Letter from the Editor
Once again, with two notable exceptions, Mexican themes dominate this issue of the Journal, a feature that may well reflect the relative numbers of Latin Americanist geographers currently engaged in research. A detailed quantitative study based on a national survey of both faculty and graduate student might, however, reveal significant recent changes in research themes and regions of concern; it would certainly make a good article for someone to prepare.
Brenner and Job confront a key issue affecting many developing nations—how to ensure that their ecologically fragile "protected areas" do not suffer from overexposure to tourist interests. Looking out of the window here in Syracuse watching a monarch butterfly flitter by reminds one, as these authors document, that the winter habitat in Michoacán of these multi-generational migrants is in danger of being eliminated by forest clearance and tourist pressure.
Caso and Aliphat lead us through the complexity of the agrosystems of the Lacandón and Manché Chol whose intensive cultivation and plantation systems produced three key crops of historic significance: cacao, annatto and vanilla They demonstrate that these crops attracted attention throughout the Maya lowlands, first of the Itzaes and later the Spanish invaders, and intricate trading systems developed.
Marta Herrera addresses in the case of the province of Popayán, New Granada, one of the key issues confronting historical geographers of colonial Latin America: where were the boundaries of civil and ecclesiastical divisions located? Without a detailed knowledge of such cartographic information it remains impossible to calculate densities of all types of data. When the two systems overlapped they produce a multiplicity of tensions for the resident populations and regional identities become more complex and often opaque.
Keys and Roy explore the dynamics of jalapeño chili production in a Campeche municipality, until recently on the development frontier, to demonstrate how it is influenced by household and policy factors. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods they analyze the complexities of this expanding agricultural innovation within a broader context of forestry and biosphere reserve management.
Laura Schneider keeps us in Calakmul to demonstrate the rapid and highly significant spread of an invasive weed and its implications for agricultural development in the cleared areas of forest. She shows how the cost of its removal is a key factor in farmer decision-making, and using two sample ejidos, examines resultant patterns of its distribution.
Gustavo Garza shifts our attention to Mexico City in that critical phase of Latin American urban development: 1870-1920. Using new archival evidence he is able to analyze the initiation of what he defines as metropolitan growth of the city, challenging earlier descriptions that maintain that such a process did not occur until almost a century later. The real estate market's relationship to accessibility provided by a complex pattern of rail and tramways is amply evidenced, as it is in many other capital cities of the region.
Andrés Barsky concludes this issue with a brief examination of Bolivian horticulturalists in a zone of western Buenos Aires, one of the many everyday practices on the margins of capital cities that so often go un-remarked and understudied.
Keep the articles coming, and remember the Forum section awaits brief reports and indeed research questions.
Del Editor
David J. Robinson
Una vez más, aún con dos notables excepciones, en la presente edición de JLAG los temas mexicanos dominan esta entrega y constituye un hecho que pudiera reflejar el número relativo de geógrafos latinoamericanistas investigando en este momento. Pero lo cierto es que un estudio cuantitativo basado en una encuesta de profesores y estudiantes graduados pudiera revelar cambios significativos recientes en relación a temas y regiones de estudio; de todos modos, es solo un dato que podría ser el sustento de un buen artículo que alguien podría preparar.
Brenner y Job confrontan un quehacer que afecta a la mayoría de los países en desarrollo: ¿cómo...
