Abstract, The Latin American Council of Social Sciences and Contemporary Latin American Thought

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The Latin American Council of Social Sciences and Contemporary Latin American Thought
by  Marcos Antonio da Silva ad Lucimara Inácio do Prado da Silva


[Latin American Perspectives is pleased to present this overview of important book series published by the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (Latin American Council of Social Sciences—CLACSO), the preeminent Latin American organization for critical research and publication, which shares LAP’s commitment to socially engaged scholarship that contributes to economic and social justice and the deepening of democracy. LAP, along with the University of California, Riverside, which hosts its office, became CLACSO’s first U.S. affiliate in 2008. Its collaboration with CLACSO has included an issue on hegemony in January 2007 with articles by members of CLACSO’s working group on the United States and more recently the inauguration of an annual volume of Latin American Perspectives en Español y Português published by CLACSO. The first issue of the series is Buscando alternativas políticas y económicas, featuring selected articles published in LAP from July 2015 to July 2016.]

Abstract, Indigenous Intellectuals in Contemporary Ecuador: Encounters with “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”

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Indigenous Intellectuals in Contemporary Ecuador: Encounters with “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”
by  Blanca Soledad Fernández


The indigenous intellectuals who were part of the foundation of the Ecuadorean indigenous movement of the 1980s contributed to the theoretical and political grounding of the concept of the plurinational state that is now recognized in the country’s new constitution. This concept constitutes a critique of the idea of nationhood that developed in Latin America throughout the twentieth century. A comparative reading of these intellectuals’ work on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” reveals two themes: colonial continuity and historical continuity. Both can be seen as a “settling of scores” with colonialism understood both as a historical period and as an analytical term for understanding the social reality of Latin America.

Abstract, Racial Mixing and National Integration in Latin America: The Return of Racial Differences in Mexico and Brazil

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Racial Mixing and National Integration in Latin America: The Return of Racial Differences in Mexico and Brazil
by  Eduardo Torre Cantalapiedra


The importance of racial differences in the configuration of Latin American societies has for decades been overshadowed by ideologies of racial mixing and social-class-based approaches to the analysis of the region’s societies. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century increased attention has been devoted to racial differences both in public policy and in social science research. Government affirmative action designed to reverse social inequalities due to racial differences in Brazil and the results of research on racial differences and racial mixing in Mexico indicate that, as Rodolfo Stavenhagen argued 50 years ago, racial mixing does not contribute to national integration.

Abstract, Applying Stavenhagen’s Analytical Approach to Research on Argentine Agrarian Social Structure

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Applying Stavenhagen’s Analytical Approach to Research on Argentine Agrarian Social Structure
by  Adriana Chazarreta


Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s analytical approach, as laid out in his 1965 “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America,” prioritized a dialectical perspective and relationships of functionality between two dynamics within a single structure and crystallized in fundamental conceptual proposals such as internal colonialism and a focus on the analysis of agrarian social structure. Application of the approach to current research problems in Argentina sheds light on the changes in agrarian social structure that have taken place in recent decades, in particular changes in dominant forms of land tenure, the relations of production, and the functional relationships between areas at different levels of development.

Abstract, “Seven Theses”: Notes by a Brazilian Translator in the Twenty-first Century

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“Seven Theses”: Notes by a Brazilian Translator in the Twenty-first Century
by Roberto Lima

Internal colonialism, “Seven Erroneous Theses”, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Current affairs, Translator’s notes
Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s classic “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” seems not only to have endured but to have gained explanatory power in relation to a variety of topics in Brazil today: the relationship between the middle class (and the elite) and the Southeastern states in the last election, the government’s options vis-à-vis major projects such as Belo Monte, the Workers’ Party advocates’ rhetoric in defense of the growth of the middle class, the disputes over the rights of indigenous peoples, and even the discourse of social movement leaders, co-opted by the Lula administration. Although the fourth thesis appears to have lost its strength, it still substantiates one of the key arguments in the text—that internal colonialism is critical for understanding Latin America.

Abstract, Bolivia and Its Transformations in the Light of “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”

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Bolivia and Its Transformations in the Light of “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”
by Gabriela Canedo Vásquez


Bolivia has become a plurinational state, and as such it seeks to dismantle the deeply ingrained internal colonialism that runs through the state and the society. Thus it recognizes self-determination by indigenous people, autonomous territories, plural economy and justice, communal democracy, and suma qamaña (living well) and identifies the indigenous as the main actors in the transformation process, sidelining both the working and the middle classes. Some of the contradictions at its core include views of development that range from extractivism to environmentalism and living well. The government claims to be oriented toward communitarian socialism, but developmentalism will entail the destruction of indigenous modes of survival that are considered culturally rich but backward from a Western perspective. The central indigenous actor of current government discourse has been pushed aside. The Bolivian process presents a way of building a more equal state and a society that offers greater opportunities provided that these structural contradictions are resolved.

Abstract, Development in Southern Mexico: Empirical Verification of the “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”

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Development in Southern Mexico: Empirical Verification of the “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”
by Carlos Alberto Jiménez-Bandala


An analysis of underdevelopment and poverty in the Papaloapan Basin of southern Mexico shows that, despite the use of different development models in the neoliberal pattern of accumulation, structural conditions still promote a form of internal colonialism that enables the growth of one region at the expense of another. Recent public policies meant to support development in the region seem to be based on the dominant twentieth-century perspectives that Stavenhagen called “erroneous theses about Latin America.”

Abstract, Received Wisdom: Stavenhagen’s “Erroneous Theses” and the Mexican Maquiladora Industry

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Received Wisdom: Stavenhagen’s “Erroneous Theses” and the Mexican Maquiladora Industry
by María del Rosario Fátima Robles Robles


Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” has contributed to a social science–based understanding of the processes of development and underdevelopment in Latin America. Fifty years after its publication, its analysis applies to a form of industrialization that has emerged along the northern Mexican border. The received wisdom about the maquiladora export industry and the implementation of an export-oriented development model—that they should foster regional industrialization and dynamism and increase employment—has not been realized. Examination of this industry highlights the relations between national economic structures and transnational corporations that deepen and transform current modes of internal colonialism.

Abstract, Alternatives for Latin American Integration: Beyond Racial Fusion and Multiculturalism

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Alternatives for Latin American Integration: Beyond Racial Fusion and Multiculturalism
by Jorgelina Loza


Latin American integration is a core issue in Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America.” A critical reading of the sixth thesis suggests an alternative interpretation. Changes in the past 50 years with regard to Latin American ethnic integration, for example in Mexico and Colombia, have called into question the model of integration through assimilation. The current challenges to integration in Latin America point to an alternative approach that attributes positive value to hybrid status as a path toward overcoming internal colonialism.

Abstract, Stavenhagen and the Nation: Ethnicity, Community, and Political Project

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Stavenhagen and the Nation: Ethnicity, Community, and Political Project
by Jorgelina Loza


There is consensus in Latin America that the modern states of the region emerged from a communal project based on the existence of pre-national societies. It remains important, however, to ask who the actors behind this construct are and how they understand the discourse of the nation promoted by those states. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, who took a critical view of the processes of construction of this modern organizational form, approached the concept of the nation as a construct that took into account the coalition of prevailing forces and could be disputed by those seeking to play a leading role in it.

Abstract, “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” and the Emergence of a New Mexican Anthropology

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“Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” and the Emergence of a New Mexican Anthropology
by Emanuel Rodríguez Domínguez


Mexican social anthropology was established as a practical tool for combining field studies with proposals for government action. From its inception it was closely related to the revolutionary project of national integration, but by the end of the 1950s academics had begun to question indigenista policy and its relationship with anthropological practice. Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” was one such critique. During the 1970s and 1980s it led to a debate that influenced many areas of anthropological study, nurturing a new kind of Mexican anthropology.

Abstract, Latin America’s Domestic Market and the Maintenance of Capitalism

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Latin America’s Domestic Market and the Maintenance of Capitalism
by Berenice Patricia Ramírez López


Rodolfo Stavenhagen, in his classic essay “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America,” addressed the narrow domestic market, indicating that it was basically a matter of income distribution. It has become clear that the priorities of the Latin American ruling class are focused on the world market rather than the local-national one. During the past 40 years, this class has become more determined to play the role of intermediary, taking its place in the field of trade, commerce, and mainly speculative financial transactions that allow for immediate returns. It does not promote domestic productive investment or the strengthening of education, innovation, or development technology and therefore secure and protected employment. Inequality has increased across the region, along with increasing labor precarity (notably informal employment), and thus the internal market reflects productive and social segmentation and inequality.

Abstract, Progress and Development: One and the Same in Latin America?

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Progress and Development: One and the Same in Latin America?
by Elizabeth Cabalé Miranda and Gabriel Modesto Rodríguez Pérez de Agreda


The error of the theses about Latin America that Rodolfo Stavenhagen criticized was mainly that they attempted to impose the capitalist class’s view of the world on the rest of society and that they were hegemonic. Stavenhagen’s arguments were not only counterhegemonic but directed at social praxis and social change. As he pointed out, Latin America’s internal colonialism is the result of capitalism’s subjugating and alienating mode of production, and therefore the solution to it cannot come from more capitalism. Any project for change must begin with breaking down our countries’ enormous social differences. Progress or development in Latin America will come not from economic growth but from the introduction of modes of production associated with the solidary economy.

Abstract, From Sociological Interpretation to Political Science

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From Sociological Interpretation to Political Science
by Fernando Barrientos Del Monte


From the end of the nineteenth century until well into the 1980s, one spoke of the “political sciences” (in the plural), a concept that included all the disciplines that analyzed political phenomena. “Sociological interpretation” began in the 1960s as a model of social science meant to provide both criticism and direction regarding development policies. Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s 1965 “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America” is an example of the role played by the political sciences at the time. Given the development of contemporary political science, which seeks dependent and independent variables and mid-range theories and bases its claims on empirical information, the question arises what Latin American political science can (re) learn from the interpretive model employed 50 years ago.

Abstract, “Seven Erroneous Theses” 50 Years Later

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“Seven Erroneous Theses” 50 Years Later
by Rodolfo Stavenhagen


I am convinced that, for every year that has gone by since I wrote “Seven Erroneous Theses,” at least one or two additional erroneous theses about Latin America have been advanced. I will not list them here; I leave that to my students. However, there are also many valid theses that I have not yet dealt with and that will be the subject of critical deliberation in the forthcoming years. The magic number “7” felt appropriate to me especially because it recalled—as readers will have guessed—the great Mariátegui’s Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, which we read avidly during my youthful college years.

I can say that I am satisfied with my text’s publication history. It was first printed in the Mexican newspaper El Día on June 25 and 26, 1965, and was well received. Shortly afterward it appeared as a chapter in anthologies and as an article in several specialized journals both in Mexico and in other Latin American countries. It was soon translated into other languages and has had a long career, continuing to appear in new publications to this day. I have sometimes been asked to reassess or update it. In 1985, 20 years after its first appearance, I gave a lecture on the topic at the Universidad Superior de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia, and in 1995 I did the same at a sociology congress in Bogotá. I cannot remember if these texts were published.

Abstract, 50 Years of “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”: Perspectives and Challenges for Latin American Theory and Practice

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50 Years of “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”: Perspectives and Challenges for Latin American Theory and Practice
by Serena Chew Plascencia


This introduction presents an overview of the international seminar “Nuevas miradas tras medio siglo de la publicación de las Siete tesis equivocadas sobre América Latina” (New Approaches a Half Century after the Publication of “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”), which was held on June 25 and 26, 2015, at the Colegio de México with more than 200 participants from various countries. The seminar was intended to trigger a comprehensive debate about the current situation in Latin America and, through a critical evaluation of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Theses,” invite academics of different sectors and generations to engage with the range of contemporary Latin American problems and ideas from a diversity of academic and political standpoints. It was not intended to be a eulogy; on the contrary, the idea was for younger and older generations to come together and imagine new, “non-erroneous” theses about Latin America through what Pablo González Casanova called an open and diverse dialogue. The talks brought together different fields and stances across the social sciences. Participants included political scientists, internationalists, agronomists, sociologists, anthropologists, advocates of social and cultural rights, activists fighting neoextractivism, economists, and others. The objective was to establish a broad cultural and ideological plurality that could rekindle feelings of solidarity among plural Latin American identities and foster possible solutions to the region’s different and, at the same time, very similar problems.

Abstract, Validity, Change, and the Reinvention of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”: Debate over the Pursuit of Modernity

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Validity, Change, and the Reinvention of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America”: Debate over the Pursuit of Modernity
by Arturo Alvarado


In June 2015 we held an international seminar at the Centro de Estudios Sociológicos of the Colegio de México commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s “Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America.” The event was a success at the continental level; the response to the call for papers was broad and diverse, with 134 proposals from various countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and Uruguay) and various disciplines and the participation of social activists and government officials as well as academics. Notably, new generations of students and professionals were enthusiastic about discussing the usefulness of Stavenhagen’s work in interpreting new phenomena occurring in our societies. The colloquium produced intense debate over the theoretical foundations of his essay, its historical context, and its continued relevance in explaining Latin American reality. The closing session of the event was an opportunity for the great founders of Mexican sociology, Pablo González Casanova and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, to engage in dialogue about the region’s current problems. The essays that appear in this issue represent this process of collective reflection.

March LAP Issue! Freeing Latin America from Erroneous Theses

Issue Editors: Arturo Alvarado, Serena Chew Plascencia and Jan Rus

Issue 219 | Volume 45 | Number 2 | March 2018

Table of Contents

More than a half century after the publication of Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s landmark essay “7 Erroneous Thesis about Latin America”, its critique of dominant development thinking remains sharp, as was shown at a colloquium hosted by El Colegio de México 50 years to the day after the publication of  the original text. The debate at the colloquium opened a new opportunity to rethink and place Stavenhagen’s theories in today’s context. In this latest issue of LAP, we are glad to bring together some of the essays written by participants in this vibrant debate. The essays analyse the relevance of Stavenhagen’s critique as well as the changes the continent has gone through and the new challenges it faces in today’s rapidly changing global order. In this manner, we hope to honor and celebrate Stavenhagen’s legacy as one of the great Latin American scholars of the long twentieth century, and to provoke further debate that shines light on the continent of the open veins.

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