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This symposium brings together scholars, practitioners, and activists from three regional genres of research: Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia, to discuss and explore the socio-spatiality of urban informality in an era of liberalization. Conceived under the broader rubric of the Ford Foundation/ UC Berkeley International and Area Studies "Crossing Borders" project, the symposium aims to trespass across disciplinary and area studies boundaries. Co-sponsored with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

January 26-27 2001
The Heyns Room, The Faculty Club

Series Cuba 2001

Mayra Espina Prieto
Gender and Class in Cuba

Mayra Espina researches gender and class structure in Cuba. She works at the Center of Psychological and Sociological Research in Havana, the leading social science research center in the country, and has published numerous articles, most recently "Transition and dynamics of socio-structural processes" in Cuba Constructing Future. Her lecture will be moderated by Professor Laura Pérez of the Ethnic Studies and Spanish & Portuguese departments.

(in Spanish)

Monday, January 29, 2001, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event
Working Paper by Mayra Espina Prieto (in Spanish)

Series Brazil: Culture, Society, and Politics

"Leituras Brasileiras" is a graduate seminar offered by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Brazilian Consulate. The course will be taught by: Maria Angelica Madeira, Professor of Literature and Sociology and Mariza Veloso, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Universidade de Brasilia and the Instituto Rio Branco

To register: the course control number is 86760 with Clélia Donovan as instructor of record. The course is 1 unit.

(in Portuguese)

Monday, February 5 through Friday, February 9
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. each day
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Series Cuba 2001

Seminar: Cuba 2001 (LAS 298)

Professor Susan Eckstein
"Cuba in Transition"
Susan Eckstein is a professor of sociology at Boston University. She has conducted research in Mexico, Bolivia, and Cuba on urbanization, poverty, revolutions, business elites, agrarian reform, social and economic policy, politics, social movements, and the economy. Her books include The Poverty of Revolution: The State and Urban Poor in Mexico (Princeton University Press), Power and Protest: Latin American Social Movements (University of California Press), and Back from the Future: Cuba Under Castro (Princeton University Press).

Seminar moderated by Professor Lydia Chavez, Graduate School of Journalism. For more information on this special seminar, see the Cuba 2001 page.

Monday, February 5, 12:00-2:00 p.m.
The Library at North Gate Hall

Analysis and commentary for this event

Series Conflict, Memory and Transitions

Angelina Snodgrass Godoy
"Lynchings and the Democratization of Terror in Postwar Guatemala"

Angelina Snodgrass Godoy is a Ph.D. Candidate in Berkeley's Department of Sociology, working on a dissertation about vigilante justice practices in Latin America. Her talk will focus on one chapter of her dissertation, which deals with the phenomenon of lynchings in contemporary Guatemala. From 1996-2001, 337 lynchings of common criminals were documented in Guatemala, and many more may have gone undetected. In her presentation, Snodgrass will discuss the origins and implications of this trend.

A reception will follow.

Wednesday, February 7, 4:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Related working paper by Angelina Snodgrass
Word version (107kB)

Series Cuba 2001

Professor Richard Nuccio
"US Cuba Policy 2001, Where We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We Ought to Be"
Richard Nuccio served as President Clinton's special adviser for Cuba from 1995 to 1996. During that period he managed the U.S. reaction to the Cuban rafter crisis of 1994 and 1995, efforts to block passage of the Helms/Burton legislation on Cuba, and the administration's response to the shootdown of two U.S. planes by the Cuban air force in February 1996. Within the Administration he was an active proponent of the so-called Track II efforts to encourage the growth of Cuba's nascent civil society. He is currently director of the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, Salve Regina University, Newport, RI.

Seminar moderated by Professor Lydia Chavez, Graduate School of Journalism. For more information on this special seminar, see the Cuba 2001 page.

Monday, February 12, 12:00-2:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Seminar Development, Labor Standards, and Economic Integration in the Americas

Stan Gacek
"International Labor Rights and Labor Solidarity in the Americas"

Stanley Gacek, J.D., is currently the AFL-CIO's Assistant Director for International Affairs, with responsibility for the U.S. labor federation1s policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to this position, he was Assistant General Counsel to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and, during the 1980s, he served as the effective contact in the U.S. labor movement for both the Brazilian CUT and PT. He is the author of "Revisiting the Corporatist and Contractualist Models of Labor Law Regimes: A Review of the Brazilian and American Systems" (Cardozo Law Review, 1994) and Sistemas de Relações de Trabalho A Exame dos Modelos Brasil-Estados Unidos (1994).

Friday, February 16, 9:30 a.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Seminar Development, Labor Standards, and Economic Integration in the Americas

Liliane Fiuza Lima
"Child Labor in Brazil"

Liliane Fiuza is a noted activist and expert on child labor. She was the organizer for the Global March Against Child Labor, and she is a consultant on child labor issues to the national labor union centrals in Brazil. In 1998, she was a delegate to the International Labor Organization conference on conventions relating to child labor. She has also conducted numerous seminars and public forums concerning child labor throughout Latin America and Europe. Beginning next year, she will work as the Director for the International Center on Child Labour and Education, the Global March Against Child Labor office in Washington, D.C.

Friday, February 16, 2:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Series Cuba 2001

Professor María Cristina García
"Cuban Immigrants in the U.S."

An associate professor of history at Cornell University, María Cristina García holds a joint appointment in the Latino Studies Program. She specializes in immigration and ethnic history, Latino communities of the United States, 20th century U.S. social and cultural history and the history of Cuba. Prior to teaching at Cornell, García taught at Texas A&M and served as a Fulbright lecturer in American studies at the Polytechnic of Central London at Westminster. She is also a faculty fellow at the Latino Living Center.

Seminar moderated by Professor Lydia Chavez, Graduate School of Journalism. For more information on this special seminar, see the Cuba 2001 page.

Monday, February 26, 12:00-2:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Conference Colombia in Context

CLAS is pleased to announce Colombia in Context, a conference bringing together scholars and policymakers to discuss the current situation in Colombia and historic antecedents. The conference will consist of two panels:

I. Historic Context. Participants include Ana María Bejarano, Guest Scholar, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame; Catherine LeGrand, Professor of History, McGill University, Montreal; Roberto Steiner, Director, CEDE, University of the Andes, Bogotá; and Juan Tokatlián, Professor of Sociology at Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina. This panel will be moderated by Professor Jim Robinson, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley.

II. Policy and Present Conflict. Participants include Bruce Bagley, Professor of International Studies, University of Miami; Mauricio Cárdenas, former Minister of Transportation and Director of the National Planning Department; Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director for Latin American and the Caribbean for Amnesty International USA, Washington, D.C.; and Eduardo Pizarro, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame. This panel will be moderated by Professor Manuel Castells, Department of City and Regional Planning.

For more information, check the Colombia in Context site.

Friday, March 2, 9:00 a.m.-12 p.m. and 2:00-4:30 pm
The Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way

Photos from the event

Conference analysis and commentary:

• "Colombia's Complexities: Understanding the Context of U.S. Involvement" by Daniela Mohor
• Current Conflict and Policy by John Coté
• Mauricio Cárdenas on Plan Colombia by Juliana Barbassa

Series Conflict, Memory and Transitions

Elizabeth Lira
"The Trouble with the Truth: Human Rights and Political Reconciliation in Chile"

Elizabeth Lira is a Chilean psychologist and professor at the Universidad Jesuita Alberto Hurtado. Her current research focuses on Chilean reconciliation and resistance of memory. She is the supervisor of clinical teams working in domestic violence and abuse, and with victims of human rights violations for PRAIS, a public and mental health program for victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. Professor Lira has co-authored two books on political reconciliation with San Diego State University Professor Brian Loveman, and written other books related to therapy and memory of victims of human rights abuses.

Moderated by Professor Beatriz Manz (Departments of Geography and Ethnic Studies). For more information on the series and working group, see the Conflict, Memory and Transitions page.

Tuesday, March 6, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Series Cuba 2001

Tiffany Mitchell
"Race Relations in Cuba's Current Political Climate"

Tiffany Mitchell is the Associate Director and Cuba Program Coordinator of the Georgetown University Caribbean Project. Her responsibilities include research and conference coordination on U.S. policy towards various countries in the Caribbean, especially Cuba. In that capacity, she has traveled to Cuba, Dominica, Trinidad and St. Lucia. One of her editorials, titled "Is Communism the Solution to Racism?" recently appeared in Howard University School of Law's New Barrister.

Seminar moderated by Professor Lydia Chavez, Graduate School of Journalism. For more information on this special seminar, see the Cuba 2001 page.

Monday, March 12, 12:00-2:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Series Development, Labor Standards, and Economic Integration in the Americas

Professor Samuel Valenzuela
"Labor, Democratic Transition, and Neo-Liberal Policy Environments: The Case of Chile"

J. Samuel Valenzuela is currently a professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. His publications have focused on comparative labor movements, democratization and political party formation (especially in Chile), redemocratization out of authoritarian rule, and social change and development. He is the author of Democratización vía reforma: La expansión del sufragio en Chile (1985; second revised edition forthcoming), and co-author of Chile: a Country Study (1994). He has also co-edited Issues in Democratic Consolidation. The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective (1992). In December 1999 he served as an advisor to Ricardo Lagos' second-round presidential campaign in Chile, and he returned to Santiago from May to July, 2000, as a consultant for labor law reform to the new Lagos government.

Thursday, March 15, 3:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Luis Lumbreras is a professor of archaeology at the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Archaeological Research Facility, the Department of Anthropology, and the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

(in Spanish)

Tuesday, March 20, 10:00 a.m.
Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Series New Directions for Mexico

Enrique Dussel Peters
"Socioeconomic Challenges During Mexico's Transition"

Enrique Dussel Peters is a professor of economics at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM) and a consultant for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).

Graduate students and advanced undergraduates are welcome to enroll in the course, LAS 298, Section 003. The Course Control Number is 49339. One unit, pass/no pass.

Fridays in April, 2001, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Course Syllabus, Additional Readings, and Mailing List
View PowerPoint slides from Sessions 2 and 3 of the course.

Series Conflict, Memory and Transitions

Rachel Sieder is a lecturer and researcher in Politics at the Institute of Latin American Studies in London. She is the editor of Guatemala after the Peace Accords (1998), Central America: Fragile Transition (1996), and Impunity in Latin America (1995).

Moderated by Professor Beatriz Manz (Departments of Geography and Ethnic Studies). For more information on the series and working group, see the Conflict, Memory and Transitions page.

Tuesday, April 10, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Working paper for this event
Analysis and commentary on the class

Series New Directions for Mexico

Enrique Dussel Peters
"Economic Challenges of the New Fox Administration in Mexico"

CLAS Visiting Scholar Enrique Dussel Peters is a professor of economics at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM) and a consultant for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). He was a member of Mexico's Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) from 1997 to 2000, and is the author of numerous articles and books on the political economy of Mexico, social effects of economic change, and Nafta. Recent books include Polarizing Mexico. The Impact of Liberalization Strategy (2000) and El Tratado de Libre Comercio de Norteamérica y el desempeño de la economía en México (2000).

Thursday, April 12, 4:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Course Syllabus, Additional Readings, and Mailing List

Ricardo Piglia
"Ricardo Piglia in and on Translation: A Conversation with Argentine novelist Ricardo Piglia and his translator, Sergio Waisman"


Ricardo Piglia is Professor of Literature and writer in residence at the University of California at Davis. Sergio Waisman is director of translation studies and Assistant Professor at San Diego State University.

Co-sponsored with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities

Series Brazil: Culture, Society, and Politics

Alcida Ramos
"Old Ethics Die Hard: The Yanomami Scientific Writing"

Alcida Ramos is a professor of anthropology at the University of Brasilia, Brazil.

Co-sponsored with the Townsend Center for the Humanities

Monday, April 16, 3:00 p.m.
Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Series Colombia in Context

Paul Wellstone
"The U.S. Congress and Plan Colombia"

Paul Wellstone, the senior senator from Minnesota, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990. A Ph.D. in political science, he previously taught at Carleton College for 21 years. Wellstone's experience as a teacher and grassroots organizer in Minnesota provides the framework for his progressive policies and priorities as a Senator. He is a strong advocate of human rights at home and abroad, speaking out on issues such as religious freedom in China, global trafficking of women and children, and the release of CIA documents on former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In regard to Colombia, Wellstone has argued that any aid from the United States should be conditioned on the Colombia government and military complying with human rights norms. According to him, U.S. policy on Colombia should include "support for Colombia's peace process, new protections for human rights defenders, and initiatives to make drug production less attractive to economically desperate peasants by providing support for sustainable alternative crops." (In "Bush Should Start Over in Colombia," New York Times, Dec. 26, 2000).

Monday, April 16, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Morrison Room, Doe Library

Photos from the event

Juan Guzman is the Chief Judge of the Santiago, Chile, Court of Appeals and is currently in charge of investigating the case against former general Augusto Pinochet. This public lecture is sponsored by The Human Rights Center, Boalt Hall School of Law, the Institute of International Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

Tuesday, April 17, 7:00 p.m.
Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall School of Law

Photos from the event

Renowned Nicaraguan poet and revolutionary Father Cardenal is the author of more than 35 volumes of poetry in Spanish - poetry of protest, documentation, love, and philosophy. Father Cardenal, a Roman Catholic priest, served as a field chaplain for the FSLN during the revolution, and as the Minister of Culture from 1979 to 1988. He is the vice president of Casa de los Tres Mundos, a literary and cultural organization based in Managua.

Moderated by Boalt Hall School of Law Professor Rachel Moran.

(in Spanish)

Co-sponsored with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Townsend Center for the Humanities, and the Department of Ethnic Studies

Tuesday, April 17, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
The Seaborg Room, Faculty Club

Analysis, commentary and photos of this event

Series Brazil: Culture, Society, and Politics

Francisco Correa Weffort is the Brazilian Minister of Culture.

Brazilian novelist Márcio Souza and Brazilian journalist and professor of political science José Alvaro Moises will be available for a questions/comments session following the talk.

Marcio Souza is the head of FUNARTE, the official Brazilian foundation for the Arts, and the author of The Emperor of the Amazon and An Unidentified Flying Opus.

Co-sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Brazilian Consulate.

Wednesday, April 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Morrison Room, Doe Library

Analysis and commentary for this event

Dr. Pedro Noguera is the Judith K. Dimon Chair Professor of Communities and Schools at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Noguera's research focuses on the ways in which schools respond to social and economic forces within an urban environment. He has also extensively researched the role of education in political and social change in the Caribbean. He is the author of The Imperatives of Power: Political Change and the Social Basis of Regime Support in Grenada (1997).

Thursday, April 19, 6:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and commentary for this event

Art Exhibit Opening
"Vitalidad Cubana: Photographs by Stefan Cohen"

These photographs were created in La Habana and Viñales, Cuba. Most Cuban people are struggling hard these days. The economic situation is tenuous and made worse by the American blockade. Supplies are stretched thin, and the effects are felt everywhere, especially in the cities. Country living is often simpler and many produce their own food and raise livestock. The photographs form the country include los aquaticos, a farming community living atop a 1500 ft. magote of red earth, who feel that the natural springs within the hills contain healing power for external and internal ailments. In either environment, city or country, pushing through hardship, Cuban culture and spirit live with vitality.

The reception is open to the public, and the exhibit will also be on display for the rest of the spring semester. Contact CLAS for additional public viewing times.

Wednesday, April 25, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Online gallery of the photo exhibit

The Center for Latin American Studies, in conjunction with Social and Cultural Studies in Education, is pleased to announce:
	Presentation and Discussion of a New Book: SUSTAINING THE NEW ECONOMY: WORK, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY IN THE INFORMATION AGE by Martin Carnoy Professor of Education and Economics Stanford University (Harvard University Press)
Author Martin Carnoy will join Professors Harley Shaiken and Manuel Castells. Reception to follow. For additional information, contact Diane Sigman, Area Assistant, Social and Cultural Studies, at 643-2496. This event will be videotaped and will be shown at CLAS on Thursday, May 3, at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, 2001, 4 p.m. CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street Photos from the event

José Aylwin
"The Rights of Indigenous People in Chile: Progress and Contradictions in the Context of Economic Globalization"

José Aylwin is a Researcher at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) and Associate Professor and Researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Indigenas, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile.

Wednesday, May 2, 2001, 4:00 p.m.
Center for Latin American Studies, 2334 Bowditch Street

Teresa P.R. Caldeira
"City of Walls -- Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in São Paulo"

Teresa P.R. Caldeira is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. She has been a professor of Anthropology at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and a senior researcher at CEBRAP (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning) in São Paulo.