Security-Autonomy-Mobility Roadmaps: Passports To Security for Youth

Taking the highway along the California coast and swinging inland into one of the state\u27s agricultural belts, the hills appear golden in the distance, spotted with gnarled oak trees. Vineyards rise up on either side of the highway, and occasionally cowboys may be seen in the distance herding grazing cattle. Yet as clouds of dust rise from the fields in this agricultural community, the idyllic scene fades dramatically in the town of Rancho Benito, a community wearing the signs of the hard economic times. This once relatively prosperous community is now a place in which many families sit down to dinner in dramatically different circumstances than just a few years ago. After the 2008 recession hit this community, gaping holes appeared in all areas of the economy. Just driving through town, one sees evidence in the strip malls of the failure of one local business after another. Local industry has felt the ravages of the new economic landscape, from a partially empty mall to burgeoning bargain stores. While not all families have endured the same kind or degree of economic insecurity, nonetheless they dwell in a community strongly affected by the Great Recession. While not all have directly felt the effects on their immediate personal circles, all community members live in an environment indelibly stamped by the recession\u27s imprint

Guatemala multicultural y plurilingüe: en búsqueda de la unidad en la diversidad. Aportes desde la Universidad Rafael Landívar

12 p.A Guatemala é um país multicultural e plurilíngue, no qual coexistem qu atro povos claramente definidos por sua cultura e seu idioma: o Pueblo Maya, o Pueblo Garífuna, o Pueblo Xinka e o Pueblo Ladino ou Mestizo. No território, são falados 25 idiomas, dos quais 22 pertencem à família maya, ao espanhol, ao Garífuna e ao Xinka. Ainda com as normas internacionais, convênios, declarações e acordos governamentais que reconhecem que essa diversidade cultural e linguística constitui uma riqueza para o país e um direito para os habitantes, prevalece a ideia de que o país é fundamentalmente homogêneo, monolíngue e monocultural. Essa ideia não somente permanece na mente e no coração das pessoas, mas também nas estruturas estatais e sociais. A partir de diferentes instâncias governamentais e não governamentais, realizam-se esforços para atingir uma verdadeira unidade na diversidade que garanta a igualdade e o respeito à diferença, que procure os pontos de encontro sem que isso signifique a perda da cultura própria, que fortaleça as relações positivas e que crie, dessa maneira, uma comunicação e convivência intercultural; enquanto no âmbito educativo os projetos giram em torno do desenvolvimento de uma proposta que propicie o fortalecimento da identidade cultural, a aprendizagem a partir do e do idioma materno, e a promoção de um bilinguismo que tenha como fundamento uma abordagem intercultural. Uma das instituições que tem gerado contribuições significativas nesse sentido é a Universidad Rafael Landívar, pois tem desenvolvido ações concretas da Faculdade de Humanas, do Instituto de Linguística e Interculturalidade e do Instituto de Estudos Humanísticos. Esta comunicação dá conta, a modo de ilustração, de algumas delas.Guatemala es un país multicultural y plurilingüe, donde coexisten cuatro pueblos claramente definidos por su cultura y su idioma: el Pueblo Maya, el Garífuna, el Xinka y el Ladino o Mestizo. En el territorio se hablan 25 idiomas, de los cuales 22 pertenecen a la familia maya, el español, el Garífuna y el Xinka. Incluso con las normas internacionales, convenios, declaraciones y acuerdos gubernativos que reconocen que esta diversidad cultural y lingüística constituye una riqueza para el país y un derecho para los habitantes, prevalece la idea de que el país es fundamentalmente homogéneo, monolingüe y monocultural. Esta idea no solo permanece en la mente y el corazón de las personas, sino en las estructuras estatales y sociales. Desde distintas instancias gubernamentales y no gubernamentales se realizan esfuerzos para lograr una verdadera unidad en la diversidad que garantice la igualdad y el respeto a la diferencia, que busque los puntos de encuentro sin que ello signifique la pérdida de la cultura propia, que fortalezca las relaciones positivas, y que cree, de esta manera, una comunicación y convivencia intercultural; mientras que en el ámbito educativo los planteamientos giran en torno al desarrollo de una propuesta que propicie el fortalecimiento de la identidad cultural, el aprendizaje desde y del idioma materno, y la promoción de un bilingüismo aditivo que tenga como fundamento un enfoque intercultural. Una de las instituciones que ha generado aportes significativos en este sentido es la Universidad Rafael Landívar, pues ha desarrollado acciones concretas desde la Facultad de Humanidades, el Instituto de Lingüística e Interculturalidad y el Instituto de Estudios Humanísticos. Esta ponencia da cuenta, a manera de ilustración, algunas de ellas.Introducción Situación actual de la educación en Guatemala Aportes de la Universidad Rafael Landívar Formación de recursos humanos desde la Facultad de Humanidades Instituto de Lingüística e Interculturalidad, ILI-URL Conclusione

Collaborative and competitive strategies in the variability and resiliency of large-scale societies in Mesoamerica

Examinations of the variation and duration of past large-scale societies have long involved a conceptual struggle between efforts at generalization and the unraveling of specific trajectories. Although historical particulars are critical to understanding individual cases, there exist both scientific and policy rationales for drawing broader implications regarding the growing corpus of cross-cultural data germane to understanding variability in the constitution of human societies, past and present. Archaeologists have recently paid increased attention to successes and failures in communal-resource management over the long term, as articulated by the transdisciplinary theory on cooperation and collective action. In this article, we consider frameworks that have been traditionally employed in studies of the rise, diversity, and fall of large-scale preindustrial aggregations. We suggest that a comparative theoretical perspective that foregrounds collective-action problems, unaligned individual and group interests, and the social mechanisms that promote or hamper cooperation advances our understanding of variability in these early cooperative arrangements. We apply such a perspective to an examination of cities from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to demonstrate tendencies for more collective systems to be larger and longer lasting than less collective ones, likely reflecting greater resiliency in the face of the ecological and cultural perturbations specific to the region and era

Indigenising Development

Among the many social groups that have been historically excluded, indigenous people comprise one that offers great challenges to development. Although their assimilation has been a goal of the national societies that engulfed them, it is disputable whether indigenous people desire the type of social inclusion that development, in its many forms, can produce. At the same time, development seems irreversible, and resistance to it might have consequences far more adverse than those brought by acceptance. The best way to overcome the challenges seems to be to indigenise development: to put it to work on behalf of indigenous people instead of putting them to work for a model of development that is not only alien to them but that frequently does violence to their culture. With this in mind: Alcida Rita Ramos, Rafael Guerreiro Osorio and José Pimenta introduce the theme and the challenges to indigenising development, considering points raised by the other contributors. Gersem Baniwa writes about the dilemmas that development poses to indigenous people in Brazil, who simultaneously want to enjoy its benefits, particularly the material and technological resources of the modern world, and to also keep their traditions. Myrna Cunningham and Dennis Mairena explain that the very concept of development is inimical to some core values of many indigenous cultures of Nicaragua, such as collective labour and property, egalitarian distribution, and holistic world views. Jaime Urrutia Cerutti presents his thoughts on why in Peru, unlike Bolivia and Ecuador, there is no massive and strong social movement of indigenous people. The indigenous population comprises the majority in these three Andean countries, and is already integrated into their modern national societies. Stuart Kirsch departs from the concept of human development to show how a mining project in Suriname might enhance the economic freedom of some indigenous groups at the expense of some other important freedoms associated with being indigenous. José Pimenta tells the success story of an Ashaninka group in Brazil who became an archetype of the ecological indian, running sustainable development projects, and managing and protecting the environment. This success was context-specific, however, and was not without cost to their way of life. Charles R. Hale recalls the dramatic impacts of the civil war on the indigenous people of Guatemala. Caught between the state and the guerrillas, they have been through genocide, and modest advancements achieved earlier were reversed. A re-emerging Maya social movement now faces the resistance of the country?s elite. Bruce Grant takes us back to the Soviet Union and pinpoints some of the differences of socialist development, showing how it affected indigenous peoples in Siberia who were paradoxically seen as both a model of primitive communism and of backwardness. It was a dear goal of Soviet planners to make them leap forward as an example of the benefits of socialism. David G. Anderson considers how the dismantling of the Soviet Union affected indigenous peoples in Siberia. Current Russian models of indigenous development are worth considering because they are not purely capitalist: private corporations that take over projects assume many of the roles of the former socialist state in welfare provision, and the overall repercussions are both favourable and otherwise. Bernard Saladin d?Anglure and Françoise Morin discuss the impact of the colonisation and development of the Arctic on the Inuit. Charged by the Soviet Union for neglecting the human development of the Inuit, Canada devised a policy that succeeded in raising their material standards of living while culturally impoverishing them. Carolina Sánchez, José del Val, and Carlos Zolla emphasise the importance of monitoring the welfare and development of indigenous people by devising culturally adequate information systems. They summarise the state-of-the-art proposals, outline the main demands of indigenous leaders and experts as regards such systems, and present the successful experience of their programme in Guerrero, Mexico. We hope that the articles in this issue of Poverty in Focus help raise awareness in the development community about problems that do not have immediate and easy solutions, but that are crucial to shaping the present and future of indigenous people.Indigenising Development

Dancing the Pluriverse: Indigenous Performance as Ontological Praxis

This article discusses ways that Indigenous dance is an ontological praxis that is embodied and telluric, meaning “of the earth.” It looks at how dancing bodies perform in relationship to ecosystems and entities within them, producing ontological distinctions and hierarchies that are often imbued with power. This makes dance a site of ontological struggle that potentially challenges the delusional ontological universality undergirding imperialism, genocide, and ecocide. The author explores these theoretical propositions through her participation in Oxlaval Q'anil, an emerging Ixil Maya dance project in Guatemala, and Dancing Earth, an itinerant and inter-tribal U.S.-based company founded by Rulan Tangen eleven years ago

‘Padres de la Patria’ and the ancestral past: commemorations of independence in nineteenth-century Spanish America

This article examines the civic festivals held in nineteenth-century Spanish America to commemorate independence from Spain. Through such festivals political leaders hoped, in Hobsbawm's words, ‘to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past’. But when did the ‘past’ begin? If in nineteenth-century France the French Revolution was the time of history, in Spanish America there was no consensus on when history began. The debates about national origins embedded within the nineteenth-century civic festival not only suggest how political elites viewed their Patrias but also shed light on the position of indigenous culture (usually separated hygienically from indigenous peoples themselves) within the developing national histories of post-independence Spanish America

[Review of] James L. Sexton. Campesino: The Diary of a Guatemalan Indian

Often political violence in Guatemala is analyzed as if it were identical to political violence in other Central American countries. On account of the desire to simplify this political and economical reality in the public debate, there is a tendency to see the conflict as the result of the international rivalries between East and West. The literature of this conflict deals primarily with the view from government officials and the opinion of the representatives of the transnationals economically involved in the area

La ficción misma del estado: “La vorágine” de José Eustasio Rivera

Rafael Maya, conocido académico colombiano, en el entierro de José Eustasio Rivera, el 8 de enero. 1929, en el Capitolio Nacional de Bogotá, dijo: "Vamos a defender la labor de Rivera... porque contiene en sí misma más elementos de soberanía nacional que la ficción del Estado...". Es la ficción del Estado latinoamericano que surge a partir de las colonias españolas y de Europa. La novela muestra la "vorágine" de esta ficción real y cruel, que es evidente en la lucha entre el mundo rural y el mundo urbano, entre transmisión oral y escrita, entre la naturaleza y la explotación de esclavitud por el hombre, y que pone en evidencia la presencia de dos mundos sin comunicación y luchando entre sí en el mismo país.Rafael Maya, a well known Colombian Scholar, at José Eustasio Rivera's burial, on January 1929, in the Capitolio Nacional de Bogotá, said, «Let us defend Rivera's work... because it contains in itself more elements of national sovereignty than the fiction of the State...». It is the fiction of Latin American State, sprung out from the Spanish and Europe Colonies. The novel shows the «vorágine» (vortex) of this real and cruel fiction, which is obvious in the struggle between the rural world and the urban world, between oral transmisión and writing, between Nature and the slaving exploitation by man, and which evinces the presence of two worlds witout communication, and fighting each other in the same country

The Dominican Grassroots Movement and the Organized Left, 1978–1986

Through their struggles for better services, grassroots movements played a large role in the process of democratization and construction of social citizenship in the Dominican Republic. The modern grassroots movement, especially in relation to the uprising of April 1984, challenged the government\u27s neoliberal policies and opened the way for the emergence of an independent movement that confronted both left-wing parties and organized labor. However, because the gains from expanding social citizenship remained limited in the face of the Dominican state\u27s inability to formulate socio-economic policies, the movements at best posed a worthwhile goal that Dominican society may revisit in the near future