iAdelante Mujeres! Mexican- American/Chicana Women National Women's History Project, 7738 Bell Road, Windsor, CA 95492, 1992, 30 mins., $10 (preview); $49.95 (sale). "iAdelante Mujeres!" is an ambi- tious and upbeat historical survey of Mexican-American women. Using archival photographs (which vary considerably in their quality and resolution), the video attempts to document how Mexican and Mexican-American women's lives have been affected by the conquest, colonization, Catholicism, the an- nexation of northern Mexico to the United States, the Depression, war, McCarthyism, discrimination, and U.S. immigration policy. Although sketchy in its treatment of these forces and other obstacles that Mexican-American women have confronted, the video does an ad- mirable job of representing their struggle to support their families and maintain their culture, values, and personal dignity. The video highlights the ways in which Chicanas have resisted op- pression, both as political ac- tivists-in labor unions, in defend- ing their language, and in the cre- ation of cultural associations and publications-and in their everyday lives as mothers and wives, re- claiming their cultural heritage in the preparation of foods and in the celebration of religious and cultural events. The video (available in both English and Spanish) is accompa- nied by a well-written guide for classroom use. -Erica Polakoff Between the Lines: Letters Between Undocumented Mexican and Central American Immigrants and Their Families and Friends Translated, edited, and with an intro- duction by Larry Siems, University of Arizona Press, 1995, 311 pp., $19.95 (paper). From an early age, one is taught that it is wrong to read other peo- ple's private correspondence. Reading published collections of letters thus evokes the guilty sensa- tion of eavesdropping. In this case, the reader finds herself privy to the most intimate fears, discoveries, musings, and traumas of Mexican and Central American undocument- ed immigrants and their families and friends back home. The correspondence is organized in categories-letters on arrival, the situation at home, and love letters, to name a few. Some letter writers appear only once; others are repre- sented throughout the volume or dominate a particular section. Certain themes and concerns arise time and again: the economic straits in the country of origin, the remit- tances sent or promised, the loneli- ness and isolation of many in their new environs, and the difficulty of finding steady employment in the United States. The letters in the original Spanish appear on the left-hand page with the English translations on the right. The book is a joy to read in the Spanish, with an occasional glance to the English version for clarifica- tion of meaning. Unfortunately, the translation is a disappointment. Siems does a word-for-word trans- lation which comes off sounding unnatural and stilted. Between the Lines is a much- needed antidote to anti-immigrant rhetoric which reduces undocu- mented immigrants to a faceless horde. The book endows this most vulnerable sector of the U.S. popu- lation with voice, personality, and humanity. Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way by Gustavo Perez Firmat, University of Texas Press, 1994, 216 pp., $30 (cloth), $12.95 (paper). In this book about Cuban-American contributions to U.S. popular cul- ture and the arts, we are treated to an intelligent, lively discussion of such figures as Desi Arnaz, Gloria Estefan, PNrez Prado and Oscar Hijuelos. In Prrez Firmat's reading, they all exemplify the Cuban- American condition of hybridism and biculturation. This characteris- tic, he argues, is especially true of the so-called "1.5 generation"-- those Cuban Americans, now in their mid-30s to early 50s, who were born in Cuba but who came of age in the United States. "One-and- a-halfers are translation artists," P6rez Firmat writes in a typical dis- play of his lambent, playful prose. "Tradition bound but translation bent, they are sufficiently immersed in each culture to give both ends of the hyphen their due." P6rez Firmat calls his genealogy of Cuban-American culture the "Desi Chain" in a nod to Desi Arnaz's foundational role. Ricky Ricardo-the character played by Arnaz in the I Love Lucy show of the 1950s-is usually dismissed as a minor "ethnic" character made palatable for middle-American TV viewers. PNrez Firmat, however, sees Ricky as the "tutelary spirit or orisha" of Cuban-American cul- ture. In the most engaging part of the book, he recounts hilarious ca- pers from old I Love Lucy episodes that reveal how Ricky gingerly ne- gotiates the terrain of American culture. P6rez Firmat never once uses the word "postmodern" in his book, but the imprint of that school of thought is everywhere. It may ac- count for what is not discussed. Cuban-American culture, he writes, is "shamelessly materialistic and resolutely middle brow." He doesn't, however, ponder the connection between that orientation and the fact that Cuban Americans are ex- iles of a socialist revolution. Moreover, these 6migrds have par- ticular class and racial affinities which affect how Cuban-American culture has evolved. The author makes only glancing reference to the fact that Cuban culture has had its blackness expunged in its American translation. Continued on page 48 Vo XXIX, No 3 Nov/DEc 1995 47 VOL XXIX, NO 3 Nov/DEC 1995 47REVIEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47 Chile's Free-Market Miracle: A Second Look by Joseph Collins and John Lear, Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1995, 311 pp., $15.95 (paper). Starting in the 1950s, Chile's "Chicago boys" developed a cri- tique of statist and protectionist economic models that is now hege- monic throughout Latin America. Under the rule of Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), they put their neoliberal ideas into practice, imposing the "freedom to choose" on a nation si- lenced by soldiers and tanks. By the late 1980s, the reformers claimed success: Chile had a high-growth, low-inflation, export-oriented econ- omy. The reforms were praised by the high priests of economic cor- rectness in the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as proof of the magic of the marketplace, and were held up as a model for the rest of Latin America to emulate. But what were the costs of the Chicago boys' reforms? According to this important and lucid book, Chile's free-market "miracle" led to two disastrous re- cessions, widening inequalities of wealth and income, the growth of underemployment and insecure employment, greater poverty, the plundering of natural resources, massive borrowing, a bloated mili- tary, and the neutering of the state's power to regulate and guide the economy. If this sounds familiar, it should: while implemented sooner and with more ruthlessness and thoroughness in Chile, these re- forms bear a broad resemblance to the Reagan/Thatcher "revolution" in the United States and the United Kingdom. Collins and Lear are especially at- tentive to the fate of workers during the so-called miracle. Trade-union leaders were heavily targeted in the killings, firings and arrests that fol- lowed the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. The 1979 Labor Code created a highly fragmented system of collective bargaining that effectively prevented workers from organizing beyond the individual firm. Labor was therefore kept di- vided and weak. Employers' rights to hire and fire were almost unre- stricted, and seasonal and tempo- rary workers were denied basic rights to organize. Between 1973 and 1993, the percentage of workers in unions declined from 35% to 13% while the real value of the min- imum wage plummeted. An epilogue by Stephanie Rosenfeld that covers changes under the civilian Aylwin (1990- 94) and Frei (1994-) governments, provides some grounds for opti- mism. Since the end of military rule, labor has regained some of its lost rights, and the new govern- ments have succeeded in reducing poverty by raising the minimum wage and introducing social pro- grams long prohibited by free-mar- ket dogmatists. But the transition to a civilian regime took place without a fundamental revision of the economic model set in place by the Chicago boys, so social im- provements are likely to be mar- ginal in the next several years. Lear and Collins' carefully-re- searched and persuasively-argued book provides an immense service by showing that the social costs of "actually existing neoliberal- ism" are unacceptably high, and that the time has come to explore alternatives. -Anthony Pereira Shantytown Protest in Pinochet's Chile By Cathy Lisa Schneider, Temple University Press, 1995, 269 pp., $49.95 (cloth), $18.95 (paper). The storm of protests that swept Chile between 1983 and 1986 in the aftermath of a harsh economic downturn is an overlooked chapter in the much-celebrated Chilean "economic success story." Cathy Schneider's recent book reminds us of those turbulent times, when ordinary Chileans took to the streets to struggle against tyranny and injustice. Schneider skillfully teases out the dynamic interaction between politi- cal action and situational factors. The rebellions of the early 1980s were not the spontaneous uprisings of the dissatisfied masses, spurred to action by the economic downturn in 1983, as conventional wisdom has it. Through careful comparison of several shantytowns in the out- skirts of Santiago, Schneider ob- served that protest activity in some shantytowns was more intense and prolonged than in others. What em- boldened some communities to protest and others to remain quies- cent, Schneider argues, was the na- ture of community networks within the shantytowns. In some communi- ties, the social and political net- works built up by left-wing ac- tivism, and particularly by the Chilean Communist Party, survived the dictatorship's repression. In the wake of the economic crisis, party activists were able to reactivate these networks-Schneider calls them the "roots of resistance"--and mobilize widespread and sustained protests against the government in shantytowns like La Victoria and Pablo Neruda. Schneider also maps out the im- pact on the grassroots protest movement of the reemergence of Chilean political parties from 1986 through the democratic transition in 1990. Ironically, the links between social movements and political par- ties that had facilitated protest in the early 1980s became a demobi- lizing factor by 1990. In particular, the decision of the Communist Party to engage in armed struggle against the dictatorship devastated grassroots networks. More moder- ate parties, pursuing negotiations with the Pinochet regime to relin- quish power, actively discouraged grassroots protest. All reviews, unless otherwise noted, are written by NACLA staff.
