Category: Latin American/Caribbean Hist.

“Religions, Nation States, and Politics in Vast Early America” The Omohundro Institute’s Conversation with Authors Katherine Carté and Julia Gaffield

Watch below as Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, and Julia Gaffield, author of Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution, speak with the Omohundro Institute for their latest author conversation. The Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture is the oldest organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to the… Continue Reading “Religions, Nation States, and Politics in Vast Early America” The Omohundro Institute’s Conversation with Authors Katherine Carté and Julia Gaffield

Happy (early) Juneteenth! A Reading List, Part One

Happy early Juneteenth! If you don’t know, June 19th is “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and… Continue Reading Happy (early) Juneteenth! A Reading List, Part One

2021 Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting

LASA 2021 has arrived and while we certainly miss seeing you in person, we hope you’ll take the time to visit our virtual booth. Executive editor Elaine Maisner welcomes you to our virtual booth, while also highlighting some new and forthcoming books: If you’ve got a project that you are working on, Elaine would love to connect with you. Series:  Our Envisioning Cuba series publishes… Continue Reading 2021 Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Happy Haitian Heritage Month: A Reading List

A strong “Sak Pase” to all of our Haitian and Haitian-descendant readers! May is Haitian Heritage Month and we wanted to celebrate with a recommended reading list dedicated to the history of the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti. May was chosen as Haitian Heritage Month because it marks the anniversary of the birth of Toussaint L’Ouverture,… Continue Reading Happy Haitian Heritage Month: A Reading List

New Series Announcement: Latinx Histories

As a leading publisher of American and Latin American history, UNC Press is delighted to announce the launch of Latinx Histories, a book series premised on the view that understanding Latinx history is essential to a more complete and complex understanding of the history of the United States, the Americas, and the world. The series editors and advisory board welcome book proposals that examine… Continue Reading New Series Announcement: Latinx Histories

Revolutionary Latin American Women

Follow the UNC Press Blog for a celebration of women’s histories and women historians throughout March. This year we are celebrating the significant contributions of notable women, renown and lesser known, throughout history, as well as women historians past and present that have been published by UNC Press. Two recently published biographies, Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of… Continue Reading Revolutionary Latin American Women

Jack A. Draper III: Pibes and Moleques on the Soccer Field: The Parallel Stories of Maradona and Pelé, Argentina and Brazil

Today we welcome a guest post from Jack A. Draper III, translator of The Black Man in Brazilian Soccer by Mario Filho, out April 2021 from UNC Press. At turns lyrical, ironic, and sympathetic, Mario Filho’s chronicle of “the beautiful game” is a classic of Brazilian sports writing. Filho (1908–1966)—a famous Brazilian journalist after whom Rio’s Maracanã stadium is officially… Continue Reading Jack A. Draper III: Pibes and Moleques on the Soccer Field: The Parallel Stories of Maradona and Pelé, Argentina and Brazil

Author Interview: John D. French on Lula and His Politics of Cunning

In this Q&A, John D. French discusses his new book Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil. Known around the world simply as Lula, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva was born in 1945 to illiterate parents who migrated to industrializing São Paulo. He learned to read at ten years of age, left school at fourteen,… Continue Reading Author Interview: John D. French on Lula and His Politics of Cunning

Allison Margaret Bigelow: Mining Language and Political Discourse

Today we welcome a guest post from Allison Margaret Bigelow, author of Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World, out now from the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and UNC Press. Mineral wealth from the Americas underwrote and undergirded European colonization of the New World; American gold and silver… Continue Reading Allison Margaret Bigelow: Mining Language and Political Discourse

Jeffrey Alan Erbig Jr. : Indigenous Rights in “A Country Without Indians”

Today we welcome a guest post from Jeffrey Erbig, author of Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met: Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America, out now from UNC Press. During the late eighteenth century, Portugal and Spain sent joint mapping expeditions to draw a nearly 10,000-mile border between Brazil and Spanish South America. These boundary commissions were the largest ever sent to… Continue Reading Jeffrey Alan Erbig Jr. : Indigenous Rights in “A Country Without Indians”

Interview with Gregory P. Downs about The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic

The sixth episode in the Talking Legal History podcast’s series featuring UNC Press is live! Siobhan Barco talks with Gregory P. Downs about his book The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic. Downs is professor of history at the University of California, Davis where he studies the political and cultural… Continue Reading Interview with Gregory P. Downs about The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic

Tiffany A. Sippial: Are U.S. Citizens Still Allowed to Travel to Cuba?

Today we welcome a guest post from Tiffany A. Sippial, author of Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary, out now from UNC Press. Celia Sánchez Manduley (1920–1980) is famous for her role in the Cuban revolution. Clad in her military fatigues, this “first female guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra” is seen in many photographs alongside… Continue Reading Tiffany A. Sippial: Are U.S. Citizens Still Allowed to Travel to Cuba?

Oscar de la Torre: The Towering Inferno: Fire and Globalization in Amazonia

Today we welcome a guest post from Oscar de la Torre, author of The People of the River: Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835-1945, published last fall by UNC Press. In this history of the black peasants of Amazonia, Oscar de la Torre focuses on the experience of African-descended people navigating the transition from slavery to freedom. He draws on… Continue Reading Oscar de la Torre: The Towering Inferno: Fire and Globalization in Amazonia

Made in the USA: The Crisis in Puerto Rico and the Resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló

Following the recent unrest in Puerto Rico, today we welcome a guest post from César J. Ayala and Rafael Bernabe, authors of Puerto Rico in the American Century:  A History since 1898. Offering a comprehensive overview of Puerto Rico’s history and evolution since the installation of U.S. rule, Ayala and Bernabe connect the island’s economic, political, cultural, and social past… Continue Reading Made in the USA: The Crisis in Puerto Rico and the Resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló

Aline Helg: Slave runaway communities: the ongoing struggle

Today we welcome a guest post from Aline Helg, author of Slave No More:  Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas, just published this month by UNC Press. Commanding a vast historiography of slavery and emancipation, Helg reveals as never before how significant numbers of enslaved Africans across the entire Western Hemisphere managed to free themselves hundreds of years before the… Continue Reading Aline Helg: Slave runaway communities: the ongoing struggle

Aline Helg: Beyond the image of the “male slave rebel”

Today we welcome a guest post from Aline Helg, author of Slave No More:  Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas, just published this month by UNC Press. Commanding a vast historiography of slavery and emancipation, Helg reveals as never before how significant numbers of enslaved Africans across the entire Western Hemisphere managed to free themselves hundreds of years before the… Continue Reading Aline Helg: Beyond the image of the “male slave rebel”

Patricia de Santana Pinho: Traveling Brazil

Today we welcome a guest post from Patricia de Santana Pinho, author of Mapping Diaspora:  African American Roots Tourism in Brazil, just published by UNC Press. Brazil, like several countries in Africa, has become a major destination for African American tourists seeking the cultural roots of the black Atlantic diaspora. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic research as well… Continue Reading Patricia de Santana Pinho: Traveling Brazil

Benjamin T. Smith: Fake News, Chinese Boxes, and the Mexican Art of Manipulating the Press

Today we welcome a guest post from Benjamin T. Smith, author of The Mexican Press and Civil Society, 1940–1976:  Stories from the Newsroom, Stories from the Street, just published by UNC Press. Mexico today is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report the news, and Mexicans have taken to the street to defend freedom of expression.… Continue Reading Benjamin T. Smith: Fake News, Chinese Boxes, and the Mexican Art of Manipulating the Press

Oscar de la Torre: The Backlash Against Reparations for Slavery in Brazil

Today we welcome a guest post from Oscar de la Torre, author of The People of the River:  Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835–1945, just published by UNC Press. In his history of the black peasants of Amazonia, Oscar de la Torre focuses on the experience of African-descended people navigating the transition from slavery to freedom. He draws on… Continue Reading Oscar de la Torre: The Backlash Against Reparations for Slavery in Brazil

Hannah Gill: Silent Sam in Carolina del Norte

Today we welcome a guest post from Hannah Gill, author of the new revised and expanded edition of The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina:  New Roots in the Old North State, just published by UNC Press. Now thoroughly updated and revised—with a new chapter on the Dreamer movement and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA)—Hannah Gill’s book… Continue Reading Hannah Gill: Silent Sam in Carolina del Norte