Lectures
Technology for the Foreign Language Classroom and Beyond, Robert Blake,
Director, UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching, Chief Academic
Advisor, Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM, University of California at Davis, September 13,
2001, 4:00pm, Newcomb 403 (Sponsored by AACLRT, Tulane University).
Spanish without Walls and the UC Davis University Extension Distance Learning
Campus, Robert Blake, Director, UC Consortium for Language Learning and
Teaching, Chief Academic Advisor, Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM, University of
California at Davis, September 14, 2001, 10:00am, Newcomb 403 (Sponsored by
AACLRT, Tulane University).
The Temple of Doom Revisited: the 2001 field season at the Pyramid of the Moon,
Northern Peru, Dr. John Verano, Anthropology Department, Tulane University,
September 14, 2001, 4:00pm, MARI Dinwiddie Hall (Sponsored by the Middle American
Research Institute and Tulane's Anthropology Department)
Julio Garcia, September 21, 2001, 2:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall
100A (Sponsored by the Cuban Studies Institute). For more information contact Debbie
Ramil at dramil@tulane.edu.
Cuba: Tomorrow in Question, E. Wright Ledbetter, Photographer, and Abrosio
Fornet, Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, Cuba, September 24, 2001, 3:30pm6:00pm, Woldenberg Art Building, Lecture Room 201 (Sponsored by the Cuban Studies
Institute)
WTC President's Award for Distinguished International Service, Justice Revius O.
Ortique, Jr., former Representative to the United Nations and President of the
National Bar Association, September 25, 2001, 12:00pm, WTC Plimsoll Club
(Sponsored by the World Trade Center of New Orleans). For more information call the WTC
at 504.529.1601 ext. 222 or 271.
Telethons, Talk Shows, and Dead Dinosaurs: The Unnoticed Moments of Mexico's
Transition to Democracy, Sam Quinones, Journalist, October 1, 2001, 12:00pm,
Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin
American Studies). For more information contact James D. Huck at rtsclas@tulane.edu.
Spatial Information Technology: Visions Applications & Natural Resource
Management, John Corbett, Mudsprings Geographers Inc., October 1, 2001,
2:00pm, Hunts Anderson, University Center (Sponsored by the Payson Center for
International Development, Tulane University). For more information contact Monique
Hampton at 504.865.5240.
Genocide and the Struggle for Justice in Guatemala, Anselmo Roldan Aguilar,
Association for Justice and Reconciliation, October 1, 2001, 7:30pm, Greenleaf
Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American
Studies, the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), and Tulane
Anthropology Graduate Students). For more information contact Chris Jones at
cjones10@tulane.edu.
A Reading by Edwidge Danticat, Edwidge Danticat, Zale Writer in Residence,
October 9, 2001, 7:30pm, Newcomb Chapel (Sponsored by Newcomb's College Center for
Research on Women).
Meet Edwidge Danticat: A Public Interview Conducted by Cecile Acclien, Edwidge
Danticat, Zale Writer in Residence, Cecile Acclien, Tulane Department of French
and Italian, October 11, 2001, 7:30pm, Anna E. Many Lounge, 2nd Floor Newcomb
(Sponsored by Newcomb College Center for Research on Women).
Una Lectura, Leonardo Padura, Cuban Writer, October 16, 2001, 3:30-5:30pm,
Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin
American Studies and the Cuban Studies Institute).
CANCELLED: We Are All in the Same Gang: Exploring Cultural Pluralism in America,
Edward James Olmos, renown actor, director, activist, October 17, 2001, 6:30pm,
Dixon Hall Auditorium (Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Tulane University
Campus Programming, Housing & Residence Life, Latin & American Student Association, and
the African American Congress of Tulane). For more information contact the Office of
Multicultural Affairs at 504.865.5181.
Outlook for Brazil-Louisiana Business, Rubens Barbosa, Brazil's Ambassador to the
US, and Representative William Jefferson, October 19, 2001, 10:00am -2:00pm,
WTC Plimsoll Club (Sponsored by the World Trade Center of New Orleans, the Brazilian
Embassy, and the Brazil-US Business Council). For more information call the WTC at
504.529.1601 ext.271.
The Future of Brazil-US Trade and Investment Relations, Hon. Roberto Jaguaribe,
Minister-Counselor, Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC, October 19, 2001, 2:30pm
-3:30pm, Miller Hall 204 (Sponsored by the College of Business Adminstration and Loyola
University, New Orleans).
Another Revolution??? Economic Reorganization, Organic Agriculture, and Culture
in Contemporary Cuba: A Presentation with Slides, Nikki Demetria Thanos and Leo
B. Gorman, October 30, 2001, 9:30pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall
(Sponsored by the Cuban Studies Institute and the Latin American Graduate Organization).
Brazil's Agrarian Reform & Movimento Dos Sem Terra: Democratic Innovation or
Oligarchic Exclusion, Anthony Pereira, Department of Political Science, Tulane
University, October 30, 2001, 12:30pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall
(Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Women and the Wars of Colombia: Drugs, Guns, and Women Fighting for Peace,
Piedad Morales, Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, October 30, 2001, 7:00pm, Greenleaf
Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American
Studies, Global Exchange, and CAMBIO).
Democratization and Exploiting the Gains from Trade: Executive and Legislative
Exchange in Brazil, Lee J. Alston, University of Illinois, and Bernardo Mueller,
Universidade de Brasilia, November 2, 2001, 3:30 - 5:00pm, 301 Tilton Hall
(Sponsored by the Department for Economics, Tulane University).
Black Pau: Uncovering the History of Brazilian Soul Music, Bryan McCann,
University of Arkansas, November 2, 2001, 4:30pm, 201 Hebert Hall (Sponsored by
the Center for Scholars, the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies, and the
African and the African Diaspora Studies Program).
What Makes a Technical Action a Humanitarian Action? Understanding the Political
Context of Humanitarianism, Jorge Castilla, MD, MScPH, November 5, 2001, 12:00
- 1:00pm, Tidewater Building 2200-46 (Sponsored by the Department of International
Health and Development).
Editorial Issues Talk, Susan Larson, Fordham University, November 9, 2001, 3:30 5:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the Stone Center for
Latin American Studies, ISN, and GSSA).
Governments Who Cry Wolf: Political Credibility and the Implementation of
Reformist Policies in Latin America, Ana Margheritis Neil Allen, Tufts University,
November 12, 2001, 10:30am-12:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall
(Sponsored by the Department of Political Science, Tulane University).
US Corporate and Personal Security in the Changed Global Environment, Juan
Valadez, International Security Consultant, November 14, 2001, 12:00-1:00pm,
Plimsoll Club, World Trade Center, 30th Floor (Sponsored by the World Trade Center of New
Orleans).
Film: Danzon, Tito Vasconcelos, November 14, 2001, 8:00-10:00pm, Mayer Dorm
Lounge (Sponsored by the Spanish and Portuguese Student Association).
An Apologist's Thought About Race in the Tropics: Gilberto Freye on Brazil,
Thomas Skidmore, Professor Emeritus of Brown University, November 16, 2001,
3:00pm, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the African & African Diaspora Studies, Brazilian
Studies Council, and Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University).
Chat with Tito Vasconcelos, Tito Vasconcelos, November 16, 2001, 3:30pm,
Newcomb Faculty Lounge (Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the
Spanish and Portuguese Student Association, and Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Editorial Issues in Literary Studies, November 19, 2001, 5:00-6:30pm, 100A Jones
Hall (Sponsored by ISN, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of French and
Italian, and Stone Center for Latin American Studies.
Sociopolitical Violence in the Andes of Peru: Psychosocial Impacts and Community
Interventions, Edith Huayllasco Marquina, R.N., December 5, 2001, 11:00am, 100A
Jones Hall, Lecture in Spanish (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Insoluble Acts and Historical Solutions: Law, History and Latin American Cold War
Terror, Greg Grandin, Department of History, New York University, December 7,
2001, 4:00pm, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the LAS Center for Scholars, the Georges
Lurcy Foundation, and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Insoluble Acts and Historical Solutions: Law, History and Latin American Cold Wars
Terror, Greg Grandin, Department of History, New York University, December 7,
2001, 4:00-6:00pm, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by Tulane's History Department and the
Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Public and Community Mental Health Response to Large-Scale Organized Violence,
Soeren Buus Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., December 10, 2001, 11:00am, 100A Jones Hall
(Sponsored by the School of Public Health and the Stone Center for Latin American
Studies).
Community-oriented Psychosocial and Mental Health Response to Large-Scale
Organized Violence: The Case Example of N. Uganda and S. Sudan, Nancy Baron,
ED.D., December 10, 2001, 12:00pm, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the School of
Public Health and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Proverbios, enxiemplos y el proceso de lectura en El Conde Lucanor, Matthew
Raden, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish, Tulane University, January 15,
2002, 3:00pm, Stibbs Room A (Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Teatro, Retratos y Economia Social en la Espana del Siglo de Oro, Laura Bass,
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Tulane
University, January 22, 2002, 2:45pm, President's Room A & B, University Center
(Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Ruben Dario at Harvard: Books and Manuscripts from the Poet's Library, David
Whitesell, Rare Books Cataloguer, Houghton Library, Harvard University, January
22, 2002, 7:00pm, 100A Jones Hall (Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and
Portuguese and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Contemplation and Conversion: Saint Teresa’s Apostolic Model, Katie MacLean,
Duke University, January 28, 2002, 3:00pm, University Center, Presidents Room A&B
(Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Philosophical Conditions of Spanish American Modernismo, Serrano Caldera,
Visiting Professor, Latin American Studies, Tulane University, January 29, 2002,
7:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for
Latin American Studies and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
La romeria abyecta en el Spill de Jaume Roig, Jean Dangler, Assistant Professor,
Florida State University, February 1, 2002, 3:00-5:00pm, President's Room A&B,
University Center (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Argentine Film: "Los pasos perdidos," February 15, 2002, 7:30-12:00pm, Jones Hall
rm 102 (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
La romeria abyecta en el Spill de Jaume Roig, Jean Dangler, Assistant Professor,
Florida State University, February 1, 2002, 3:00-5:00pm, President's Room A&B,
University Center (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Hausa Christian Vernacular and the Language of Belief, Barbara M. Cooper,
Associate Professor of History, African and Women's Studies at Rutgers University
February 15, 2002, 4:30-6:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A
(Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of African
and African Diaspora Studies).
A Taste of Capitalism: The Emergence of Small Private Restaurants (Paladares) in
Today's Cuba, Ted Henken, Latin American Studies, Tulane University February 18,
2002, 3:30-5:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the
Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Nationalizing Blackness: Carnival in 1950s Trinidad, Pamela Franco, African and
African Diaspora Studies, Tulane University February 22, 2002, 4:30pm,
Woldenburg Art Center, 201 Stone Auditorium (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin
American Studies and the Georges Lurcy Educational and Charitable Trust).
Bossa Nova: The Great National Holiday of Brazil, Charles Perrone, University of
Florida, March 4, 2002, 5:00pm, Newcomb 123 (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin
American Studies and the Brazilian Studies Council).
Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, Ruben Martinez, PBS,
Nightline, Frontline, CNN, March 8, 2002, 2:00pm, Rogers Chapel (Sponsored by the
Latin and American Students Association, the Interdisciplinary Scholars Network and the
Graduate School Students Association).
Maya by the Numbers, Victoria R. Bricker and Harvey M. Bricker, Professors of
Anthropology, Tulane University, March 10, 2002, 3:00pm, New Orleans Museum of
Art (Sponsored by NOMA with help from the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and
Tulane Department of Anthropology).
The Future of Interdisciplinarity: Latin American Studies, John French, Associate
Professor of History at Duke University and Director of the Duke Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, March 11, 2002, 4:00pm, Greenleaf Conference
Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Latin American Studies Curriculum, John French, Associate Professor of History at
Duke University and Director of the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean
Studies, March 12, 2002, 10:00am, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A
(Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Art in Social Movements: A Case from Pinochet's Chile, Jaqueline Adams, Assistant
Professor, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, March
13, 2002, 3:00-4:15pm, Stibbs B, University Center (Sponsored by the Stone Center for
Latin American Studies).
Entre dos mundos: la doble condición del escritor latino/latinoamericano,
Edmundo Paz-Soldan, Cornell University and University of California at Berkeley,
March 15, 2002, 2:30am, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by
the Latin American Students Association and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
The Hegemony of US Economic Doctrines in Latin America, Paul Drake, Dean of
Social Sciences and Professor of Political
Science at UCSD, March 18, 2002, 10:30am, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall
100A (Sponsored by the Brazilian Studies Council, Cuban Studies, and the Stone Center for
Latin American Studies).
International Festival Presents: Four Days in September, March 20, 2002, 6:00pm,
Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Brazilian Studies Council,
Cuban Studies, and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Nationalism in Panama during the 20th Century and Afro-Caribbean CounterCulture, Peter Szok, Texas Christian University, March 21, 2002, 11:00am,
Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin
American Studies).
Brazil: New Opportunities in Education, H.E. Ambassador Rubens Antonio Barbosa,
Brazilian Ambassador to the US, March 22, 2002, 4:00pm, Greenleaf Conference
Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Brazilian Studies Council and the Stone Center
for Latin American Studies).
The Ecology of a Trans-Equatorial Migrant, Kenneth D. Meyer, April 2, 2002,
4:00pm, Stibbs Room B, University Center (Sponsored by the Deaprtment of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology).
Current Working Class Response to the Economic Crisis in Argentina, Michael
Howells and John Coffee, April 2, 2002, 8:00pm, Mezzanine Conference Room A,
University Center (Sponsored by Tulane Politics Club).
Ecological and Evolutionary Determinants of Species Richness in Caribbean Anolis
Lizards, Jonathan Losos, Washington University, St. Louis, April 5, 2002, 12:001:00pm, President's Room A&B, University Center (Sponsored by the Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
A Post-Oil Venezuelan Society Business Opportunities in the Technology Sector,
Maria Victoria Linares, Consul General of Venezuela, and German Creamer, Tulane
University, April 9, 2002, 5:20pm, Business School, rm 110 (Sponsored by the Business
School, Political Science Department, and Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Nueva Trova Cubana: Music and Social Movements in Latin America, Graciela
Barreto, Venezuelan musician and musicologist, April 9, 2002, 7:30pm, Kendall
Cram Room, University Center (Sponsored by the Cuban Studies Department and the Stone
Center for Latin American Studies).
Dr. Ana Rueda Lecture, Ana Rueda, April 15, 2002, 2:00-4:00pm, Presidents Room B,
University Center (Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
The Future of Area Studies: Everybody's Talking 'Bout the New Sounds, Honey, But
It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me, Elizabeth Mahan, Director, University of Connecticut's
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, April 15, 2002, 4:00pm, Greenleaf
Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American
Studies).
Neglected Diseases, Forgotten People Medecins San Frontieres and Tulane on the
Front Line, Donald Krogstad, MD, Tropical Medicine, William Bertrand, PhD, Payson
Center, Bernard Pecoul, MD, MPH, Susan McLellan, MD, MPH, Infectious Diseases,
Nancy Mock, DrPH, International Health, SPHTM, April 15, 2002, 5:00pm, Tulane
Medical School Auditorium, 1430 Tulane Avenue (Sponsored by the Department of
International Health and Development and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Choosing a Color for the Cosmic Race: African Americans and National Identities in
Central America, Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College and Rina Caceres,
Universitdad de Costa Rica, April 16, 2002, 5:30pm, Greenleaf Conference Room,
Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Growing Up Latino Los Cuentos de Generación Ñ, April 16, 2002, 8:00pm, Jones Hall
102 (Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Stone Center for
Latin American Studies).
Institutionalization of the Arts in Cuba, Tomas Montoya, Poet, Sociocultural
Researcher, Santiago de Cuba, April 18, 2002, 4:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room,
Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Cuban
Studies Institute).
Winning and Losing the Right to Have Rights: Race and Citizenship in the era of
the Spanish-American-Cuban War, 1898-1903, Rebecca J Scott, Professor of
History, University of Michigan, April 19, 2002, 4:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room,
Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Latin American Students Association and the History
Department).
Resisting the Blue Revolution: Contending Coalitions Surrounding Industrial
Shrimp Farming, Susan Stonich, Professor of Anthropology and Chair of
Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, April 22, 2002,
10:30am, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the Department of
Political Science and Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Changing Nature: Population and Environment at a Crossroads, UNFPA (UN
Population Fund) sponsored documentary film, April 22, 2002, 4:00- 6:00pm,
Tidewater Building, 1440 Canal Street (Sponsored by the Neotropical Ecology Institute, the
Department of International Health and Development, the Stone Center for Latin American
Studies, and the Population Environment Research Network).
US Volunteers in the DR: Solidarity, Witnessing, and the Documentary Project,
Matthew D'Agostino, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University,
May 6, 2002, 3:00pm, Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A (Sponsored by the
Stone Center for Latin American Studies).
Matt’s paper:
Thesis Summary
Matthew P. D’Agostino
29 April 2002
When I signed up for this trip, I thought of helping people, but then...I thought about
what I could get out of this, I was thinking that this would be really cool for me to do
and what experience I could get and how it would sound to say that I went down for
two weeks, or something, but I think that it has totally changed since I came down
here, I don’t really care about what I get anymore. I’m just happy to sit out there for
3 hours and dig up the ground and move it to another place. I’ve always wanted to
help other people but I think that what I was searching for has changed, I’ve found
something different.
Carlos, HS Senior, DR Encounter
I came here for a challenge. Putting myself in uncomfortable position. How do I feel
about the rich and the poor, how I live my life. Is this going to be a life-changing or a
life-challenging experience. Will I be doing something that will help more people,
utilitarian (benefit more people), solidarity...Or [will it be like] That was interesting,
I learned a lot, my clinical skills go better...”
Joseph, 4th medical student, CELAS
International mission or charity work began in the New World with the first clergy who
accompanied Christopher Columbus. It was not long until Bartolomé de las Casas began to
criticize colonialism and the Church’s role in it. Since then, in the postcolonial world, charitable
organizations still administer aid to the region’s poor, but not without criticism. The relationships
out of which a group of people may give time, money, or other aid to poorer persons in the
Caribbean are still marked by major inequalities. Be that as it may, the desire to help those less
fortunate and the hope of making cross-cultural and meaningful relationships should not be
dismissed as necessarily neocolonialist. The following study was conceived as an effort to find
out, how people who wish to enlarge their moral communities—in this case with some residents
of the Dominican Republic—do so and how do they change themselves in the process? From the
testimony quote above
To begin to answer these questions, I visited the Dominican Republic during the summer of
2001 for a period of two months. There, I worked with two volunteer organizations that bring US
American volunteers to the Dominican Republic to work, witness, and hopefully to give aid and
friendship. The first group, CELAS (Centro para la Educación de LA Salud—The Center for
Health Education) is a Catholic affiliated organization that supports a wide variety of services to
rural Dominicans. CELAS trains and maintains a system of over 70 health cooperadoras
(Coordinators), mostly women, to administer basic health care in the rural towns and villages
(campos, as they are called in the DR). During the school year, they host a semester abroad
program with a US University, something that started in the early 90’s. But since the 70’s, during
the summer, they organize the “summer program” in which working professionals and medical,
dental, and nursing students provide services in the DR for four weeks. I studied CELAS during
their summer dental/medical program for about four weeks. This included a 1 ½ week briefing
period before setting up a temporary health clinic in the campo, two weeks in La Loma with one
group (there were 6 groups of about 8-10 student participants each), a weekend break in
Santiago, and two days back in the clinic. I interviewed several participants during their stay, as
well as after their return to the US.
The second program, DR Encounter, brings groups of high school seniors to the Dominican
Republic for two weeks at a time, about 14 students each trip. The administrator and founder of
the service program, Mark, takes several high school groups to the DR each summer. I
accompanied one group for one day as they visited a batey, which is a Haitian settlement in the
DR. Haitians are subject to extreme discrimination in the DR, and bateyes are most probably the
poorest places in the country. I interviewed all of the participants as a group and later contacted
several of them and the organizer in the US for follow-up interviews.
From the very beginning, this project’s aim has been exploratory. I wanted to learn about issues
that are important to consider, for participants and for observers such as myself, among volunteer
work by US Americans in Latin America. With these two groups, that differ from one another in
the ages and education of their participants, but also in their organizational goals, I believe that I
have found a good basis for further exploration of the “volunteer experience.”
Summary Reflection
The central tenet to Catholic-inspired missions such as CELAS and DR Encounter is to
reach out to those that are forgotten by societies: the poor. Forgotten, in this context, means those
left out of the prosperity that modernization, industrialization, and globalization was thought to
bring. It also means, in a most profound way, what it usually means: to be ignored or not present
in minds of others. In fact, several times, Dominicans in La Loma expressed their feeling that
“we are a forgotten people.” (Somos una gente olvidada.) CELAS advertises that it is the only
major organization that serves campesinos, in part to stem the perceived futility of moving to the
city. At least in the campo, CELAS officials say, campesinos can grow their food. To this effect,
the very presence of volunteers in small, rural communities serves as testimony that locals are
not forgotten. Photographs are welcome, conferring along with everything else, the importance
of the people in the clinic, in front of the cameras, in the notes of volunteers. The Director of
CELAS repeatedly has told volunteers that while the physical good that volunteers can provide is
in absolute terms small, their presence gives inspiration to the campesinos.
During one of my interviews with a summer volunteer who visited the Dominican
Republic’s bateyes, communities of Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic, I asked the high
school senior what was a favorite photograph of his from the trip. He mentioned the photograph
above, which I photographed. It’s on his computer screen now, and he told me that he
remembers fondly about when he and his fellow volunteers played basketball with the Haitians.
It was a good mix, he said, Haitians and US Americans together. Strangely, however, the US
Americans never did play basketball with the Haitians. At the time, watching the volunteers play
ball, I wondered why the US Americans did not play ball with the Haitians; I guessed that it
playing was a diversion from the stress of being amongst the worst poverty they had ever seen.
And this is likely a valid supposition. Later, Haitians and US Americans did play soccer together,
perhaps after a bit of uneasiness had been overcome. But the denial of the evidence that the US
Americans did not play basketball with the Haitians at all—of the photo and of my memory—
struck me as quite interesting. The participant had imagined solidarity where there was none.
The above photograph provides a critical starting point for discussion solidarity, inequalities of
power, and of representation. Volunteers came to the Dominican Republic with very definite
ideas regarding what they were to find. Notice the change in tenses, from present to past, in this
quotation from a volunteer after his first day visiting the batey:
“That visit really hit home, and still we are reminded every day of how horrible
their situation is. Not only did we realize what’s wrong with our society, but we saw
what’s wrong with ourselves.” (Paul, High School student)
If this quote was given in the present progressive tense, it would indicate something the
participant was learning right then, not something the he had already learned. It would be unfair
to suppose that the volunteer had not learned something that day, but the very quick ease with
which a given day’s lessons can be relegated to the past tense—to lessons already learned—
suggests a great deal of preconception of what he (in this case) was to receive that day. These
preconceptions are important to analyze, and there are patterns in their representations of
Haitians and Dominicans.
Some of these patterns are listed below.
Representations of Dominicans and Haitians
Most participants referred to Dominicans and Haitians in idealized terms. These
idealizations can be short-hand for dealing with their new experiences (Rhoads). They can also
represents, as Mary Louise Pratt describes in her book Imperial Eyes, something similar to how
colonial Europeans projected their fears and problems onto their representations of Americans,
volunteers projected their hopes. Their hopes, fashioned in a large part by Liberation Theology,
were often for unconditional love. (Yet, from a distance.)
Unconditional Love.
The love that we received from our families there from our fathers, our
mothers, our brothers and sisters was just incredible....
It is a perfect example of unconditional love.
Unconditional, here come these rich, wealthy Americans that come into
your home and you just give them everything, even though you know that they
have a lot.
The need for intimacy and acceptance was also played out in US volunteers resistance to,
but quick acceptance of, a very physically affectionate way of interacting with Dominicans.
Hugs, kisses, embraces, etc. became the norm. Although volunteers usually talked about how
Dominican culture was more physically affectionate (and I tend to agree), the assumption among
many of them is that volunteers adapt to Dominican culture instead of actively desiring it.
Other representations demonstrate some of the differences in power between volunteers,
and Dominicans or Haitians.
“Purity”
Volunteers, at different times desired to maintain Dominicans’ and Haitians’ innocence.
It’s selfish to just take. During the first 2 weeks at the center, we were just learning how to
be, how to live this lifestyle, appreciate a simpler lifestyle. I want to give service and be an
example, not to Americanize their lives, but to improve them.
One respondent explained that while Dominicans took her in and her friends, she would not
be able to return the favor, should they come to the United States.
“There is a “danger” of bringing them to us, to show them what they do not
have. Do not want to Americanize.”
But Americanization is already under way.
Paradise.
"June 22: ...we climbed a large hill and THEN saw the real sight--the other side
of the dump, 100s of yards of burning trash, small figures wading through it for
valuables. Turning ninety degrees brings a shantytown into view, thousands of small
zinc roofed houses, many colors, and narrow roads winding through. By contrast, the
background for this scene was the lush green beauty of the mountains on three sides
of us.
Happy Natives
My first reaction was that I was mad, at the government for not doing anything,
and myself for not trying to do anything sooner, but then I looked down at the ground
and there were four kids sitting there and they were all smiling and laughing and it
was the last thing that I would be doing in their position—laughing—so there is hope
in these cities.
This view was in part strengthened by the official stance of CELAS. Eduardo, assistant
Director of CELAS, describes the US American’s encounter with the poor, rural Dominicans as
one of astonishment. How can one be so poor and smile or be happy? The message is a standard
Christian one: money does not buy happiness. But the sheer repetition of this image seems to
mask the unhappiness that is also there.
Moral Communities
The above representations of Dominicans and Haitians has implications for the broader
charitable project. Through changing themselves, volunteers hope to change society and their
concept of their moral community. I take moral communities to mean those who are included in
the “we” when referring to ethical issues. The “we” that volunteers strive toward has a
theological basis.
Liberation Theology provides the ideological bedrock for CELAS and DR Encounter’s
sense of moral community. Its most fervid proponent and also founder, Gustavo Gutierrez
describes Liberation Theology’s aims:
The Theology of Liberation offers us not so much a new theme for reflection as
a new way to do theology. Theology as critical reflection on historical praxis is a
liberating theology, a theology of the liberating transformation of the history of
humankind and also therefore that part of humankind—gathered into ecclesia—which
openly confesses Christ. This is a theology which does not stop with reflecting on the
world but rather tries to be part of the process through which the world is
transformed (Gutiérrez, 15).
Thus, Liberation Theology marks an incredible shift from the Catholic Church’s stance
toward charity, good works, or social activism in the past. It is an emphasis on the conditions in
which people live, their earthly bodies, and not simply their souls. The shift was indeed
tremendous. The Catholic Church, since the time of Bartolome de las Casas, has been rightly
accused of aiding and abetting in the subjugation of the New World peoples in the name of
saving their souls. Liberation Theology echoed more secular trends of thought such as those
found in Sociology and psychoanalysis.
Shortly after the 1964 Vatican II council, the Medillín bishops conference also set a
precedent, declaring a “preferential option for the poor.” The message being that Catholics must
be called to reach out to the poor, to cross the line between “us” and “them” to proactively serve
those in need. The “preferential option for the poor,” along with “men for others” (a Jesuit
dictum), “praxis,” and “concientization” (from Freire’s concientizaçao), were frequently repeated
and invoked by the leaders of CELAS and DR Encounter. In turn, volunteers themselves took up
the rhetoric.
One of the tools which volunteers used for the purpose of reflections, and indeed changing,
themselves involved writing journals and taking photographs.
Journaling and Photography
After meeting all of the participants of CELAS last summer, I decided to work with one
particular group. One of the group’s members, who voted for my inclusion, told me, “I’m excited
that you are part of our group...” He was looking forward to hearing “completely different
perspective” on their experiences. Even given his opinion, I came to regard my work in the
Dominican Republic not much different from the volunteers’ work. My assertion is that
volunteers performed a form of ethnography as well, and we participated together in the broad
genre of travel writing. Here, my presentation relies heavily on Mary Louise Pratt’s work on
travel literature, how representations in this literature both follow and form unequal power
relationships between so-called “core” and peripheral countries.
The Catholic mission in both groups is one that carries a historically “feminine” cast. It’s
call for unconditional acceptance of the poor can be contrasted with other religious sects that
demand more explicit conditions for aid. CELAS and DR Encounter both saw their travels, and
their travel writing and photographing, as documentation of their experiences, but also as part of
a search for self. This is not unlike the colonial anti-conquest apparent in women’s 19th century
travel writer as that of the twin exploration of the New World, and of the self. The anti-conquest
being a form of domination that works more on the level of discourse than outright violence.
Robert Rhoads, in his book Community Service and Higher Learning, characterizes the
volunteer and service-recipient encounter as a meeting with the Other. Rhoads book narrates six
years of work with volunteer college students who most often attend week long, on average,
service jobs. He defines the Other contextually as “...community service, by its nature, is an
encounter with diverse others and thus provides students with valuable opportunities to
understand the complexity of postmodern life” (7).
Volunteers can be likened to ethnographers when they go into the field and encounter “the
subject.” Here, an ethnographic perspective on ethics points to some latent difficulties facing
volunteers. According to theorist Sarah Ahmed, ethnography creates “another epistemic
distinction: the ethnographer turns strangerness into a profession, into a technique for the
accumulation of knowledge...Ethnography defines itself as the professionalisation of
strangerness: the transformation of the stranger from an ontological lack to an epistemic
privilege” (emphasis in original) (Ahmed, 60). What Ahmed has so abstractly but accurately
stated about ethnographers can be said of volunteers: that volunteers’ selves, being defined as
givers, recreate the relationship of their privilege as they fashion their identity in relation to the
Other—the poor. Surely, this danger is acknowledged in Rhoads’ text with the desire for
solidarity, which hopefully, can help ford the distance between Dominican/Haitian others and US
Americans.
Photos
These difficulties of representing the other also play out in photographs. We know what
good photographs are supposed to look like. Volunteers also know what good photographs
should look like. Consider this one incident of the photograph that was NOT taken.
When we were coming back from the soccer game, this little girl was going through this bag of
just—trash—I wanted to get a picture of it, but I didn’t have any film loaded, and like, I don’t
know, that just shocked me. Cause you see all these people and they’re all happy and then we
get, really good food, and you see a little girl going through trash like that. It’s just like, wow,
this is really serious.
Most photography that is connected in some way with social documentation, and by this I
mean to include documentary photography, travel photography, photojournalism, and activist
photo-advertising, responds to already preconceived notions of what photography can and is
supposed to convey. This concept is nothing new. Most volunteers that I met, if not all adult
second language students, who were not fluent in Spanish would be able to describe their
exhaustion from concentrating on learning a new language. New language learners must
concentrate on individual words and phrases because they have not yet learned that certain
constructions, sayings, sentences, are shorthand for larger issues. Most non-professional
practitioners of photography are not aware of the visual literacy that they use to communicate,
just as native speakers take for granted their speech.
Interestingly, several participants, including myself, recognized that particular girl
rummaging through the trash as someone who could be photographed successfully. However,
success must be understood within a certain context. The “scene” was recognized as having
potential for being a good photograph as well as being received as a good photograph. It is a
strange thing, like Marx’s fetishism of commodities, that something so simple can be interpreted
as something other than itself—as a leitmotif, a metaphor, or as a two-dimensional representation
of something hung on a wall with the usual shape of having four right angle sides: photograph.
Volunteers have the dual desire to communicate their experiences to their friends,
acquaintances, and relatives while at the same time professing their experiences’ uniqueness—in
essence, their non-transferability, their uniqueness. Their photographs are often described as
being able to convey both. They represent proof of their unique experience in their photographs.
I’d like to give this experience what it’s due—justice—it’s difficult. Like on the
walk to church yesterday. If I took a photo of that—it is in my mind, but it won’t be in
the photo. It’s like saying, here’s a photo, but it really wasn’t like that.
This volunteer eloquently describes, and is aware of, the difficulties of communicating
what he sees, hears, touches, etc. in the Dominican Republic. Volunteers recognize the
insufficiency of their abilities to communicate, and of their representations of what they are
experiencing. Yet the over-confidence in the truthfulness of photographs is striking, or in the
ability for other volunteers to understand, and both perspectives do not investigate fully the
stereotypical representations that they create, or replay, of Dominicans. Volunteers face the same
risk of misrepresenting Dominicans as do professional ethnographers, photographers, and
journalists. A recent example of such a misrepresentation (or a missing representation) as in the
recent April 2002 issue of National Geographic Magazine titled, “Found!” regarding the
“rediscovery” of the famous Afghan girl photographed by Steve McCurry 17 years ago. The
article, a mere 4 pages long, talks incessantly about the power of the young girl’s eyes, an
example of a particular occidental fetishization taken to absurd lengths, with precious little to say
about the woman and her life and people.
Yet there are two reasons for this. The first, is that given the following list of stereotypical
representations of Dominicans by US American volunteers, there is little to bring back to the US
that had not already come from the US. Even though the participant quoted above was very
aware of the limits of representation, he was describing how photographs could not really convey
HIS experiences, not Dominicans. There is also a sense in which photos are thought to do the
work for volunteers. “I don’t write much,” one respondent said. “It’s all in the photos.”
Less cynical, and certainly more hopeful, is that the tools to use photographs
investigatively—that is, to find out something new, as a method for engaging the world—or any
medium for communicating a volunteers’ experience, have only begun to be fashioned. And
indeed, some are using such tools and developing new ones.
Rite of Passage
For participants in CELAS or DR Encounter, traveling to the DR represented a rite of
passage for them. In a very clear sense, this rite gives participants social and personal permission
to enter into a new lifestyle. For the high school students, it is the first time that they are treated
as adults. For the medical/dental/college students, it represents an affirmation of their educational
goals, as (most of them) health care providers, people who care for others. For all participants,
visiting the DR may be one of the most dynamic learning experiences in their lives, mixing
reading, writing, photographing, talking, listening, attending...
Structurally, CELAS and DR Encounter volunteers’ experiences in the DR are those of
initiates. Travel writing, in which genre I place journaling, sets up the volunteer experience as
one of a rite of passage.
I argue that the formal basis of the travel genre is in the structure of rites of
passage, originally schematized by Arnold van Gennep. In travel, the territorial
passage from one zone to another, the border crossing, represents a critical moment
for the identity of the mobile subject. The territorial passage is accompanied by—or
even metaphoric of—another movement; the shift from ‘seeing with one’s own eyes’
to discerning the meaning of what is seen. The travel text always supplements the
insufficient act of ‘witnessing’ with epistemological reflection; a process which
exposes fundamental morbidities in the ideologies of ‘movement’ and ‘settlement’
(Musgrove 31).
It is easy to extrapolate from journaling to photographing and group reflections. The major
portion of the volunteer experience, then, is a rite of passage. Volunteer’s time in the DR is
primarily—as many if not all volunteers would agree—for them. Many volunteers say something
like the following: I receive much more than I give to them. The primary justification for this
glaring unequal distribution of goods and power is that volunteers are on a life-trajectory that
will eventually help them give more to others than they receive. However, a great deal of these
future opportunities depends of how they continually come to meet their Others. In fact, it can be
said with some certainty that volunteering leads to more volunteering. But there is a sense in
which it is not more, but how, volunteers give their service that also matters. One DR Encounter
participant told me, “Not being there [DR], I don’t know how I’m going to continue [the service
work].” This seems to be the next step for US volunteers. Continuing to give and to volunteer,
away from an established way of giving—one that is dramatic, with a very specific idea of the
service recipient Other, with the backing and history of an organization as support—is the
challenge.