Description
In Surviving the Americas, Serena Cosgrove, Jose Idiaquez, Leonard Joseph Bent, and Andrew Gorvetzian shed light on what it means to be Garifuna today, particularly in Nicaragua. Their research includes over nine months of fieldwork in Garifuna communities in the Pearl Lagoon on the southern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and in New York City. The resulting ethnography illustrates the unique social issues of the Nicaraguan Garifuna and how their culture, traditions, and reverence for their ancestors continues to persist.
About the Author
Serena Cosgrove is a Sociologist and Anthropologist. She is an Associate Professor of International Studies and the Director of Latin American Studies at Seattle University; she currently serves as the Faculty Coordinator for SU's Central America Initiative. Her previous books include the co-authored book, Understanding Global Poverty: Causes, Capabilities, and Human Development (2018), and Leadership from the Margins: Women and Civil Society Organizations in Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador (2010).
Jose Idiaquez is an Anthropologist, a Jesuit priest, and the President of the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua. His previous books include En Busqueda de Esperanza: La Migracion Ngabe a Costa Rica y su Impacto en la Juventud (In Search of Hope: Ngabe Migration to Costa Rica and its Impact on Youth) in 2012 and El Culto a los Ancestros en la Cosmovision Religiosa de los Garifunas de Nicaragua (The Worship of the Ancestors in the Religious Cosmovision of the Garifuna of Nicaragua) in 1997.
Leonard Joseph Bent is Garifuna; he is a Sociologist and Attorney of Law. He taught Sociology and was the director of the Training and Development Program at the Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University until his retirement in 2018. Currently, he is a consultant and practices law.
Andrew Gorvetzian is a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Prior to his studies at UNM, he taught at the Universidad Centro-americana in Managua, Nicaragua and at the United World College in Montezuma, New Mexico.
Reviews
Surviving the Americas is a vivid and intimate account of the Nicaraguan Garifuna. The activist commitments and collaborative nature of the work as well as its decolonial lens provide keen
insights into the persistence of this under-acknowledged Afro-Indigenous community in the Garifuna and African Diasporas.
* Jennifer Goett, Associate Professor of Comparative Cultures and Politics, Michigan State University *
Beautifully written... contextualized, and nice integration of academic sources and Garifuna voices.
* Sarah England, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Soka University of America *
Ethnographically rich! Surviving the Americas intervenes to decolonize Garifuna ethnography by attending to critical discussions of indigeneity, intersectionality, and resilience.
* Keri Vacanti Brondo, Professor of Anthropology, University of Memphis *
"Surviving the Americas is a welcome addition to the literature on Garifuna and Indigenous and Afro descendant Central America. Garifuna in Nicaragua have received little attention in the literature, and the book helps us understand both the diversity of Garifuna communities in Central America and the social and political conditions confronting Garifuna in different nation-states. It is well suited to course adaption in introductory or advanced courses in anthropology, Indigenous studies, or Central American studies. Clearly written and accessible to non-specialists, it provides a compelling account of cultural persistence under neocolonial structures that produce displacement, highlighting how 'those routes that so often take people away from communities while allowing exogenous forces in can also prove to be sources of new hope for resilience.'"
* New West Indian Guide *
Book Information
ISBN 9781947602113
Author Serena Cosgrove
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Cincinnati Press
Publisher University of Cincinnati Press
Weight(grams) 336g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 166mm * 15mm
