After four years with the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and now serving as the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Victoria, I have decided to step down as Editor-in-Chief. From today’s vantage point, there is satisfaction at looking back on a number of accomplishments that have made the journal stronger and an increasingly significant Canadian and international voice in Latin American and Caribbean studies.
In 2011, with pressures on the journal caused by increasing numbers of submissions – a very positive development – we restructured the Editorial Team. As a result, Cynthia Wright, Candace Johnson, and Melanie Newton provided excellent editorial support and vision for the journal; Lyse Hébert was introduced as our French Language Editor; and, in establishing a Portuguese-language component, Andrea Moraes proved superb with these editorial duties. Moreover, our book review section has developed markedly over the past four years. Here, Tanya Basok has been an exemplary editor. Finally, Amitava Chowdhury, our Managing Editor, has dealt with the important financial issues and ensured the journal’s fiscal health and long-term viability. My assistants, first Jaela Baxter and then Asa McKercher, have provided invaluable services in both minor and major ways. Asa was particularly instrumental this past year when my university administrative responsibilities increased. Without this remarkable team, the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies could not have met a number of challenges devolving from its growth and its important position in Latin American and Caribbean scholarship in Canada and abroad. And, of course, in all of this, our authors, editorial board, association members, and readers have been especially important.
As established readers will have noted, this growing process has another dimension: a new publisher. In 2013, after considering several bidders, we decided on Taylor & Francis. Not only did they provide an economic package, they also afforded a dedicated web presence, a digitized back catalogue, and a first-rate global presence. Ultimately, Taylor & Francis provided the best platform for expanding our readership and, thus, the journal’s international scholarly reach. Our authors and book reviewers have important information and ideas to share, and Taylor & Francis offers the best means of disseminating this knowledge. Special thanks are due to Ali Meier, our Production Editor at the press.
The switch to a new publisher also corresponded with several innovations. First was a new layout, which is both easier to read and more attractive. A new cover was next, designed with input from the Editorial Team and featuring a magnificent piece of art entitled “The Analysis”. Designed by Nahúm Flores, this image speaks to the importance of enquiry and knowledge and, as such, symbolizes our journal. Last, as part of the redesign, we commissioned a new logo for the journal, one encapsulating its transnational focus plus that of our association. Special thanks to Stacey Poapst for her graphic design work.
We have received invaluable funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and, because of a successful grant application in 2014, will continue to do so in the immediate future; our thanks to SSHRC for this support. This financial backing, as well as an excellent new publisher, leaves our journal in good standing. Please join me in welcoming my successor as Editor-in-Chief, Jessica Stites-Mor. I know that she will do a great job heading our journal, which is growing in stature, reach, and importance. With the greatest humility, I thank you for the opportunity and privilege to have served as Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
This issue of the journal is especially apposite: bringing together a broad spectrum of thought on issues touching Mexico, Andean South America, Venezuela, the Caribbean in a north–south context, and, in “Looking Back and Moving Forward”, Central America. The forum, “Toward a Durable Peace in Mexico”, edited by Nathalie Gravel and Nicolas Foucras Tournaud, comprises four articles by Hepzibah Muñoz Martínez, Pierre Gilles Bélanger, Narcedalia Lozano Garza, and Nathalie Gravel and Hector José Martínez Arboleya. Given the insecurity in modern Mexico, caused by powerful criminal cartels that have weakened its society and governance, these scholars seek to answer the following questions: What role does Mexican civil society possess in the process of peace building in the country? How and what assistance is available to help the families of the victims? And what observations and interpretations are possible regarding community networks in, first, confronting organized crime and, second, protecting both neighborhoods and citizens’ quality of life? This challenging situation has some elements that Mexican civil society can address successfully, but the road to do so is a difficult one.
The issue of family is central to the nature and character of Peruvian society. Felipe Rubio’s “Shifting Spaces: A Peruvian Family’s Negotiations with Translocality(ies)” examines a crucial contemporary dimension of this issue by exploring the idea of family reunification. In this context, he also explores how different conceptions of space play integral roles in the constant reshaping of translocal social networks. While narrowly germane to Peru, this analysis has resonance with other Andean countries and societies. Going from what might be considered the micro of Peruvian family to the macro of Venezuelan national social movements, Donald Kingsbury’s contribution – “Bolívar as Precursor: Contested Mythology, Social Movements, and Twenty-first-Century Socialism in Bolivarian Venezuela” – examines the contemporary social and political functions of the myth of Simón Bolívar in Venezuela. Venezuelans universally accept Bolivar as “El Libertador”, but he exists in competing discursive constructions by Chavistas, the opposition, and the autonomous political networks that have emerged since the imposition of neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. A contested Bolivarian mythology shapes political and social discourse in Venezuela. Finally, Adrian Smith’s north–south exegesis – “Troubling ‘Project Canada’: The Caribbean and the Making of ‘Unfree Migrant Labor’” – examines Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. It demonstrates how migrant labor “unfreedom” occurs through uneven development and the modern national state system. More tellingly, “unfreedom” can be understood in the racialized context of neoliberal capitalist globalization.
In our important “Looking Back and Moving Forward” section, Amelia Kiddle interviews Jim Handy, the University of Saskatchewan historian. Handy is one of Canada’s leading Latin Americanists, having dichotomized the concepts of “progress” and “development”. Although sometimes looking at issues in the wider world, he has focused largely on Guatemala, environmental history in Central America, and food sovereignty. His interview with Amelia highlights Professor Handy’s interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research in environmental history, indigenous movements, and the international relations of Central America, especially Guatemala. This interview is a fitting conclusion to this volume.
Catherine Krull
University of Victoria Editor-in-Chief, CJLACS Rédacteur en chef, RCÉLAC