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This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, published by Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies on January 1, 2008. The length of the article is 9660 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Re-imagining the "Indian" and the state: Indigenismo in Colombia, 1926-1947.(Essay)
Author: Brett Troyan
Publication: Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2008
Publisher: Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Volume: 33Issue: 65Page: 83(26)

Article Type: Essay

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This digital document is an article from World Education Encyclopedia, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 9476 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.This country-by-country survey of educational systems provides detailed essays on the histories, legal foundations, and primary and secondary educational systems of 233 countries. This edition provides up-to-date coverage of reorganized educational systems and technological advances. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Major Acts of Congress, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 801 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.An encyclopedia of congressional acts from the earliest days of the American republic up through recent years. This reference work provides comprehensive information on the legal statutes that affect all citizens. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3729 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 8178 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Advances in technology continue to accelerate the pace at which people and companies are doing business with entities in foreign countries. As a result, the demand for comprehensive, up-to-date economic information about foreign companies has increased as well. The Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies satisfies this immediate need and provides a thorough understanding of the current and historical economic development of foreign nations. Clearly arranged by country within broad geographic regions, the Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies provides accurate, in-depth analysis of each country's economic environment, reliable statistics on the country's current economic conditions and trends and key demographics of the nation's citizens. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from New Internationalist, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2006. The length of the article is 840 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Interview with Hernando Hernandez Tapasco about surviving as an activist in war-torn Colombia.(Making Waves)(Interview)
Author: David Ransom
Publication: New Internationalist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 394Page: 33(1)

Article Type: Interview

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This digital document is an article from Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 17595 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents easy-to-understand information on 200 countries and dependencies from around the world. Entries discuss a variety of topics in detail, from banking and securities to climate, from government data to demographic statistics. Also includes biographical essays on national leaders. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3087 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices provides information on current religious practices around the world with an emphasis on how religions impact the daily lives of their followers. Included are detailed entries on 13 major religions, such as Christianity and Islam, and entries on 28 religious subgroups, such as Shi'ites or Baptists.Provides Date of Origin, Dietary Practices, Number of Followers, Social Aspects, Controversial Issues, Major Theologians and Authors, Cultural Impact, Houses of Worship, Holy Places, What is Sacred, Rituals, Rites of Passage, Festivals and Holidays, Membership, Social Justice, Modes of Dress and Founder.Also includes significant religions in 193 countries that detail History, Political Impact, Other Religions, Religious Tolerance and more. ... Read more

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On February 13, 2003, a plane carrying three American civilian contractors—Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes—crash-landed in the mountainous jungle of Colombia. Dazed and shaken, they emerged from the plane bloodied and injured as gunfire rained down around them. As of that moment they were prisoners of the FARC, a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization. In an instant they had become American captives in Colombia's volatile and ongoing conflict, which has lasted for almost fifty years.

Customer Reviews (94)

Amazing experience, okay writing, no lessons learned
First of all, God bless these men, I can't imagine going through what they went through. I'm happy that buying their book will help support them; they deserve to never work another day in the lives. If you want to get a run-down of the experience of being held in captivity in the jungle for six years, this is a satisfying read.
But they are all former U.S. Military who were in Colombia fighting the War on Drugs, and didn't gain any introspection from their captivity. In one of the opening chapters they even say they were winning the War on Drugs, so if that seems ludicrous to you the book will be pretty frustrating. How do you spend that long in captivity and come out exactly the same? With absolutely no insight into your captors, just a reinforcement of your prejudices against them?Actually, I guess i can see how that would happen, i just expected more from these men and their book.

Columbians drug ring holding Americans hostage
Very good book, reads well and quickly holds your interest. After these American's plane crashed ln Columbia these 3 men were taken hostage and made to march 24 straight days through the Columbian jungle. They were injured, not fed well, little water, no hiking boots or bug spray and always surounded by teenaged Columbia FARC. I can't imagine the hardships they went thru. I'm still reading the book and imagine it will get better/worse as I go along.

I Won't waste your time
I Won't waste your time getting deep with the description of this book.
JUST BUY IT........and consider yourself lucky you were NOT one of these three guys for1967 days!!!!!!!!!!!

Really amazing story.
This is an amazing book.I am ashamed that I didn't know more about this as it was happening.Reading the book from the 3 guys' perspectives was very interesting and the details and events shared are unbelievable.I don't think I could have survived it.

I wish I could meet these guys, I am in awe of them now.This book really impacted me.

Easy reading
Out of Captivity details the experiences and emotions of Marc, Keith, and Tom as hostages of the FARC EP.

Written as a narrative, the writing style lacks personalizing the character of the hostages, but each chapter is subheaded by the names of these victims. This is a slight disappointment, especially since throughout their ordeal of being so isolated for years, personality becomes a defining feature in their behaviour, and the behaviour of other FARC EP hostages they encounter.

Another void in the book is a map entry outlining their journey throughout their years in captivity.

It was disappointing to read of their camp in Santo Domingo without reference to the military bebacle their some years ago.

I found the book interesting to read, it is an emotional account of what the hostages endured. Aside from their journey the book does not detail so much about the FARC EP, the AUC, the ELN, and the impacting variables within Colombia which make studying the subject so interesting.

Easy reading on a rainy day.
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U.S. policy toward Colombia has been driven to a large extent by counter-narcotics considerations, but the evolving situation in that South American country confronts the United States with as much of a national security as a drug policy problem.Colombia is a geostrategically important country, whose trajectory will influence broader trends in the Andean region and beyond.Colombian Labyrinth examines the sources of instability in the country; the objectives, strategy, strengths, and weaknesses of the government, guerrillas, and paramilitaries and the balances among them; and the effects of the current U.S. assistance program.Possible scenarios and futures for Colombia are laid out, with implications for both the United States and neighboring countries.The authors find that instability in Colombia stems from the interaction and synergies of the underground drug economy and armed challenges to the state's authority.Solutions to the core problem--the weakness of the Colombian State--must focus on resolving the broader set of political-military challenges that result from the convergence of drug trafficking and insurgency.The authors recommend that Colombia's military and institutional capabilities be improved to enable the Colombian government to regain control of the countryside and that, at the same time, the United States work with Colombia's neighbors to contain the risk of spillover and regional destabilization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Tier-one research & honest comments
I was impressed that the funding for this Rand study was provided by the U.S. Air Force. It is good to know a key player in the Pentagon is interested in the fundamental facts about Colombia free of the Washington Beltway political sugar-coating. To this end, "Colombian Labyrinth; The Synergy of Drugs and Insurgency and Its Implications for Regional Stability," is filled with tier-one research and honest comments.

To begin with authors Angel Rabasa and Peter Chalk carefully explain the weakness of the Colombian government.Certainly conditions have improved in Colombia since the publication of this text in June of 2001 but government power still resides in the big cities and is diminished in the countryside.However, the one nugget of research that the authors wisely publish is that Colombia has some of the largest untapped petroleum reserves in the Western Hemisphere.It helps explain why Colombia is the third largest receiver of U.S. foreign aid in the world after Israel and Egypt.

Still and all, a big point of this book is that the heralded President Clinton/Pastrana "Plan Colombia" U.S. aid program is a "doubtful strategy," according the the authors.Moreover, the central government's loss of authority, economic deterioration, social disintegration, the development of an underground criminal drug economy and the dangerous growth of armed challenges to the state's authority are all well-documented and discussed.The text also offers sound advice to the core problems, particularly the human rights violations by the violent actors in Colombia.Overall, this sleek and compact book is a valuable guide to the complexity of the crisis in Colombia.

Bert Ruiz

Colombian labyrinth
Colombian labyrinth is an objective, concise study of Colombia's instability as it unfolds from the interaction of criminal drug economies and growth of armed challenges to the state's authority.The study revolves about the three-sided civil conflict (government, guerrilla and self-defense groups) and how each one of them plays a critical role in the Colombian stability. On one hand, the study concisely touches upon the scope and the dimensions of the drug-insurgency problem, origins of the main players (guerrilla, self-defense groups), and their strategies.On the other hand, it discusses the Colombian government's response to the crisis in the form of peace negotiations, and the counter-narcotics U.S. assisted strategy, Plan Colombia (Colombian Project).In addition, it briefly presents a number of though-provoking scenarios for the Colombian state as a result of different circumstances.The study finishes by examining the spread of the conflict to neighboring countries and their respective response.Unfortunately, the study does not elaborate on the U.S. repercussions as they derive from the synergies of drug-insurgency complex.

Colombian Labyrinth
COLOMBIAN LABYRINTH is an uneven but generally useful study of the drugs-insurgency nexus in Colombia and its significance for U.S. policy. The discussion of the illicit drug business breaks little new ground and misses important post-cartel dynamics such as the FARC's increased downstream participation in the business as traders and even exporters. On the other hand military-strategic topics such as the guerrillas' force structure and power seeking strategies, the military requirements for countering the growing guerrilla threat, and the implications of Colombia's civil conflict for regional stability are handled quite successfully. The authors point to the sometimes competing imperatives of drug-fighting and counter-insurgency--a difficulty epitomized by the dysfunctional coca spraying campaign--and argue correctly that U.S. policy should give priority to strengthening Colombian state institutions,including the military.(They might have recalled the example of Peru, which suspended eradication of coca at the end of the 1980s to garner rural support for the fight against Sendero,) The discussion of alternative Colombian futures is gloomy but thought-provoking and well worth the attention of Colombia specialists and policymakers. A scenario that might have been mentioned is the devolution of the FARC, or parts of the movement, into a preeminently criminal organization with a scaled down political agenda--seeking, perhaps, a free hand to traffic in drugs within defined spheres while acknowledging the overall authority of the Colombian state. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

My Colombian War: A Journey Through teh Coubtry I left Behind
A Great Book!!! My husband is Colombian and I love learning more about his country and culture. Great Book

Everything that is wrong about this country...
Fragmented, disjoined, selective and biased, in self-denial... reads like Colombia itself filtered through the ignorance and barbaric naiveté of the North American Press. One only sentence on the Patriotic Union... the victorious campaign of Uribe... Thanks but... no thanks...!

This is a journalist?
Silvana Paternostro claims to have the "journalist gene" and to be a "story addict." Contrast this with the interview that she has with a former Colombian rebel. "I wonder what made her, not me, and not Imelda, take the steps she took. I want to ask her if she would do it again. I don't ask her, but I know she joined the rebel group in 1974, so I will assume she will respond by saying it was a sign of the times." Well, Silvana, someone with the "journalist gene" actually asks the question.

This happens over and over. She says she wants to ask questions and then doesn't. It will drive you crazy.

There is almost no information about Colombia and almost no information about the war in Colombia. This book is badly written and worthless.

An interesting point of view from a fly on the wall
I really don't know how to start. I found the book to express the thoughts and feelings of a woman who was not comfortable with her latin identity and, through news reporting opportunities, gets a chance to try to bond with that identity in her American journalist comfort zone. I never got the feeling Ms. Paternostro came to accept her identity and it seemed more of a struggle with this identity rather than with the war being fought over there.

Still, I admire the work her tio Agustin made to bring an old-fashioned finca into the new era of empresas and how he was struggling as honestly as he could to find a middle ground between the two hardline ideologies. He seemed to be the one viewing things in realistic terms and listening honestly to all sides to understand the whole picture and how he could forge a new path. Perhaps he gave a pessimistic glint of hope ... or maybe not.

I wished the author would have discussed the fact so many people, esp. young women, prostitute themselves in that world of desperation. Yes, the ones that become your friend after a few minutes in a bar and become your girlfriend for regular doses of money. I saw a glimpse of that toward the end of the book, though it seems to have been overlooked by the author who wrote "In the Land of God and Man: A Latin's Woman's Journey."

As a case in point, I remember overhearing a female friend talking with her friend on the phone and mention that her American contractor lover had left a few weeks before and how she was relieved the STD results came back negative! I distanced myself quickly from this "friend," but wondered what kind of life that was she was living. I wonder if it was overlooked intentionally in this book.

A Great Read
A wonderful, insightful book about Colombia.What makes the book transcend the ordinary new-journalistic look at a country is the fact that Paternostro maps not only the contours of Colombia's current conflict and its historical and socio-economic roots, but also wonderfully charts her own conflicted relationship with the place and her efforts to come to terms with it.In the end, then, the book is fascinating for the view it provides on Colombia but it ends up being about so much more; the honest look at an expatriate's relationship to her homeland is compelling and enlightening. ... Read more

Product Description
This spectacular book plots 3,500 years of artistic production in the regions that are now modern Colombia: from anonymous Pre-Hispanic pottery to installation art by international celebrity artist Fernando Botero.

The many galleries of Colombia's artistic heritage include: a distinct colonial art period of devout religious iconography; an imaginative adaptation of Baroque styles; the inevitable emergence of a distinct "American" art in Colombia; a conjunction with history in the celebrations of the hero in the era of Independence; later, the joyful meeting of artists and the natural history of the region in the 19th century.

This vibrant cultural energy eagerly absorbed twentieth century art's ruptures and new expressions in every medium. This huge legacy of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, and craftwork is drawn from the the art collection of the Bank of the Republic, the national banking institution of Colombia, and complemented by other important public collections. The artists represented here are anonymous and internationally-known; the 400 pieces taken together tell a little-known story of continuous development of a culture of art into one of the most elaborate and interesting in the world.
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Customer Reviews (1)

A stellar book... Highly recommended
This is a brilliant book with hundreds of color photos (full page and double page).The reproductions are excellent.The text that accompanies the prints is straight-forward, simple, easy to read and succinct.

To cover the scope of the history of Colombia's art (over 400 years) is a formidable and a very applaudable accomplishment. But, Benjamin Villegas, did not stop here.He pushed the scope of art history beyond the colonial and post-colonial period and included the tribal periods prior to the Spaniards! Bravo.

This 400 page coffee-table book comprehends the substance of Colombian Art."Colombian Art" is organized into four sections: Pre-Colonial, Colonial, 19th Century and 20th Century Art.The gold and ceramic art of eleven pre-conquistador human groups; the religious art of colonial Colombia, painters of independence, travel painting, landscape painting (19th Century), expressionist art, political art, surrealist art and the emergences of abstract art, are all well documented.

There is an introduction to the works of Masters such as: Franciso Cano, Debora Perez, Serio Trujillo M., Gonzolo Ariza, Jose Rodriqiz A., Luis Caballero, Alejandro Oberegon, Enrique Grauand, of course, Fernando Botero (an entire chapter).I was awed at the scope and quality of art that Colombia has, and continues to produce.

I read and reviewed "Colombian Art" while spending a few months in Colombia.While I was there I had the opportunity to visit many museums and art galleries, and "Colombian Art" helped me appreciate even more, the richness of the art and profundity of the artist.This is a stellar book, worthy of purchase by any art connoisseur, Colombian aficionado or student of the indigenous tribes of pre-Colombia.Highly recommended ... Read more