This article argues that one of the most important contributions of Carlos Fuentes's Terra Nostra is its rewriting of the modern subject. Through its metafictional dimension, the novel seeks to change the legacy of the recoding of subjectivities begun in the Spanish Golden Age. More specifically, it is through the construction of its characters and the way in which the latter depend on, and grow out of, the structure of the novel that Fuentes revises modern individualist conceptions of the subject. Although critics have tended to privilege the novel's realm of myth (understood as transcendent and timeless), this reading depends on the novel's evocation of a Marxist narrative of culture as struggle driven that Carlos Fuentes never loses from sight. The novel's structure arguably promotes a diachronic understanding of history into which both the mythic and material strands feed. Myth, in this reading, is a consciously embraced worldview that grounds, and dialectically informs, this vision of history rather than shying away from it.

The tradition of intermediaries negotiating conflicts between Indigenous and Western worlds in Latin America can be traced back to the colonial period. Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, semiprofessional or petty lawyers known as tinterillos assumed a seemingly ubiquitous presence in rural communities in Ecuador. Often local elites with some education, tinterillos commanded respect among their largely nonliterate Indigenous neighbors because of their ability to read, write, and handle documents. These intermediaries commonly exploited their privileged position for their own economic, social, and political benefit. Nevertheless, Indigenous peoples came to rely on tinterillos to petition the government and to challenge landholder abuses. On occasion, rather than feeling disempowered or victimized, Indigenous peoples learned to negotiate these relationships to their advantage. Tinterillos provide a convenient medium through which to examine how power relations were negotiated between different cultures and across deep class divides.

This study evaluates whether 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais have developed one specific strategy of electronic government. We searched for municipalities that have websites for the executive branch, relating this information to a number of secondary data. These data include variables on the Municipal Human Development Index (HDI-M), municipal budgetary revenues, year of founding of municipalities, the mayor's party affiliation, and a public policy initiative related to the creation of municipal executive branch websites. This analysis was performed to develop descriptive statistics among the variables collected. In addition to exploring descriptive analysis, we attempted to determine statistical models that explain the existence of websites for municipal executives. This allowed us to determine whether municipalities that were established earlier than others, have the highest HDI-M, and have larger budgets are also more likely to have websites. The results indicate that older municipalities, as well as those with higher HDI-M and elevated budgetary revenues, are more likely to have websites. A mayor's party affiliation indicates that municipalities administered by the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT, the center-left-wing party) are more likely to have websites than municipalities governed by the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, or PSDB, the center-right-wing party). Furthermore, municipalities that use the state government program Integraminas (Connect Minas) are less likely to have their own websites, which is an indication that these locations are using policy resources to communicate electronically with the population. Thus, newly founded municipalities with low HDI-M, with low budgetary revenue, and administered by center-right-wing parties may benefit from public policies that encourage greater transparency in the communication of municipal executives with their population.

The past eleven years have been extremely fruitful for Chilean specialists. Various scholars have formulated theories to explain Chile's political, social, and economic development; new monographs as well as doctoral dissertations have provided grist for the generalist's mill; and studies on mining—particularly the nitrate sector—agriculture, the role of labor, and more detailed political surveys have been published. Increasingly, one notes a tendency to undertake projects that will investigate twentieth-century topics. This essay reviews some of the recent contributions to Chile's already rich historiography and attempts to include material from other disciplines as well as history. It will not, however, discuss the Allende period, whose massive and still growing literature requires separate treatment. Those interested in this topic might profitably consult the recent work of Arturo and Samuel Valenzuela, “Visions of Chile” (LARR 10, no. 3 [1975]:155–75).

Padre Cícero Romão Batista, the priest who allegedly worked miracles until his death in 1934, has become a symbol for the vast, poverty-ridden Northeast of Brazil. Every year nearly a million pilgrims come to visit his adopted city, Juazeiro do Norte, in the arid interior of the state of Ceará. The fact that their journeys are not a remnant of the past, but a steadily growing reflection of the present, makes stories about the priest of special interest to social scientists as well as literary scholars. Although the pilgrimage in honor of Padre Cícero is not the largest in the country, it is the biggest in honor of a nonsaint anywhere in the Western world today.

I am grateful to Charles Bergquist for his consideration in sending me a draft of his review essay, thus giving me an opportunity to reply in the same issue of LARR. It is in many respects a perceptive commentary that raises some useful questions about the book. Nevertheless, some of the comments suggest an imperfect grasp of my intended message, perhaps because of a failure on my part to make it sufficiently clear. On some important points he reads things into the book that are not there; and other points that are in the book seem to be missed in Bergquist's reading of it. I therefore would like to clarify some of these matters, both for those who may read the book as Bergquist has and for those who may choose to rely upon his commentary for their knowledge of the book's contents. I also will attempt to say something about some of the general issues he raises.

Un pensamiento social militante, coherente y capaz de organizar y sistematizar teóricamente una concepción totalizadora de la cultura de la sociedad ecuatoriana, aún no emerge en el Ecuador. Nuestro país es uno de los pocos en América Latina que aún no ha visto surgir ese tipo de pensamiento, posibilitado históricamente en otros y que parece estar todavía en un proceso de gestación, a madurar en un futuro impredecible. La trayectoria histórica de nuestra estructura social global y la no insurgencia aún de un poderoso movimiento revolucionario de la clase obrera parecerían explicar este desarrollo acortado. En ausencia de una cultura revolucionaria, en el sentido estricto: que no carezca de una teoría total de si misma, es empero posible y necesario una práctica avanzada dentro de la cultura. La lucha por construír y/o fortalecer las corrientes críticas en las Ciencias Sociales a lo interno de nuestras universidades, es una forma de esta lucha. Y es en esa perspectiva que los esfuerzos realizados en estos dos años desde la Dirección de la Escuela de Sociología, para construir lo que se ha construido y fortalecer lo positivo que existía, se han inscrito. Las prioridades para haber hecho efectiva la inscripción de esta política académica en esa perspectiva han sido contínuas a lo largo de este bienio: posibilitar el desafío y la crítica seria al pensamiento seudo-científico de la sociología burguesa; crear condiciones, espirituales y materiales, para el desarrollo de posturas avanzadas en el pensamiento; desarrollar mecanismos de discusión y difusión de ese pensamiento avanzado para posibilitar su mayor influencia en el terreno de la cultura; y abrir alternativas académicas críticas para nuestro estudiantes de Ciencias Sociales.

This article highlights the interfaces between micro-level livelihoods, social networks, and macroeconomic trends and policies. Specifically, it analyzes the role of farmer groups in livelihood adaptation of smallholder maize producers in southern Mexico. We show how neoliberal market changes have shaped the local social structure with constraining and enabling effects on households' ability to adapt, while in turn the outcomes of the neoliberal policy reforms are being (re)shaped by the responses of the farmers, thereby changing the structural context. We provide evidence for the heterogeneity of adaptation processes and show that farmers' participation influences the outcomes of neoliberal policy reforms.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Politics of Market Discipline in Latin America: Globalization and Democracy. By Daniela Campello. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. viii + 239. $29.99 paper. ISBN: 9781107649866.

Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America: Business Power and Tax Politics. By Tasha Fairfield. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. viii + 333. $34.99 paper. ISBN: 9781107459090.

Globalization and the Distribution of Wealth: The Latin American Experience, 1982–2008. By Arie M. Kacowicz. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. vii + 248. $29.99 paper. ISBN: 9781107499744.

Globalization and Austerity Politics in Latin America. By Stephen B. Kaplan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 331. $20.99 paper ISBN: 9781107670761.

The International Monetary Fund and Latin America: The Argentine Puzzle in Context. By Claudia Kedar. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 251. $74.50 cloth. ISBN: 9781439909119.

Designing Industrial Policy in Latin America: Business-State Relations and the New Developmentalism. By Ben Ross Schneider. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. vii + 101. $70.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781137524836.

Gabriela Mistral's uncharacteristic short stories, which she began writing at the age of fourteen, demonstrate the Chilean poet's need to express violence through the brief narrative genre. Mistral wrote six short stories and in all of them she blurs the boundaries between gender and violence. For the sexes to be defined, Mistral seems to use violence as a means to distinguish them. When women suffer through men's actions, both gender performances become more pronounced and defined: women and men exist precisely because of men's harmful actions. A shift of perspective and agency occurs when men fail to recognize their own behavior and blame women for their fate. Both sexes lose their subjectivity (or sexuality) and become so intertwined that their differences are no longer perceptible. The two stories analyzed in this essay are the first story Mistral wrote, “El perdón de una víctima” and her last, “El rival.” In both, Mistral demonstrates her wariness to define a norm for heterosexual relationships, while at the same time, she attempts to discern female difference.

The employment growth rate during the last decade is one of the economic topics that has stimulated great attention in recent years. The absence of data that may be used for national level comparisons, however, has led to a number of inexact statements and positions on the problem. The purpose of this study is to fill in this informational vacuum in order to ascertain the data relevant to changes in employment in Chile for the period 1974–78.

Se procurará deslindar algunas significaciones que cobija la debatida noción de filosofía latinoamericana; sin ánimo de suponer por ello que se esté frente a un asunto que, al estilo neopositivista, pueda disolverse bajo el mero análisis lingüístico. Por el contrario, se trata de un problema que elude las divisorias tajantes, tal como la naturaleza que avanza y se entremezcla más allá de las marcaciones cartográficas. Al mismo tiempo, se ilustrarán los aspectos acotados, aunque posponiendo el examen de sus tan desiguales grados de importancia reflexiva y pragmática.

Twenty-five years have passed since Haiti’s first free and fair elections. In that time, democratization has been slow and there have been many setbacks. This article offers some observations regarding Haiti’s democratization journey by examining how the government introduced a massive industrial park that required the displacement of a large number of farmers. In a departure from historical practice, when faced with opposition, the government deployed its security forces sparingly. Also, the levels of transparency and civil society engagement were not terrible. Although it is insufficient and superficial, movement is in the right direction. In contrast, local government officials may have lost status and legitimacy during the process, which could hinder future democratization. Finally, the footprint of outsiders in this project was massive, confirming how profoundly Haiti’s democratization is transnationalized. This makes tracking its democratic development extremely challenging and yet necessary given the country is not alone in this predicament.

Why should one publish in LARR? How does one publish in LARR? These questions are asked by graduate students, foreign colleagues, and researchers moving into Latin American studies. For the benefit of such prospective authors, it may be worth reviewing the pros and cons of publishing in this journal.