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 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.;
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;
Balutansky reviews C. L. R. James, the Artist as Revolutionary by Paul Buhle, C. L. R. James's Caribbean edited by Paget Henry and Paul Buhle, The C. L. R. James Reader edited by Anna Grimshaw, Special Delivery: The Letters of C. L. R. James to Constance Webb, 1939-1948 edited by Anna Grimshaw and C. L. R. James: His Intellectual Legacies edited by Selwyn R. Cudjoe and William E. Cain.;
The article reviews several books about race and gender discrimination against African Americans including Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000, by George Reid Andrews, Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil, by Edward E. Telles, and Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution and National Identity, by Christine Ayorinde.;
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 several books. A Place in the Sun? Women Writers in Twentieth-Century Cuba, by Catherine Davis; Afro-Cuban Literature: Critical Junctures,'by Edward J. Mullen; My Own Private Cuba: Essays on Cuban Literature and Culture, by Gustavo Pérez Firmat.;
Reviews books on the history of Caribbean countries. Includes The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus, By Irving Rouse, The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname, by Wim Hoogbergen, translated by Marilyn Suy and Alabi's World, by Richard Price.;
