Carlos Aguirre – författare

Opening a new area in Latin American studies, The Birth of the Penitentiary in Latin America showcases the most recent historical outlooks on prison reform and criminology in the Latin American context. The essays in this collection shed new light on the discourse and practice of prison reform, the interpretive shifts induced by the spread of criminological science, and the links between them and competing discourses about class, race, nation, and gender. The book shows how the seemingly clear redemptive purpose of the penitentiary project was eventually contradicted by conflicting views about imprisonment, the pervasiveness of traditional forms of repression and control, and resistance from the lower classes.The essays are unified by their attempt to view the penitentiary (as well as the variety of representations conveyed by the different reform movements favoring its adoption) as an interpretive moment, revealing of the ideology, class fractures, and contradictory nature of modernity in Latin America. As such, the book should be of interest not only to scholars concerned with criminal justice history, but also to a wide range of readers interested in modernization, social identities, and the discursive articulation of social conflict. The collection also offers an up-to-date sampling of new historical approaches to the study of criminal justice history, illuminates crucial aspects of the Latin American modernization process, and contrasts the Latin American cases with the better known European and North American experiences with prison reform.

In Search of an Inca examines how people in the Andean region have invoked the Incas to question and rethink colonialism and injustice, from the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century until the late twentieth century. It stresses the recurrence of the 'Andean Utopia', that is, the idealization of the pre-colonial past as an era of harmony, justice, and prosperity and the foundation for political and social agendas for the future. In this award-winning work, Alberto Flores Galindo highlights how different groups imagined the pre-Andean world as a model for a new society. These included those conquered by the Spanish in the sixteenth century but also rebels in the colonial and modern era and a heterogeneous group of intellectuals and dissenters. This sweeping and accessible history of the Andes over the last five hundred years offers important reflections on and grounds for comparison of memory, utopianism, and resistance.

In Search of an Inca examines how people in the Andean region have invoked the Incas to question and rethink colonialism and injustice, from the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century until the late twentieth century. It stresses the recurrence of the 'Andean Utopia', that is, the idealization of the pre-colonial past as an era of harmony, justice, and prosperity and the foundation for political and social agendas for the future. In this award-winning work, Alberto Flores Galindo highlights how different groups imagined the pre-Andean world as a model for a new society. These included those conquered by the Spanish in the sixteenth century but also rebels in the colonial and modern era and a heterogeneous group of intellectuals and dissenters. This sweeping and accessible history of the Andes over the last five hundred years offers important reflections on and grounds for comparison of memory, utopianism, and resistance.

Crowning a decade of innovative efforts in the historical study of law and legal phenomena in the region, Crime and Punishment in Latin America offers a collection of essays that deal with the multiple aspects of the relationship between ordinary people and the law. Building on a variety of methodological and theoretical trends-cultural history, subaltern studies, new political history, and others-the contributors share the conviction that law and legal phenomena are crucial elements in the formation and functioning of modern Latin American societies and, as such, need to be brought to the forefront of scholarly debates about the region’s past and present.While disassociating law from a strictly legalist approach, the volume showcases a number of highly original studies on topics such as the role of law in processes of state formation and social and political conflict, the resonance between legal and cultural phenomena, and the contested nature of law-enforcing discourses and practices. Treating law as an ambiguous and malleable arena of struggle, the contributors to this volume-scholars from North and Latin America who represent the new wave in legal history that has emerged in recent years-- demonstrate that law not only produces and reformulates culture, but also shapes and is shaped by larger processes of political, social, economic, and cultural change. In addition, they offer valuable insights about the ways in which legal systems and cultures in Latin America compare to those in England, Western Europe, and the United States.This volume will appeal to scholars in Latin American studies and to those interested in the social, cultural, and comparative history of law and legal phenomena.Contributors. Carlos Aguirre, Dain Borges, Lila Caimari, Arlene J. DÍaz, Luis A. Gonzalez, Donna J. Guy, Douglas Hay, Gilbert M. Joseph, Juan Manuel Palacio, Diana Paton, Pablo Piccato, Cristina Rivera Garza, Kristin Ruggiero, Ricardo D. Salvatore, Charles F. Walker

The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds is the first major historical study of the creation and development of the prison system in Peru. Carlos Aguirre examines the evolution of prisons for male criminals in Lima from the conception-in the early 1850s-of the initial plans to build penitentiaries through the early-twentieth-century prison reforms undertaken as part of President Augusto Leguia’s attempts to modernize and expand the Peruvian state. Aguirre reconstructs the social, cultural, and doctrinal influences that determined how lawbreakers were treated, how programs of prison reform fared, and how inmates experienced incarceration. He argues that the Peruvian prisons were primarily used not to combat crime or to rehabilitate allegedly deviant individuals, but rather to help reproduce and maintain an essentially unjust social order. In this sense, he finds that the prison system embodied the contradictory and exclusionary nature of modernization in Peru.Drawing on a large collection of prison and administrative records archived at Peru’s Ministry of Justice, Aguirre offers a detailed account of the daily lives of men incarcerated in Lima’s jails. In showing the extent to which the prisoners actively sought to influence prison life, he reveals the dynamic between prisoners and guards as a process of negotiation, accommodation, and resistance. He describes how police and the Peruvian state defined criminality and how their efforts to base a prison system on the latest scientific theories-imported from Europe and the United States-foundered on the shoals of financial constraints, administrative incompetence, corruption, and widespread public indifference. Locating his findings within the political and social mores of Lima society, Aguirre reflects on the connections between punishment, modernization, and authoritarian traditions in Peru.

Covering more than 500 years of history, culture, and politics, The Lima Reader seeks to capture the many worlds and many peoples of Peru’s capital city, featuring a selection of primary sources that consider the social tensions and cultural heritages of the “City of Kings.”

Covering more than 500 years of history, culture, and politics, The Lima Reader seeks to capture the many worlds and many peoples of Peru’s capital city, featuring a selection of primary sources that consider the social tensions and cultural heritages of the “City of Kings.”

Covering more than 500 years of history, culture, and politics, The Lima Reader seeks to capture the many worlds and many peoples of Peru’s capital city, featuring a selection of primary sources that consider the social tensions and cultural heritages of the “City of Kings.”

Crowning a decade of innovative efforts in the historical study of law and legal phenomena in the region, Crime and Punishment in Latin America offers a collection of essays that deal with the multiple aspects of the relationship between ordinary people and the law. Building on a variety of methodological and theoretical trends—cultural history, subaltern studies, new political history, and others—the contributors share the conviction that law and legal phenomena are crucial elements in the formation and functioning of modern Latin American societies and, as such, need to be brought to the forefront of scholarly debates about the region’s past and present.While disassociating law from a strictly legalist approach, the volume showcases a number of highly original studies on topics such as the role of law in processes of state formation and social and political conflict, the resonance between legal and cultural phenomena, and the contested nature of law-enforcing discourses and practices. Treating law as an ambiguous and malleable arena of struggle, the contributors to this volume—scholars from North and Latin America who represent the new wave in legal history that has emerged in recent years-- demonstrate that law not only produces and reformulates culture, but also shapes and is shaped by larger processes of political, social, economic, and cultural change. In addition, they offer valuable insights about the ways in which legal systems and cultures in Latin America compare to those in England, Western Europe, and the United States.This volume will appeal to scholars in Latin American studies and to those interested in the social, cultural, and comparative history of law and legal phenomena.

Contributors. Carlos Aguirre, Dain Borges, Lila Caimari, Arlene J. Díaz, Luis A. Gonzalez, Donna J. Guy, Douglas Hay, Gilbert M. Joseph, Juan Manuel Palacio, Diana Paton, Pablo Piccato, Cristina Rivera Garza, Kristin Ruggiero, Ricardo D. Salvatore, Charles F. Walker

The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds is the first major historical study of the creation and development of the prison system in Peru. Carlos Aguirre examines the evolution of prisons for male criminals in Lima from the conception—in the early 1850s—of the initial plans to build penitentiaries through the early-twentieth-century prison reforms undertaken as part of President Augusto Leguia’s attempts to modernize and expand the Peruvian state. Aguirre reconstructs the social, cultural, and doctrinal influences that determined how lawbreakers were treated, how programs of prison reform fared, and how inmates experienced incarceration. He argues that the Peruvian prisons were primarily used not to combat crime or to rehabilitate allegedly deviant individuals, but rather to help reproduce and maintain an essentially unjust social order. In this sense, he finds that the prison system embodied the contradictory and exclusionary nature of modernization in Peru.

Drawing on a large collection of prison and administrative records archived at Peru’s Ministry of Justice, Aguirre offers a detailed account of the daily lives of men incarcerated in Lima’s jails. In showing the extent to which the prisoners actively sought to influence prison life, he reveals the dynamic between prisoners and guards as a process of negotiation, accommodation, and resistance. He describes how police and the Peruvian state defined criminality and how their efforts to base a prison system on the latest scientific theories—imported from Europe and the United States—foundered on the shoals of financial constraints, administrative incompetence, corruption, and widespread public indifference. Locating his findings within the political and social mores of Lima society, Aguirre reflects on the connections between punishment, modernization, and authoritarian traditions in Peru.

The essays in this volume analyze three aspects of the history of the Left and Marxism in Latin America: first, the need to discuss the ""changing times"" in the 21 century and its many and varied ingredients as part of a complex history of intellectual practices and policy proposals that have played for more than a century, the aspirations of broad social changes in Latin American sectors. Second, the acclimatization of Marxism in Latin America as part of a series of discussions with other intellectual movements and at the same time, within a process of intellectual production conditioned by political and institutional factors. And third, the construction of certain views on the historical past as a linchpin of the various policy proposals of the left in Latin America. Together, the texts included in this book contribute to enrich the debates around the relationship between history and politics but also, somehow, to imagine scenarios of growing democracy, justice, and equality in the region.

The formation, organization, and accessibility of archives and libraries are critical for the production of historical narratives. They contain the materials with which historians and others reconstruct past events. Archives and libraries, however, not only help produce history, but also have a history of their own. From the early colonial projects to the formation of nation states in Latin America, archives and libraries had been at the center of power struggles and conflicting ideas over patrimony and document preservation that demand historical scrutiny. Much of their collections have been lost on account of accidents or sheer negligence, but there are also cases of recovery and reconstruction that have opened new windows to the past. The essays in this volume explore several fascinating cases of destruction and recovery of archives and libraries and illuminate the ways in which those episodes help shape the writing of historical narratives and the making of collective memories.

On October 3, 1968, a military junta led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado took over the government of Peru. In striking contrast to the right-wing, pro–United States/anti-Communist military dictatorships of that era, however, Velasco’s “Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces” set in motion a left-leaning nationalist project aimed at radically transforming Peruvian society by eliminating social injustice, breaking the cycle of foreign domination, redistributing land and wealth, and placing the destiny of Peruvians into their own hands. Although short-lived, the Velasco regime did indeed have a transformative effect on Peru, the meaning and legacy of which are still subjects of intense debate.The Peculiar Revolution revisits this fascinating and idiosyncratic period of Latin American history. The book is organized into three sections that examine the era’s cultural politics, including not just developments directed by the Velasco regime but also those that it engendered but did not necessarily control; its specific policies and key institutions; and the local and regional dimensions of the social reforms it promoted. In a series of innovative chapters written by both prominent and rising historians, this volume illuminates the cultural dimensions of the revolutionary project and its legacies, the impact of structural reforms at the local level (including previously understudied areas of the country such as Piura, Chimbote, and the Amazonia), and the effects of state policies on ordinary citizens and labor and peasant organizations.

On October 3, 1968, a military junta led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado took over the government of Peru. In striking contrast to the right-wing, pro–United States/anti-Communist military dictatorships of that era, however, Velasco’s “Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces” set in motion a left-leaning nationalist project aimed at radically transforming Peruvian society by eliminating social injustice, breaking the cycle of foreign domination, redistributing land and wealth, and placing the destiny of Peruvians into their own hands. Although short-lived, the Velasco regime did indeed have a transformative effect on Peru, the meaning and legacy of which are still subjects of intense debate.The Peculiar Revolution revisits this fascinating and idiosyncratic period of Latin American history. The book is organized into three sections that examine the era’s cultural politics, including not just developments directed by the Velasco regime but also those that it engendered but did not necessarily control; its specific policies and key institutions; and the local and regional dimensions of the social reforms it promoted. In a series of innovative chapters written by both prominent and rising historians, this volume illuminates the cultural dimensions of the revolutionary project and its legacies, the impact of structural reforms at the local level (including previously understudied areas of the country such as Piura, Chimbote, and the Amazonia), and the effects of state policies on ordinary citizens and labor and peasant organizations.

Reconstrucción de las peripecias por las que pasó la primera novela del Premio Nobel peruano Mario Vargas Llosa. Cómo se manufactura, histórica y culturalmente hablando, un "clásico literario"? Los libros, como toda creación humana, tienen también su biografía. Esta incluye el proceso de creación mismo pero, además, una compleja trama de oportunidades, contactos, redes intelectuales y de amistad, filiaciones políticas, estrategias de publicidad y muchos otros factores. En 1963 apareció en Barcelona "La ciudad y los perros", la primera novela de Mario Vargas Llosa. Desde entonces ha tenido una trayectoria marcada por el éxito de crítica y lectores, pero también ha estado rodeada de polémica y escándalo. Este ensayo ofrece una reconstrucción lo más completa posible de las peripecias por las que pasó la primera novela del Premio Nobel peruano. Al hacerlo, ilumina facetas poco conocidas de la biografía de Vargas Llosa, la historia del boom latinoamericano, el mundo editorial y cultural de la época en Iberoamérica, la censura franquista y sus efectos y las conexiones entre literatura y política, especialmente en los años inmediatamente posteriores a la revolución cubana. Apartándose de la historia oficial y de los mitos que han rodeado la trayectoria de "La ciudad y los perros", este libro permite situaren sus coordenadas históricas y culturales el punto de partida de una novela y un autor que con el tiempo se convertirían en clásicos de la literatura peruana y universal.

El futuro de las bibliotecas tal como las hemos conocido en los últimos siglos ha ingresado en un periodo de incertidumbre debido a las innovaciones tecnológicas y a los cambios en las formas de adquisición de conocimiento. Sin embargo, la acumulación de libros y documentos continúa ejerciendo una influencia decisiva sobre la manera como nos relacionamos con el mundo del conocimiento, la educación y la producción científica y académica. Reconstruir la historia de las bibliotecas nos ayuda a entender una variedad de procesos históricos y nos ofrece un fascinante recorrido por la conformación de imaginarnos en torno a la cultura, la creación artística y literaria, y la producción y difusión de conocimientos.Este volumen, editado por Carlos Aguirre y Ricardo D. Salvatore, intenta echar nuevas luces sobre la historia de las bibliotecas en América Latina –bibliotecas privadas, religiosas, públicas, nacionales- y, en particular, sobre su rol en los conflictos sociales y culturales, la formación de los estados-nación, los procesos de cambio político e institucional, la alfabetización y escolarización de las poblaciones, y la acumulación de capital cultural y simbólico. Este conjunto de ensayos intenta contribuir a la historia de las bibliotecas y, a la vez, abrir líneas de conversación con otras profesiones y saberes también interesados en la cuestión de la preservación de los activos culturales, la difusión del conocimiento y las tensiones y debates que ellos generan.

Hace cuarenta años, en noviembre de 1980, apareció la primera edición de La agonía de Mariátegui. Su publicación tuvo un impacto notable en los estudios de este valioso pensador peruano y en los debates al interior de la izquierda de su país, del mismo modo que las diferentes ediciones posteriores evidencian su continua influencia. Dentro del amplísimo campo de los estudios mariateguistas, esta obra ocupa un lugar destacado por la combinación de rigor histórico y talento narrativo desplegado por Flores Galindo, y su esfuerzo por demoler las visiones dogmáticas y ahistóricas sobre Mariátegui. Se trata de un libro significativo sobre un personaje esencial en la historia del pensamiento marxista latinoamericano. La Casa de las Américas y la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, mediante sus respectivos fondos editoriales, han querido publicar una edición conmemorativa, revisada y enriquecida con materiales críticos seleccionados por el historiador Carlos Aguirre, que permitirá una mejor valoración de su aporte y vigencia

Este libro es una recopilación de ensayos, en los que se rompe dicotomías analíticas (como centro-periferia, por ejemplo) que impiden ver la ciudad como un todo y enfatiza las conexiones entre procesos históricos y las interrelaciones entre agentes sociales en la urbe.Al centrar su atención en los dispersos espacios públicos que se han ido formando a lo largo de la historia de Lima, este libro deja de lado la idea de una ciudad laberíntica y la entiende como una ciudad archipiélago. En ella, los espacios públicos y los barrios —entendidos como microsociedades— se despliegan en forma desordenada y dispersa, pero al mismo tiempo se conectan por una variedad de prácticas, algunas de las cuales provienen de los distintos momentos del desarrollo de la ciudad, mientras otras se presentan como islotes de modernidad global.Los ensayos reunidos en este libro enriquecen nuestra comprensión sobre las formas cambiantes de "ser limeño" e iluminan aspectos poco frecuentados por las ciencias sociales en sus intentos por capturar las experiencias concretas de los habitantes de la ciudad. Desde una perspectiva novedosa, estos ensayos contribuyen a los debates sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro de Lima, una urbe que a todos nos apasiona como ciudadanos y como académicos, y que constituye un desafío para quienes queremos comprenderla mejor.

A renowned Peruvian historian, Alberto Flores Galindo (1949-1990) wrote fundamental books on Andean utopianism, José Carlos Mariátegui, subaltern Lima, and more. He participated in fiery debates on the left about Marxism, democracy, and socialism.Written by two specialists in Peruvian history, this book addresses many of his major topics and contributions, including Peru's rupture with Spanish colonialism, his role as a Marxist public intellectual, his relationship with the Cuban Revolution, the Shining Path and human rights, and his passion for literature. The book introduces English readers to the life and work of one of Latin America's major Marxist thinkers.

En este estudio sobre las cárceles de Lima entre 1850 y 1935, Carlos Aguirre reconstruye las influencias sociales, culturales y doctrinales detrás de las formas en que se trataba a los delincuentes, la implementación –parcial y llena de contradicciones– de proyectos de reforma carcelaria, y las estrategias desplegadas por los reclusos para enfrentar la experiencia de la prisión.Aguirre sugiere que el funcionamiento de las cárceles de Lima revela la naturaleza contradictoria y excluyente del proceso de modernización por el que atravesó la sociedad peruana durante ese período. Una combinación de brutalidad e indiferencia caracterizó el trato a los delincuentes y el funcionamiento de las cárceles pasó a depender de una serie de negociaciones y arreglos arbitrarios y frágiles entre autoridades y detenidos.Al final, la iniquidad y el abuso prevalecieron y las cárceles de Lima se convirtieron en bastiones del autoritarismo, la exclusión y el ejercicio arbitrario del poder; pero, al mismo tiempo, constituyeron espacios en los que los presos pusieron en práctica formas creativas de resistencia y desafío contra la deshumanización y el abuso.

A new introduction to the groundbreaking work of one of Latin America’s major Marxist thinkers, Alberto Flores Galindo (1949-1990). Written by two specialists in Peruvian history, this book introduces English readers to his life and work. Flores Galindo wrote several important books on Andean utopianism, José Carlos Mariátegui, subaltern Lima, and more. He also participated in fiery debates on the left about Marxism, democracy, and socialism. In this book, authors cover many of his major topics and contributions, including Peru's rupture with Spanish colonialism, his role as a Marxist public intellectual, his relationship with the Cuban Revolution, the Shining Path and human rights, and his passion for literature.