In spite of important recent work on the history of technology and the dynamics of technological change in Latin America, the literature in this field remains relatively undeveloped. In part, this is due to a relative scarcity of available sources for conducting research. This research note argues that national patent records are an important and untapped source for a wide range of studies on technology and technological change. The research note announces the creation of major new comprehensive databases of patent records in several Latin American countries, part of a larger, ongoing project to compile and make publically accessible patent records across the region. We also provide an introduction to the history of patents in Latin America, followed by a discussion of both the use (and misuse) of patents as historical evidence and recent advances in collecting and using patent evidence in Latin America.

Since the 1980s, liberalized and newly stable markets have helped usher in an unprecedented mining boom across the Latin American region. However, despite the fact that this boom contributes to notable economic growth, protests in opposition to the expansion and practices of mining companies have also grown, often with violent results. How protests are policed matters, but more important for democracy is how state actors respond when violence is employed. We examine two instances of police repression of mining protests: one in Cajamarca, Peru, and the other in Catamarca, Argentina. We argue that, despite significant differences in context, there are important similarities in state discourse between countries. In particular, a vocabulary of protester wrongdoing and calls for a remedy of “dialogue” are employed in both cases as a way to facilitate the continuation and expansion of both mining and the repression of protests.

This essay reviews the following works:

Sports and Nationalism in Latin/o America. Edited by Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste, Robert McKee Irwin, and Juan Poblete. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. xiii + 307. $95.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781137487186.

Muscling in on New Worlds: Jews, Sport, and the Making of the Americas. Edited by Raanan Rein and David M. K. Sheinin. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2014. Pp. x + 196. $135.00 cloth. ISBN: 9789004284487.

Sports Culture in Latin American History. Edited by David M. K. Sheinin. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015. Pp. ix + 239. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 9780822963370.

The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico. By Antonio Sotomayor. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. xix + 360. $60.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780803278813.

This essay reviews the following works:

Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy. By Richard E. Feinberg. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 264. $22.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780815727675.

Miradas a la economía cubana: Análisis del sector no estatal. Edited by Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva and Ricardo Torres. La Habana: Editorial Caminos, 2015. Pp. 163. $5, paper. ISBN: 9789593031080.

Entrepreneurial Cuba: The Changing Policy Landscape. By Archibald R. M. Ritter and Ted A. Henken. Boulder, CO: First Forum Press, 2015. Pp. xiv + 374. $79.95 cloth. ISBN: 9781626371637.

Retos para la equidad social en el proceso de actualización del modelo económico cubano. Edited by María del Carmen Zavala et al. La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2015. Pp. vi + 362. $20 paper. ISBN: 9789590616105.

El artículo analiza la elección presidencial de 1964 en Chile. Dicha elección fue protagonizada por dos candidaturas reformistas, encabezadas por Eduardo Frei Montalva, representante de la Democracia Cristiana, y por Salvador Allende, representante de la coalición de partidos de izquierda Frente de Acción Popular. Mediante la documentación de diferentes instancias de elaboración programática participativa y un análisis de la estrategia electoral en su conjunto, el artículo propone la necesidad de complejizar la comprensión que se ha tenido hasta el momento de una elección fundamental para el desarrollo político chileno. Dado que la mitad de los votantes participaba por primera vez de comicios presidenciales, no puede comprenderse el triunfo de Frei Montalva y la magnitud de la votación que alcanzó solamente por la campaña del terror y el apoyo de las cúpulas partidarias de la derecha. La campaña presidencial de la Democracia Cristiana se caracterizó por la introducción de nuevas prácticas políticas, cuyo efecto en el escenario social y político chileno va incluso más allá de la propia elección.

This article explores the transition from nationalism to postnationalism through food in Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home (2007), by playwright Eduardo Machado. The framework used is Sigmund Freud’s narrative of the Oedipus complex. I suggest that the exilic condition of Oedipus and his rebellious behavior make the Oedipal narrative a useful tool for approaching the postnational rejection of the oppressive nature of the nation. I replace the phallus as the source of pleasure with food, and argue that the memories that ensure the continuity of the nation are largely alimentary. A study of what Eduardo Machado eats or refuses to eat to keep recognizing himself as Cuban leads me to explore ways in which the nation shapes subjectivity and the subject informs the postnation, adding to the scholarship on Cuban American literature.