In Review
Circles of Madness: Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo by Marjorie Agosfn, with photographs by Alicia D'Amico & Alicia Sanguinetti, White Pine Press, 1992, 128 pp., $13.00 (paper). This cycle of prose...
...The photographs, too, are thoughtfully composed to reflect each artist's persona...
...The Workers' Party and Democratization in Brazil by Margaret E. Keck, Yale University Press, 1992, 315 pp., $35 (cloth...
...Out of the Volcano: Portraits of Contemporary Mexican Artists by Marg- aret Sayers Peden, with photographs by Carole Patterson, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992, 256 pp., $24.95 (paper...
...Emir Sader, a Brazilian sociologist, and Ken Silverstein, a U.S...
...The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, Death Squads, and U.S...
...Over the past two decades, Guatemala has been convulsed by a series of economic and political crises...
...At night all is absence and the day is an evil invention./ There is no mourning for the seeker...
...Keck argues that by its very existence, however anomalous, the PT has helped to redefine the limits of Brazilian politics...
...Although the book breaks little new ground, it is an excellent synopsis for anyone concerned about the prospects for socialism in contemporary Latin America...
...He illuminates Spiritism's role in con- flict among Brazil's elite intellectuals, scientists, medical professionals, Catholic Church potentates, political leaders, and lower and middle classes...
...As we learn about the everyday practices of Spiritist medical healing, psychotherapy, science, religion and politics, we also gain startling insights into Brazil's past and present politics and culture...
...The authors trace the party's brief history and assess its chances of victory in the 1994 presidential elections...
...Without Fear of Being Happy: Lula, the Workers Party and Brazil by Emir Sader and Ken Silverstein, Verso, 1991, 177 pp., $17.95 (paper...
...Most studies of the African and European roots of Brazilian mass culture take an ethnographic or anthropological stance...
...Country by country, the report tracks major economic indices over the past decade, among them GDP, government revenue and spending, external debt and unemployment rates...
...Today 87% of the population lives in poverty...
...The essays are not merely perfunctory biography, but rather an astute rendering of the artist's personality and obsessions, although at times Sayers Peden's obvious esteem approaches hyperbole...
...This journalistic account takes its title and buoyant tone from Lula's 1989 campaign slogan...
...10 Days/10 Years: The Nicaraguan Elections of 1990 video by Mickey Friedman and John MacGruer, 1990, 54 mins, $89.95 (22 Railroad St., Great Barrington, MA 01230...
...Jonas explores the way in which ethnic and gender oppression are intertwined with class exploitation...
...Each portrait is comprised of a black-and-white photograph of the artist, a short essay based on a personal interview, and a sample of the artist's work...
...Economic and Social Progress in Latin America: 1991 Report by the Inter-American Development Bank, distributed by John Hopkins University Press, 1991, 317 pp., $16.95 (paper...
...By incorporating the relatively autonomous and highly combative forces of ideology, David Hess offers a new multi-perspective approach to Spiritism-belief in spirit mediums...
...Accompanied by photographs that cap- ture the mothers' sorrow and defiance, the poems, in Spanish and in English translation, illuminate the dreamlike world of memory and loss that relatives of the disappeared inhabit...
...This invaluable compendium of economic statistics provides the data to monitor each country's implementation of free-market adjustment...
...Written in an oral style, filled with ancient wisdom...
...She explores how this mass-based, programmatic party survived, and indeed flourished, in the inclement political environment of Brazil's highly-conservative transi- tion to civilian rule...
...Power by Susanne Jonas, Westview Press, 1991, 288 pp., $16.95 (paper...
...Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism, and Brazilian Culture by David Hess, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991, 260 pp., $29.95 (cloth...
...She argues that these intersecting social groups have coa- lesced into a "popular bloc" whose political expression is a coalition of popular and revolutionary movements...
...Susanne Jonas, a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, begins her compelling new book with the question: "Is social revolution still on the agenda in Latin America...
...The title of this historical novel comes from cartographer Guillame le Testu, who mistook the word Antilles for lentils, thus giving the Caribbean a name that became one of the first misrepresentations of European colonization...
...journalist, claim that the PT represents a Brazilian "New Left" which is the "most hopeful model for demo- cratic socialism anywhere in South America...
...This video is a must for anyone teaching about Nica- ragua...
...This cycle of prose poems by the Chilean writer Marjorie Agosin pays tribute to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo whose sons and daughters disappeared in Argentina's "Dirty War...
...The novel is a collection of interwoven narratives which parallel the tapestry of Caribbean history and culture...
...Keck's seminal study focuses on the party's formative years from the late 1970s to the early 1980s...
...This beautifully-designed book is a collection of "lens-and-pen portraits" of 49 of Mexico's most renowned artists from the visual, literary and performing arts...
...A delightful collection by the eminent anthropologist and his Mayan collaborator...
...While Jonas concedes that the prospects for social change in Guatemala are dim, the ability of economic crisis to generate social foment, she maintains, continues to be greater than the state's ability to repress it...
...Mayan Folktales: Folklore from Lake Atitlin, Guatemala translated and edited by James D. Sexton, Anchor Books, 1992, 265 pp., $14.00 (paper...
...Sea of Lentils by Antonio BenitezRojo, University of Massachusetts Press, 1990, 201 pp., $22.95 (cloth...
...This first-hand footage, uncluttered by narration, does an excellent job of capturing a pivotal moment in Central America's recent history...
Vol. 25 • May 1992 • No. 5
