Synopses & Reviews
In this beautifully written work, Marjorie Becker reconstructs the cultural encounters which led to Mexico's post-revolutionary government. She sets aside the mythology surrounding president Lázaro Cárdenas to reveal his dilemma: until he and his followers understood peasant culture, they could not govern.
This dilemma is vividly illustrated in Michoacán. There, peasants were passionately engaged in a Catholic culture focusing on the Virgin Mary. The Cardenistas, inspired by revolutionary ideas of equality and modernity, were oblivious to the peasants' spirituality and determined to transform them. A series of dramatic conflicts forced Cárdenas to develop a government that embodied some of the peasants' complex culture.
Becker brilliantly combines concerns with culture and power and a deep historical empathy to bring to life the men and women of her story. She shows how Mexico's government today owes much of its subtlety to the peasants of Michoacán.
Synopsis
One of the earliest and most important port cities in the New World, Havana quickly became a model for the planning and construction of other colonial cities. Beyond the Walled City tells the story of how Havana was conceived, built, and managed. Examining imperial efforts to police urban space from the late sixteenth century onward, Guadalupe Garcia shows how the production of urban space was explicitly centered on the politics of racial exclusion and social control. Connecting colonial governing practices to broader debates on urbanization, the regulation of public spaces, and the racial dislocation of urban populations, Beyond the Walled City points to the ways in which colonialism is inscribed on modern topographies.
Synopsis
Once one of the most important port cities in the New World, Havana was a model for the planning and construction of other colonial cities. This book tells the story of how Havana was conceived, built, and managed and explores the relationship between colonial empire and urbanization in the Americas.
Guadalupe Garcand#237;a shows how the policing of urban life and public space by imperial authorities from the sixteenth century onward was explicitly centered on politics of racial exclusion and social control. She illustrates the importance of colonial ideologies in the production of urban space and the centrality of race and racial exclusion as an organizing ideology of urban life in Havana. Beyond the Walled City connects colonial urban practices to contemporary debates on urbanization, the policing of public spaces, and the urban dislocation of black and ethnic populations across the region.
Synopsis
In the years since Fidel Castro came to power, the migration of close to one million Cubans to the United States continues to remain one of the most fascinating, unusual, and controversial movements in American history. María Cristina Garcíaa Cuban refugee raised in Miamihas experienced firsthand many of the developments she describes, and has written the most comprehensive and revealing account of the postrevolutionary Cuban migration to date. García deftly navigates the dichotomies and similarities between cultures and among generations. Her exploration of the complicated realm of Cuban American identity sets a new standard in social and cultural history.
Synopsis
"A major work in the field of Mexican revolutionary and gender studies. Becker is an indefatigable fieldworker; the array and richness of her archival and oral sources is simply astonishing."Gilbert M. Joseph, author of Revolution from Without
About the Author
Guadalupe Garcand#237;aand#160;is Assistant Professor of History at Tulane University.and#160;and#160;