Category: COVID April

Approaching COVID-19 in the Upper Amazon

English + Español
As Covid-19 works its deadly way into South America, many Amazonian indigenous leaders, anthropologists and concerned others are worried. They are protesting and prohibiting the possible arrival of Evangelical New Tribes Missionaries in Brazil and hoping to halt miners…

Paraguay and its authoritarian warlike discourse against COVID-19

English + Español
Ever since I began my university studies back in 2008, I’ve realized that Paraguayans greatly exalt war and authoritarianism. That makes me much like every social scientist who is dedicated to describing, analyzing and characterizing Paraguay. No matter what topic occupied our interest, the rhetoric has been the same: “the enemy,” “the need for order”…

When the Virus Arrived in the Tropics

English + Español
I look out  from my balcony onto the streets of the Casco Viejo, the colonial section of Panama City. I can hear only an occasional fragment of conversation carried by the breeze or infrequent passing of a car. Panama’s second greatest tourist attraction after the Canal is…

Letter from Costa Rica

English + Español
In my home office, the engraving “El solitario”—“The Solitary One”— by famed Costa Rican artist Francisco Amighetti has accompanied me for many years. The image is divided into two planes. At the bottom, a quite lively group is festively socializing with glasses of wine and…

Body and Dance in the Era of Coronavirus

English + Español
I am writing this article in the midst of the most absolute perplexity, trying to imagine what will our lives be like in the post pandemia days… for those who will survive. It’s common knowledge that postwar is even more traumatic and painful than war itself. And that’s what we’ve…

Communities and COVID-19 recovery policy implementation

English + Español
As a current student at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), I attended a virtual session called “The Fog of War: Real Time Lessons for Developing Countries in the Fight Against Covid-19” taught by Professor Ricardo Hausmann. Hausmann strongly recommended that we…

COVID-19 in an Island Surrounded by Land

English + Español
When I was in prison under the Stroessner dictatorship (1988), I developed the capacity to survive under dramatic conditions, breaking up my memories into fragments to distract myself and to spark my creative energy. I got used to living in isolation…

Ecuador: From Coronavirus to the Future

English + Español
Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, known as the black monk of global power, in a recent commentary published in the Wall Street Journal, insists on something we have been discussing in recent months: The coronavirus pandemic will change the world order …

Guatemala: A Snapshot of Coronavirus and Communities in Need

Little did I know three decades ago when I got a magazine assignment to photograph the community of people who lived and worked in Guatemala City’s sprawling garbage dump, that my destiny was waiting for me there. Thousands of children roamed…

Letter from Bolivia

English + Español
The death of a well-known businessman to the coronavirus has provoked alarm among Bolivians. If a wealthy man with many possibilities of receiving good health care could succumb to this disease, what can the millions of poor who are the majority of the…

With COVID-19, We are All Immigrants

My daughter, Paula, is a fourth-generation immigrant. She was born here in the United States. I, her mother, was born in Venezuela. Estela, her grandmother, was born in Argentina. Aurelia, her great grandmother, was born in Italy. The war and two dictatorships were the causes…

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