Psychological Correlates of Housing in Central America

1964 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-499
Author(s):  
Robert C. Williamson

Traditional or developing areas of the world are moving toward urban and industrial societies characterized by rationalistic behavior. To an appreciable extent this transition is identified as the rise of urban middle sectors or classes, at least in the case of Latin America. One phase of the transition from a stage of economic underdevelopment to an industrial system has been the advent of public housing. Latin America in the last twenty years has witnessed extensive migration of families from the rural hinterland—in addition to the ever expanding families of the city itself— to the squatter shacks and slums, with eventual transfer of limited numbers to public housing. This article proposes to report on some differences in behavior and values of residents of private dwellings as opposed to those residents of public housing in two Central American capitals.

Author(s):  
Alice C. Shaffer

Central America has been one of the pioneer areas for the United Nations Children's Fund assisted pro grams. When the United Nations Children's Fund, under a broadened mandate from the United Nations, shifted the emphasis of its aid from emergency to long term and from war-torn countries to those economically less developed, Cen tral American governments immediately requested its assist ance to strengthen and extend services to children and mothers. As one of the first areas in the world to aim at the eradication of malaria and to have engaged in an inten sive campaign against malnutrition on a regional basis, the Central American experiences in these fields have become known, watched, and studied by people from many countries. Against this background, international and bilateral organi zations are working together with governments as they broaden the scope and the extent of their programs. Ten years of co-operative action have highlighted the need for train ing of personnel, both professional and auxiliary. This period has also made clear the value of more integrated programs with wider collaboration both within the ministries of government and between the international organizations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-284
Author(s):  
ANA ELENA PUGA

Like earlier mother activism in Latin America, the annual Caravana de Madres Centroamericanas (Caravan of Central American Mothers) through Mexico strategically activates the traditional archetype of mothers as passive, pious, suffering victims whose self-abnegation forces them, almost against their will, out of their supposedly natural domestic sphere. Three elements, however, distinguish the caravana from earlier protests staged by mothers. First, this protest crosses national borders, functioning as a transnational pilgrimage to the memory of the disappeared relative. This stage-in-motion temporarily spotlights and claims the spaces traversed by undocumented Central American migrants in Mexico, attempting to recast those migrants as victims of violence rather than as criminals. Second, through performances of both devotional motherhood and saintly motherhood, the caravana's mother-based activism de-normalizes violence related to drugs and migration. Third, performances of family reunification staged by the caravana organizers take place in the few cases in which they manage to locate family members who have not fallen prey to violence but have simply resettled in Mexico and abandoned or lost touch with families left behind in Central America. These performances of family reunification serve important functions: they shift the performance of motherhood from devotion to saintly tolerance, patience and forgiveness – even toward prodigal offspring who were ‘lost’ for years; they provide a chance for other mothers to vicariously feel joy and hope that their children are still alive; they exemplify world citizens challenging incompetent or indifferent nation state authorities; and they enact a symbolic unification of Central America and Mexico in defiance of contemporary nation state borders.


2019 ◽  
pp. 95-126
Author(s):  
Sharon Erickson Nepstad

This chapter examines the conditions that fostered liberation theology in Latin America. The chapter provides a brief overview of liberation theology’s central themes and how it fueled revolutionary movements in Central America, particularly in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It surveys the Catholic hierarchy’s responses, ranging from sympathy to condemnation, and highlights several US religious movements that expressed solidarity with Central American Catholics who were fighting for social justice. These organizations included Witness for Peace, which brought US Christians to the war zones of Nicaragua to deter combat attacks, and also Pledge of Resistance, which mobilized tens of thousands into action when US policy toward the region grew more bellicose. Finally, the chapter describes the School of the Americas Watch, which aimed to stop US training of Latin American militaries that were responsible for human rights atrocities.


Author(s):  
Yanira Oliveras-Ortiz ◽  
Wesley D. Hickey ◽  
Jennifer S. Jones

Educational leaders in rural schools across the world face distinctive challenges. In this chapter, the authors report the findings of two studies examined through narrative inquiry conducted in a Garifuna and Ketchi Mayan village in Central America. The case studies explore the role of the principal as a strategic leader to improve the education system, and the impact of these leaders in their communities. By sharing these stories, the authors illustrate the importance of strategic thinking, as well as both transformative and servant leadership to promote change.


2020 ◽  
pp. 295-306
Author(s):  
Russell Crandall

This chapter begins with Nils Gilman's seminal essay “The Twin Insurgency,” stating that gangs aim to carve out de facto zones of autonomy for themselves by crippling the state's ability to constrain their freedom of economic action. It talks about gangsters in Latin America that took advantage of the vulnerability of the states they operated in to such a degree that they frequently became shadow powers. It also details how gangs terrorized their host societies, using corruption, extortion, and bullets as their weapons of choice. The chapter cites the statistics that emphasized that the most violent cities in the world were in Latin America, clarifying that the statistics were a result of the impunity enjoyed by the region's criminal organizations, primarily those with ties to the illicit drug trade. It discusses how drug gangs often served as the de facto administrator of social services in slums, where the state failed to provide much of anything.


Author(s):  
Carlos M. Paixao Junior ◽  
Roberto A. Lourenço ◽  
Fernando Morales-Martínez

Considering questions related to South and Central America probably is best done by using the better-known term of Latin America. Although much of the history of the region has common roots, many specificities make these countries somewhat heterogeneous. However, one can say that ageing in the region has been accelerated and diverse from what was witnessed in more affluent countries elsewhere in the world, because of the persistent problem of poverty still unresolved in Latin America. The over-60 population has been growing in the region for the past 30 years, producing an increase in old-age indices and old-age dependency ratios. This raises important issues about the social protection models that should be adopted to cope with these demographic trends.


Author(s):  
Miguel Reyes

The Northern Triangle of Central America is one of the most violent regions in the world. Although the violence has a long history, the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are currently experiencing a critical situation with a new threat: criminal gangs. This article explores regional violence and elaborates a peacebuilding proposal based on a reading of the concept of jubilee. Jubilee is explained via the categories of inclusion, reconciliation and rest. The article concludes that for the countries of the northern Central American triangle, the application of jubilee principles represents true peace in times of peace.


2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (01) ◽  
pp. 33-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mark Ruhl

AbstractAnalysts agree that political corruption is an obstacle to democratic consolidation but disagree about how to measure the extent of corruption in individual nations. This analysis of the Central American countries demonstrates that the most important competing quantitative measures of political corruption produce strikingly different rankings. These contradictory results are caused less by poor measurement techniques than by the existence of two different dimensions of corruption that do not always coincide. Statistical indicators based on expert perceptions of corruption and alternative indicators based on ordinary citizens' firsthand experiences with bribery measure, respectively, grand corruption by senior officials and petty corruption by lower-level functionaries. This study attempts to explain why several Central American nations suffer primarily from one or the other rather than both. It advances recommendations for future research and future anticorruption policies that may be applied to Latin America as a whole.


Author(s):  
Lawrence D. Mann

The author is Professor Emeritus of Planning, School of Planning, College of Architecture, University of Arizona, Tucson; and Adjunct Professor of Regional Development, Department of Geography and Regional Development, Graduate College and the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the same university. Professor Mann is adviser to organizations and governments locally, regionally, nationally, in Latin America, Europe, etc., and also a member of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE). The text that follows is a revised, edited and radically reduced version of a paper presented at the WSE Symposion "Defining Success of the City in the 21st Century," Berlin, 24-28 October, 2001.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. e0009642
Author(s):  
Sergio E. Bermúdez ◽  
Brittany A. Armstrong ◽  
Lillian Domínguez ◽  
Aparna Krishnavajhala ◽  
Alexander R. Kneubehl ◽  
...  

Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) spirochetes are likely an overlooked cause of disease in Latin America. In Panama, the pathogens were first reported to cause human disease in the early 1900s. Recent collections of Ornithodoros puertoricensis from human dwellings in Panama prompted our interest to determine whether spirochetes still circulate in the country. Ornithodoros puertoricensis ticks were collected at field sites around the City of Panama. In the laboratory, the ticks were determined to be infected with TBRF spirochetes by transmission to mice, and we report the laboratory isolation and genetic characterization of a species of TBRF spirochete from Panama. Since this was the first isolation of a species of TBRF spirochete from Central America, we propose to designate the bacteria as Borrelia puertoricensis sp. nov. This is consistent with TBRF spirochete species nomenclature from North America that are designated after their tick vector. These findings warrant further investigations to assess the threat B. puertoricensis sp. nov. may impose on human health.


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