Discusses the relationship between squatters and the state in Brazil. Information on redemocratization in Latin America; Return of electoral democracy; Political transition from authoritarian to procedurally democratic regimes; Detailed information on the squatter settlements in Brazil; Distribution and sale of cocaine from public low-income housing projects; Information on prison authorities in Brazil.
Reviews books on Afro-Hispanic and Caribbean literature. Includes The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures, by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin; Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Daryl Cumber Dance; Nicolas Guillen: Popular Poet of the Caribbean, by Ian Isidore Smart.;
Presents the essay Recent Literature on Cuba and the United States, based on several books. `Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868-1933, by José M. Hernandez; Cuba: The Shaping of Revolutionary Consciousness, by Tzvi Medin; Cuba: A Short History, by Leslie Bethell; Other books used.;
Examines the demography of slavery in Minas Gerais, Brazil from 1750-1808. Provision of a study on the values placed on slaves in Minas Gerais as the mineral export boom came to a close during the second half of the 18th century; Investigation of the cycles of expansion and contraction in the Mineiro economy between 1750 and 1808;
Reviews books on Latin American slavery. Includes Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru, by Peter Blanchard; Slave Women in Caribbean Society, ,1650-1838, by Barbara Bush; Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System, edited by Barbara L. Solow.;
Presents the essay Decentering a Discipline: Recent Trends in Latin American Literary Studies, based on a number of books. Cultural Diversity in Latin American Literature, by David William Foster; Do the Americas Have a Common Literature?, edited by Gustavo Perez Firmat; Reclaiming the Author: Figures and Fictions From Spanish America, by Lucille Kerr; Other books used in the essay.;
Reviews books on American relations with Latin America. Includes The United States and Somoza, 1933-1956: A Revisionist Look, by Paul Coe Clark Jr; The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil, by Elizabeth Anne Cobbs; Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903-1979, by John Major.;
