Historias Podcast

Steven spoke with historians Luis Herrán Ávila and Randal Sheppard about the history of revolutionary nationalism in Mexico, its enduring place in political life, and its importance to AMLO. Luis and Randal also discuss the immediate challenges facing the Mexican president, including huachicoleo, insecurity, impunity, and Mexico’s relationship with the United States. Originally aired February 18,...

James Mestaz, a post-doctoral fellow at Claremont-McKenna College, joined Carlos to discuss his research on water, the indigenous Mayo communities in northwestern Mexico, and revolutionary state between the 1920s and 1970s. Originally aired February 11, 2019

In this episode, professor of political science Michael Allison discusses the February 3, 2019 presidential election in El Salvador. With Nayib Bukele from the GANA party emerging as the victor, Bukele is the first candidate since the end of the Civil War not from the two dominant political parties. Allison offers what this election means for not only El Salvador and Latin America, but the America...

Carlos spoke with Dr. Bianca Premo, Professor in the Department of History at Florida International University, to discuss her past and current research and time in the archives. Dr. Premo is scholar with a wide range of research interests in Latin American history, including childhood and youth, the law, intellectual history, gender, slavery and ethnohistory. Her original regional expertise was i...

In the inaugural episode of our Luminaries series, Steven spoke with Dr. Lyman Johnson, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Lyman’s impact on Latin American history is broad and deep. Along with Mark Burkholder, he is author of Colonial Latin America and is the founding editor of the Diálogos series from the University of New Mexico Press. Lyman’s resear...

Dr. Micah Oelze joined Steven to discuss his research on the politics of urban planning in 1940s Colombia, his current book project on cultural politics in 1930s Brazil, and how his embrace of technology has influenced his pedagogy. Originally aired December 4, 2018

Dr. Christina Bueno, an associate professor in the department of history at Northeastern Illinois University, joined Steven to discuss her award-winning book, The Pursuit of Ruins: Archaeology, History, and the Making of Modern Mexico, which was published by University of New Mexico Press in 2016. Originally aired November 26, 2018

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega joined Carlos and Dustin to discuss his research on water, waste, resource management, and the importance of research having a positive impact on communities, especially its most marginal members. They also discuss his use of social media to offer mentorship and guidance for graduate students and early career academics.

Dr. Eunice Rojas, an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Furman University, joined Steven to discuss her work on Argentine authors’ use of madness and the insane asylum. She also talks about her current project on protest music in Chile and the opportunities and tough choices in making a mid-career move. Originally aired November 13, 2018

In our inaugural state of the field episode, Drs. Tanya Harmer and Renata Keller talk with Dustin about Latin America’s Cold War. They discuss the meaning of the Cold War in Latin America, questions of chronology and areas of scholarly emphasis, and their own work highlighting voices long overlooked in the historiography. Originally aired November 5, 2018

Colin Snider, Courtney Campbell, and Gray Kidd joined Steven to discuss yesterday’s runoff presidential election in Brazil. They discuss the evolution of democracy, the importance of regional history, and what may lay ahead. Originally aired October 29, 2018

Dr. Javier Puente sits down to chat with Carlos for the first episode of The Environmental Series. They discuss Environmental History and Historical Climatology, the importance of being interdisciplinary, future work, and current events in Peru. Originally aired October 22, 2018

Dr. Abbey Steele joined Dave and Steven to discuss her book Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War, published in 2017 by Cornell University Press. In this important work, Abbey explores the idea of collective violence, in which a particular group of people – not based on race or ethnicity – are targeted in an attempt to cleanse them from an area. The Colombian example is a cautionary t...

Yesterday, Sunday, October 7, 2018, well over 100 million Brazilians cast their votes in presidential and congressional elections, with a sizable number voting en blanco or destroying their ballots. Of the presidential aspirants, the top two vote-getters were Congressman Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party and former education minister and Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad of the Workers Part...

Dr. Miguel Tinker Salas of Pomona College joined Dustin and Steven to discuss the various problems afflicting Venezuela today. Tinker Salas reminds us that to fully understand the economic, political, and humanitarian crises, one must understand the historical evolution of the oil industry, the myth of the país privilegiado, and such state institutions as the military. Notum bonum: There’s a speci...

Card sharks. Bigamists. Kidnappers. Brawlers. Drunks. Imposters. Assassins for hire. These are the people that played critical roles in the establishment of imperial Spanish rule in the 16th century Americas. Dr. Martin Nesvig of the University of Miami spoke with Steven about his new book Promiscuous Power: An Unorthodox History of New Spain and the everyday practices of making and unmaking of em...

Dr. Lisa Munro spoke with Carlos about her research on the emergence of negative stereotypes of indigenous populations in Guatemala in the 1930s. They also discuss life #withaPhD, building community through social media, and her work leading writing workshops aimed at helping scholars and authors achieve their writing and publishing goals.

Dr. Charles St-Georges of Denison University sat down with Dave McLaughlin to discuss his recent book Haunted Families and Temporal Normativity in Hispanic Horror Films – Troubling Timelines and its exploration of “three recent horror films from the Spanish-speaking world that, rather than explicitly referencing recent political violence, speak to the societal conditions and everyday normative vio...

Dr. Juan José Ponce-Vázquez joined Carlos and Steven to discuss his research on smuggling in the 17th century Spanish Caribbean. They also discuss writing strategies for finishing the first book, the value of social media, work-life balance, and what lay on Juanjo’s research horizon. Originally September 4, 2018

Historias is back! In this episode, Drs. Erika Edwards, Jackie Sumner, and Dave McLaughlin join Steven to discuss such challenges of academia for junior faculty as experiencing the pressures of insecure employment, navigating tenure requirements, and building lives off campus. Originally aired August 27, 2018

Dr. Jürgen Buchenau joined Steven at the Cervecería Untertürkheim in Buenos Aires to discuss the convincing victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Sunday’s Mexican presidential election. Jürgen also talks AMLO’s roots, his course as a politician over the past quarter century, and what his presidency may mean for Mexico and its future. Originally aired July 6, 2018

Since mid-April, Nicaragua has been in the midst of a severe and sustained political crisis that also features intense political violence. Various sectors of civil society are now in dialogue with the government of Daniel Ortega in search of a path to diminish the violence and return to democratic rule. Tim Rogers, Latin America editor for Fusion, speaks with Steven Hyland to unpack what is going...

HOT TAKE! In this hot take edition of Historias, Dr. Steven Taylor of Troy University talks with Steven to unpack Ivan Duque’s win in Colombia’s presidential runoff election this past Sunday. They also talk about its impact on the peace process and the challenge of the humanitarian crisis and political instability in Venezuela. Originally aired June 19, 2018.

What do heroes and superheroes tell us about Latino and Latina social reality, identity, and belonging in the United States? Dr. Mauricio Espinoza joined Dave McLaughlin to discuss how the figures of the Latino and Latina hero and superhero are used within multiple genres (film, graphic novel, Netflix, etc) to trouble notions of legality and illegality within the U.S. imaginary. Mauricio’s current...

What do the results of yesterday’s presidential elections in Colombia reveal about this country attempting to exit decades of civil war? Dr. Abbey Steele, an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Amsterdam, joined Dave and Steven to discuss the results in this hot take edition of Historias. Dr. Steele’s book Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil W...