From the moment it launched its armed insurgency in 1980 until the death of its former leader in September 2021, Peru’s Shining Path mesmerized observers. The Maoist group had a well-established reputation as a personality cult whose members were fanatically devoted to Abimael Guzmán, the messianic leader they revered as “Presidente Gonzalo.” According to this narrative, referred to here as the “Gonzalo mystique,” Shining Path zealots were prepared to submit to Guzmán’s authority and will—no matter how violent or suicidal—because they viewed him as a messiah-prophet who would usher in a new era of communist utopia. Drawing on newly available sources, including the minutes of Shining Path’s 1988–1989 congress, this article complicates the Gonzalo mystique narrative, tracing the unrelenting efforts by middle- and high-ranking militants to challenge, undermine, disobey, and even unseat Guzmán throughout the insurgency. Far from seeing their leader as the undisputed cosmocrat of the popular imagination, these militants recognized Guzmán for who he was: a deeply flawed man with errant ideas, including a dubious interpretation of Maoism, problematic military strategy, and a revolutionary path that was anything but shining.

This article explores how sex and violence were part of the everyday making of the soldier in the Peruvian armed forces during the internal armed conflict between 1980 and 2000. In-depth interviews with Peruvian veterans indicate the importance of sex and violence in soldiers’ experience of becoming a combatant. The article analyzes the ambiguity in soldiers’ narratives about sex and violence, coercion, and consent, and how they are implicated in both receiving and enacting sexualized violence. In particular, authors discuss veterans’ accounts of collective experiences of sexualized hazing, abuse of women and girls, porn and prostitution, and references to gang rape. Soldiers, while in the army, experience intimacy through performative practices of sex and violence—which profoundly affect their interactions with one another—and the violence they perpetrate against enemy populations. These military intimacies, encouraged through institutional as well as cultural practices, help explain the prevalence of widespread sexual violence during the conflict.

This article presents a cultural analysis of the Chilean TV series El reemplazante (The substitute). The series ran on TVN (National Television of Chile) from 2012 to 2013, and it is currently available on Netflix. The show broke televisual consensus in Chile that made the production of TV series invested in promoting dissenting political viewpoints virtually impossible. As such, El reemplazante can be conceived as an antecedent of the 2019 social uprising and as an alternative model of critical TV in Chile and Latin America. The article first examines the mediation between the patriarchal and racist model of the superhero teacher and the construction of a popular subjectivity that disrupts said model. It then deals with the hyperrealist aesthetic of the show as a privileged mode of enacting a social critique on TV, and it addresses the representation of the city and its geographies of segregation as a gateway to unpacking the problematic of education in neoliberal Chile. The conclusion reflects on the abrupt cancellation of the show and the limits that the Chilean production model places on TV series with transformative intentions.

International reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican film criticism tended to dismiss the importance of this tradition and even to deny its existence, often citing the presence of melodramatic elements in would-be noir films and the lack of a crime novel tradition for screen adaptations. By comparing two Mexican films to similar American productions and examining the local political and economic conditions of the former, this article argues that Mexican film noir had its own pessimistic viewpoints, which were borrowed from journalism and the illustrated press. These viewpoints were based on existing social ailments and delivered relevant criticism of the institutions, classism, and sexual norms of the postrevolutionary Mexican state of the 1940s and 1950s.

Criminal violence in Latin American cities is increasing. Meanwhile, with urbanization, greater numbers of people are moving to cities and into the crossfire. What self-protection strategies do residents adopt to keep safe in violent cities? Drawing on qualitative data from Medellín, Colombia, and Monterrey, Mexico, we document the strategies residents use to stay safe. We synthesize insights from studies of civil war, criminal governance, and urban violence to construct an analytical framework to systematically catalog and name these strategies. We posit that the type of violence residents face—indiscriminate or targeted—influences the strategies they pursue. Responding to either the indiscriminate or targeted form, residents employ survival strategies to avoid, withstand, or confront violence. Our research underscores the centrality of agency for residents’ “staying power” amid urban violence.

Since a peace treaty in 2016, Colombia has faced a significant challenge to reduce poverty and strengthen its institutions. A few studies have analyzed the relationship between institutions and subjective poverty, but none has demonstrated this influence in the Colombian context at a municipal level. This article estimated a logit regression including a cluster effect to evidence the influence of municipal institutions over perceptions of poverty by the inhabitants of twelve main cities in Colombia in 2016. Findings include that having a better rule of law and fiscal performance, reducing political fragmentation to have better governance, guaranteeing property rights, fostering the benefits of metropolitan areas, and improving citizen participation reduce the probability of feeling poor.

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el Foro Nacional de Agricultura Familiar como dispositivo estatal de participación y encuadramiento de los sujetos subalternos rural-agrarios en Argentina. Para ello, retomamos los estudios y debates nacionales e internacionales sobre comportamiento y participación política en áreas rurales. Luego, desde un enfoque etnográfico, analizamos las tramas organizacionales y el proceso de configuración de este dispositivo describiendo las diferentes perspectivas de los agentes involucrados: funcionarios políticos, agentes estatales y dirigentes. Como resultado, elaboramos una tipología de organizaciones a partir de analizar la estructura y el volumen del capital de sus agentes.

The impact of employment protection legislation has been thoroughly analyzed in varied contexts. Most studies highlight the potential harm of the legislation on labor outcomes, although evidence remains inconclusive. However, the literature has focused primarily on ex post impacts, analyzing the regulation’s effect after implementation. This article departs from that analysis to focus on anticipated or ex ante effects of labor regulation. More specifically, we study the role of firms’ expectations in future stricter labor legislation related to employment and income in Peru’s formal and informal labor market. To account for expectations, we used the number of news items related to the approval of a proposed law—the General Labor Law—to increase labor rigidities in Lima’s most important business newspaper. Using the Peruvian labor survey, we find a negative but decreasing relationship between firms’ expectations of a future stricter labor market and employment and average income. We also collect evidence that bigger news items and ones closer to the front page have a negative relationship with formal employment and income.

This study identifies evidence of the influence of diversification and leverage on the financial performance of Brazilian and Mexican family businesses. It analyzes 102 Brazilian and 71 Mexican publicly traded family companies. Data analysis uses ordinary least squares regression in Stata. The results indicate that Brazilian family businesses have a higher return on assets when diversifying their products or services. When diversifying international markets, Brazilian companies present a lower return on assets and return on equity. For Mexican companies, international diversification derives a higher return on assets and return on equity. In addition, results show that leverage moderates the relationship between diversification and performance both for Brazilian and Mexican family businesses. The study contributes to the current literature by investigating that diversification improves business performance and that leverage is a significant element in intensifying the benefits of this strategy in the performance of family businesses. The study also emphasizes that diversification can be useful to address market difficulties and imperfections in unstable scenarios, such as when it is targeted to planned performance and considers financial conservatism in family companies.

El objetivo de este artículo es establecer el nivel de eficiencia del gasto público sanitario en América Latina y comprobar su relación con determinadas características institucionales como calidad regulatoria, participación del sector privado, descentralización o tamaño de la burocracia. Se estima una frontera estocástica de verdaderos efectos aleatorios que relaciona el gasto público en salud per cápita frente a la tasa de mortalidad neonatal e infantil y la esperanza de vida después de los sesenta años. Se regresan las ineficiencias resultantes respecto del conjunto de variables institucionales explicativas. Se evidencia el importante papel del gasto público sanitario en la obtención de determinados niveles de realización sanitaria. Sin embargo, su eficiencia es mejorable, especialmente a partir de optimizar la calidad regulatoria del Estado. Latinoamérica ha configurados sistemas sanitarios complejos, pero no han logrado mejorar la coordinación entre sus actores, lo que explica su ineficiencia. La rectoría del gobierno es esencial.

Este ensayo reseña los siguientes documentales:

El viaje de Monalisa. Dir. Nicole Costa. Prod. Gregory Costa y Daniela Camino. Nueva York, 2019, 93 min. https://ondamedia.cl/show/el-viaje-de-monalisa-1626213821621.

Casa Roshell. Dir. Camila José Donoso. Prod. Garbiñe Ortega, Juan Pablo Bastarrachea, Maximiliano Cruz y Sandra Gómez. Chile, 2017, 71 min. https://ondamedia.cl/show/casa-roshell.

Naomi Campbel. Dir. Camila José Donoso y Nicolás Videla. Prod. Catalina Donoso y Rocío Romero. Chile, 2013, 83 minutos. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=236699154110418.

En tránsito. Dir. Constanza Gallardo. Prod. Constanza Gallardo y Felipe Garrido González. Chile, 2017, 65 min. https://www.cclm.cl/cineteca-online/en-transito/.

El gran circo pobre de Timoteo. Dir. Lorena Giachino Torréns. Prod. Paola Castillo y Marcela Morilla. Chile, 2013, 76 min. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/timoteo.

Visibles. Dir. Javiera López Godoy. Chile, 2020, 20 minutos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrUuX3E8xnI&t=413s&ab_channel=Guat.

El diablo es magnífico. Dir. Nicolás Videla. Prod. Sebastián González. Chile, 2016, 80 min. https://ondamedia.cl/show/el-diablo-es-magnifico.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Sovereign Street: Making Revolution in Urban Bolivia. By Carwil Bjork-James. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020. Pp. 304. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816540150.

Social Movements and Radical Populism in the Andes: Ecuador and Bolivia in Comparative Perspective. By Jennifer N. Collins. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021. Pp. 299. $120.00 hardcover. ISBN 978-1-4985-7233-0.

La izquierda latinoamericana contra los pueblos: El caso ecuatoriano (2007–2013). By Pierre Gaussens. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe, 2018. Pp. 390 paperback. ISBN 978–607–30–0489–3.

Water for All: Community, Property, and Revolution in Modern Bolivia. By Sarah T. Hines. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. Pp. 320. $85.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978–0520381636.

Indigenous Revolution in Ecuador and Bolivia, 1990–2005. By Jeffery M. Paige. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020. Pp. xix +330. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816540143.

Del sueño a la pesadilla: El movimiento indígena en Ecuador. By Fernando García Serrano. Quito: Editorial FLACSO Ecuador, 2021. Pp. xvi + 259. $18.00 paperback. ISBN: 9789978675519.

Pachamama Politics: Campesino Water Defenders and the Anti-Mining Movement in Andean Ecuador. By Teresa A. Velásquez. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2022. Pp. 288 $55 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816544738

Candidate Matters: A Study of Ethnic Parties, Campaigns, and Elections in Latin America. By Karleen Jones West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. x + 228 $74.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978–0190068844.

This essay reviews the following works:

The FBI in Latin America: The Ecuador Files. By Marc Becker. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books, 2017. Pp. vii + 322. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780822369080.

The CIA in Ecuador. By Marc Becker. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books, 2021. Pp. xi + 317. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781478011385.

Movilidad y poder en el sur del Ecuador, 1950–1990. By María Mercedes Eguiguren. Quito: Editorial FLACSO Ecuador, 2019. Pp. viii + 274. Open access e-book. ISBN: 9789978675199.

Peasant Wars in Bolivia: Making, Thinking, and Living the Revolution in Cochabamba (1952–64). By José M. Gordillo. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2022. Pp. xiv + 337. $34.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781773854014.

A Concise History of Bolivia. 3rd ed. By Herbert F. Klein. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xix + 380. $34.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781108948890.

Indigenous Struggle and the Bolivian National Revolution: Land and Liberty. By James Kohl. New York: Routledge, 2021. Pp. xii + 413. $64.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780367471392.

Historical Dictionary of Ecuador. By George M. Lauderbaugh. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019. Pp. xlviii + 322. $96.84 hardcover. ISBN: 9781538102459.

¡Vamos a avanzar! The Chaco War and Bolivia’s Political Transformation, 1899–1952. By Robert Niebuhr. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 260. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781496207784.

Los inconformistas del Centenario: Intelectuales, socialismo y nación en una Bolivia en crisis (1925–1939). By Pablo Stefanoni. La Paz: Plural Editores, 2015. Pp. 383. ISBN: 9789995416430.

The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Edited by Sinclair Thomson, Rossana Barragán, Xavier Albó, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018. Pp. xx + 719. $35.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780822371526.

This essay reviews the following works:

North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Edited by Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and Victor Konrad. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020. Pp. xiv, 408. $40.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780816539529.

Fencing In Democracy: Border Walls, Necrocitizenship, and the Security State. By Miguel Díaz-Barriga and Margaret E. Dorsey. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020. Pp. ix, 178. $24.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781478006930.

Border Optics: Surveillance Cultures on the US-Mexico Frontier. By Camilla Fojas. New York: New York University Press, 2021. Pp. 208. $28.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781479807017.

The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War. By Peter Guardino. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. 502. $39.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780674972346.

Illusions of Empire: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. By William S. Kiser. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022. Pp. 262. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780812253511.

The Latino Continuum and the Nineteenth-Century Americas: Literature, Translation, and Historiography. By Carmen E. Lamas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. ix, 277. $80.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780198871484.

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands. By Kelly Lytle Hernández. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2022. Pp. 384. $30.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781324004370.

Border Citizens: The Making of Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos in Arizona. By Eric V. Meeks. Revised edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. xi, 368. $32.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477319659.

Refugiados climáticos: Un gran reto del siglo XXI. By Miguel Pajares. Barcelona: Rayo Verde Editorial, 2020. Pp. 280. $33.00 paperback. ISBN: 9788417925345.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Alchemy of Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World. By Ralph Bauer. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019. Pp. 670. $79.50 hardcover. ISBN: 9780813942544.

On the Lips of Others: Moteuczoma’s Fame in Aztec Monuments and Rituals. By Patrick Thomas Hajovsky. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 194. $45.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781477307243.

Time and the Ancestors: Aztec and Mixtec Ritual Art. By Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Pp. ix + 615. $182.54 hardcover. ISBN: 9789004340510.

En busca del alma nacional: La arqueología y la construcción del origen de la historia nacional en México (1867–1942). By Haydeé López Hernández. Ciudad de México: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2018. Pp. 389. $44.99. paperback. ISBN: 9786075391120.

The Value of Things: Prehistoric to Contemporary Commodities in the Maya Region. Edited by Jennifer P. Mathews and Thomas H. Guderjan. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2017. Pp. iii + 309. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816533527.

In the Lands of Fire and Sun: Resistance and Accommodation in the Huichol Sierra, 1723–1930. By Michele McArdle Stephens. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 177. $50.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780803288584.

Género, ciencia y política: Voces, vidas y miradas de la arqueología mexicana. By Apen Ruiz Martínez. Ciudad de México: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2016. Pp. 251. Paperback. ISBN: 9786074847970.

The Fifteenth Month: Aztec History in the Rituals of Panquetzaliztli. By John F. Schwaller. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. Pp. ix + 264. $39.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780806162768.