Subject: Latin America: Textbooks

A People’s History of Latin America
Horna, Hernan

Subject: Latin American History

The history of Latin America has been written principally with a top-down approach that focuses on leaders and the privileged. Hernán Horna brings us a history that centers on the experience of Native Americans, blacks, and the poor. It examines …

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Afro-Cuban Religions
Barnet, Miguel (translated by Christine Ayorinde; illustrated by Siegfried Kaden)

Subject: Africa, Latin America, Caribbean, Religion

African cults and religions enrich all aspects of Cuba’s social, cultural, and everyday life and encompass all ethnic and social groups. Politics, art, and civil events such as weddings, funerals, festivals, and carnivals all possess distinctly Afro-Cuban characteristics. Miguel Barnet …

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American Colonialism in Puerto Rico: The Judicial and Social Legacy
Ramos, Efrén Rivera

Subject: Latin America

“This is a brilliant and outstanding book, quite persuasive in the way it interrogates history. Dr. Rivera Ramos performs the immense service of providing a serious discussion of the complexity of Puerto Rican history and political culture as well as …

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Black Rebels: African-Caribbean Freedom Fighters in Jamaica
Zips, Werner (preface by Franklin Knight; translated by Shelley Frisch)

Subject: Africa, Caribbean

This book chronicles the struggles of African-Americans who escaped from slavery and developed autonomous, “maroon” societies beyond the fringes of the colonial system, demonstrating the vulnerability of colonial rule and the vitality of black resistance in the Caribbean.

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Caribbean: Sea of the New World
Arciniegas, Germán

Subject: Caribbean

This book is a new edition of the most beautifully written history of the Caribbean from the European discovery through the nineteenth century. Commonweal wrote of the 1946 edition, “Arciniegas has written a most informative and entertaining book…the student of …

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Cuban Music
Roy, Maya (translated by Denise and Gabriel Asfar)

Subject: Caribbean

Native Americans supplied the maracas. African slaves brought drums and ritual music, and Spaniards brought guitars, brass instruments, and clarinets along with European ballroom dancing. The advent of blues and jazz gave new forms to styles of songs, notably feeling …

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People and Issues in Latin American History
Hanke, Lewis and Jane M. Rausch

Subject: Latin America, World History

This two-volume edition of People and Issues in Latin American History presents a range of sources on and interpretations of important topics in the history of Latin America that enable students to debate the historical significance of individuals and issues. …

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Puerto Rico: An Interpretive History from Pre-Columbian Times to 1900
de Wagenheim, Olga Jiménez

Subject: Caribbean, Latin America, Puerto Rico

Because many of the documents and books about Puerto Rico have been written by the island’s colonizers, only the victors were celebrated. With this in mind, the author has expressly composed this book from the viewpoint of the colonized, suppressed, …

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Santiago Pérez Triana (1858–1916) Colombian Man of Letters and Crusader for Hemispheric Unity
Rausch, Jane

Subject: Latin Amerivan History, American History, World History, Biography,

The son of radical Colombian president Santiago Pérez Manosalbas, Pérez Triana was forced into exile after a scandal involving his business ventures, fleeing over the Andes and down three rivers to the Atlantic and a new life in the …

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Space and History in the Caribbean
Lara, Oruno D.

Subject: Caribbean

Oruno D. Lara explains the history of the Caribbean as a history of exploitation.

From Christopher Columbus to the modern vacationer, outside observers have looked upon the Caribbean as a paradise on earth. However, behind the images of sea, …

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