Haiti: Political Failures, Cultural Successes

Weinstein, Brian & Aaron Segal, Haiti: Political Failures, Cultural Successes, New York: Praeger, 1984.

From the Preface:

We came initially to Haiti drawn by Brian Weinstein's interest in language and Arron Segal's interest in population. These research concerns have broadened, and in the present volume we attempt to analyze the entire political system. The theme of the book is that Haiti is a political failure but a cultural success. Its political system has consistently failed to provide liberty, justice, participation, or welfare except for a privileged few. Its abandoned, exploited and disdained peasants, whose labor permits the economy to function, have formulated and nurtured an interesting and productive culture which gave them the strength to survive while providing Haiti with a clear, well defined national identity. Economic, ecological, and political changes threaten the system, but Haitian culture is likely to endure.

Les Jacobins Noirs

James, P. I. R., Les Jacobins Noirs: Toussaint Louverture et la révolution de Saint-Domingue, [traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Naville] Paris, Gallimard., 1949.

Cyril Lionel Robert James (1901 - 1989): Ecrivain et militant politique, intellectuel, originaire de la colonie britannique de Trinidad and Tobago (Trinité-et-Tobago) aux Antilles. Visionnaire, James commença à militer très tôt pour l'indépendance de son pays et défendait l'idée d'une fédération des Antilles britanniques (cette fédération vit le jour après l'indépendance, mais ne dura que quelques années). Il oeuvra toute sa vie pour la révolution prolétarienne mondiale et pour la cause du panafricanisme. Il était l'auteur de nombreux ouvrages, dont une étude historique de la révolution de Saint-Domingue (Les Jacobins Noirs, 1938, traduit en français en 1949) et une pièce de théâtre sur la vie de Toussaint Louverture dans laquelle le chanteur et acteur noir américain Paul Robeson joua le rôle principal).

Fray Ramón Pané: Relación acerca de las antiguedades de los indios

Arrom, José Juan, Fray Ramón Pané: Relación acerca de las antiguedades de los indios, [nueva versión, con notas, mapa y apéndices], México: Siglo XXI editores, 1974.

Ramón Pané, monje de la Orden de San Jerónimo, de origen catalán, nació en la segunda mitad del siglo XV. Acompañante de Cristóbal Colón en su segundo viaje a las indias, fue quizá el primer europeo en estudiar y aprender una lengua indígena, el taíno, hablado en la isla de Puerto Rico. Por encargo del almirante Cristóbal Colón, investigó y escribió el primer libro escrito y editado en América: Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios.

Reseñado por Mario E. Ruiz.

Obituario de José Juan Arrom:

El escritor cubano José Juan Arrom (1910-2007) falleció en su casa de Massachussets, su última residencia desde que se jubiló de la Universidad de Yale, tras varias décadas de docencia. Fue miembro fundador de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española y miembro correspondiente de la Academia Cubana de la Lengua. Su partida enluta las letras hispánicas.
Este destacado crítico literario nació en Holguín, de padre mallorquí y madre cubana. Por su talento y dedicación al estudio, su familia lo envió a la Universidad de Yale, donde recibió tres títulos universitarios en letras y varios honores. Por las becas que le otorgaron y los trabajos desempeñados, fue nombrado Conservador de la Colección Latinoamericana de Yale, tarea que cumplió con gran eficiencia, al mismo tiempo que continuó su labor docente y asesoría de los estudiantes de literatura hispánica.

Latin America and the Caribbean: A Handbook

Véliz, Claudio, Latin America and the Caribbean: A Handbook, New York: Praeger, 1968.

From the cover sleeve:

This Handbook of Latin America and the Caribbean is the most comprehensive reference work on the area to appear in English. The book is divided into five sections. Part I consists of surveys of each country's history, political and economic development, and special problems, and provides full statistics; imaginatively planned maps, closely integrated with the text, convey information not to be found in an ordinary atlas. The following sections deal with subjects concerning the area as a whole. Part II takes up economic questions - external finance, inflation, foreign aid, banking, and the effects of industrialization, among others - and reviews organizations for trade, banking, and economic development. Essays in Part III treat a wide range of political topics and explore the continent's relations with the United States, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Parts IV and V survey the social and cultural background of the area. Individual chapters are devoted to the social and ethnic divisions of the population, to education, religion, sports, trade unions, and the press. There are analyses of the Indian and Hispanic cultural heritage, and the critical surveys of contemporary developments in literature, painting and sculpture, theater, music, cinema and architecture.

Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1969.

Cited in Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature.

A Survey of Archives in the Netherlands Pertaining to the History of the Netherlands Antilles

Meilink-Roelofsz, MAP, A Survey of Archives in the Netherlands Pertaining to the History of the Netherlands Antilles, reprinted from De West-Indische Gids, XXXV (1954/5).

F. Lequin, In memoriam M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz:

At the end of 1965 she spent three months in the West. This trip had been commissioned by the Dutch Government and STICUSA (Stichting Culturele Samenwerking met Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen). Her gruelling schedule again started with a conference - an international conference at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, to discuss better cooperation between institutions in the Caribbean preserving sources for West-Indian history. Mrs. Meilink here presented part of her 'A survey of archives in the Netherlands pertaining to the history of the Netherlands Antilles' (published in 1955).
(...)
Although her name had already been mentioned in connection with a professorial chair shortly before she took her doctorate, it was not until March 1970 that the Leiden University appointed her 'Bijzonder Hoogleraar' of the History of Western European Overseas Expansion, a chair especially founded by the 'Leidsch Universiteitsfonds'. Professor Meilink delivered her inaugural lecture (Van geheim tot openbaar; Een historiografische verkenning) on November 6th of the same year. It dealt with the
interrelationship between public accessibility and national and international interest in the Dutch colonial archives. The essential aim of a well organized archival system is the public accessibility which makes the archives available for the common good. Inaccessible archives will in the end be destroyed or eliminated. An important driving force behind her work from the early fifties onward - and obviously the background of this lecture - was the idea that by making the 'colonial archives' accessible, a historiography of the so-called developing countries would be made feasible, which would enhance the national and cultural identities of these countries.

From Objective to Subjective Social Barriers

Paula, A.F., From Objective to Subjective Social Barriers: A historico-philosophical analysis of certain negative attitudes among the negroid population of Curaçao, Foreword by H. Hoetink, Curaçao, 1967.

From the Foreword:

The author's main thesis is reflected in the title of his book: the originally existing objective barriers, which hampered or made the social and economic progress of the negroid population impossible, along with the whites' non-acceptance of these groups on the basis of equality, have been changed into subjective barriers by a process of psychological 'adaptation' on the part of the negroid groups; thus bringing about obstacles in the formation of the personality which - even if the original objective barriers would no longer exist - would hinder a complete and 'normal' development of the groups concerned. The impact of social social subordination for generations, led, in Dr. Paula's view, to serious psychological handicaps.

1966 Jandie Paula graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Social Philosophy. A year later he graduated from Universidad di Santo Tomas di Aquino in Rome with his thesis "From Objective to Subjective Social Barriers. In 1992 he graduated from the University of Utrecht with his dissertation "From Quasi-slave to slave". From 1969 to 1989 Paula was Director of the National Archives of the Netherlands Antilles. He taught sociology, philosophy and human rights at UNA (University of The Netherlands Antilles) in the period 1990-2000. He was also rector of the UNA in the period 1997-2000. He served in the interim cabinet of the Netherlands Antilles as prime minister in 1993-1994. Paula has many publications to his credit, including: the slave uprising on Curacao (1994), Slavery in a Nutshell (1987), and his latest work "The Cry of My Life" (2005).

Latin America: The Politics of Immobility

Adie, Robert F., & Guy E. Poitras, Latin America: The Politics of Immobility, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974.

From the Preface: The authors' approach:

...adopted here, is to generalize about a small number of basic topics in Latin American politics from a certain perspective - that Latin American politics will not change very rapidly because political groups, individually and together, block effective government. This approach has some convincing advantages: it enables the student to evaluate a few topics in some detail; it uses a common theme which spans the entire area rather than concentrating upon one country or dissipating effort on too many topics; and it is easily adapted to other readings as a supplement to other approaches. We hope this approach to Latin American politics will spare the reader extreme generality as well as extreme triviality.