Hemisphere

LACC’s flagship publication, Hemisphere, features articles from academics around the world who study Latin America and the Caribbean. Issues revolve around a central topic of contemporary relevance in the Americas, with an emphasis on the social sciences. Each issue includes feature articles, reports, book reviews, a photo essay and a bibliographic update. Hemisphere is designed to serve as a forum for new scholarship on Latin American and Caribbean issues.

Volume 30 Living with Lies View Issue

Disinformation and misinformation have a significant impact on societies and political systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. This issue examines the challenges of combatting fake news and how this process has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guest editor Ricardo Trotti, Executive Director of the Inter American Press Association, invites contributing authors to analyze issues that arise from misleading health news, disinformation surrounding political and electoral processes, and the need for public education to ensure accurate and sustainable media.

Volume 29 Migrations: The Hardships of Hope View Issue

Migration has long been a part of the political, social and humanitarian landscape of Latin America and the Caribbean. Individuals and societies confront conditions outside of their control, which make people risk the perils that migration implies. In this issue, guest editor Luis Guillermo Solís, former President of Costa Rica and Interim Director of LACC, invites scholars to examine some of the most salient cases of migration in the Americas. Articles analyze the causes of population movements within the region to destinations including Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Argentina and address how volatile environments are exacerbated by factors such as problematic political systems, COVID-19 and climate change.

Volume 28 Society and Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean View Issue

This issue of Hemisphere examines some of the steps that are being taken to conserve marine, terrestrial and urban ecosystems for the biodiversity they contain and the human communities that depend upon them for sustainable livelihoods. The invited contributors to this issue work at NGOs, botanic gardens and universities in The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador and the United States. The articles not only raise concerns for the social, economic and environmental consequences of climate change in the region, but also explore avenues for facing these challenges and offer clear case examples in which imperative actions are needed.

Volume 27 Documented: The Colonial Archive and the Future of the Americas View Issue

In the last three years, guest editor Bianca Premo has participated in and led a series of hemisphere-wide seminars on the archives of colonial Latin America, specifically what the historical record reveals and what it hides, and how records affect the stories we tell and the lives we lead. For example, one of the objectives of opening the archives is to tell the human stories of the colonial disempowered and use those to better understand today's disenfranchised. This approach to examining the archives reveals far more than past accounts and parallels to the present; in many ways it also provides a window into the future of the Americas.

Volume 26 Perpetual Resistance: Societies and Violence in Latin America View Issue

Violence has been a part of the LAC region’s landscape since before independence, evolving from interstate to intrastate, and, more recently, emerging as criminal violence in the 1990s. Today LAC is the world’s most violent region —home to seven of the ten cities registering the highest homicide rates. According to recent polling, insecurity is one of citizens’ two top concerns. Guest editor Jose Miguel Cruz unites top scholars to examine the complex problem from various disciplinary perspectives —history, sociology, political science, journalism, communications and public policy —to identify the drivers and manifestations of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Volume 25 The United States and Cuba after D17 View Issue

With the D17 announcement, US-Cuba policies were suddenly and dramatically transformed after decades of stale and repetitive relations. Guest editor Jorge Duany, director of FIU’s famed Cuban Research Institute, invited a group of leading experts to examine the repercussions of the restoration of diplomatic ties and discuss the intractable obstacles to the full restoration of relations between the two countries. Although normalization of diplomatic relations and the prospect of change have produced an exciting time for scholarship and policy analysis, the conclusion fifteen months later is that rapproachement has been slower and more modest than expected.

Volume 24 30 Years of Reform: Decentralization, Subnational Governments and Development in Latin America View Issue

More than 30 years after Latin America transitioned from dictatorships to democracy, decentralization, and institutional reforms to give impetus to citizen participation, transparency, government accountability and good governance, expectations have disappointed and concerns are raised today over a slowdown, or even reversal. Guest editor Cristina A. Rodríguez-Acosta, Assistant Director of FIU's renowned Institute for Public Management and Community Service, invites leading experts to analyze where the region stands and how decentralization reforms can be deepened.

Volume 23 How Free are Media in the Americas Today? View Issue

Guest-edited by Raul Reis, Dean of FIU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Volume 23 takes an in-depth look at a key challenge to democracy: freedom of the press. Despite the significant progress made over the past two decades to consolidate political rights and civil liberties in the region, the situation facing media professionals is more precarious; news outlets are closed, journalists’ ability to inform the public intensifies, and violence and intimidation targets them. Gag orders and legislation have increased the costs of reporting on important issues such as corruption, crime and violence. As a result, self-censorship has become the norm, with serious implications for the entire hemisphere.

Volume 22 Violence against Women in Latin America and the Caribbean View Issue

Women and girls are the primary victims of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, but boys and men suffer as well. Several countries in the LAC region have enacted anti-domestic violence laws and developed comprehensive legislation designed to address gender-based violence, however, virtually every country still records alarming high levels of domestic violence. This issue of Hemisphere, guest-edited by FIU Professor of History and Law, Dr. Victor Uribe, features expert analysis of the complex and chronic problem. As part of this issue, Uribe examines the transition from domestic violence to violence against women; an interview with renowned academic Dr. Rita Laura Segato explores her work on cultural or historical foundations of gender violence; and a review of international efforts to mobilize pressure against violence against women serves as an important resource for further study.

Volume 21 Asia and Latin America: A Pacific Connection? View Issue

Co-edited by Cristina Eguizabal, Director, LACC, FIU and Ariel Armony, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, UM, this issue examines partnerships being established, negotiated and consolidated between Latin America and Asia. Articles remind us of long-standing existing relationships between the two regions, but also discuss evolving ties and new dynamics that will likely influence interactions for years to come. The issue provides readers with a glimpse of the complexities that are shaping an important connection that the world is watching.

Volume 20 Energy Challenges in Latin America View Issue

Co-edited by Peter Hakim, President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue and Genaro Arriagada, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Inter-American Dialogue, this issue examines energy as a priority issue for nearly all Latin American and Caribbean countries and considers its impact on regional integration and both foreign and domestic policy. Articles present opportunities and challenges facing the region, as well as recommendations for addressing the energy issue in Latin America in a strategic, constructive and effective manner.

Volume 19 Religion in Latin America View Issue

This issue, edited by LACC Director of Research and Colombian Studies Institute Director, Ana Maria Bidegain, presents today’s Latin American and Caribbean religious landscape through different lenses: country profiles (Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia); sub-regional monographs (River Plate and the Caribbean); vignettes on the evolution of particular religious denominations (Christian, Islamic, and Judaic), communities (indige- nous Pentecostals) and practices (New World African religion). The feature article, authored by leading US expert on Latin American religion, Daniel Levine, examines the relationship between religion and politics in the region after thirty years of democratic rule. Different perspectives are represented: from the North and South of the Americas, as well as Europe.

Volume 18 Bolivia's Uncertain Future View Issue

Edited by former LACC Director, Eduardo Gamarra, this issue asked prominent Bolivian journalists and social scientists to critically analyze the first year and a half of Evo Morales’ government. Popularly elected in December 2005, Morales promised to conduct a revolution in democracy. In this collection of essays, the objective is to show a different view than the image of Morales as the Bolivian Nelson Mandela who freed his indigenous brethren from repression. The essays gathered here tell the story about how Bolivia’s first indigenous president has attempted to change Bolivia. These essays show that Morales’ first 18 months in office have been filled with promise, controversy, and conflict.

Volume 17 The New Old Cuba View Issue

Edited by former CRI Director, Damián Fernández, this edition of Hemisphere challenges the traditional perspective that Cuba is frozen in time, and examines how a new Cuba has emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union, 15 years of the Special Period, and significant demographic changes. This new Cuba has become even clearer with the recent transfer of power to Raul Castro.

Volume 16 The Latin American Military in the New Millennium View Issue

Recognizing the importance of the military institution in Latin American politics and societies, guest editor and LACC faculty associate, Félix E. Martín, assembled this issue devoted entirely to the military and security in the new millennium. Contributors span an international group of civil-military, defense and security experts who examine the various aspects of the military institution with respect to its old and new missions, its internal composition, and its potential and actual impact on national, regional and international politics.