Latin American Studies

Cover of "Seeking Justice for Gendered Violence".

Seeking Justice for Gendered Violence: Courts, Communities, and Care in Guatemala

From the publisher: “Guatemala is one of the first countries in Latin America to codify femicide as a crime and establish separate, victim-centric institutions of justice specializing in Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), including specialized courts and public prosecutors. Despite these pathbreaking legal reforms, Indigenous women in Guatemala face formidable barriers to seeking justice and escaping the multiple, overlapping forms of violence that they confront.

Author
Erin Beck
Lynn Stephen
Publication
2026
Cover of "Bodies in Crisis"

Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence, and Women’s Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
“Born and raised in Argentina and still maintaining significant ties to the area, Barbara Sutton examines the complex, and often hidden, bodily worlds of diverse women in that country during a period of profound social upheaval. Based primarily on women’s experiential narratives and set against the backdrop of a severe economic crisis and intensified social movement activism post-2001, Bodies in Crisis illuminates how multiple forms of injustice converge in and are contested through women’s bodies."
Author
Barbara Sutton
Publication
2010
Cover of "Chabelita’s Heart/El corazón de Chabelita"

Chabelita’s Heart/El corazón de Chabelita

"In this queer bilingual children’s book, Chabelita’s hopes come true when Jimena, the new student whose eyes sparkle like stars, sits next to her. Through shared language and experience they easily connect. The more they learn about each other, the more time they spend together, and the more they like each other. When Chabelita shares her special bow tie with Jimena on picture day, everyone will know that they like one another. With the support of family and the reflection of important role models, Chabelita’s Heart shows two kids as they grow into themselves and understand that “girls can like girls” in this heartwarming tale of a first crush."
Author
Isabel Millán
Publication
2022
Cover of "Becoming Heritage: Recognition, Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia"

Becoming Heritage: Recognition, Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
"Since the late twentieth century, multicultural reforms to benefit minorities have swept through Latin America; however, in Colombia ethno-racial inequality remains rife. Becoming Heritage evaluates how heritage policies affected the Afro-Colombian community of San Basilio de Palenque after it was proclaimed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2005. Although the designation partially delivered on its promise of multicultural inclusion, it also created ethno-racial exclusion and conflict among groups within the Palenquero community."
Author
Maria Fernanda Escallón
Publication
2023
Women, Media, and Rebellion in Oaxaca

Women, Media, and Rebellion in Oaxaca

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
This documentary captures the unprecedented takeover in August 2006 of COR-TV, the state’s radio and television stations in Oaxaca, Mexico, when women marched to its installations to voice their political, social, economic, and cultural concerns and ended up taking over the airwaves. It all began when police responded to a teachers’ strike with brutal repression, turning the city of Oaxaca into a battle camp and leading to the formation of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).Issues of justice, women’s rights, and human rights violations are at the core of this social uprising, in which media became an important site of struggle.
Author
Gabriela Martínez
Publication
2008
Indigeneity in the Mexican Cultural Imagination

Indigeneity in the Mexican Cultural Imagination

This project was funded in part by a CSWS grant.
"The book focuses on representations of indigenous peoples in post-revolutionary literary and intellectual history by examining key cultural texts. Using these analyses as a foundation, Analisa Taylor links her critique to national Indian policy, rights, and recent social movements in Southern Mexico. In addition, she moves beyond her analysis of indigenous peoples in general to take a gendered look at indigenous women ranging from the villainized Malinche to the highly romanticized and sexualized Zapotec women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec."
Author
Analisa Taylor
Publication
2009
Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom Book Cover

Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom

"Dance and the Hollywood Latina asks why every Latina star in Hollywood history, from Dolores Del Rio in the 1920s to Jennifer Lopez in the 2000s, began as a dancer or danced onscreen. While cinematic depictions of women and minorities have seemingly improved, a century of representing brown women as natural dancers has popularized the notion that Latinas are inherently passionate and promiscuous."

Rutgers University Press, 208 pages

 

Author
Priscilla Peña Ovalle
Publication
2010
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