This article analyzes the persistence of an official discourse of mestizo nationalism in Nicaragua in spite of the adoption of multicultural citizenship rights for black and indigenous costeños in 1986. These reforms appeared to directly contradict key premises of previously dominant nationalist ideologies, particularly the idea that Nicaragua was a uniformly mestizo nation. Instead of a radical break with the past, however, what we find in contemporary Nicaragua is a continuous process of negotiation and contestation among three variants of official mestizo nationalism: vanguardismo, Sandinismo, and “mestizo multiculturalism” that emerged in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1990s respectively. This article traces the continuities among these disparate but intimately related accounts of national history and identity and the way they all operate to limit the political inclusion of black and indigenous costeños as such.

In response to the growing salience of re-centralization in several Latin American countries that decentralized in the 1980s and 1990s, this paper examines presidential efforts to re-centralize fiscal power in the 1990s. In our study of re-centralization in Argentina and Brazil, we assess the utility of four common political economy explanations: the presence of economic crisis; the partisan powers of the president; the division of formal powers between the branches; and the extent of intra-bureaucratic conflict. We find that the success of economic stabilization measures facilitated re-centralization in both countries, though the pathways connecting the two phenomena were partially distinct. In Argentina, key re-centralization measures were rapidly achieved after stabilization as the result of the president's strong partisan powers and in the form of political deals within the Peronist party. Subsequently, the dissipation of President Carlos Menem's powers over the course of his second term facilitated the “return of the governors.” In Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso re-centralized despite weak partisan powers, largely by using his reputation as a successful stabilizer to build a broad reform coalition. In Cardoso's Brazil, strong partisan cohesion in important cabinet posts also served as a partial substitute for the lack of partisan power in the legislature. These findings suggest the need for a closer examination of re-centralization efforts, particularly in the wake of macroeconomic stabilization and economic reform.

This research note reports on a collection of manuscript and print materials relating to Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). The collection was acquired in 1999 by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It features unpublished manuscripts in a variety of literary genres and an excellent representation of Borges's published works, including several rare books and periodicals from the 1920s, a period of increasing importance in Borges scholarship.

This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to present and analyze information on the smallest manifestations of popular culture in Latin American countries: postage stamps. The disciplines involved are semiotics (the linguistic study of signs), history, politics (internal and international), and popular culture. The project studies how these postage stamps carry significant messages, including expressions of nationalism, politics (national and international), propaganda, and cultural identity. The article begins with an overview of Latin American postage stamps, with an emphasis on internal and international politics. The latter category focuses on several cases of inter-country tension in which postage stamps have played a role.

En 1931 un diplomtico alemn destac las razones debido a las cuales su pas estaba interesado en prestar asistencia militar al extranjero en los siguientes trminos:

Del empleo de instructores militares en servicios extranjeros se espera, en general, dos provechos: uno no material y otro material. Aqul reside en la expectativa de alcanzar, mediante las tareas de organizacin y enseanza en base a preceptos alemanes, una cierta influencia entre los militares en favor de Alemania. Una ventaja de esta naturaleza no debe subestimarse, sobre todo en Suramrica, donde la Fuerza Armada suele ser un factor importante en la poltica interna. La utilidad material reside en el supuesto que con instructores alemanes tambin el armamento y equipamiento del ejrcito extranjero se realizar conforme al modelo alemn, y consiguientemente, los pedidos se realizarn en Alemania beneficiando a su industria y comercio.

Las traducciones de citas al castellano en el texto y las notas son del autor. Los nombres de los archivos se han abreviado del siguiente modo: Bundesarchiv-Militrarchiv, Bund.-Militarch; Politisches Archiv des Auswrtigen Amtes, Pol. A. des AA. Las Memorias del Ministerio de Guerra y Colonizacin de Bolivia se han abreviado con Memoria.