Subject: Latin America

Sub-categories:

Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean: An A-Z of Historic Buildings
Book cover: watercolor Caribbean colonial house, palms
Gravette, Andrew

Subject: Latin America, Caribbean

Better known for its land and sea, the Caribbean is also home to a wealth of historic buildings. As a region colonized by Spanish, French, British, and Dutch settlers, its architecture reflects an unparalleled variety of colonial influences. Its buildings …

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Battleship Vieques: Puerto Rico from World War II to the Korean War
Battleship Vieques book cover about Puerto Rico
Ayala, César J. and José L. Bolívar

Subject: Latin America, Caribbean, U.S. History

Outstanding Book of the Year, Choice Magazine

The demonstrations that resulted in the U.S. Navy’s being forced out of Vieques in 2003 were the result of the island’s occupation during and after World War II. After German …

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Black Rebels: African-Caribbean Freedom Fighters in Jamaica
Black Rebels book cover featuring a singing performer
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. Illustated with …

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Bon Papa: Haiti’s Golden Years
Colorful painting of man in straw hat
Diederich, Bernard

Subject: Caribbean

This is Haiti, pearl of the Antilles, during the presidency of General Paul E. (Bon Papa) Magloire (1950-56). It was an exciting time, when Haitians stood tall, and their country flourished, as reported in the pages of the Haiti Sun …

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Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City
Book cover showing Puerto Rican parade with flags
Haslip-Viera, Gabriel, Angelo Falcón and Félix V. Matos-Rodríguez, editors

Subject: Latin America, Caribbean, U.S. History

This new and very important collection of essays reinterprets and updates the history of New York’s Puerto Rican community and its leaders from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s to the present time. The collection also honors …

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Capoeira & Candomblé: Conformity and Resistance Through Afro-Brazilian Experience
Red dancing silhouettes on black book cover
Merrell, Floyd

Subject: Africa, South America, Religion

Capoeira is a unique music-dance-sport-play activity created by African slaves in Brazil, and Candomblé is a hybrid religion combining Catholic and African beliefs and practices. The two are closely interconnected. Capoeira and Candomblé have for centuries made up a coherent …

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Caribbean: Sea of the New World
Caribbean: Sea of the New World book cover
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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Clemente! The Enduring Legacy
Bronze baseball player statue outside stadium
Wagenheim, Kal

Subject: Latin America, U.S. History

Roberto Clemente, the first Latino baseball superstar, died on December 31, 1972, when his plane crashed while he tried to fly relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Clemente’s legacy endures nearly four decades after his tragic death, because he …

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Colonialism (Updated and Expanded Edition)
Book cover: Colonialism by Jurgen Osterhammel
Osterhammel, Jürgen

Subject: World History

“Osterhammel (History, U. of Constance) argues that the global mercantile expansion of the European powers of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries bears a marked resemblance to the political imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Further, although there are …

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Cuban Festivals: A Century of Afro-Cuban Culture
Cuban Festivals book cover showing Afro-Cuban dancers
Bettelheim, Judith, editor

Subject: Caribbean

Bettelheim describes the secular rituals and celebrations of Cuban culture. The editor’s black-and-white photos shed additional light on these little-known rituals. This edition features the first English translation of the article “Afro-Cuban Festivals” by Afro-Cuban Studies founder Fernando Ortiz, complete …

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