Manuel Alvar (1923-2001)

In Memoria

Retrato de un escritor vasco de Nevada: Robert Laxalt (1923-2001)

Este artículo analiza la producción literaria de Robert Laxalt, escritor norteamericano de origen vasco, cuya obra ha contribuido decisivamente a la visibilidad de los vascos en los EE.UU. Se le reconoce su condición de escritor versátil, aunque se destacan dos temas dominantes en sus relatos: Nevada y los vascos. Así, se destaca el realismo con el que Laxalt aborda el pasado de Nevada. De todas formas, se subraya especialmente su talento para retratar las experiencias de los vascos en el Oeste americano y el modo de vida tradicional en el País Vasco.Artikulu honetan aztertu egiten da Robert Laxalten literatura. Idazle euskal-amerikar honen liburuek eragin handia erakutsi dute EEBBetan, euskaldunen ezaugarri etnikoak plazaratuz eta euskal ikerketak zabalduz. Nahiz eta idazle plurala izan, Laxalten lanetan bi gai nagusi azpimarra ditzakegu: Nevada eta euskaldunak. Laxaltek trebetasun nabarmena erakusten du Nevadako lehen aldia aztertzerakoan. Dena den, Laxalten meritu literario nagusiena Estatu Batuetako Mendebaldeko euskaldunen esperientziak eta Euskal Herriko bizimodu tradizionala isladatzean datza.Cet article analyse la production littéraire de Robert Laxalt, écrivain nord-américain basque de souche, dout l'oeuvre a façonné de manière décisive la représentation des Basques aux U.S.A. On reconnaît sa qualité d'ecrivain polyvalent en soulignant tout particulièrement deux traits dominants de ses récits: le Nevada et les Basques. Le réalisme dont Laxalt fait preuve pour s'occuper du passé du Nevada est également souligné. De même, on met en évidence d'une manière spéciale son talent pour mettre en valeur par contraste le vécu des Basques du Far West et le quotidien sous le poids de la routine au Pays Basque.This article analyzes the literary production of Robert Laxalt, a Basque-American author who has played a fundamental role in the new visibility of Basques in the United States. It is argued that, despite his versatility as a writer, two dominant themes emerge in his works: Nevada and the Basques. The article examines closely Laxalt's convincing portrait of the Nevada past. But, above all, it emphasizes his talent to depict the experience of Basque immigrants in the American West and traditional Basque lifestyle in the Old World

Suicide: the key role of short range ties

The paper explores the connection between short-range social ties (i.e. links with close relatives) and the occurrence of suicide. The objective is to discriminate between a model based on social ties and a model based on psychological traumas. Our methodological strategy is to focus on instances characterized by the severance of some social ties. We consider several situations of this kind. (i) Prisoners in the first days after their incarceration. (ii) Prisoners in solitary confinement. (iii) Prisoners who are transferred from one prison to another. (iv) Prisoners in closed versus open prisons. (v) Prisoners in the weeks following their release. (vi) Immigrants in the years following their relocation. (vii) Unmarried versus married people. Furthermore, in order to test the impact of major shocks we consider the responses in terms of suicides to the following shocks. (i) The attack of September 11, 2001 in Manhattan. (ii) The Korean War. (iii) The two world wars. (iv) The Great Depression in the United States. (v) The hyperinflation episode of 1923 in Germany. Major global traumatic shocks such as 9/11 or wars have no influence on suicide rates once changing environment conditions have been controlled for. Overall, it turns out that the observations have a natural interpretation in terms of short-range ties. In contrast, the trauma model seems unable to adequately account for many observations.Comment: 19 pages, 7 graphics, 4 table

Long waves of political contestation

This paper develops a wave theory of political contestation, and places the current economic and political turmoil in a historical perspective. Based on legitimacy, it serves as an alternative to the waves of democratization of Samuel Huntington (1991). The theoretical framework is based on two main theories: the theory of long waves in political economics and the theory about state-legitimacy and fiscal crisis. In the first section, this paper gives a short overview of the different economic dynamics which over time have been incorporated in long wave theories, predominantly based on the works of Kondratieff (1979) and Schumpeter (1939), and puts the current economic situation in this perspective. The second part analyzes the general interdependency between long waves and politics, and the original criticisms of the endogenous model by Trotsky (1923). The third section considers long waves theories in politics, in particular Samuel Huntington's theory, and discusses the main criticisms of his theory. The fourth section analyzes the influence of the long wave upswing and downturn on state-legitimacy, and is based on the work of O'Connor (2001) and Habermas (1975). The fifth section combines the long wave's concept with legitimacy and protest against a long wave theory of political contestation and gives the first elements of some empirical evidence, comparing the political contestation in the thirties and today. The sixth section draws conclusions and takes a look on the need for further research

Decomposing violence: terrorist murder in the twentieth century in the U.S.

Abstract: I apply the Beveridge-Nelson business cycle decomposition method to the time series of murder in the United States (1900-2004). Separating out “permanent” from “cyclical” murder, I hypothesize that the cyclical part coincides with documented waves of organized crime, internal tensions, breakdowns in social order, crime legislation, alternation in power, social, and political unrest overseas as wars, and recently with the periodic terrorist attacks in the country. The cyclical component estimated shows that, 9/11 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, two years after the end of the last declining cycle of 1994-1999. The estimated cyclical terrorist murder component warns, that terrorist attacks in U.S., soil from 1923 to 2004, historically occur in, and around the vicinity of the turning points, of whether a declining, or ascending cycle, and so, it must be used in future research to construct a model for explaining the causal reasons for its movement across time, and for forecasting cyclical terrorist murder, and terrorist attacks.Keywords: United States; Colombia; murder; Beveridge-Nelson; business cycle; decomposition; time-series; domestic terrorism; cyclical terrorist murder; cyclical terrorist attacks; cyclical terrorist murder and attacks indicator

Las Entidades bancarias en colombia, consecuencia de un movimiento constante del sector bancaria

El presente artículo pretende mostrar, en forma detallada y descriptiva, aspectos relevantes y de carácter histórico de las entidades bancarias en Colombia, a partir de la actividad bancaria desde 1841 y con énfasis en cada uno de los siete períodos que signi caron el desarrollo de la misma, así como en aquellas entidades claves dentro de su fortalecimiento. Los períodos por considerar son la época de “banca libre” (1870 – 1923); el nacimiento del Banco e la República (1923); el surgimiento de diversos bancos entre 1929 y 1949 y de la ASOBANCARIA en 1936; las dos crisis en el período (1956 – 1986), época en la cual aparece FOGAFÍN (1985); a llegada de la banca extranjera (1990 – 1997); la crisis entre los años 1998 y 2001, y los demás hechos importantes hasta nales del año 2009. La evolución de las entidades bancarias se ve enmarcada por las diferentes crisis, auges y reformas quetuvieron lugar a lo largo del tiempo, haciendo posible lo que representa el sector bancario en la actualidad