David J. Robinson

Liberty, fragile fraternity and inequality in early-republican Spanish America: assessing the impact of French Revolutionary ideals

Abstract Though the French and American Revolutions provided Spanish America with examples of social action and institutional change, they were viewed as French national and British colonial responses to particular historical circumstances, and were thus adopted only selectively as models by Spains colonies. While the ideological bases of the French Revolution provided key ingredients for revolutionary thought in Spanish America, the violence and social restructuring that resulted from it, and especially the dramatic seizure of power by ex-slaves in Frances own colony of Saint-Domingue, provoked many to question the benefits of such radical change. The white colonial elite, while seizing the opportunity to free themselves from the metropolis after Napoleons invasion of Spain in 1808, were nevertheless unnerved by the removal of what they viewed to be the legitimate royal authority. Although they sought liberty from Spain, and fraternity amongst the former Spanish dependencies, the newly-empowered white population did not wish to jeopardize their own position of authority by providing equality for all. Revolutionary change which threatened the structure of power and the old social order was postponed indefinitely. If French revolutionary ideals were not allowed to bring about as much social change as many would have liked, Napoleonic France provided an obvious model for efficient governmental organization and administration. Indeed, the ever-widening cultural gulf separating Spain from its former possessions progressively stimulated a second wave of French influences which affected key components of the evolving nation states of Spanish America throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century and beyond.

Migration in eighteenth-century Mexico: case studies from Michoacan.

The paper provides an overview of the data sources which may be used to reconstruct the patterns of migration in colonial Mexico, stressing the problems of their interpretation and providing methods that may be used to utilise them to the most advantage. It then examines, as an example of the use of such sources, the patterns of migration in eighteenth-century Michoacan, a densely populated region located to the west of Mexico City. Here data from a dozen parishes are studied, revealing unknown fluctuations in the migration fields of the marrying population, complex patterns of net immigration and emigration, and changing rates of spatial exogamy. Conclusions drawn from this study are related to our knowledge of wider issues within the context of eighteenth-century Mexico.

Historia de los pueblos de indios de Cusco y Apurimac by Graciela María Viñuales, Ramón Gutiérrez

What then, for the Latin Americanist geographer, does Views of the Cordilleras offer? The editors would say its experimental format of presenting striking images of representative physical and cultural features with erudite commentary, juxtaposing scientific information with visual art, creating a “hybrid form” – “the poetics of the Humboldtian fragment.” One might see it as a distant forerunner of experiments such as Walter Benjamin’s famous (unfinished) Arcades Project. It may also have heuristic value for web creations. But beyond the avant garde Humboldt, there is much more to recommend the geographer here. His hybrid, experimental, approach to combining science, nature and culture, what the editors terms his “transmedial” method, is an effective way of depicting landscape. His presentation and explication of Mexican glyphs and calendrics also ties them to landscape interpretation. His fascination with, and depictions of, volcanoes can be read as part of his shift from the Neptunianism of his former geology mentor Werner, to the rival Plutonianism. But he also saw vulcanism and volcanoes as key Andean landscape processes and elements, clearly displaying the vertical zonation of lifeforms that he is credited with pioneering the study of. Humboldt’s astute appraisal of civilization, whether ancient or modern, “Western” or “Other,” as harboring both barbarism and noble aspirations, is threaded throughout. For our times, this may be the most salient message, among his many, that Humboldt delivers in this extraordinary work.

Enemy in the Blood: Malaria, Environment, and Development in Argentina by Eric D. Carter (review)

as I read about how Bandelier’s familiarity of the Alps made him feel comfortable in the Sierra Madre Occidental and in the Texas Hill Country. Chapter three covers what is now the state of Tamaulipas, and Bandelier’s earliest travels. There is much here in the way of economic botany, and under-appreciated history. For example, I always wondered why the largest hotel in Tampico is named the Inglaterra, not realizing until I read here of the large English population that resided there in the early 19th century. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth chapters deal with Bandelier’s travels though east, central, and south Texas, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley, respectively, more or less given that he did much criss-crossing and backtracking. His assessment of the environments around the presidio and mission at Goliad, and sketches made thereof (but not included in this book) are excellent given what we now know about vegetation changes due to the introduction of livestock, and the practice of fire suppression. My favorite two chapters, however, are seven and nine. The former deals with travels through northern Tamaulipas into Nuevo León. The rivers and their sources are the focus. Some places familiar to Bandelier have changed very little in the past two centuries. He would recognize immediately vegetation, stream sediment loads, farming practices, and vernacular architecture. To wit, I think Bandelier might like a classroom lecture I developed on the tenacity of places based on past and present images of San Carlos. The final chapter takes the reader along on Bandelier’s last trip through Tamaulipas and his death while crossing a river he doubtless crossed scores of times. Like all dwellers of arid lands, he knew better than to attempt crossing a rapidly flowing stream at flood stage. Irony of ironies. Kudos to Lawson for using this strange twist of fate to illustrate that as good as he was at a multitude of tasks, Berlandier was not expert at any one of them. He was at best, average, but he was relentless thereby reaffirming one of my favorite quotes: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” My only real criticism of this book is the lack of a map or series of maps commissioned by the author to illustrate the routes of Berlandier’s travels. Places and dates are all provided, but no there are no maps. Students in my course on the historical geography of the Southwest (which includes northern Mexico) will now have a new group project on which to work.

Here in This Year: Seventeenth-Century Nahuatl Annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla Valley (review)

It will serve predominantly as a resource for students of archeology of Mesoamerica and related fields. It is less useful as a resource to understand the physical aspects and properties of the presented structures, their primary and secondary structural materials, methods of construction, rules of design, ordering systems, and other aspects of planning and layout of the palaces or religious buildings.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Latin America, 1987-2010: A Preliminary Overview

GIS technology has had an important academic impact and a sustained growth in university research in Latin America from its appearance in 1987. This article outlines its evolution up to the present, considering as a key element the Iberoamerican Conference of Geographical Information Systems (CONFIBSIG), a series of scientific meetings that witnessed the progress of the application of methodologies and the associated training courses. The first technology transfer to the region is analyzed, as well as the formation of three generations of users and the trends in applications that have shaped the current perspectives in education and applied research in Latin America.

Book Review: Changing fortunes: biodiversity and peasant livelihood in the Peruvian Andes

centred issues, and the fifth focuses on social movements, identity and gender. The concluding chapter ties this analysis back into the framework and the call for a more ‘democratic political geography’. These substantive chapters are helpful, though at times they seem to work on the basis of caricatures of market, state and civil society actors: a critical approach to the former two and laudatory analysis of the third. While this analytical stance is a fair reflection of the generalbehaviour of these actors, it does not do justice to the differences that can be found within these generalizations. In this sense Barton does not fully satisfy his own call for a political geography that recognizes diversity – this is doubly important because to understand the possibility of different forms of state and market behaviour seems vital to any attempt to imagine a more democratic political geography for Latin America.