Recently added articles from Americas:
FROM THE EDITOR
Mar 01, 2009; ... As always, this issue of Américas is chock full of stories, analysis, controversies, research, and information related to the stability and future of the people of our hemisphere. First, we highlight two important events occurring early this year: the beginning of a new administration in ...
UPFRONT
Mar 01, 2009; ... Chiapas Delight I have been a regular subscriber to Americas for many years and would like to congratulate you on the excellent articles you publish in each edition. In the December issue, I was delighted to read the article "A Cup of Chiapas Culture." I know the region very well and can ...
Art Theft Online
Mar 01, 2009; ... IN A STRUGGLING world economy, top dollar art sales may be going down, but international art thefts are on the rise. Such a trend will certainly worry museum directors and church sacristans, especially in Latin America where valuables are often left unguarded in exhibition rooms and high ...
Belize Takes Chess
Mar 01, 2009; ... Could little Belize produce a chess giant along the lines of Garry Kasparov one of these days? Well, that's no sure thing, but the Central American country does have a lot more young people learning the finer points of castling lately, thanks to transplanted residents Ian and Ella ...
The Houses That Bottles Built
Mar 01, 2009; ... WHEN INGRID Vaca Diez received a letter from a little girl asking for a house where she could protect herself from the rain and floods, she decided to build a housing project for low-income families in Warnes, Bolivia. Today the little girl's dream has come true, and her new house is made out of ...
Spotlight on Central American Art
Mar 01, 2009; ... THE SÃO PAULO Biennial, the Venice Biennial, the New Orleans Biennial ... It seems that at any given moment, an art biennial is taking place somewhere on this planet. Even so, the Sixth Biennial of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus (BAVIC) was a rarity. In a world where most recurring ...
Remnants of an Intercontinental RAILWAY
Mar 01, 2009; ... Considered one of the most difficult engineering tasks in the world, the Guayaquil-Quito Railroad continues to inspire awe and admiration 100 years after its comp1etion THE BIRTH PANGS OF THE new nation were protracted and painful. For the first seven decades of its existence as an ...
Port of Spain Takes Center Stage
Mar 01, 2009; ... Trinidad and Tobago's capital has been preparing for its star turn as host of two major international summits in 2009 The old Breakfast Shed was a weather-beaten, too-hot structure made of galvanized metal; still, it was a beloved, brightly painted landmark on Port of Spain's waterfront ....
The Hub of the Hemisphere
Mar 01, 2009; ... When the 34 democratically elected leaders of the Western Hemisphere gather in Port of Spain for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, it will mark the first time such a meeting has taken place in the Caribbean. The modern-day Summit of the Americas process began in December 1 994, when the ...
HIV/AIDS: MANAGING A PANDEMIC
Mar 01, 2009; ... AS ADVANCES IN PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF HIV/AIDS ARE BEING MADE, SOME AREAS OF THE AMERICAS ARE MAKING PROGRESS IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THIS DEVASTATING DISEASE Finally, some good news in the fight against HIV in the Americas, and it's coming from Haiti, one of the countries hardest hit ...
WATER-Energy of the Earth
Mar 01, 2009; ... High in the clouds of the Andean páramos, wetlands and grasslands are storing a vital lifesource for Bogotá and its surrounding municipalities Andean winds blow dense clouds of fog in waves over steep mountain crags carpeted with hundreds of species of tropical plants that trap in ...
The Future of Hydroelectricity from Patagonia?
Mar 01, 2009; ... Aaron Sanger grimaced at the sight of the tumultuous Río Quiroz, a 50-yard-wide river of glacial meltwater surging off Patagonia's Southern Ice Field. A pair of torrent ducks skimmed across its swirling waters, peering curiously at the steel cable and cage that hydro-electrical engineers had ...
PARTICIPATORY MAPPING EMPOWERS PATRIMONY
Mar 01, 2009; ... A team of geographers and archaeologists are collaborating with indigenous communities in Tiltepec, Mexico to put their lands and languages on the map In his account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Bernal Díaz del Castillo tells us that in 1521 Hernán Cortés dispatched him and Gonzalo ...
A CANADIAN OASIS
Mar 01, 2009; ... THE DRY GRASSLANDS AND OPEN PINE FORESTS OF SOUTHERN BRITISH, COLUMBIA ARE AN ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEM BEING THREATENED BY THE HUMAN SETTLEMENT IT ATTRACTS There is a place in British Columbia where a landscape of caves and semiarid wilderness harkens back to another era. Eagles hunt rattle ...
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
Mar 01, 2009; ... Abraham Lincoln's influence on the history of the United States was so great that poet Walt Whitman maintained that Lincoln's legacy would be even stronger and more lasting than that of George Washington. This year in 2009, two events worthy of reflection will occur: the 200th anniversary of the ...
A Contribution to Peace
Mar 01, 2009; ... IN AN EPILOGUE to the intense negotiations that have taken place over the years, the governments of Belize and Guatemala recently signed an historic Special Agreement in the headquarters of the OAS. The countries have agreed to submit Guatemala's claims on territory, islands, and maritime rights ...
Response to the World Crisis
Mar 01, 2009; ... DURING VARIOUS MEETINGS, conferences, and expositions on the subject, the OAS and its member states recently analyzed the world economic crisis and debated the impact it would have on the hemisphere. The topic was the subject of debate in a session of the Lecture Series of the Americas, ...
The Future of the Region in the Global Context
Mar 01, 2009; ... AS IT CONFRONTS the world financial crisis, Latin America must find a way to keep its promises in essential areas of education, health, housing, and security while making the best of small governments and reduced fiscal income, said OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza. He warned that even ...
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE OAS
Mar 01, 2009; ... It is no surprise that the new administration of Barack Obama has been getting a lot of advice about how it should approach US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years. There is an enormous sense of opportunity right now, a feeling that the time could be ripe for ...
CAFÉ DE LOS MAESTROS
Mar 01, 2009; ... In Buenos Aires, Virginia Luque is one of but a small handful of artists who can lay claim to the title of "living legend." The 81-year-old entertainer is remembered both for her role as a glamorous leading lady of the silver screen over half a century ago and as one of Argentina's most popular ...