La nación de "los otros": afrodescendientes porteños y la construcción de la nación argentina a fines del siglo XIX

Investigación producida a partir de una estancia en Buenos Aires entre los meses de septiembre y octubre del 2006. La construcción del estado nacional argentino en el siglo XIX implicó la definición –por parte de las elites dirigentes - de un pueblo que cumpliera con las expectativas que se esperaban de una joven nación que se encaminaba hacia la civilización y el progreso. El objeto de la investigación que se está llevando a cabo en el marco del doctorado en Historia de América de la Universitat de Barcelona, es el análisis de la población afroargentina de Buenos Aires en las últimas décadas del siglo XIX, un momento en que su presencia e historia estaban siendo negadas de los discursos y de las prácticas, promoviendo su “invisibilización”. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, se hace fundamental recurrir a fuentes y documentos que deben ser buscados y hallados en los Archivos Generales y Locales, y en Bibliotecas Nacionales y Municipales, sitos en la ciudad de Buenos Aires.

La nación de "los otros". Afrodescendientes porteños y la construcción de la nación argentina a fines del siglo XIX

Investigación producida a partir de una estancia en Buenos Aires en septiembre del 2007. Los procesos de consolidación de las naciones-estado llevan consigo una serie de políticas y prácticas que se focalizan en la construcción del "pueblo". Particularmente, la construcción del estado nacional argentino en el siglo XIX implicó la definición -por parte de los grupos de poder- de un pueblo que cumpliera con las expectativas que se esperaban de una joven nación que se encaminaba hacia la civilización y el progreso, es decir, lo que en esa época se correspondía con un imaginario de pueblo blanco y europeo. Así, se propiciaron políticas de erosión de quienes habitaban en el territorio nacional pero que no cumplían con aquellos mandatos, promoviendo su “invisibilización”. Nosotros trabajamos una de estas comunidades erosionadas de la memoria y de la historia nacional argentina, la comunidad de afrodescendientes de Buenos Aires. El objeto de la investigación que se está llevando a cabo es justamente el análisis de la población afroargentina de Buenos Aires en las últimas décadas del siglo XIX, un momento en que su presencia e historia estaban siendo negadas de los discursos y de las prácticas. Esta investigación de corte histórico-antropológico necesita para su consecución de un trabajo exhaustivo de archivos, objetivo principal de la beca de investigación fuera de Cataluña. Lo que se intentó en el viaje fue encontrar y rescatar fuentes que permitieran entrever las dinámicas de esta comunidad, sus formas de resistir y/o de negociar un estado nacional cada vez más fuerte y que sentaba las bases de lo que debía ser el “pueblo argentino”.

Gone with the Wind and the Southern Way of Life: the Civil War as described in Margaret Mitchell’s Novel

This essay examines the American Civil War of 1861 – 1865, which is also known as the bloodiest war that the United States has ever experienced. The pretext for the war was the abolition of slavery in the South, and after many battles the Southern states lost: as a consequence, they experienced major changes in their economic and social life. This interesting piece from American history can be traced out throughout the characters’ lives in the novel Gone with the Wind which has been thoroughly analyzed in order to draw nearer and to comprehend the changes in the Southern way of life before and after the war. The author, Margaret Mitchell, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up with the stories about the war. As a result, Gone with the Wind studies not only its causes, but also the years after its end – a period which is not generally a subject of history and receives little attention – and the effects that such reversals have on former planters and slaves. From the position of contemporaneity, the reader can see that such changes in a society do not end with the laying down of an act, or in this case the end of the war, but they continue during many years; thus, the modern world can draw conclusions and lessons for events that are happening at the moment.

Protectionist but globalised? Latin American custom duties and trade during the pre-1914 belle époque

While it is true that Latin American republics had no rival on maximising revenues from custom collection during the belle époque, this paper shows that Latin American countries were also generous importers, only behind the larger commercial countries of Western Europe in terms of imports per capita. Latin American citizens were much more linked to international trade than citizens of most regions of the world. Their relation to the world economy was tighter both via their imports and their exports relative to their population and income levels. This paper comes to show that there is no contradiction between the high custom collection by the Latin American republics and their high level of interaction with the global economy in the pre-1914 belle époque, although large country differences can be observed when descending from the regional to the national level.

Geographical deviations in foreign trade statistics: A study into European trade with Latin American Countries, 1925

We have analyzed the spatial accuracy of European foreign trade statistics compared to Latin American. We have also included USA s data because of the importance of this country in Latin American trade. We have developed a method for mapping discrepancies between exporters and importers, trying to isolate systematic spatial deviations. Although our results don t allow a unique explanation, they present some interesting clues to the distribution channels in the Latin American Continent as well as some spatial deviations for statistics in individual countries. Connecting our results with the literature specialized in the accuracy of foreign trade statistics; we can revisit Morgernstern (1963) as well as Federico and Tena (1991). Morgernstern had had a really pessimistic view on the reliability of this statistic source, but his main alert was focused on the trade balances, not in gross export or import values. Federico and Tena (1991) have demonstrated howaccuracy increases by aggregation, geographical and of product at the same time. But they still have a pessimistic view with relation to distribution questions, remarking that perhaps it will be more accurate to use import sources in this latest case. We have stated that the data set coming from foreign trade statistics for a sample in 1925, being it exporters or importers, it s a valuable tool for geography of trade patterns, although in some specific cases it needs some spatial adjustments.

On the accuracy of Latin American trade statistics: A nonparametric test for 1925

This paper proposes a nonparametric test in order to establish the level of accuracy of theforeign trade statistics of 17 Latin American countries when contrasted with the trade statistics of the main partners in 1925. The Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Ranks test is used to determine whether the differences between the data registered by exporters and importers are meaningful, and if so, whether the differences are systematic in any direction. The paper tests for the reliability of the data registered for two homogeneous products, petroleum and coal, both in volume and value. The conclusion of the several exercises performed is that we cannot accept the existence of statistically significant differences between the data provided by the exporters and the registered by the importing countries in most cases. The qualitative historiography of Latin American describes its foreign trade statistics as mostly unusable. Our quantitative results contest this view.

Chagas Disease among the Latin American Adult population attending in a primary care center in Barcelona, Spain

Background/Aims: The epidemiology of Chagas disease, until recently confined to areas of continental Latin America, has undergone considerable changes in recent decades due to migration to other parts of the world, including Spain. We studied the prevalence of Chagas disease in Latin American patients treated at a health center in Barcelona and evaluated its clinical phase. We make some recommendations for screening for the disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed an observational, cross-sectional prevalence study by means of an immunochromatographic test screening of all continental Latin American patients over the age of 14 years visiting the health centre from October 2007 to October 2009. The diagnosis was confirmed by serological methods: conventional in-house ELISA (cELISA), a commercial kit (rELISA) and ELISA using T cruzi lysate (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics) (oELISA). Of 766 patients studied, 22 were diagnosed with T. cruzi infection, showing a prevalence of 2.87% (95% CI, 1.6-4.12%). Of the infected patients, 45.45% men and 54.55% women, 21 were from Bolivia, showing a prevalence in the Bolivian subgroup (n = 127) of 16.53% (95% CI, 9.6-23.39%). All the infected patients were in a chronic phase of Chagas disease: 81% with the indeterminate form, 9.5% with the cardiac form and 9.5% with the cardiodigestive form. All patients infected with T. cruzi had heard of Chagas disease in their country of origin, 82% knew someone affected, and 77% had a significant history of living in adobe houses in rural areas. Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of T. cruzi infection in immigrants from Bolivia. Detection of T. cruzi¿infected persons by screening programs in non-endemic countries would control non-vectorial transmission and would benefit the persons affected, public health and national health systems.

The Imprint of Geologic History on Within‐Island Diversification of Woodlouse-­Hunter Spiders (Araneae, Dysderidae) in the Canary Islands.

Geological processes and ecological adaptation are major drivers of diversification on oceanic islands. Although diversification in these islands is often interpreted as resulting from dispersal or island hopping rather than vicariance, this may not be the case in islands with complex geological histories. The island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, emerged in the late Miocene as 3 precursor islands that were subsequently connected and reisolated by volcanic cycles. The spider Dysdera verneaui is endemic to the island of Tenerife, where it is widely distributed throughout most island habitats, providing an excellent model to investigate the role of physical barriers and ecological adaptation in shaping within-island diversity. Here, we present evidence that the phylogeographic patterns of this species trace back to the independent emergence of the protoislands. Molecular markers (mitochondrial genes cox1, 16S, and nad1 and the nuclear genes ITS-2 and 28S) analyzed from 100 specimens (including a thorough sampling of D. verneaui populations and additional outgroups) identify 2 distinct evolutionary lineages that correspond to 2 precursor islands, each with diagnostic genital characters indicative of separate species status. Episodic introgression events between these 2 main evolutionary lineages explain the observed incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear markers, probably as a result of the homogenization of their ITS-2 sequence types. The most widespread lineage exhibits a complex population structure, which is compatible with either secondary contact, following connection of deeply divergent lineages, or alternatively, a back colonization from 1 precursor island to another.

The Imprint of Geologic History on Within‐Island Diversification of Woodlouse-­Hunter Spiders (Araneae, Dysderidae) in the Canary Islands.

Geological processes and ecological adaptation are major drivers of diversification on oceanic islands. Although diversification in these islands is often interpreted as resulting from dispersal or island hopping rather than vicariance, this may not be the case in islands with complex geological histories. The island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, emerged in the late Miocene as 3 precursor islands that were subsequently connected and reisolated by volcanic cycles. The spider Dysdera verneaui is endemic to the island of Tenerife, where it is widely distributed throughout most island habitats, providing an excellent model to investigate the role of physical barriers and ecological adaptation in shaping within-island diversity. Here, we present evidence that the phylogeographic patterns of this species trace back to the independent emergence of the protoislands. Molecular markers (mitochondrial genes cox1, 16S, and nad1 and the nuclear genes ITS-2 and 28S) analyzed from 100 specimens (including a thorough sampling of D. verneaui populations and additional outgroups) identify 2 distinct evolutionary lineages that correspond to 2 precursor islands, each with diagnostic genital characters indicative of separate species status. Episodic introgression events between these 2 main evolutionary lineages explain the observed incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear markers, probably as a result of the homogenization of their ITS-2 sequence types. The most widespread lineage exhibits a complex population structure, which is compatible with either secondary contact, following connection of deeply divergent lineages, or alternatively, a back colonization from 1 precursor island to another.

The Imprint of Geologic History on Within‐Island Diversification of Woodlouse-­Hunter Spiders (Araneae, Dysderidae) in the Canary Islands.

Geological processes and ecological adaptation are major drivers of diversification on oceanic islands. Although diversification in these islands is often interpreted as resulting from dispersal or island hopping rather than vicariance, this may not be the case in islands with complex geological histories. The island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, emerged in the late Miocene as 3 precursor islands that were subsequently connected and reisolated by volcanic cycles. The spider Dysdera verneaui is endemic to the island of Tenerife, where it is widely distributed throughout most island habitats, providing an excellent model to investigate the role of physical barriers and ecological adaptation in shaping within-island diversity. Here, we present evidence that the phylogeographic patterns of this species trace back to the independent emergence of the protoislands. Molecular markers (mitochondrial genes cox1, 16S, and nad1 and the nuclear genes ITS-2 and 28S) analyzed from 100 specimens (including a thorough sampling of D. verneaui populations and additional outgroups) identify 2 distinct evolutionary lineages that correspond to 2 precursor islands, each with diagnostic genital characters indicative of separate species status. Episodic introgression events between these 2 main evolutionary lineages explain the observed incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear markers, probably as a result of the homogenization of their ITS-2 sequence types. The most widespread lineage exhibits a complex population structure, which is compatible with either secondary contact, following connection of deeply divergent lineages, or alternatively, a back colonization from 1 precursor island to another.

Genotypic classification of patients with Wolfram syndrome: insights into the natural history of the disease and correlation with phenotype

Purpose: Wolfram syndrome is a degenerative, recessive rare disease with an onset in childhood. It is caused by mutations in WFS1 or CISD2 genes. More than 200 different variations in WFS1 have been described in patients with Wolfram syndrome, which complicates the establishment of clear genotype-phenotype correlation. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the role of WFS1 mutations and update the natural history of the disease. Methods: This study analyzed clinical and genetic data of 412 patients with Wolfram syndrome published in the last 15 years. Results: (i) 15% of published patients do not fulfill the current ­inclusion criterion; (ii) genotypic prevalence differences may exist among countries; (iii) diabetes mellitus and optic atrophy might not be the first two clinical features in some patients; (iv) mutations are nonuniformly distributed in WFS1; (v) age at onset of diabetes mellitus, hearing defects, and diabetes insipidus may depend on the patient"s genotypic class; and (vi) disease progression rate might depend on genotypic class. Conclusion: New genotype-phenotype correlations were established, disease progression rate for the general population and for the genotypic classes has been calculated, and new diagnostic criteria have been proposed. The conclusions raised could be important for patient management and counseling as well as for the development of treatments for Wolfram syndrome.

Reconstructing native American migrations from whole-genome and whole-exome data.

There is great scientific and popular interest in understanding the genetic history of populations in the Americas. We wish to understand when different regions of the continent were inhabited, where settlers came from, and how current inhabitants relate genetically to earlier populations. Recent studies unraveled parts of the genetic history of the continent using genotyping arrays and uniparental markers. The 1000 Genomes Project provides a unique opportunity for improving our understanding of population genetic history by providing over a hundred sequenced low coverage genomes and exomes from Colombian (CLM), Mexican-American (MXL), and Puerto Rican (PUR) populations. Here, we explore the genomic contributions of African, European, and especially Native American ancestry to these populations. Estimated Native American ancestry is 48% in MXL, 25% in CLM, and 13% in PUR. Native American ancestry in PUR is most closely related to populations surrounding the Orinoco River basin, confirming the Southern American ancestry of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. We present new methods to estimate the allele frequencies in the Native American fraction of the populations, and model their distribution using a demographic model for three ancestral Native American populations. These ancestral populations likely split in close succession: the most likely scenario, based on a peopling of the Americas 16 thousand years ago (kya), supports that the MXL Ancestors split 12.2kya, with a subsequent split of the ancestors to CLM and PUR 11.7kya. The model also features effective populations of 62,000 in Mexico, 8,700 in Colombia, and 1,900 in Puerto Rico. Modeling Identity-by-descent (IBD) and ancestry tract length, we show that post-contact populations also differ markedly in their effective sizes and migration patterns, with Puerto Rico showing the smallest effective size and the earlier migration from Europe. Finally, we compare IBD and ancestry assignments to find evidence for relatedness among European founders to the three populations.