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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

“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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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?

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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, “Seven Erroneous Theses” 50 Years Later

:::::: Abstract ::::::

“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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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

:::::: Abstract ::::::

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.

Introduction, The Legacy of Rodolfo Stavenhagen (1932–2016): Linking Critical Scholarship and Social Justice

:::::: Introduction ::::::

The Legacy of Rodolfo Stavenhagen (1932–2016): Linking Critical Scholarship and Social Justice
by  Arturo Alvarado, Serena Chew Plascencia and Jan Rus                                     


Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s 1965 essay critical of seven theses about Latin America challenged the way social scientists thought about the region’s political economy and history. Serialized for a popular audience in the Mexico City daily El Día on June 25 and 26, 1965, it questioned the prevailing assumption among North American political economists and in Eurocentric thought that “modernization” through capitalist development could solve Latin America’s persistent backwardness and underdevelopment. It also reflected thinking among a younger generation of progressive intellectuals who questioned the thesis that backwardness in the region was a consequence of feudalism or semifeudalism, instead attributing it to the capitalist development of underdevelopment through the imperialist relationship between rich and poor nations in the world economy and to dependent relationships involving wealth and poverty between regions within Latin American countries.

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.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!!

ENGLISH

SPANISH

SaveSaveSaveSave

Abstract, Commentary: The Vicissitudes of Violence by Linda Green

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Commentary: The Vicissitudes of Violence 

by Linda Green

Michael Kearney’s and Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s combined works have had an enormous influence on my own thinking and anthropological practice. While in graduate school in the mid-1980s I had the opportunity to meet and talk with each of them before embarking on my fieldwork with rural Mayan widows in the end stages of the more overt and brutal forms of political violence in Guatemala. The resonance of their work speaks not only to the power of their conceptual insights, of which there are many, but also to the power of capitalist relations to orchestrate how marginalized people live and die.

Abstract, Ruta Mixteca Indigenous Rights and Mexico’s Plunge into Globalization by Rodolfo Stavenhagen

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Ruta Mixteca

Indigenous Rights and Mexico’s Plunge into Globalization by Rodolfo Stavenhagen

“Ruta Mixteca” is the name given to the circular migrations of indigenous farm workers between the Mexican state of Oaxaca and California long studied by Michael Kearney and his collaborators. Indigenous migrations to the United States have expanded in recent years as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement and changes in Mexico’s agrarian legislation that led to increased privatization of land and natural resources, dispossession of the traditional peasantry, and numerous local land- and resource-related conflicts. The Zapatista uprising stimulated the growth of a host of militant indigenous organizations, now also emboldened by constitutional changes that recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples according to international standards. Indigenous transnational migrations need to adapt to these changing conditions.