Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Conversation with Cornell alum, Isabel Ramos '96 and founder of Teatrotaller
April 19, 2023
1:00 pm
Celebrating Teatrotaller’s 30th Anniversary!
Cornell alum, Isabel Ramos ’96 and founder of Teatrotaller, and theater director at the University of Puerto Rico will be joining us via zoom zoom after the performance run of her new post Hurricane Maria meditation, “Antigona frente al mar” .
Join us by zoom on April 19 at 1:00 pm. Register in advance here.
Additional Information
Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Bartels Explainer
How did President Alvarado’s policies protect Costa Rica’s environment?
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez talks about her recent biodiversity assessment and how Alvarado’s policies engaged citizens in climate action.
This year’s Bartels lecturer, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada (2018–22), started Costa Rica on track to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 with an ambitious climate action plan to meet the objectives of the United Nations’ 2015 Paris Agreement. His administration’s climate and conservation policies earned Costa Rica the 2019 Champion of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honor.
"We found significant biodiversity losses in regions with high-impact agriculture."
On this page: Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez describes Costa Rica's unique standing as a global biodiversity hotspot with a long history of environmental regulations—not always effectively enforced—and explains how Alvarado’s policies enlisted Costa Ricans in climate action. A native of Costa Rica, Ruiz-Gutierrez is co-director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Avian Population Studies, conservation science program leader, and a fellow at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
Coming March 22: Reserve Your Free Ticket Today!
A Conversation with Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Did Alvarado reverse any damaging environmental policy trends in his time in office?
President Alvarado sought to balance the pressures to increase growth and development in Costa Rica while protecting our natural capital. A notable example was when he vetoed a project that would have authorized shrimp trawl fishing in Costa Rican waters—an activity that would negatively impact small-scale fishermen and destroy marine life.
Another success of the Alvarado administration was the Escazu Agreement, which was signed in Costa Rica in 2018 and took effect in 2021. The agreement provided a sweeping framework to promote inclusive, informed, and participatory climate action in Latin America and imposed requirements to protect the rights of environmental defenders in the region.
Unfortunately, current president Rodrigo Chaves has taken steps to potentially reactivate shrimp trawling in the country and, in February, pulled back Costa Rica from the UN-backed climate agreement.
What kinds of changes to wildlife habitats have you observed in Costa Rica?
In my own research with the Lab of O’s conservation science program, we recently completed a biodiversity assessment for the country using birds as indicators. Our results support current knowledge—and my own observations that Costa Rica has successfully preserved much of its biodiversity through the National System of Conservation Areas.
However, we found significant biodiversity losses in regions with high-impact agriculture and where unregulated urban development has degraded and impacted forest remnants.
How did Costa Rica start to make conservation a priority?
Costa Rica’s achievements in conservation and environmental issues can be traced back to the country’s most politically relevant decision—abolishing the army in 1949. This decision is what has allowed Costa Rica to spend social capital on environmental issues for the past 74 years.
A few key laws in the 1990s have served as the backbone for biodiversity conservation. In 1994 the constitution was amended to state that “every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.” The 1996 Forest Law mandates the rational use of all natural resources, prohibits land-cover change in forests, and includes incentives like the Payment for Ecosystem Services Program. Unfortunately, enforcement of these laws has varied widely among different governments.
What’s one practical step Alvarado’s administration took to encourage citizens’ participation in conservation?
The participation of citizens in conservation action at local levels is a critical driver for different initiatives. One example is the decarbonization plan launched by Alvarado’s administration in 2019, which aims for a decarbonized economy with net-zero emissions by 2050.
A big component of Alvarado’s plan was to renew the transport system, which is the country’s major source of greenhouse emissions. This included the goal of full electrification of all buses and taxis and incentives to move 100 percent of light-duty vehicle sales to zero emissions by 2050. Any changes to the transport system require significant buy-in and participation from citizens.
As a result of tax exemptions, many people purchased new or used electric vehicles. Charging stations became more common across the main central valley. These changes were starting to gain momentum when the pandemic hit, and the economic impacts and controversies surrounding the pandemic diverted public attention and support.
Has Alvarado’s successor continued the 2050 plan?
Rodrigo Chaves’ administration has not made the plan a priority. Alvarado’s plan included significant measures in basic infrastructure and economic sectors, such as public and private transport, energy, industry, agriculture, waste management, and soil and forest management. Many of these measures have fallen by the wayside.
Chaves has allowed the public bus sector to retain fleets of older buses, for example—compromising not just the goals of the plan, but the health of the people and ecosystems of Costa Rica.
Don't miss the Bartels World Affairs Lecture with Carlos Alvarado Quesada on March 22: Reserve your free ticket today!
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Private Sovereignties: ZEDEs, Puertopias, and Seasteads in Central America and the Caribbean: A Panel
May 8, 2023
4:30 pm
Uris Hall, G-08
A Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program Public Issues Forum Panel.
About the Panelists and the Moderator:
Beth Geglia is a public anthropologist focused on processes of privatization in urban and rural settings, tech capitalism, and social movements. Her research examines the development of Economic Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs) in Honduras and how global visions for private "startup cities" and ideologies of the decentralized finance movement interact with different political projects, land disputes, and territorial realities in Honduras. Beth holds a PhD in Anthropology from American University, and is currently working on a book manuscript as a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow with the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is a journalist who writes about the unexpected aspects of globalization. Her first book, The Cosmopolites, investigated the global market for citizenship, revealing how the sale of second and third passports to the ultrarich intersects with growing wealth inequality and a crisis of statelessness. She is working on The Hidden Globe, a non-fiction book about unusual and extraterritorial jurisdictions from art freeports to outer space. Atossa is a recipient of the 2022 Whiting Creative Nonfiction grant and a 2021 Silvers grant for works-in-progress. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Rafael Cox Alomar is a professor of law at the David A. Clarke School of Law of the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., and has been a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (Winter 2022). He is the author of The Puerto Rico Constitution (Oxford University Press 2022) and Revisiting the Transatlantic Triangle: The Constitutional Decolonization of the Eastern Caribbean (Ian Randle 2009). Professor Cox Alomar received a BA magna cum laude from Cornell University; a DPhil in history from the University of Oxford (Trinity College), where he was a Marshall Scholar; and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Moderator: Ray Craib is Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History at Cornell and the author, most recently, of Adventure Capitalism: A history of libertarian exit, from the era of decolonization to the digital age (PM Press/Spectre, 2022).
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Democracy and Its Opposites: Challenges in a Global World
April 24, 2023
5:00 pm
Alice Statler Auditorium
Lund Critical Debate
Democracies worldwide—even many wealthy democracies long considered safely consolidated—are at risk today. Governments, policymakers, and voters face new conflicts over democratic institutions, checks and balances, which citizens can compete for office or deserve representation, and what rules of accountability apply.
This year's Lund debate from the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies examines the threats democracies around the world are confronting, both from external forces and from within—and what governments and citizens can do to fight back.
Join Thomas Garrett of the Community of Democracies and Damon Wilson of the National Endowment for Democracy for a conversation on democratic backsliding, strategies for resilience, and the conditions and practices that undermine democracy: democracy ... and its opposites.
A reception with refreshments will follow the conversation.
Lund Debate: 5:00–6:30 p.m. | Alice Statler AuditoriumFree ticket required for in-person attendance. Reserve your ticket today! Join the lecture virtually by registering at Cornell.
Reception to follow.
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Panelists
Thomas E. Garrett is secretary general of the Community of Democracies, a global intergovernmental coalition comprised of the Governing Council member states that support adherence to the Warsaw Declaration's common democratic values and standards. Garrett previously worked for the International Republican Institute for 12 years overseas in Ukraine, Mongolia, and Indonesia, returning to Washington, DC, in 2005 as director of Middle East programs and then as vice president for global programs.
Damon Wilson is president and CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nonprofit grant-making foundation supporting freedom around the world. Prior to joining NED, he helped transform the Atlantic Council into a leading global think tank as its executive vice president. He previously served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. Wilson also served at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as the executive secretary and chief of staff, where he helped manage one of the largest U.S. embassies during a time of conflict.
Moderator
Rachel Beatty Riedl has served as the Einaudi Center's director since 2019. She is the Einaudi Center's John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and professor in the Department of Government and Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Her research interests include institutional development in new democracies, local governance and decentralization, and authoritarian regime legacies in Africa.
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About the Debate
The Lund Critical Debate is a signature event of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. This year's dialogue is part of Einaudi's work on democratic threats and resilience. Established in 2008, Einaudi's Lund Critical Debate series is made possible by the generosity of Judith Lund Biggs '57.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
East Asia Program
Southeast Asia Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program
"Black Women Writers: voices from Brazil" by Dr. Tassiana Oliveira
March 10, 2023
12:25 pm
Dr. Tassiana Oliveira is a professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).
This event will be in English. Everybody is welcome!
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Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
ILRLR/ICL Workshop Series Paul Ortiz
March 3, 2023
11:30 am
ILR Conference Center, 423
Social Movements as a Way of Life: How African American and Latinx Experiences Change the Ways We Think About US History
Additional Information
Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Global Hubs Town Hall
March 13, 2023
11:30 am
G10 Biotech
Faculty and staff are invited to join for an overview and open discussion of the Global Hubs initiative.
Vice Provost Wendy Wolford will explain the purpose of the Global Hubs, and faculty leads for several of the Hubs locations will discuss their experiences with institutional partners and ways for faculty and staff to be involved.
Please bring your questions about the Hubs and join us in person on March 13 at 11:30 a.m. in G10 Biotech.
Moderator:
Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost for International Affairs
Faculty Presenters:
Gustavo Flores-Macias, faculty lead for Tecnológico de Monterrey, MexicoNate Foster, faculty lead for University of Edinburgh, United KingdomYing Hua, director of Cornell China Center, BeijingLee Humphreys, faculty lead for DenmarkTom Pepinsky, faculty lead for National University of Singapore, SingaporeMark Milstein, representative for the Faculty Senate CAPP on the faculty advisory committeeRachel Beatty Riedl, director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International StudiesKen Roberts, faculty lead for Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
East Asia Program
Southeast Asia Program
South Asia Program
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for European Studies
“Education for Ethnic-Racial Inclusion in Brazil”
March 3, 2023
12:25 pm
Dr. Valquíria P. Tenório is a professor at the Instituto Federal de São Paulo, campus Matão.
This event will be in English. Q/A in English and Portuguese. Everybody is welcome!
WHEN: March 3, 2023 at 12:25PM
WHER: Zoom. Registration in advance is require.
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Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Conversation with Cornell alum, Jorge Silva '12 as part of Teatrotaller's 30 years of theater
March 15, 2023
1:00 pm
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Black Box Theatre
Celebrating Teatrotaller’s 30th Anniversary!
Jorge Silva ’12 a Cornell alum and managing director of the Wirtz Center for Performing Arts at Northwestern University will be joining us in person to lead a neo-futurist workshop.
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Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Conversation with Douglas Oviedo, Honduran born activist, youth pastor, rapper, writer
March 1, 2023
1:00 pm
Celebrating Teatrotaller’s 30th Anniversary!
Douglas Oviedo, Honduran born activist, youth pastor, rapper, and writer came to the United States with one of the 2018 caravans. Join us via zoom for a conversation about his migrant trajectory and his play, “Caravaneros” on March 1 at 1:00 pm.
Register in advance for this zoom meeting here
Additional Information
Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies