Bildner Western Hemisphere Studies Book Series

The publication of Reforming Brazil marks the launch of Western Hemisphere Studies, a joint publication initiative by the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies at the City University of New York and Lexington Books. The scholarly works published in this series endeavor to support the Bildner Center’s mission of furthering understanding of contemporary issues in the Americas, creating international dialogue on policy and generating research on a range of topics that are both country and theme specific.

Reforming Brazil, (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004).

Edited by Mauricio A Font and Anthony Peter Spanakos
with the assistance of Cristina Bordin

For years, successive governments in Brazil grappled with the
vexing issues of unequal distribution of wealth and runaway
inflation. In the 1990s, long-overdue reforms began to help
tame inflation, streamline bloated and ineffective government
and address chronic social ills. But problems and questions
remain: Why is Brazil still so poor, and why is inequality so
intransigent? Were some reforms counter-productive, or
could they have been implemented better?

Reforming Brazil is a thought-provoking examination of these and other important issues facing Brazil today, from privatization and agrarian reform to entrepreneurial programs and hemispheric integration. Written by 11 Brazilianist scholars from a range of disciplines and intellectual traditions, the book offers compelling new insights for international policymakers, economists and scholars of Brazil.

To preview Reforming Bazil click here to download pdf version of Mauricio Font's introduction Dawn of a New Era.

Contents:

Part I: Introduction
    Dawn of a New Era, Mauricio A Font
1. The Reform Agenda, Anthony Peter Spanakos

Part II: Reforms
2. Monetary and Fiscal Reforms, Eliana Cardoso
3. Privatization: Reform through Negotiation, Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida
4. Social Policy Reform, Sônia Draibe
5. Agrarian Reform, Anthony Pereira
6. Political Reform: The "Missing Link", David Fleischer

Part III: Institutions, Actors, and Regional Context
7. Competitive Federalism and Distributive Conflict, Alfred Montero
8. Industrialists and Liberalization, Peter Kingstone
9. Entreprenueurs: The PNBE, Eduardo Rodrigues Gomes and Fabrícia C. Guimarães
10. Working-Class Contention, Salvador Sandoval
11. Brazil and Hemispheric Integration, João Paulo Machado Peixoto

Cuban Counterpoints: The Legacy of Fernando Ortiz
(Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004)

Edited by Mauricio Font and Alfonso W. Quiroz

“This interesting collection of essays…highlights how relevant
Ortiz’s writings are to understanding contemporary as well as
historical trends in the Americas.”
-Susan Eckstein, Boston University

“This volume is a compelling encounter with the many personas
of Fernando Ortiz – anthropologist, lawyer, politician, humanist,
and, perhaps most important, Cuban visionary. Ortiz’s
multidisciplinary contributions are approached with respect,
affection, critical consciousness, and a welcome playfulness rarely seen in academic anthologies. Whether you are already familiar with the huge corpus left by Ortiz or discovering him for the first time, let this volume be your guide to the exuberance of Ortiz’s legacy, which is not only a gift to Cuba but to our globalized world, struggling with ever more pathos to figure out why culture still matters.”
-Ruth Behar, University of Michigan

While Fernando Ortiz’s contribution to our understanding of Cuba and Latin America more generally has been widely recognized since the 1940s, recently there has been renewed interest in this scholar and activist who made lasting contributions to a staggering array of fields. This book is the first work in English to reassess Ortiz’s vast intellectual universe. Essays in this volume analyze and celebrate his contribution to scholarship in Cuban history, the social sciences – notably anthropology – and law, religion and national identity, literature, and music. Presenting Ortiz’s seminal thinking, including his profoundly influential concept of ‘transculturation’, Cuban Counterpoints explores the bold new perspectives that he brought to bear on Cuban society. Much of his most challenging and provocative thinking – which embraced simultaneity, conflict, inherent contradiction and hybridity – has remarkable relevance for current debates about Latin America’s complex and evolving societies.

Contents:

Introduction:
The Intellectual Legacy of Fernando Ortiz,
Mauricio Font, Alfonso W. Quiroz, and Pamela Maria
Smorkaloff

Part I: Life and Education
1. Fernando Ortiz, My Father
    María Fernanda Ortiz Herrera
2. Spanish Intellectuals and Fernando Ortiz (1900-1941)
    Consuelo Naranjo Orovio and Miguel Angel Puig-Samper Mulero
3. It All Started In Madrid
    Octavio di Leo
4. Ethnography at the University of Havana
    María del Rosario Díaz

Part II: Interpreting Cuban History
5. Transculturation and Nationalism
    Rafael Rojas
6. The Early Republic: Politics, Civic Culture, and Sovereignty
    Marifeli Pérez-Stable
7. The Political Ideas of Fernando Ortiz (1906-1933)
    Carmen Almodóvar
8. Economic Historian and Editor of Cuban Classics
    José Matos Arévalos
9.Tobacco in the Contrapunteo: Ortiz and the Havana Cigar
    Jean Stubb

Part III: Social Sciences and Law
10. Economic Sociology and Ortiz’s Counterpoint
     Enrique S. Pumar
11. Transcultural Anthropology in the Américas (with an Accent): The Uses of Fernando Ortiz
     Fernando Coronil
12. Poetry in the Presidio: Towards a Study of Proyecto de Código Criminal Cubano
     Alejandra Bronfman

Part IV: Racial Diversity, Religion and National Identity
13. The Term Afro-Cuban: A Forgotten Contribution
     Tomás Fernández Robaina
14. Transculturation a la Ajiaco: A Recipe for Modernity
     Patricia Catoira
15. Religion in the Work of Fernando Ortiz
     Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla

Part V: Literature and Music
16. The Counterpoint and Literature
     Roberto González Echevarria
17. Of How Fernando Ortiz Found an Elusive Maiden for an Enchanted Gentleman
     Ricardo Viñalet
18. Comparative Analysis of Theoretical Symbols
     Antonio Fernández Ferrer
19. Stirring the Ajiaco: Changüí, Son, and the Haitian Connection
     Benjamin Lapidus
20. Fernando Ortiz, Founder
     María Teresa Linares Savio

La Republica Cubana y José Martí (1902-2002), Forthcoming

Edited by Mauricio Font and Alfonso W. Quiroz

Contents:

Introduction:
The Cuban Republic and José Martí, Mauricio Font and Alfonso W. Quiroz

Part I: Building Nation and Cult of Martí
1. "Otro gallo cantaría": Essay on the First Cuban Republicanism, Rafael Rojas
2. The 'Apostle' in Stone: Nationalism and Monuments in Honor of José Martí, João Felipe Gonçalves
3. The Struggle to Redefine Martí and "Cuba Libre" in the 1920s, Lillian Guerra

Part II: Revolutionary Legacies
4. "Rights are Taken, Not Pleaded": Jose Martí and the Cult of the Recourse to Violence in Cuba, Rafael E. Tarragó
5. Martí in Cuban Schools, Alfonso W. Quiroz
6. José Martí, pilar de la Revolución Cubana, Paul Estrade

Part III: Martí from the United States
7. José Martí Against Race, Oscar Montero
8. José Martí Between Nation and Empire: Latino Cultural Critique at the Intersection of the Americas, Laura Lomas
9. Brooklyn, Charleston, Africa: Race and Ethnicity Beyond the Nation in José Martí's "Escenas norteamericanas", Antonio López
10. Construyendo la imagen literaria de Martí en los Estados Unidos, Ivan A. Schulman

Part IV: Forming Identities
11. José Martí en la obra de Fernando Ortiz, José Matos
12. Inmigración española e imaginario nacional en Cuba, 1900-1920, Consuelo Naranjo Orovio
13. Martí y la emigración cubana de Yucatán frente al nacimiento de la República (1902-1925), Carlos E. Bojórquez Urzaiz
14. Gender Trouble: José Martí and Juana Borrero, Ottmar Ette

New Approaches to Social Reform in Brazil, Forthcoming (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield).

Edited by Mauricio Font

Institutional and social actors at all levels of government have advanced diverse strategies to address Brazil’s enormous social needs, working within the context of the post-1990’s reform process. New Approaches to Social Reform in Brazil probes these new approaches, including the role of civil society in designing and implementing them. The book explores trends in social policy in the context of a globalizing world; job quality and employment; recent reforms on health, welfare and pension systems; issues of planning and management successful social programs; the role of business and urban local dynamics; and rural poverty, land reform, sustainable development (Rio + 10), environment and human rights. A compilation work, resulting from the international symposium with the same title, which took place at The Graduate Center (City University of New York), on April 8-9, 2002.

Volume 1

Contents:

1. Poverty in Brazil: What is New at the Onset of the 21st Century, Sonia Rocha
2. Social incentives, Cristovam Buarque
3. Health Reform and Federalism in Brazil, André Medici
4. Puzzles of Women’s Rights in Brazil, Mala Htun
5. From Confrontation to Collaboration, John Garrison
6. Labor Reform in Brazil, Paulo Paiva
7. Macroeconomic Adjustment, Trade Liberalization and Labor Market Performance in Brazil, Jorge Saba Arbache and Francisco Galrão Carneiro
8. Daring to Dream: Social Actors Fighting for Labor Rights, Simone Buechler
9. The Metamorphosis of Marginality: From Myth to Reality in the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro 1969–2002, Janice E. Perlman
10. Brazilian Agrarian Reform in the Nineties, José Maria F.J. da Silveira, Antonio Márcio Buainain and Marcelo M. Magalhães


Click here to purchase Reforming Brazil
from Lexington Books.


Click here to purchase
Cuban Counterpoints
from Lexington Books.