Category: COVID July

A Letter from Peru

English + Español
It was the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. My wife Gisela and I had planned to combine preparing for the new academic year with trips to the beach, enjoyment of the cultural night life of Lima and just getting together with friends. Unexpectedly…

A Two-Front Battle: Coronavirus and Inequality

English + Español
After more than a hundred days of quarantine, the Peruvian government said it would restrict isolation only to hot spots. Nevertheless, borders are still closed, deaths have not stopped, and the inequality gap continues to grow. Peru is my home. I was…

What a Small Garden Can Teach Us

English + Español
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people started home gardens. A small gesture, but one that could not come at a better time, for it is becoming more and more obvious that industrialized farming is at least part of our problems, if not the root. Also, confinement…

Chocolate in the Time of Covid-19

We at the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI) are a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization dedicated to research and education on the fine cacao and chocolate industry. Usually, we spend our time investigating the cacao and chocolate industries…

A Letter from Buenos Aires

English + Español
You ask me how we are doing here in Buenos Aires, living through a quarantine of more than a hundred days. The government quickly took the measures to impose it, advised by an excellent group of infectious disease experts, and people supported the…

Learning to Heal in an Amazonian Capital

It’s my 37th birthday, and I’m seventy days into social isolation in my hometown. Being from Belém has gifted me with a taste for the wonders of brega popular music, a knowledge of traditional herbal baths and an ability to cope with extreme heat and humidity…

From the Pandemia: Goodbyes and Time (…) Suspended

English + Español
The present is now. As I am writing this article, in my country, Mexico, we have endured more than four months since our confinement—as unexpected as it was undesirable—began on March 21. At first, it felt like a long weekend. But it kept on…

Lack of Oxygen in the Amazon

English + Español
“The eight relatives died in fourteen days. One after the other, we went burying them all. I didn’t even get a rest. When I was drifting off to sleep, someone would always call: ‘Your uncle died.’ ‘Your grandfather died.’ If another Kokama dies, we will not have any tears left…

Leaving No One Behind in the Time of Covid-19

English + Español
When George Floyd was killed, he had Covid-19. An unarmed African American man had a greater chance of dying at the hands of the police than of dying of Covid-19. That’s even taking into consideration that African Americans already die at a greater rate from the disease …

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