Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean - by Jerome Branche (Paperback)

About the Book

This collection of essays offers a comprehensive overview of colonial legacies of racial and social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rich in theoretical framework and close textual analysis, these essays offer new paradigms and approaches to both reading and resolving the opposing forces of race, class, and the power of states.

Book Synopsis

"An important contribution to the ongoing scholarly examination and debate about race, identity, and citizenship in the Caribbean and Latin America."--Cary F. Fraser, Pennsylvania State University This collection of essays offers a comprehensive overview of colonial legacies of racial and social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rich in theoretical framework and close textual analysis, these essays offer new paradigms and approaches to both reading and resolving the opposing forces of race, class, and the power of states. The contributors are drawn from a variety of fields, including literary criticism, anthropology, politics, and sociology. The contributors to this book abandon the traditional approaches that study racialized oppression in Latin America only from the standpoint of its impact on either Indians or people of African descent. Instead they examine colonialism's domination and legacy in terms of both the political power it wielded and the symbolic instruments of that oppression. The volume's scope extends from the Southern Cone to the Andean region, Mexico, and the Hispanophone and Francophone Caribbean. It contests many of the traditional givens about Latin America, including governance and the nation state, the effects of globalization, the legacy of the region's criollo philosophers and men of letters, and postulations of harmonious race relations. As dictatorships give way to democracies in a variety of unprecedented ways, this book offers a necessary and needed examination of the social transformations in the region. Contributors: Jerome Branche Gislene Aparecida Denise Y. Arnold Carolle Charles Michael Handelsman H. Adlai Murdoch Laurence Prescott José Rabasa Kelvin Santiago-Valles Marcia Stephenson Gustavo Verdesio

Review Quotes

"Despite recent shifts towards perspectives that attempt to address indigeneity and blackness within a single frame, it is still not common to find texts that adopt this agenda in a continental sweep. Branche's collection helps cross the black/indigenous gulf with an accessible and engaging set of essays."--Journal of Latin American Studies "Unusually broad in its geographic scope; the authors are to be congratulated in extending their scholarly focus beyond the familiar territory of Mexico and Peru."--Hispanic American Historical Review "The geographical and historical breadth of the volume is simply remarkable. . . . A solid contribution and an invaluable source for teaching."--Bulletin of Latin American Research

About the Author

Jerome Branche, associate professor of Latin American and cultural studies at the University of Pittsburgh, is the author of Colonialism and Race in Luso-Hispanic Literature.