is homologous to SHATTER-PROOF-1 (SHP1), a gene involved in control of fruit shattering in Arabidopsis thaliana. The PvSHP1 fragment was mapped to chromosome Pv06 in P. vulgaris and is linked to the Xower and seed color gene V. AmpliWcation of the PvSHP1 sequence from the most agronomically important legume species showed a high degree of interspecies diversity in the introns within the Phaseoleae, while the coding region was conserved across distant taxa. Sequencing of the PvSHP1 sequence in a sample of 91 wild and domesticated genotypes that span the geographic distribution of this species in the centers of origin showed that PvSHP1 is highly polymorphic and, therefore, particularly useful to further investigate the origin and domestication history of P. vulgaris. Our data conWrm the gene pool structure seen in P. vulgaris along with independent domestication processes in the Andes and Mesoamerica; they provide additional evidence for a single domestication event in Mesoamerica. Moreover, our results support the Mesoamerican origin of this species. Finally, we have developed three indel-spanning markers that will be very useful for bean germplasm characterization, and particularly to trace the distribution of the domesticated Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools. Communicated by B. Diers.

- by Elena Bitocchi and +1
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- Technology, Polymorphism, Phylogeography, Population Genetics

Epidermal changes caused by a chytridiomycete fungus (Chytridiomycota; Chytridiales) were found in sick and dead adult anurans collected from montane rain forests in Queensland (Australia) and Panama during mass mortality events associated with significant population declines. We also have found this new disease associated with morbidity and mortality in wild and captive anurans from additional locations in Australia and Central America. This is the first report of parasitism of a vertebrate by a member of the phylum Chytridiomycota. Experimental data support the conclusion that cutaneous chytridiomycosis is a fatal disease of anurans, and we hypothesize that it is the proximate cause of these recent amphibian declines.

- by dip putradi
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- Tropical Ecology, Australia, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Population Dynamics

Taking into account the environmental persistence and the toxicity of DDT, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) organized a surveillance program in Mesoamerica which included the detection of residual DDT in environmental (soil) and biological samples (fish tissue and children's blood). This program was carried out in communities from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. This paper presents the first report of that program. As expected, the results show that the levels for P DDT in soil (outdoor or indoor) and fish samples in the majority of the locations studied are below guidelines. However, in some locations, we found children with high concentrations of DDT as in Mexico (mean level 50.2 ng/mL). Furthermore, in some communities and for some matrices, the DDT/ DDE quotient is higher than one and this may reflect a recent DDT exposure. Therefore, more efforts are needed to avoid exposure and to prevent the reintroduction of DDT into the region. In this regard it is important to know that under the surveillance of PAHO and with the support of UNEP, a regional program in Mesoamerica for the collection and disposal of DDT and other POPs stockpiles is in progress.

- by Clemens Ruepert
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- Soil, Environmental Monitoring, El Salvador, Multidisciplinary
- by David Diaz-Arias
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- American History, Latin American Studies, Book Review, Central America

To quantify the costs and benefits of three HIV prevention interventions in migrants in Central America: voluntary counseling and testing, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and condom distribution. The methods were: a) identification and quantification of costs; b) quantification of benefits, defined as the potential savings in antiretroviral treatment of HIV cases prevented; and c) estimation of the cost-benefit ratio. The model estimated that 9, 21 and 8 cases of HIV were prevented by voluntary counseling and testing, treatment for sexually transmitted infections and condom distribution per 10 000 migrants, respectively. In Panama, condom distribution and treatment for sexually transmitted infections had a return of US$131/USD and US$69.8/USD. Returns in El Salvador were US$2.0/USD and US$42.3/USD in voluntary counseling and testing and condom distribution, respectively. The potential savings on prevention have a large variation between countries. Nevertheless, the cos...

- by Omar Galarraga and +1
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- Central America, Public health systems and services research, Cost Benefit Analysis, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
- by Sonja Wolf
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- Immigration, Central America, United States, USAID

In dem Beitrag werden die Möglichkeiten und Erkenntnisgewinne einer transdisziplinären Verschränkung der analytischen Kategorien "Raum" und "Diskurs", insbesondere für die kulturwissenschaftliche Stadt- und Öffentlichkeitsforschung, ausgelotet. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist eine gemeinsame Forschungserfahrung der Autorinnen, die interdisziplinäre Ethnografie politischer Raumaneignungen in Mexiko-Stadt, bei der sich die jeweiligen Spezialisierungen (ethnografische Raumforschung bei WILDNER, semiotische Diskursanalyse bei HUFFSCHMID) kreuzten. Diese "Kreuzung" wird hier zunächst in ihren konzeptionellen Prämissen nachvollzogen und anschließend nach Lerneffekten für die analytische Praxis befragt. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist die Annahme der gegenseitigen Durchdrungenheit von Räumlichkeit und Diskursivität: kein Raum (im Sinne von LEFEBVRE) kann ohne seine diskursive Konfiguration gedacht werden, Diskurs (im Sinne FOUCAULTs) wiederum ereignet sich nicht im "luft...

- by Anne Huffschmid
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- Discourse Analysis, Cultural Studies, Ethnography, Discourse
- by Cassiano Rösing
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- Dentistry, Health Behavior, Adolescent, Social Class

This article examines visual images of the Pan American Highway, focusing on photographs and maps from the late 1930s to the early 1960s as a means to explore the crucial role of imperial visuality in constituting, representing, and negotiating the US imperial project in Latin America.
Designed by US engineers to connect North and South America and stretching some 30,000 km from Alaska to Patagonia, the PAHW is a feat of engineering that still holds the world’s record for longest continuous highway. The construction of the road, which was promoted by US policymakers and auto industry entrepreneurs, was decided upon and announced in the 1923 Pan American congress. Dubbed “Pan Americanism on Wheels” by US propagandists, the PAHW was intended to project US technological superiority and enhance US political, economic, and cultural influence in the region.
Based on US and non-US visual materials dating from the 1930s to the 1960s, particularly still photographs taken by the US Bureau of Public Roads and aerial shots taken by the US army during WWII as well as still photographs housed in the National Archive of Costa Rica, the article demonstrates the significant role played by visuality in the US quest for power. It examines how images of the road, focusing on modernity, technology and benevolence, were used as a tool for consolidating US authority, an authority that was contested by Latin American countries and peoples who used their own images of the road to appropriate it and thus undermine US hegemony.

- by Atalia Shragai
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- Transportation, U.S. Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, Central America

Este artículo compara dos momentos de la producción cinemática centroamericana mediante un análisis de dos películas: Alsino y el cóndor (1982), del director chileno Miguel Littín, y El camino (2007), de la directora costarricense Ishtar Yasin. Se arguye que las películas apropian, y a la vez deconstruyen, el bildungsroman para captar la emergencia o formación de una conciencia subjetiva, a la vez ligada, a una conciencia histórica más abarcadora. En el caso de Alsino y el cóndor, esta subjetividad se construye mediante una identificación alegórica con la Nación y los propósitos ideológicos del sandinismo y el Tercer Cine. En el caso de El camino, se nos presenta una conciencia histórica más pesimista, donde el idealismo y la posibilidad de actuar y cambiar el mundo, parecen imposibilitados ante las estructuras de desigualdad de la estela neoliberal. Así, pasamos de un horizonte utópico socialista-marxista en Alsino y el cóndor, a un presente de distopía en El camino, donde se cuestiona la raíz epistemológica de progreso implícitamente ligada al bildungsroman.

More than 90% of harlequin frog species (Atelopus spp.), endemic to the Americas, are currently threatened with extinction. We report the discovery of the only currently known breeding population of the Critically Endangered A. varius in Costa Rica. This population was located in 2008 on a private property in Las Tablas Protected Zone near San Vito, Coto Brus at 1300 m elevation. Previously, the only known remaining/remnant population of this species and genus was a single location near Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, where two individuals were documented in 2004. Subsequent searches at this location have yielded no additional sightings. Delineating the spatial limits of this population, quantifying demographics and resource use, and implementing conservation actions are necessary to ensure persistence of this population. Conducting additional surveys in this region to ascertain occurrence of additional populations is warranted.

- by Daniel Corrales
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- Zoology, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity

Crisis económica y escenarios futuros. El caso de Costa Rica (1981 El propósito de este artículo es analizar, con base en los trabajos presentados en dos importantes seminarios realizados entre 1981 y 1982, los escenarios futuros imaginados por los investigadores sociales que participaron en esas actividades académicas. Con este fin, se identifican la formación principal de los participantes, sus afiliaciones políticas y los ejes fundamentales de sus planteamientos con respecto a los cambios que podrían experimentar la economía, la estructura social y las relaciones sociales, y el Estado y la política.

- by Iván Molina Jiménez
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- Intellectual History, Future Studies, Social Sciences, Costa Rica

The article analyzes the current situation of the right to education in Central America, emphasizing the Availability and Accessibility variables which comes from the conceptual framework prepared by Katarina Tomasevski and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. In that sense, provides trends and obstacles that threaten compulsory, free and universal education. The Central American region is characterized by assuming important legal commitments in education, particularly at the regional and universal system of promotion and protection of human rights. Alongside this formal process, thousands of children and adolescents does not found state responses in educational terms, that challenges the life conditions in a socio-economic context marked by social-exclusion and the undermining of social rights. To that extent, there is a need to reclaim education as a public good and a human right, against the privatization thesis which tend to replace the principles of social equality by economic criteria in educational access.

- by Arnoldo Lopez-Hernandez
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- Dairy Science, Biology, Medicine, Animal Production

"They Have Fired Her Again" is the English translation of "La han despedido de nuevo," first published in El Salvador in 2005. The novella tells the story of Lourdes, a recent immigrant from Central America juggling a series of jobs in New York City. She is surrounded by friends, co-workers, strange animals and mysterious voices as she makes a new life in another country. It's the first novella by prize-winning Salvadorean author Claudia Hernández to be translated into English.

- by Aarón Lacayo
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- Latin American Studies, Central American Studies, El Salvador, Central America

This article examines the everyday lives of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica to understand the temporal aspects of illegality produced by immigration law. Two sets of temporary measures highlight the temporality of both law and illegality. First, frequent legal reform, temporary immigration measures, and the bureaucratic labyrinth of immigration administration create a sense of Costa Rican immigration law as temporary. The ongoing temporary character of law and the forms of immigrant illegality it generates create uncertainty about the boundaries between legality and illegality among migrants in Costa Rica. Second, Nicaraguans in Costa Rica respond to the indeterminacy of the law and their economic and social position in relation to it through their own temporary measures. These measures constitute two forms of waiting: first, immigrants feel " locked up " by the shifting legal and administrative complexities of immigration; and second, they create quasi-legal ways to navigate immigration law during the long process of legalization of their status.

- by Caitlin E. Fouratt
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- Migration, Immigration Law, Illegality (Anthropology), Costa Rica
- by Lakshmanan Suresh
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- Ancient History, Medieval History, Mexico, Central America

Este estudio se realizó gracias al patrocinio otorgado por el programa de Democracia y Gobernabilidad de la Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional. Las opiniones expresadas en este estudio corresponden a sus autores y no necesariamente reflejan los puntos de vista de la Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional.

- by Orlando J Pérez
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- Public Opinion, Latin American politics, Central America

Amazon.com listing + review excerpts

- by Robert E May
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- Southern Studies (U.S. South), Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, Texas History

Crisol de las principales corrientes en el arte contemporáneo y zona de encuentro y desencuentro entre las expresiones artísticas tradicionales y contestarias, los setentas marcaron un antes y un después en la historia del arte costarricense.
Por ello, la muestra organizada por la curaduría del Banco Central de Costa Rica, es un hito en términos museográficos y presenta una oportunidad única para la revisión crítica del legado artístico entre generaciones.
El crítico de arte, MA. Juan Carlos Flores Zúñiga (AICA), examina las posturas estéticas dominantes en las artes visuales de los 70 para Ars Kriterion E-Zine.

- by Juan Carlos Flores Zúñiga
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- Art History, Art Criticism, Costa Rica, Historia del Arte
- by Bonnie Callen
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- Nursing, Multilingualism, Global Health, Intercultural Education
- by Christophe Helmke and +2
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- Archaeology, Anthropology, Zooarchaeology, Death Studies

A review of the literature since 2009 reveals a staggering health and economic burden resulting from neglected tropical diseases in Panama and the six countries of Central America (referred to collectively here as 'Central America'). Particularly at risk are the 10.2million people in the region who live on less than $2 per day, mostly in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Indigenous populations are especially vulnerable to neglected tropical diseases. Currently, more than 8million Central American children require mass drug treatments annually (or more frequently) for their intestinal helminth infections, while vector-borne diseases are widespread. Among the vector-borne parasitic infections, almost 40% of the population is at risk for malaria (mostly Plasmodium vivax infection), more than 800,000 people live with Chagas disease, and up to 39,000 people have cutaneous leishmaniasis. In contrast, an important recent success story is the elimination of onchocercia...

- by Maria Bottazzi
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- Microbiology, Zoology, Poverty, Central America
- by Julia González de Canales
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- Cinema, Central America

The linkage of the Caribbean and the United States in the international sugar economy has been long noted, specifically in connection with trade, technology and ownership. Yet the management aspect has been overlooked. This article attempts to redress this historical lacuna by analyzing the development of the Louisiana-Caribbean connection following the introduction of the central factory in that southern state and in the Hispanic and British Caribbean. As we will see, Louisiana-born and trained managerial, technical and skilled personnel, known as "sugar tramps," played key roles in the development of the Caribbean sugar industry until their substitution by locals well into the twentieth century. 1 The largest sugar factories were located in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The South Porto Rico Sugar Company of New Jersey (SPRSCO/NJ), one of the most enterprising and innovative U.S. corporations in the region, will be used as a case study. Historical Context During the second half of the nineteenth century, sugar self-sufficiency by the United States seemed an attainable goal to government officials, sugar planters, and scientists. 2 During the Civil War, to counter the scarce cane sugar and molasses coming from the South, the Department of Agriculture started experiments with sugar beets. In 1876, a Louisiana cane planter wrote: "it is beyond a doubt that the United States could produce all the sugar needed for their consumption." 3 Dr. Harvey W. Wiley (1844-1930), appointed chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture in 1883 and a staunch believer in sugar self-sufficiency, pursued a three-pronged policy of promoting sugar production on the U.S. mainland, specifically sugar cane in Louisiana, sugar beet in the West, and 1

- by Humberto Garcia-Muniz
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- Engineering, Caribbean History, Caribbean Studies, Agriculture

Background Population-based cancer survival data, a key indicator for monitoring progress against cancer, are not widely available from countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. The aim of this study is to describe and discuss... more

- by Rajaraman Swaminathan and +1
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- Survival Analysis, Central America, Asia, Population based study

Hunting presents a paradox for biodiversity conservation. It is both a problem and a solution to species declines and poverty. Yet, conservation scientists hold different assumptions about the significance and sustainability of hunting based on the cultures and identities of hunters. In Latin America, conservationists largely sort hunters as either indigenous or campesino. Indigenous hunters are often characterized as culturally driven stewards of wildlife sustainability. Campesino hunters, by contrast, are described as peasants-cultureless, uneducated , and uncaring toward wildlife sustainability. Although such ethnically fueled hunting discourse promotes hunting research, campesino hunters remain underrepresented in most comparative hunting reviews. Moreover, there are no targeted syntheses on the current state of knowledge about campesino hunting, nothing to guide conservation research and practice with and for the largest group of hunters in Latin America. We reviewed 334 articles published from 1937 to 2018 in English (55%) and Spanish (45%)-mostly published in 145 peer-reviewed journals-on the meanings, motivations, and sustainability of campesino hunting in Latin America. Although studies spanned 17 countries, 7 ecosystems, and >75 indigenous and nonindigenous demographics in 30 research contexts, they predominantly focused on nonindigenous campesinos for species-specific conservation and protected area management in tropical broadleaf forests of Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. Authors used 12 methods to collect campesino hunting data, primarily interviews, surveys, and questionnaires, and drew from 10 local and traditional knowledge themes about wildlife trends and uses. Eighteen drivers, 14 constraints, and 10 conflicts-mainly subsistence, income, ethics, regulations, and crop or livestock protection-shaped whether campesino hunters pursued 799 species, 70% of which were least concern species. Yet, only 25 studies (8%) empirically assessed sustainability. Our results show the need for increased interdisciplinary and geographic engagement with campesino hunting across Latin America. Resumen: La cacería representa una paradoja para la conservación de la biodiversidad ya que es tanto un problema como una solución para la declinación de especies y la pobreza. Aun así, los científicos de la conservación mantienen suposiciones diferentes sobre la relevancia y la sustentabilidad de la cacería basada en la cultura e identidad de los cazadores. En América Latina, los conservacionistas generalmente clasifican a los cazadores como indígenas o campesinos. Los cazadores indígenas casi siempre están caracterizados como administradores de la sustentabilidad de fauna influenciados culturalmente. Como contraste, los cazadores campesinos están descritos como personas rurales-sin cultura ni educación y sin preocupación por la sustentabilidad de la fauna. Aunque tal discurso de cacería avivadoétnicamente promueve la investigación sobre la cacería, los cazadores campesinos permanecen con una baja representación en las revisiones comparativas de la cacería. Además, para el grupo más grande de cazadores en América Latina, no existen síntesis enfocadas en el estado actual del conocimiento sobre la cacería campesina, nada que guíe la investigación de la conservación y nada con qué practicarla. Revisamos 334 artículos publicados entre 1937 y 2018 en inglés (55%) y español (45%)-la mayoría publicados en 145 revistas revisadas por pares-que tratan sobre el significado, la motivación y la sustentabilidad de la cacería * email map242@tamu.edu Article impact statement: Campesino hunting research requires interdisciplinary collaborations to bridge its varied geographies, cultures, knowledge, and sustainability.

- by Amanda Stronza and +1
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- Peasant Studies, Anthropology of Hunting, Latin America, Central America

This article takes anticorruption activism as a starting point for analyzing how young activists unequally experience the inequalities produced by corruption, as well as the bureaucratic and financial weight of anticorruption and audit culture. Against the back-drop of Guatemala's now-defunct pioneering anticorruption commission, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), we utilize the concept of the anti/corruption continuum to analyze the contradictory positions of young people fighting against and depending on corruption for their economic survival. Gender, age, and class dynamics and young people's economic precarity make clientelism difficult to avoid and often curtail participation in movements for change. While most discussions of the CICIG's work focus on the national level, this is a unique view on how national-level politics reverberated locally in a Mayan community. [Guatemala, corruption, impunity , generation, politics] R e s u m e n Este artículo parte del activismo en contra de la corrupción para analizar cómo ac-tivistas jóvenes experimentan de manera dispareja las desigualdades producidas por la corrupción, así como el peso burocrático y económico de la cultura de la auditoría y la lucha en contra de la corrupción. En el contexto de la vanguardista y ahora disuelta

- by Jennifer Burrell and +1
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- Politics, Central & South America (Anthropology), Political Ethnography, Anti-Corruption

This study aims to compare the political systems in Central America from a historical perspective. Here, Central America is considered as a very diverse region in experiences and quality of democracy; Costa Rica
is the most successful, historical, contemporary case in the subregion. In the rest of the countries, there are relatively young and fragile democracies, without historical experiences of democracy, with very
weak States, without social consensus, and with limited citizenship that is treated in a clientelist manner and is a victim of poverty and inequality.

En su escencia, "el texto" comorecopilaci6n constituye lo que Bajtin analiza en sus notas como "realidad primaria", en la que los criticos, en nuestro caso, vivifican la magnitud estetica y la relaci6n orginica de la tematica del gran... more

- by Maria Salgado
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- History, Literature, Central American Studies, El Salvador

As part of a long term engagement in a rural community in western Belize, students responded to community leaders' requests for an investigation of possible solutions to their water quality and supply problems. A student research team comprised of engineering and humanities students aimed to employ participatory action research methods to further understand existing challenges and develop a prototype for a water treatment and supply system. After careful analysis of local resources and constraints, the team decided that the most successful solution would combine the use of biofilters to purify the public spring water supply and improved rainwater collection to make use of the extensive storm season. An integrated prototype of these systems was built at the village government school with the purpose of serving as a model for replication in households throughout the village. In a discussion of the team's methods and reflections, this paper emphasizes the importance of finding a balance between making a design both relevant to the community and technologically successful.

While much of the historical literature on FAO has adopted a headquarter perspective, this article examines FAO's nutrition activities in Central America from the vantage point of a field worker stationed in the region during the 1950s. Emma Reh's professional background broadens our understanding of the careers of staff members in international organizations and makes visible the connections between the US Indian Bureau and development work. Correspondence and field reports shed light on FAO's difficulties in establishing a strong presence in Central America. Moreover, the article shows that dietary surveys with their socio-economic perspectives on nutrition were underfunded as well as marginalized in the processes of knowledge production and diffusion while a medicalized approach to nutrition took hold at the FAO Nutrition Division. In the early1960s, the FAO Nutrition Division returned to a less reductive view on nutrition.

- by Corinne A. Pernet
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- Public Health Nutrition, Food Policy, Food and Nutrition, Central America

Based on the work of the Global Water Initiative (GWI)1 in Central America from 2007 to 2012,
this brief provides analysis and recommendations for improving the quality of water services in
the region. It synthesizes our lessons learned into six critical factors.
Six Factors for Improving Water Services
1. Water user associations that are part of a network of water service providers have a
better chance of contributing to sustainable services.
2. Water system technicians (administrators and maintenance people) need ongoing
professional training and access to a network for technical support.
3. Cost recovery is critical for sustainable water services and the vast majority of water users
in Central America can afford to pay for it.
4. Meters are an essential tool for water service providers.
5. Sustainable water services require the protection and restoration of water sources,
including the watersheds and recharge areas around them.
6. The biggest driver of sustainable water services is empowered citizens.

- by Susan Davis and +1
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- Water, Developing Countries, Central America, Rural Water Supply and Community Participation

After the 1992 Peace Accords, El Salvador has developed initiatives to improve the education system. However, considering the SDG4 and Education 2030 Agenda, the country still faces challenges in terms of education access, quality and... more

- by Jose L . Guzman
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- Education Policy, Central America, Quality in Education, Educational Equity

En este texto se expone, con base en numerosos estudios, un análisis de la evolución, costumbres y contexto de las pandillas latinoamericanas, que han definido su lugar en distintos espacios urbanos posicionándose mediante la violencia, y construyendo distintas subculturas. Las inves- tigaciones etnográficas sobre los gangs han abierto el debate en torno a la posibilidad de definirlos a través de conductas, ritos de iniciación y su lugar en la sociedad, generando distintos cuestionamientos sobre las relaciones existentes con diversos grupos delictivos, así como los este- reotipos aplicados a sus integrantes (hombres, y cada vez más mujeres). Se busca reactivar el debate en la esfera académica sobre las pandillas y fomentar la investigación etnográfica. Los casos se pueden concebir como la respuesta de algunos jóvenes a una situación de rechazo, en conflicto con un entorno determinado que se les impone como excluyente y la imposibilidad de encontrar otros modos de pertenencia a la sociedad, obtener un cierto prestigio social y beneficios económicos.

- by Maya Collombon
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- Violence, Central America, América Latina, Gangs

Durante las décadas de 1990 y 2000, una política conocida como Educación con Participación de la comunidad (EDUCO) se convirtió no solo en la piedra angular de la reforma educativa en El Salvador, sino además se convirtió en una política educativa de carácter global, conocida por descentralizar, hacia las familias rurales, la responsabilidad de contratar y despedir maestros. Como se presenta en este artículo, su ascenso a la fama no fue producto únicamente del contexto político-económico en el que nació; su fama también es el resultado de las evaluaciones de impacto producidas por el Banco Mundial, que sirvieron como base de evidencia a través de la cual ésta y otras instituciones internacionales podían promover, de forma legítima, el modelo neoliberal de participación de la comunidad representado por EDUCO. Sin embargo, de una manera problemática, una re-apreciación de estas evaluaciones de impacto, revela, en primer lugar, que los hallazgos y conclusiones sobre los efectos significativos de EDUCO no fueron justificados, y, en segundo lugar, que la producción de las evaluaciones de impacto en su conjunto es fundamentalmente defectuosa debido al nexo intelectual-político-financiero del cual emergieron estos estudios, y hacia el cual retornaron para promover—alrededor del mundo—soluciones de políticas orientadas al mercado. En este sentido, para explicar las dinámicas de la reforma que dieron lugar a EDUCO, este documento (a) revisa sistemáticamente los hallazgos y limitantes de cada uno de los seis estudios de impacto que constituyen la base internacional de conocimiento alrededor de esta política, (b) reconsidera lo que, de forma razonable, podemos exigir saber sobre EDUCO, (c) refleja las implicaciones nacionales e internacionales de la revisión crítica aquí presentada (d) resalta las falencias del método de investigación de las evaluaciones de impacto y (e) sugiere varios métodos alternativos que pueden ofrecer hallazgos relevantes para las políticas.

- by D. Brent Edwards Jr.
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- Latin American Studies, Political Economy, Education, Globalization

The Mesoamerican region is considered to be one of the areas in the world most vulnerable to climate change. We developed a framework for quantifying the vulnerability of the livelihoods of coffee growers in Mesoamerica at regional and local levels and identify adaptation strategies. Following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concepts, vulnerability was defined as the combination of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. To quantify exposure, changes in the climatic suitability for coffee and other crops were predicted through niche modelling based on historical climate data and locations of coffee growing areas from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Future climate projections were generated from 19 Global Circulation Models. Focus groups were used to identify nine indicators of sensitivity and eleven indicators of adaptive capacity, which were evaluated through semi-structured interviews with 558 coffee producers. Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity were then condensed into an index of vulnerability, and adaptation strategies were identified in participatory workshops. Models predict that all target countries will experience a decrease in climatic suitability for growing Arabica coffee, with highest suitability loss for El Salvador and lowest loss for Mexico. High vulnerability resulted from loss in climatic suitability for coffee production and high sensitivity through variability of yields and out-migration of the work force. This was combined with low adaptation capacity as evidenced by poor post harvest infrastructure and in some cases poor access to credit and low levels of social organization. Nevertheless, the specific contributors to vulnerability varied strongly among countries, municipalities and families making general trends difficult to identify. Flexible strategies for adaption are therefore needed. Families need the support of government and institutions specialized in impacts of climate change and strengthening of farmer organizations to enable the adjustment of adaptation strategies to local needs and conditions.

- by Jeremy P Haggar and +2
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- Climate Change, Coffee, Family, Multidisciplinary