Latin America
This is a new page. Send suggestions for content to pmmckerc@ucsc.edu. See also Colonialism. Latin American and Latino Studies at UCSC.
News/Articles
Mexico: Environmentalist Who Challenged Drug Gangs Murdered in Ambush Despite Police Escort 11/12 In the latest violence out of Mexico, an environmental activist who took a stand against drug gangs has been murdered along with her 10-year-old son in the southern state of Guerrero. Juventina Villa was under police protection after receiving death threats when she withdrew to make a phone call and was ambushed by at least 30 attackers. Her seven-year-old daughter survived. Villa had challenged efforts by drug gangs to destroy forests in order to plant their crops. More than 20 members of her extended family, including her husband and two children, had already been murdered.
Colorado River Pact Signed Between The U.S. And Mexico 11/12
Mexico's Newest Export To U.S. May Be Water (desal plants) 10/11.
Mystery Disease In Central America Kills Thousands dehydration and chemicals suspected. 2/12.
SAO PAULO -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff used a line-item veto Friday to send back parts of a congressional bill that loosened the nation's benchmark law protecting the Amazon rainforest – a veto the government said would prevent increased deforestation.
Environmentalists were not satisfied because they had called for a veto of the entire bill, known as the Forest Code, saying any weakening of the law would put the world's largest rainforest at risk. Government officials said the partial veto went far enough to keep Brazil on track in its efforts to quell the destruction of the Amazon and other biomes.
"It's the code of those who believe it's possible to produce food and preserve the environment," Agriculture Minister Jorge Ribeiro Mendes told reporters.
Mendes and other officials said the government made 12 vetos and 32 other alterations to the bill, including a requirement for large landowners to reforest land they had illegally cleared, with less stringent requirements the smaller the area involved. Rousseff long indicated she wanted a bill that was less rigorous for smaller, poor farmers and ranchers in the Amazon and elsewhere.
"The big (farmers) have vast extensions of land and have the means to recover all the areas of permanent preservation," Teixeira said.
The bill now goes back to Congress, and legislators have 30 days to override Rousseff's changes with a simple majority, which is considered unlikely.
The Amazon rainforest is considered one of the world's most important natural defenses against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. More. 5/12
Cuban organic (and urban) agriculture. See also Urban Agriculture
Books
Juan González's Harvest of Empire takes an unflinching look at the role that U.S. economic and military interests played in triggering an unprecedented wave of migration that is transforming our nation’s cultural and economic landscape. It's now the basis of a new documentary. Democracy Now segment.
The Greening of Cuba: A National Experiment in Organic Farming by Peter Rosset, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange (Go Slugs!)
Video
My Village, My Lobster tells the harrowing story of an industry and a Guatemalan community in crisis.
Living under the constant threat of assassination, Francisco Pineda courageously led a citizens' movement that stopped a gold mine from destroying El Salvador's dwindling water resources and the livelihoods of rural communities throughout the country. Learn more at Link.
Director Lucy Walker spent months filming the stories of garbage pickers working at Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's largest landfills, for her 2011 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Waste Land. (trailer)After her Waste Land experience, Lucy set out to learn what happens to Los Angeles' garbage. slideshow and video) 7/11
Yasuni about oil and Ecuadorian rainforest].
Images
Belo Monte Dam Threatens Brazilian Amazon (PHOTOS)
UCSC Resources
Latin American and Latino Studies
Dana Frank one of top academic experts on Honduras, and has written on women in banana labor unions.
Global Exchange resources.
Dawn Gable holds a double BA in Environmental Studies and Biology from UCSC. She spent 2+ years living and working as a field ornithologist in Venezuela where she became acquainted with the Bolivarian Revolution and the Chavez program as well as with Venezuelan culture. The coup attempt of April 11, 2002 that mobilized the Chavez supporting majority, catalyzed her involvement in the movement as well. Dawn is the founder of the International Bolivarian Circle: Cyber-Solidarity, the co-creator and co-manager of the Bolivarian Circles official website. She has been instrumental in organizing internships with Venezuela NGOs for US university students and cooperates with Global Exchange Venezuela programs and is a member of the Santa Cruz Cuba Study Group.
UC Santa Cruz Global Brigades is one of the many university chapters of Global Brigades, Inc in North America and Europe where volunteering students are dedicated to the research, design, and construction of socially responsible, environmentally sustainable solutions towards problems in the developing world. Ultimately, extended relationships between brigades and communities will result in not only the implementation of a variety of projects, but also the accumulation of a vast wealth of knowledge from which future students and communities can learn. Works in Latin America.
Rise Up Development Collective (RUDC) is a nonprofit organization focused on development in the Wli Todzi community, in the Volta Region in Ghana. We raise funds to sustainably construct, stock, and staff a much needed health clinic for the people of Wli Todzi.
CAN offers internships and a trip to Costa Rica in September to study coffee production.
CAN confronts some of the world’s most pressing problems in sustainability and conservation. The Network’s three programs work with partners in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. Through our initiatives, college students, farmers, researchers, and consumers support community members’ efforts to become economically viable, while at the same time protecting and improving their local environment. Programs include:
- CAN will be hosting an Info Session for our Summer Sustainable Development Field Course happening in Agua Buena, Costa Rica from July 15 - 28! ... of the Sustainable Living Center in the Village. This will be a great opportunity for students to come learn more about what this course offers and the logistics of participating, to meet with some of the lead instructors and organizers of the course, ask questions, and meet other prospective participants! Our application deadline for the course is May 15th, so anyone who's thinking of participating is strongly encouraged to attend this info session so they can submit their applications on time! For questions, please contact Arielle at fieldstudy@canunite.org.
- Alternative Coffee Trade: Order coffee through CAN’s Fairtrade Direct™ project and support Latin American coffee-growing communities.
- Action Education: Through our education initiative we raise awareness and create tools for change around global trade and sustainable agriculture. We use field-study opportunities, farmer-to-farmer exchanges, research, organizational internships, and an annual shortcourse to inspire action for social and environmental justice.
- Participatory Research CAN researchers immerse themselves in the communities they work with and study the agroecology of the local communities. They learn how the farming and social systems work on site. Through collaborative relationships, farmer groups engage in the development of the research questions. This way the findings become directly useful to community members. Alternative Spring Break.
