In June 1958 the Point Four program in Nicaragua, part of a wider scheme devised by President Har... more In June 1958 the Point Four program in Nicaragua, part of a wider scheme devised by President Harry Truman to bring development aid and expertise to poor countries, was closed at the request of the Nicaraguan government. It was a defeat repeatedly foretold. The previous year Nicaraguan Minister of Agriculture Enrique Chamorro had cornered one of the program's Nicaraguan employees, treating him to a lengthy tirade about the scheme's agricultural work. According to the minister the project was "nonsense. .. ridiculous. .. [a] complete failure." The program's "employees believe that they work for the United States and they feel backed because, according to them, they are members of Point Four." Chamorro begged to differ. "Point Four does not existthat was Truman's idea, but the reality here in Nicaragua is that the Government puts up more than six million dollars while the 'yankees' don't even put up half a million." 1 Chamorro's exact figures can be questioned, but his critique gets to the heart of an important feature of Point Four, commonly neglected by historians. Point Four has an important place in the historiography of development, because it has been seen as a "milestone," an endeavor which linked the discourses of modernization and overseas development for the first time. 2 That foundational status is now often disputed, but an emphasis on the formative power of Point Four ideology still prevails. 3 While the ideas at work behind Point Four have *The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers, Charlotte Alston, Brian Ward, and Ray Chang. The Eccles Centre at the British Library and the British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Small Grant Scheme provided support for this research.
In late 2019, a team of researchers and activists from Ecuador and the UK began a new oral histor... more In late 2019, a team of researchers and activists from Ecuador and the UK began a new oral history project, accompanying Afro-Ecuadorian women living in the province of Esmeraldas, as they interrogated and articulated their history and heritage. The impact of coronavirus, which has hit Ecuador particularly hard, delayed the workshops and oral history interviews we had planned, but also created the space for an extended exploration of the ethics of the project. Over email and video calls, the research team debated how to ensure that our work was truly led by its Afro-Ecuadorian participants. How would we secure recognition for their creative and intellectual work and avoid appropriation of their ideas? And how would we facilitate a collective, community-based methodology when most eurocentric oral history is so rooted in individualist approaches? The result of this process is a collectively authored document, which stands as our ethical agreement and baseline, and a record of our joint commitment to decolonise the research process. This wide-ranging conversation between community activists and scholars explores the complex, painstaking negotiations required to create a truly decolonial and feminist practice in transnational oral history work.
Central America does not figure prominently in many conference programmes, but there are many sch... more Central America does not figure prominently in many conference programmes, but there are many scholars from different humanities and social science disciplines working on the region. This one-day workshop aims to bring together scholars of Central America to showcase their work and network with others working on the region. It is hoped that it will provide an overview of the research being conducted on Central America and identify emerging themes.
The elucidation of collective memory takes place on continually shifting ground, leaving scholars... more The elucidation of collective memory takes place on continually shifting ground, leaving scholars of memory with few collective certainties of their own. One aspect appears constant: the emphasis on trauma as a way of framing memories of the past. The question of how to represent trauma is pivotal to the culture of memory in many Latin American countries. However, an exclusive focus on trauma can obscure the persistence of other memorial cultures. In Nicaragua, for example, a pantheon of revolutionary heroes still dominates the memorial landscape. Here, I examine the case of Leonel Rugama (1949–1970), a Nicaraguan revolutionary poet. Rugama's dying words, ¡que se rinda tu madre! (let your mother surrender!), are a central element in Nicaraguan collective memory. Comparing memorials to Rugama over three decades, I argue that the use of ¡que se rinda …! in the early 1980s is indicative of the iconoclastic power of a particular collective moment. In contrast, “¡que se rinda…” is absent from the 2010 memorial which marks the 40th anniversary of Leonel Rugama's death. This change reflects the present Sandinista regime's discomfort with the revolution's original radical intent, a discomfort amply justified by the recent re-appropriation of Rugama's final words by opponents of the current regime.
In June 1958 the Point Four program in Nicaragua, part of a wider scheme devised by President Har... more In June 1958 the Point Four program in Nicaragua, part of a wider scheme devised by President Harry Truman to bring development aid and expertise to poor countries, was closed at the request of the Nicaraguan government. It was a defeat repeatedly foretold. The previous year Nicaraguan Minister of Agriculture Enrique Chamorro had cornered one of the program's Nicaraguan employees, treating him to a lengthy tirade about the scheme's agricultural work. According to the minister the project was "nonsense. .. ridiculous. .. [a] complete failure." The program's "employees believe that they work for the United States and they feel backed because, according to them, they are members of Point Four." Chamorro begged to differ. "Point Four does not existthat was Truman's idea, but the reality here in Nicaragua is that the Government puts up more than six million dollars while the 'yankees' don't even put up half a million." 1 Chamorro's exact figures can be questioned, but his critique gets to the heart of an important feature of Point Four, commonly neglected by historians. Point Four has an important place in the historiography of development, because it has been seen as a "milestone," an endeavor which linked the discourses of modernization and overseas development for the first time. 2 That foundational status is now often disputed, but an emphasis on the formative power of Point Four ideology still prevails. 3 While the ideas at work behind Point Four have *The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers, Charlotte Alston, Brian Ward, and Ray Chang. The Eccles Centre at the British Library and the British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Small Grant Scheme provided support for this research.
In late 2019, a team of researchers and activists from Ecuador and the UK began a new oral histor... more In late 2019, a team of researchers and activists from Ecuador and the UK began a new oral history project, accompanying Afro-Ecuadorian women living in the province of Esmeraldas, as they interrogated and articulated their history and heritage. The impact of coronavirus, which has hit Ecuador particularly hard, delayed the workshops and oral history interviews we had planned, but also created the space for an extended exploration of the ethics of the project. Over email and video calls, the research team debated how to ensure that our work was truly led by its Afro-Ecuadorian participants. How would we secure recognition for their creative and intellectual work and avoid appropriation of their ideas? And how would we facilitate a collective, community-based methodology when most eurocentric oral history is so rooted in individualist approaches? The result of this process is a collectively authored document, which stands as our ethical agreement and baseline, and a record of our joint commitment to decolonise the research process. This wide-ranging conversation between community activists and scholars explores the complex, painstaking negotiations required to create a truly decolonial and feminist practice in transnational oral history work.
Central America does not figure prominently in many conference programmes, but there are many sch... more Central America does not figure prominently in many conference programmes, but there are many scholars from different humanities and social science disciplines working on the region. This one-day workshop aims to bring together scholars of Central America to showcase their work and network with others working on the region. It is hoped that it will provide an overview of the research being conducted on Central America and identify emerging themes.
The elucidation of collective memory takes place on continually shifting ground, leaving scholars... more The elucidation of collective memory takes place on continually shifting ground, leaving scholars of memory with few collective certainties of their own. One aspect appears constant: the emphasis on trauma as a way of framing memories of the past. The question of how to represent trauma is pivotal to the culture of memory in many Latin American countries. However, an exclusive focus on trauma can obscure the persistence of other memorial cultures. In Nicaragua, for example, a pantheon of revolutionary heroes still dominates the memorial landscape. Here, I examine the case of Leonel Rugama (1949–1970), a Nicaraguan revolutionary poet. Rugama's dying words, ¡que se rinda tu madre! (let your mother surrender!), are a central element in Nicaraguan collective memory. Comparing memorials to Rugama over three decades, I argue that the use of ¡que se rinda …! in the early 1980s is indicative of the iconoclastic power of a particular collective moment. In contrast, “¡que se rinda…” is absent from the 2010 memorial which marks the 40th anniversary of Leonel Rugama's death. This change reflects the present Sandinista regime's discomfort with the revolution's original radical intent, a discomfort amply justified by the recent re-appropriation of Rugama's final words by opponents of the current regime.
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