Tulane University
Timothy Power discusses Brazil's Democracy and Presidents Lula and Dilma
January 7th, 2013
On December 5, 2012, Tulane's Center for Inter-American Policy welcomed Dr. Timothy Power, Director of Graduate Studies in Politics at Oxford University. Dr. Power opened his lecture, "Brazilian Democracy from Lula to Dilma," by providing a brief overview of Brazil's political system and a summary of the country's 2010 presidential election. He illustrated how Brazil's political system represents a sort of hybrid between European coalitional politics and American presidentialism, a "coalitional presidentialism" in which two presidential parties lead legislative party coalitions. The 2010 election itself was the largest election in the history of Latin America, though it was not, in Dr. Power's view, a "change election." Instead, the election reflected the desire of most Brazilians to maintain the lines of public policy implemented by Lula da Silva, including the preservation and further development of an important social safety net.
Dr. Power reviewed some of Lula's most salient accomplishments as President of Brazil, including the country's impressive economic record during his tenure. After decades of flat growth, Brazilian GDP finally resumed growth at rates not seen since the 1960s. Furthermore, under Lula's leadership, poverty and inequality decreased dramatically. Dr. Power underscored how Lula's signature social safety net program, Bolsa Familia, became the crowning achievement and legacy of his presidency. Other indicators of the rising standard of living in Brazil under Lula include an explosion of consumer credit and increased access to communication, automobiles, and travel. As an example he mentioned that the number of Brazilian air travellers more than doubled between 2002 and 2010. Altogether this earned Lula and his PT party considerable political clout.
Dr. Power then turned to discuss current president Dilma Rousseff, focusing on the salience of Lula's popularity and legacy for her presidency. In her youth, Dilma was active as part of an armed guerrilla movement that opposed Brazil's military regime. Such political activity led to six years in jail during which she endured torture at the hands of her captors. However, until six months prior to the 2010 election, Dilma was virtually unknown in Brazil and had never held elective office. Dr. Power related how Dilma earned the esteem and confidence of Lula after effectively managing a scandal for the president in 2005. In the months leading to the 2010 election, Lula presented Dilma as his candidate of choice, and she rapidly garnered widespread popularity. In Dr. Power's view, the pervasiveness of Lula's popularity among Brazilians rendered his endorsement of Dilma politically potent and decisive. With Lula's backing, essentially all that Dilma needed to achieve in order to win the presidency was to avoid making mistakes during the campaign, something she accomplished. However, a negative consequence of this is that, unlike Lula, Dilma is not entirely "the author of her own government," and must define her own roadmap and legacy if she is not to remain dependent on Lula's popularity.
-Hannagan Johnson
LATEST SITE UPDATES
NEWS
- Higgins, Pereira paper highlighted in Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper
- Nora Lustig presents on fiscal policy at the World Bank
- Longtime love inspires gift to institute
- Latin American Resource Center Acquires New Films
- Local students learn about Carnival in Haiti
- Nora Lustig Presents at Ministerio de Hacienda in Costa Rica
- Diddier Santos presents two films on Cuban media and culture
EVENTS
- Persistent Inequality: Book Presentation at the Mexican Consulate
- Graduate Lunch Seminar with Dr. Robin Greeley
- Racism, Black Consciousness and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence in the Cuban Revolution, 1965-1971
- From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions
- Social Policy in Latin America since the Left Turn: A Roundtable Discussion
- Paolo Spadoni presents new book on Cuban economy
- MARI Brown Bag: Ximena Chávez Balderas "Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan"
- The Pebbles Center turns 10!
- The African Presence in Venezuela Since President Hugo Chavez
- Materials in the Classroom Ecology: A Language Pedagogy Workshop
- The Traveling Illustrations of Sixteenth- Century Travel Narratives
- Guest Lecture and Reception: "Autoconstrucción's Dialectical Objects: Sculptural Materialism in the work of Abraham Cruzvillegas?"
- Candidate Talk for Research and Instruction Position at Latin American Library
- The Social System of White-Bellied Spider Monkeys in an Amazonian Rainforest: Insights from Long-Term Observations and Molecular Data
- Calendrics, Astronomy, and Math at the "Xultun Institute of Advanced Study"
- "How to Choose a Dissertation Topic?" Roundtable Discussion
MEDIA
Upcoming Events
Racism, Black Consciousness and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence in the Cuban Revolution, 1965-1971
Author and professor Lillian Guerra will be speaking at Tulane. This event is free and open to the public.
Lillian Guerra is a Professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida. She has just published Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption and Resistance, 1959-1971 (UNC Press). This book is one of the first major works to analyze the grand narrative of the Cuban revolution, and in the process, it reveals the internal divisions and resistance to the revolution at the popular level. It received a Special Mention for the 2013 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Award (Caribbean Studies Association) and was a 2013 Choice Outstanding Academic title.
Guerra is also the author of The Myth of José Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early 20th Century Cuba (UNC Press) and Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico (University of Florida). Her work has appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Social History, and Cuban Studies. She is currently working on a new project, Making Revolutionary Cuba, on Cuban political culture from 1947-1958.
MARI Brown Bag: Ximena Chávez Balderas "Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan"
Ximena Chávez Balderas, Doctoral Student in the Department of Anthropology, will present a talk about her dissertation work at the Templo Mayor in Mexico City entitled “Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan”
M.A.R.I.'s Brown Bag talk series is meant to provide a venue for students and faculty focusing on topics related to Mesoamerica to discuss their latest research in an informal and friendly setting. If you are interested in presenting, please email Marcello Canuto (mcanuto@tulane.edu) for more information. For the current speaker list of this talk series, please click here.
From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions
David Carrasco, the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard University, will present a talk on March 14th at 4 PM entitled: “From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions.”
Professor Carrasco will give an illustrated lecture about his journey, discoveries, and changes of mind in the study of Mesoamerican religions. Working as an historian of religions, Carrasco helped decipher the patterns of the axis mundi/sacred centers in the ceremonial world of the Great Aztec Temple and more recently in the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan #2. His lecture will trace this interpretive journey by showing images from the Aztec Templo Mayor and the Cuauhtinchan Codex.
A reception will follow.
Sponsored by the Tulane Anthropology Student Association (TASA), the Center for Scholars, the Associated Student Body, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, and the Department of History.
For more information please contact TASA at tulaneasa@gmail.com.
Materials in the Classroom Ecology: A Language Pedagogy Workshop
This hands-on workshop for language teachers demonstrates activities and materials designed to promote language learners' listening and speaking fluency. These activities allow university and high school students to engage in meaningful use of the target language. Materials demonstrated at this workshop can be readily adapted by participating language teachers and implemented in their own classrooms. These innovative pedagogic activities bridge language teaching theory and practice, and recent research on language teaching materials and learning will also be presented. University instructors and high school teachers working with language learners of any proficiency level will benefit from this presentation. The workshop will be conducted in English, and teachers of any language are welcome to attend. Participants may wish to read the article Materials in the Classroom Ecology in advance of the event, although this reading is not required in order to participate in this interactive workshop. All interested language teaching practitioners are encouraged to attend.
The workshop will be led by Anne Marie Guerrataz. She earned a PhD in Second Language Studies at Indiana University and has extensive experience teaching Spanish, French, and English as foreign/second languages at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels. She has worked with teachers of many diverse languages, including less-commonly-taught languages such as Arabic, Yucatec Maya, and others. Dr. Guerrettaz has trained language teaching practitioners from across the world, from pedagogy workshops she facilitated for instructors at the Defense Language Institute in California to graduate-level seminars for language teachers in Central America and Maryland. In addition to her publications on language pedagogy, she is also deeply interested in the political dimensions of language and has researched Indigenous language rights in Mexico.
Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies the Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
The event is free but prior registration is required.
Engaging the Caribbean Space: A Talk by Earl Lovelace
Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize, will give a talk entitled “Engaging the Caribbean Space.” A reception will follow the talk.
This event is sponsored by Center for Scholars, GSSA, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, African Diaspora Studies, Department of English, the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO), Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching, the Center for Public Service, and the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute.
Please contact Cherif Diatta (cdiatta@tulane.edu) for more information.
For the event flyer, click here.
Tulane Maya Symposium Teacher Workshop: On the Maya Trail: Ancient Travelers, Epic Voyages
The Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Middle American Research Institute, and the Audubon Aquarium are joining together to sponsor a K-12 teacher workshop in conjunction with the 11th annual Tulane Maya Symposium. This year the workshop will be held at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans, in celebration of the opening of a new exhibit on reefs in the Maya area. The workshop will focus on the symposium theme: traveling and voyages among the Maya. The workshop will integrate information about the geography and environment of the Maya area and the ancient and modern Maya utilization of environmental resources. The resources discussed will provide a great way for teachers working with the Common Core requirements to integrate information about the Maya into discussions of a variety of topics!
This year the teacher workshop will begin on Thursday evening, March 20th, with a special reception and talk at the Aquarium specifically for teachers. The main component of the workshop will take place on Friday, March 21st. For more information and to register, please visit the symposium website.
Event Schedule:
Thursday (Audubon Aquarium)
6:00 – 8:00 PM
Opening reception
6:00 – 6:30 PM
Introduction and Opening Remarks
6:30 – 7:00 PM
What do we really know about the Ancient Maya? – Marcello Canuto, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University
Friday (Audubon Aquarium)
9:00 – 9:50 AM
Introduction to the Geography/Environment of the Maya – Kristine Grzenda, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas
10:00- 10:50 AM
Historical Perspectives on the Maya – Valerie Feathers, Louisiana State University
11:00- 11:50 AM
Introduction to Maya Sea Traders – Heather McKillop, Louisiana State University
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Lunch
1:00 – 1:50 PM
Integrating the Standards to Create Engaging Curricula on the Maya – Denise Woltering Vargas and Tricia LeBlanc
2:00 PM
Conclusion and Evaluation
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Tour of the NOMA Mesoamerican Collection
6:00 – 7:15 PM (NOMA)
Keynote – Karl Taube, University of California Riverside
Copyright © 2014 Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies All Rights Reserved.
Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu