Communication from Afar : The Role of Subversive Mail Art During the Argentine Dirty War, 1976-1983

This paper analyzes the role of mail art by Argentine mail artists Edgardo Antonio Vigo and Graciela Gutiérrez Marx in subverting Argentine fascism and censorship during the Argentine Dirty War from 1976 to 1983. La Guerra Sucia, or “the Dirty War,” was a seven-year period of right-wing military dictatorship in Argentina, following a coup on 24 March 1976, against the government of President Isabel Perón. The U.S. coordinated with the junta and the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, or Triple A, and the dictatorship “disappeared” and tortured thousands of so-called enemies of the state. Meanwhile, American and Argentine artists maintained fluid communications, empowering resistance to the regime. Vigo and Marx created the boldest work of Argentine mail art with wide distribution in the form of an “artistamp”, helping spread awareness of the disappearance of Vigo’s son, Abel Luis. By using the postal system as a means of communication with the outside world, Marx and Vigo informed other civilians about the disappeared peoples of Argentina and spread anti-nationalist and anti-government ideology. By taking a closer look at Vigo and Marx’s mail art correspondence with Ohio mail artist Harley Francis, this paper investigates mail art as an understudied aspect of lower-level international political resistance against the Argentine military regime

Toward A Pedagogical Guide To Argentine Art Song

Argentine art song is a branch of the art song genre that is virtually unknown to Canadian academics and performers. Although there are numerous composers who have contributed songs to this genre, these composers and their contributions to the body of art song repertoire remain virtually unknown. The illusion of their non-existence is perpetuated by a cycle of factors. Publishers, not interested in publishing a product for which there is limited interest, print very little Argentine music. The lack of musical scores makes it difficult for performers to program and record this music. Thus, very few people are exposed to it, and most people continue to know very little about this rich body of repertoire that has much to offer performers and voice pedagogues. The goal of this study of Argentine art song is to introduce this repertoire to pedagogues and performers and inform them of some of the challenges and benefits of incorporating this music into the standard art song repertoire. Many of the songs need “cultural translation” for those unfamiliar with the gaucho and other aspects of Argentine music, history, and culture. The gaucho and his influence on Argentine art song, both musically and thematically, is examined so that meaningful and informed performances can be prepared. Also, the pedagogical value of the repertoire in the voice studio is also discussed so that pedagogues can make informed decisions regarding its best application in the voice studio. An added benefit is that these songs introduce a greater variety of material and expression to the voice studio and recital stage that will make them welcome additions to the standard art song repertoire

Argentina\u27s System of Foreign Investments

The purpose of this article is to provide the practitioner with an understanding of Argentina\u27s foreign investment norms, supply some general information related to this area and, whenever possible, explain how the authorities have applied the law to specific cases. A discussion of the Anglo-Argentine South Atlantic confrontation and its effect on foreign investment is included

Understanding the Debate Over Necessity: Unanswered Questions and Future Implications of Annulments in the Argentine Gas Cases

This paper analyses possible effects on total employment, and the distribution between agency work and regular contracts as a consequence of the Swedish implementation of the EU Temporary and Agency Workers Directive in a dual labour market Mortensen-Pissarides search model. The directive states that the basic working and employment conditions for agency workers should be equal to those for a comparable employee at the client firm, and that all parties should actively facilitate the transition from agency employment to employment directly at the client firm. Even though the results suggest a negative net effect on total employment, the implementation is shown to have a positive impact on overall welfare, and that an increased transition probability from the agency sector into regular employment would contribute even more

Reflections on the painting of Alejandro Puente, the notion of <i>Pathosformel</i>, and the return to life of mortally wounded civilizations

The Argentine author José Burucúa is a key figure in the introduction and dissemination of Aby Warburg's theories to scholarship in Latin America. In this article he tests Warburg's concept of Pathosformel to discuss the development of visual culture in Andean pre-Hispanic art and contemporary painting in Argentina. It is argued that the abstract world created by prominent painters, such as Libero Badii, César Paternosto, and Alejandro Puente, deepened their roots in pre-Hispanic culture. Burucúa's theoretical approach to the arts in Argentina has been highly influential on visual culture studies in Latin America

Slamming the Door on Trade Policy Discretion? The WTO Appellate Body\u27s Ruling on Market Distortions and Production Costs in EU—Biodiesel (Argentina)

This paper presents a legal-economic analysis of the Appellate Body′s decision in EU-Biodiesel (Argentina) that the WTO′s Anti-Dumping Agreement (ADA) does not permit countries to take into account government-created price distortions of major inputs when calculating anti-dumping duties. In this case, the EU made adjustments to the price of biodiesel′s principal input - soybeans - in determining the cost of production of biodiesel in Argentina. The adjustment was made based on the uncontested finding that the price of soybeans in Argentina was distorted by the existence of an export tax scheme that resulted in artificially low soybean prices. The Appellate Body found that the EU was not permitted to take tax policy-induced price distortions into account in calculating dumping margins. We analyze the economic rationale for Argentina′s export tax system, distortions in biodiesel markets in Argentina and the EU, and the remaining trade policy options for addressing distorted international prices. We also assess whether existing subsidies disciplines would be more effective in addressing this problem and conclude that they would not

Economic Interdependence and the Sovereignty of Debtor Nations: A Comparison of Mexican and Argentine Reactions to International Monetary Fund Stabilization

Part I of this Note examines the concept of sovereignty and the role of the International Monetary Fund (Fund) as an instrument of supranational or joint sovereignty. Part II traces the development of economic dependence in Mexico and Argentina, examines the history of both public and private lending to these nations, and suggests that their current indebtedness is an extension of a chronic need for imported capital. Part III discusses the growth of international bank lending to developing countries in the 1970\u27s, and Part IV examines the Fund\u27s role in the renegotiation of sovereign debt. Part V addresses the relationship between modern economic interdependence and sovereignty. The Note concludes that the relationship between commercial bank creditors and their sovereign debtors is one that has grown beyond the legal mechanisms that coordinate international economic relations

The Friendly Settlement of Human Rights Abuses in the Americas

We present a new method for estimation of seismic coda shape. It falls into the same class of methods as non-parametric shape reconstruction with the use of neural network techniques where data are split into a training and validation data sets. We particularly pursue the well-known problem of image reconstruction formulated in this case as shape isolation in the presence of a broadly defined noise. This combined approach is enabled by the intrinsic feature of seismogram which can be divided objectively into a pre-signal seismic noise with lack of the target shape, and the remainder that contains scattered waveforms compounding the coda shape. In short, we separately apply shape restoration procedure to pre-signal seismic noise and the event record, which provides successful delineation of the coda shape in the form of a smooth almost non-oscillating function of time. The new algorithm uses a recently developed generalization of classical computational-geometry tool of alpha-shape. The generalization essentially yields robust shape estimation by ignoring locally a number of points treated as extreme values, noise or non-relevant data. Our algorithm is conceptually simple and enables the desired or pre-determined level of shape detail, constrainable by an arbitrary data fit criteria. The proposed tool for coda shape delineation provides an alternative to moving averaging and/or other smoothing techniques frequently used for this purpose. The new algorithm is illustrated with an application to the problem of estimating the coda duration after a local event. The obtained relation coefficient between coda duration and epicentral distance is consistent with the earlier findings in the region of interest