Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World by Marcy Norton

Norton argues that through chocolate and tobacco, Amerindians influenced European society. Both of these goods are cultural artifacts that are bound with “knowledge and techniques” that were transmitted back to Spain along with the material goods (4). Colonists became acquainted with tobacco and chocolate as they made allies in the America. Some of them took their tastes back to Spain where they continued to use both goods in many of the same ways that Amerindians did, which is related to Norton’s central theme of syncretism (9).

Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954 by Piero Gleijeses

I find it incredibly depressing to read about the CIA's involvement in Guatemala. Talk about disheartening. It is like watching a bad spy movie.

Women and the Nicaraguan Revolution by Tomas Borge

Borge's speech explains the Sandanista's views about women in Marxist terms. This slim volume was published in the United States in 1982.

A History of the Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky

I was majorly impressed with this book. Chomsky manages to accomplish a truly remarkable feat, a balanced historical account of the Cuban Revolution through 2010. She explains events from the U.S.-centric view that I am familiar with and then addressed how Cuban historians present the subject. The historiography is vastly different depending on which country's historians you are reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it; I hope the other books that come out of this publisher's Viewpoints series are equally well done.

Key West...90 miles from Cuba. To put that in perspective, Cuba is closer to the United States than Memphis is to Nashville.

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel Rolph-Trouillot

Rolph-Trouillot writes about the ways in which power is asserted to silence parts of history. Sometimes the process is intentional, but oftentimes it is not. Which version of a story gets told? What is ignored? What might be lost forever because the sources were not deemed important enough to save?

Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba by Robin D. Moore

What do son, timba, and nueva trova have in common? They are all forms of Cuban music, and all genres of music I had never heard before class two weeks ago. That's a benefit to reading a book about music, to discuss it in class, you have to listen to it!

Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920 by Eileen J. Suarez Findlay

My book about turn of the century Puerto Rican prostitutes. I really enjoyed the shock value when people asked me what I was reading. Short version: Class was linked to race; concepts of sexuality and honor varied by class. To be white meant to be elite and honorable. To be black meant to be working class and disreputable. What color your skin was did not necessarily determine which group you belonged to because they were social as opposed to biological concepts. Who do you think the prositutes were?

(Get it? The buildings in Chicago are imposing. I finished reading this book in October, but I have been struggling with how to take a picture for a book about prostitution and war. Not that this lame stretch is much, but it's better than nothing.)

Latin American Popular Culture: An Introduction Edited by: William H. Beezley and Linda A. Curcio-Nagy

YES! A book about popular culture! It was a collection of essays about topics ranging from Mexican cookbooks and the creation of national identity to the roots of Brazilian samba. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The picture is of graffiti in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. I'm now falling back on pictures that I have taken over the past couple of years since I am currently without the time or creative powers to take new ones.

Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War by Mark Wasserman

This book read like a meta-analysis of research on nineteenth century Mexico, which meant it lacked clear citations. Wasserman says his themes include the struggle of common people to control their everyday lives, the dominant factor of external war in economic and political developments, and the transformation of gender relations. He barely touched on the last topic, which makes me wonder why authors sometimes stress in their introductions that they are going to talk about something when they only mention it in passing. Seems like a strange strategy.

In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth Century Brazil by Sueann Caulfield

Caulfield uses "deflowering" (a.k.a. seduction) cases from early twentieth century Rio de Janeiro to address the topics of sexual morality and nation building. It is truly amazing what people will latch onto in order to keep gender and racial hierarchies intact.

To Be a Slave in Brazil 1550-1888 by Katia M. De Queiros Mattoso

Putting time limits on historical phenomena is an interesting concept. Slavery certainly existed in Brazil prior to 1550; 1550 just marks when the slave trade started in earnest. [Basically, I like this picture (from Chicago) and wanted to make it work for this book.] Mattoso examined the social aspect of slavery by looking at how slaves interacted with each other, their masters, and freed slaves. The problem was that she did not use footnotes or endnotes, which made her conjectures seem a bit ungrounded. I read this one as part of my oral report for class last night. It was for more than half of my grade so hopefully it went well.

Afro-Latin America 1800-2000 by George Reid Andrews

I think this book is my favorite one I have read for this class to date. That might be due to the fact that Andrews draws heavily on examples from Brazil to develop his argument that Afro-Latin Americans have played a critical role in transforming the social, political and cultural life of Central and South America (9). That makes sense considering Brazil by far has the largest black population in Latin America due to its heavy reliance on and late disavowal of the slave trade. I especially liked his explanations of the development and appropriation of Afro-centric and Afro-derived cultural traditions. Hopefully, centuries from now (if the planet hasn't been completely trashed), the human population will have moved beyond race. After all, they're just colors.

The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720 by Douglas Cope

Why can historians not seem to keep their book titles succinct? Cope had a really fascinating take on the racial politics of colonial Mexico City. Basically, he argues that the plebeian subculture limited Hispanic ability to control castas (racial mixed people) through racial ideology. Race had real meaning because it delineated individuals' social networks, but "passing" as another casta group was only an issue if one was trying to break into the closed world of the Hispanic elite.

Public Lives Private Secrets: Gender, Honor, Sexuality, and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America by Ann Twinam

In a way, it is a book about sex in colonial Latin America, but it is really more about the consequences for all of the people involved. Men and women paid for sexual indiscretions differently, illegitimate children were stained without honor, and people paid large sums of money to have the crown award them legitimacy. Fascinating really.

Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico by María Elena Martínez

Copied directly from my weekly paper: Martínez’s book examines the emergence of the concept of limpieza de sangre, traces its exportation to Mexico, and studies the way the system changed to become more secularized. The reliance on transatlantic institutions to prove purity claims kept the system from dying out in Spain and reinforced its importance in Mexico. Limpieza de sangre was intimately tied to religion and gender but was never a monolithic concept.

Limpieza de sangre=purity of blood

Modern Latin America by Thomas Skidmore and Peter Smith

I got my syllabus for my Latin America Historiography class, and it had a section saying that if I did not have a background in Latin American history, I needed to read one of the listed books to get an overview. So I borrowed this book from my professor and spent many hours learning about the period from independence up through the early 21st century. General trends: economies went wonky, much coffee was grown and politics were tumultuous. Latin America is fascinating.

Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic by Jeremy Adelman

Let me start by saying I have no real background in Latin American history, and this book is definitely not the one to read if you are a casual reader of history. Not at all. Adelman focuses on economics and politics and the roles they played in Latin American sovereignty before and during the revolutions. There was much discussion of merchants and boats. It seems like he is developing the historiography of the subject, but I do not think that you can get a clear picture of the topic while ignoring social history and half of the population. Women were there too, man.

The Postman by Antonio Skármeta

One of my favorite things to do is to let a book choose me. I aimlessly wander the stacks at the library and judge books solely on their covers or titles. I skim the back and then let myself make a snap judgment: to read or not to read. Of course this method has varying success. It has led me to some of my all-time favorite reads (such as The Scarlet Pimpernel) and to some that have been so unbearable that I stop reading halfway through. I rarely pick books in this manner since I always have a long mental list things I want to read. But on those weeks when every day feels like the one before, a bit of spontaneity in the form of reading is the quickest way to fix the problem. The Postman is simple; just the kind of book I needed.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Love stories are intriguing. There are the sentimental, sappy ones that a reader could never take at face value. Then there are the ones filled with unhappiness and suffering. And of course there are the ones that are more about lust than love. Only rarely does an author manage to combine the three in a way that can leave a reader feeling satisfied. Márquez manages to tell the stories of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza in such a way that neither is presented as completely a sinner or perfectly a saint. He characterizes them as unique people whose lives took very different paths that eventually led them to each other, although not exactly how one of them planned. It has been a while since I read a novel that captured my imagination so completely. It is no mystery to me why Márquez won a Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela

¡La Revolución!‎

Azuela wrote his short novel while living in El Paso after having fled Mexico during the revolution. His story is filled with circular irony and the constant questions of for whom and for what Demetrio's rebels are fighting. As with most revolutions, there are no easy answers, only questions that lead to more questions as the revolution consumes its own. As Quail put it after learning of Pancho Villa's defeat, "What the hell, boys! Every spider's got to spin his own web now!"