Synopses & Reviews
During its heyday in the nineteenth century, the African slave trade was fueled by the close relationship of the United States and Brazil.
The Deepest South tells the disturbing story of how U.S. nationals - before and after Emancipation -- continued to actively participate in this odious commerce by creating diplomatic, social, and political ties with Brazil, which today has the largest population of African origin outside of Africa itself.
Proslavery Americans began to accelerate their presence in Brazil in the 1830s, creating alliances there—sometimes friendly, often contentious—with Portuguese, Spanish, British, and other foreign slave traders to buy, sell, and transport African slaves, particularly from the eastern shores of that beleaguered continent. Spokesmen of the Slave South drew up ambitious plans to seize the Amazon and develop this region by deporting the enslaved African-Americans there to toil. When the South seceded from the Union, it received significant support from Brazil, which correctly assumed that a Confederate defeat would be a mortal blow to slavery south of the border. After the Civil War, many Confederates, with slaves in tow, sought refuge as well as the survival of their peculiar institution in Brazil.
Based on extensive research from archives on five continents, Gerald Horne breaks startling new ground in the history of slavery, uncovering its global dimensions and the degrees to which its defenders went to maintain it.
Review
“Portrays the dilemmas of being a recent Mexican immigrant in New York City today. This book analyzes how the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe provides a means for immigrants to articulate their aspirations for belonging and, ultimately, citizenship in the United States. Written with vivid grace, this book is a pleasure to read and should be required reading for all concerned with these issues.”
- Renato Rosaldo, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emeritus, Stanford University
Review
“Gálvezs rich ethnographic study of Mexican immigrants in New York City highlights their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe not only as a religious practice but as a means to create community and public life in the United States. Given the ongoing and increasing presence of Mexicans immigrants in the Northeast, Guadalupe in New York is an important study that social scientists, educators, religious workers, and public servants should read to understand the persistent and complex role that Guadalupe devotion plays in the lives of Mexicans in the United States.”
- Joseph M. Palacios, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgetown University
“Portrays the dilemmas of being a recent Mexican immigrant in New York City today. This book analyzes how the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe provides a means for immigrants to articulate their aspirations for belonging and, ultimately, citizenship in the United States. Written with vivid grace, this book is a pleasure to read and should be required reading for all concerned with these issues.”
- Renato Rosaldo, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emeritus, Stanford University
Review
"Galvez's findings offer much to consider for students of religious, ethnic, and transnational identities." "Professor Galvez presents the social and anthropological theoretical framework for all these developments clearly and succinctly, making this book a valuable addition to academic studies on Latinos in the United States and an excellent college text. But all readers will find the individual immigrant stories and the organizational travails thoroughly engaging and the journeys of faith inspiring."
“Gálvez’s rich ethnographic study of Mexican immigrants in New York City highlights their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe not only as a religious practice but as a means to create community and public life in the United States. Given the ongoing and increasing presence of Mexicans immigrants in the Northeast, Guadalupe in New York is an important study that social scientists, educators, religious workers, and public servants should read to understand the persistent and complex role that Guadalupe devotion plays in the lives of Mexicans in the United States.”
“Portrays the dilemmas of being a recent Mexican immigrant in New York City today. This book analyzes how the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe provides a means for immigrants to articulate their aspirations for belonging and, ultimately, citizenship in the United States. Written with vivid grace, this book is a pleasure to read and should be required reading for all concerned with these issues.”
"Galvez' book is a fascinating and valuable study of the intersection between contemporary religious practice and natinal identity among New York City's Mexican immigrant community."
Review
"Horne, a proven historian and author specializing in African American history, provides a stimulating perspective on slavery in the U.S. and Brazil. In every aspect, Horne has assembled an extraordinary manuscript which is enormously riveting in its breadth and comprehensiveness. A valuable and indispensable investigation, this work constitutes a landmark in historical analysis of the interrelationships among the United States, Brazil, and the African slave trade. Literally radiating with extraordinary historical observations and a host of well thought-out and well presented ideas, is not only of interest to historians, but also scholars of economics and politics. is required reading for all scholars working in the broad field of the African slave trade."-African American Review,
Review
“This fascinating study uses the tools and sources of diplomatic history to examine a sweep of national and international history far beyond the confines of diplomacy. . . . For Horne, the slave trade, rather than slavery, was an explosive political issue much later in the 19th century that is normally understood. Highly recommended.”
-Choice,
Review
“Horne expertly interweaves the political views presented in official documents with personal commentary from letters and travel accounts. . . . It is valuable for scholars of U.S. foreign policy due to its coverage of diplomacy between the United States and other nations. This work contributes to the study of U.S. South since Horne details the plans of some southern leaders and planter elites who looked to Brazil as the answer when all was lost in the United States. ”
-The Journal of Southern History,
Review
“A well-researched, skillfully-written, and carefully-argued diplomatic history examining connections between the United States, Brazil, Africa, and Europe as they relate to the transatlantic slave trade. Horne sheds considerable light upon the ideas, ruminations, and practices of U.S. nationals in their interactions with and encounters of Brazil over the question of slavery, especially from the mid-nineteenth century on, and makes a valuable and important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of (American) hemispheric relations and trajectories, both eventual and potential.”
-Michael A. Gomez,editor of Diasporic Africa: A Reader
Review
“An important study that starts with the proposition that what happens abroad affects developments in the United States. For the first time we are made aware of the extensive contacts between pro-slavery forces in the United States in the years after the abolition of the slave trade and the promoters of slavery in and the slave trade to Brazil and elsewhere.”
-Richard J. M. Blackett,author of Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War
Synopsis
Every December 12th, thousands of Mexican immigrants gather for the mass at New York Citys St. Patricks Cathedral in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupes feast day. They kiss images of the Virgin, wait for a bishops blessing—and they also carry signs asking for immigration reform, much like political protestors. It is this juxtaposition of religion and politics that Alyshia Gálvez investigates in
Guadalupe in New York.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a profound symbol for Mexican and Mexican-American Catholics and the patron saint of their country. Her name has been invoked in war and in peace, and her image has been painted on walls, printed on T-shirts, and worshipped at countless shrines. For undocumented Mexicans in New York, Guadalupe continues to be a powerful presence as they struggle to gain citizenship in a new country.
Through rich ethnographic research that illuminates Catholicism as practiced by Mexicans in New York, Gálvez shows that it is through Guadalupan devotion that many undocumented immigrants are finding the will and vocabulary to demand rights, immigration reform, and respect. She also reveals how such devotion supports and emboldens immigrants in their struggle to provide for their families and create their lives in the city with dignity.
About the Author
Alyshia Gálvez, a cultural anthropologist, is assistant professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican studies at Lehman College, City University of New York. She is editor of the book Performing Religion in the Americas and Traveling Virgins/Virgenes Viajeras, an issue of the journal e-misférica.