Latin America - Culture and Politics
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Religion in the Megacity
"Mega-cities" - sprawling urban centres - are now home to most Latin Americans. This work contrasts religion in two such cities - Sao Paulo in Brazil and Caracas in Venezuela. In Brazil, the Catholic Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, under Cardinal Arns and progressive Catholics, was a rallying point for re...
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Green Guerrillas
Profiles the people on the front-line of an environmental war, from indigenous groups and forest settlers to fishing communities, peasant farmers, flower workers, shanty-town activists and many more.
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Argentina In Focus
Famous as the birthplace of tango, Argentina has known spectacular prosperity and devastating crises. Once the export powerhouse of Latin America, the country has suffered a cycle of military repression and economic mismangement. But despite wasted potential, Argentina remains one of the region's mo...
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Caribbean Currents
Peter Manuel, Kenneth Bilby, Michael Largey
This is an exploration of the region's music - its forms and innovations, musicians, festivals, and dance halls, its fans - and traces its African, Asian and European roots. This book is oriented toward a few distinct yet overlapping sets of readers. One group contains the music lover who has taken...
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Colombia in Focus
One in ten of the world's murders takes place in Colombia. Since the 1950s, the country has been the scene of civil war, protracted guerrilla insurgencies and massive human rights violations. Its notorious drug cartels have become synonymous with ruthlessness and ill-gotten wealth. But Colombia is a...
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¡Salsa!
A journey through the development of modern Salsa music. Evocative use of song lyrics bring colour and passion to this lively profile of Latin dance music.
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Brazil: Carnival of the Oppressed
Sue Branford, Bernardo Kucinski
The rise of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) is unique. Founded in 1980, it rapidly became the world's largest left-wing party, winning 31 million votes in 1989. In 1994 the PT seemed on the brink of winning power, headed by its charismatic presidential candidates Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, univers...
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In The Mountains of Morazán
Mike Gatehouse, Mandy Macdonald
After years of exile in neighbouring Honduras, 8000 refugees returned to the mountains of Morazán in El Salvador. There they founded Segundo Montes City, named after a Jesuit priest killed by the army. In the Mountains of Morazán is the extraordinary story of Segundo Montes, told by the community...
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Venezuela In Focus
Venezuela has been blessed and cursed by oil. Once Latin America's wealthiest country, its petrodollars paid for political stability, dramatic modernisation and rampant corruption. But the boom years are now long gone and Venezuelans face poverty and growing social conflict. Despite its political wo...
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Bolivia In Focus
Often caricatured in Europe and the US as the land of coups and cocaine, Bolivia is a country full of rich traditions stemming from before the arrival of Columbus. In the most Indian of Latin American nations, pre-Conquest lifestyles, languages and dress have adapted to survive centuries of oppressi...