One of the most characteristic and picturesque features of Latin American commercial activity is the market, “an organized public gathering of buyers and sellers of commodities meeting at an appointed place at regular intervals” (Hodder 1965: 57). These markets are held in open market squares or plazas, in streets and open spaces, at roads junctions, and in public, municipal market buildings. Locally, markets are referred to by such names as ferias, plazas, or mercados in Spanish-speaking Latin America, feiras in Brazil, tianguis in Indian areas of central Mexico, catus in some Quechua-speaking Andean areas, and marchés in French-speaking countries. Generally found in medium to large nucleated settlements, markets are also encountered in very small hamlets, particularly those located at nodal points in communication networks. A settlement may have one or more different market locations within the built-up area, or on the outskirts of the settlement. Most larger towns and cities have several separate markets which specialize in different commodities, or serve different neighborhoods or social groups. Places with one or more markets are generally referred to as market centers.

The visitor to Cuba cannot help but be struck by the overpowering presence of José Martí. Indeed, from the moment one arrives at Havana's Aeropuerto ‘José Martí,’ references to Martí are constantly encountered: the drive from the airport to the city center passes by the Biblioteca Nacional ‘José Martí,’ situated in the Plaza de la Revolución, which itself is dominated by an enormous statue of Martí; commemorative monuments and plaques are widely scattered throughout all Cuban cities, while even the smallest rural communities possess at least a bust of Martí; finally, as an illustration of the importance of Martí for the revolutionary leadership, pertinent quotations are continually exhibited at official congresses, and in all major museums of the island. In short, as any tourist soon discovers, Martí's image is projected everywhere: “en alguna medida Cuba es un país en torno a un hombre,” as one critic has correctly noted.

Since 1929 Argentina has undergone a remarkable series of political and economic changes. During the twenties it was a showcase of economic growth based on export expansion, as well as a model of bourgeois democracy in its parliamentary form. Yet that Argentina now lies in the distant past, and nowadays the name Argentina is likely to conjure up military coups and economic stagnation. This transformation deserves more attention than it has yet received. The question, “What went wrong in Argentina?” is as important for students of underdevelopment as is the question, “What went wrong in Germany?” for students of advanced industrialization.

In 1949 the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress published A Guide to the Art of Latin America (gala), an annotated bibliography of the literature on Latin America since the Conquest; it covered the years up to 1942, when the Handbook of Latin American Studies (hlas) had begun its annual bibliographies. “It is a startling fact” the Introduction begins, “that no single work deals comprehensively with the history of art in the Latin American countries.”

Within a number of disciplines such as anthropology, demography, economics, history, and sociology, renewed interest recently has been manifested in research on family and domestic groups. In contrast to traditional studies that sought universal patterns of family structure and function, contemporary research tends to devote greater attention to the diversity of historically specific patterns (Yanagisako 1979). Many scholars are currently focusing on the relationship between changing forms of production and the domestic group formations through which the immediate material needs of most individuals are met.

The Peruvian military government of 1968-80 defied the expectations and categorizations derived from academic work on the character and performance of its counterparts, past and present, in other Latin American countries.1 A key anomaly is the fact that labor and the left were not eclipsed, but instead emerged strengthened by the period of military rule in their mobilizing capacity and electoral presence.2 The purpose of this article is to explain the legacy of the military government for labor and the left by elucidating the processes that led to their strengthening, with particular emphasis on the policies of the Velasco regime.

This report presents the results of a preliminary survey of North American firms that operate in Latin America. Its purpose was to uncover sources for economic historians and economists in an area that is largely unknown and unused. Firms that have deposited their materials in public archives in the United States have not been included in the survey; they will be described in the forthcoming Guide to Latin American Historical Materials in the United States, which is being organized by Gunnar Mendoza.

Throughout the world, the Catholic Church has been in ferment since the Second Vatican Council. In Latin America, traditionally a Catholic region, the application of the council's ideas has stimulated dramatic changes in the outlook and practices of Church groups. These changes are particularly visible in the development of a new language for describing and evaluating temporal action (“the world”), and in the emergence of novel perspectives on the Church's proper relation to “the world.” What is the import of such changes for the student of politics?