Cultural Agency in the Americas ed. by Doris Sommer (review)

Book Reviews Adult civilians are not the only victims of police brutality in democratic Brazil. On 23July 1993,Brazil became the focus of international attentionfor the execution of eight street children on the steps of the CandelariaCathedral in Rio deJaneiro.Such an act of brutality is nothing new in democraticBrazil. Violence against children takes place everyday in Brazil. According to the Minister of Health, violent death among the 15-17 age groups increased from 54.3% in 1979 to 65% in 1986. Over 1,500 children and adolescents were reportedly killed in 1990. A Brazilian parliamentary commission inquiry found that death squads between 1989 and 1992killed 4,611 street children. According to the Instituto Medical Legal (Legal Medical Institute) that figure is highly exaggerated. According to their own estimates, from 1900 to June 1993 only 1,492 street children were killed in Rio de Janeiro. Street children are often killed by off-duty police officers working for extra money to compensate their low salaries. Street children and “marginais” are not the only ones being victimized by the military police. Other social groups considered problematic or undesirable such as beggars, delinquents, prostitutes and drug users are usually included in the ”limpeza social” or “arrastgo” (socialcleansing of society) (Josede Arimateia da Cruz, Becky K. da Cruz, ibid). Where does Brazil stand in its efforts to consolidate its weak democratic roots in the 2lStcentury? As Rose concludes in The Unpast, “Brazil has been called the most unequal nation on the planet by the coordinator of the United Nations’ activities in Brazil, meaning that, one third of the population lives in conditions described as miserable. What that means in more accurate terms is that one third of all Brazilians live in slums like Rocinha, subject to ersatz justice and the threat of annihilation” (305). In conclusion, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Latin American studies, history, or criminology. The Unpast is an expos6 of practices and attitudes toward the poor and the pueblo in Latin America’s largest country. Jose‘de Arimate‘iada Cruz Department of Criminal Justice, Social G .Political Science Armstrong AtlanficState University CULTURAL AGENCY IN THE AMERICAS. By Doris Sommer (Ed.) Durham: Duke UP, 2006, p. 385, $24.95. CuEtural Agency in the Americas is one of those books that take a while to reveal all their intricacies and for a moment feel like a reiterative argument fighting a sort of lost battle. That said, it would be unfair not to mention that this volume represents a very ambitious project in which the editor and the contributors set out an enormous task: to validate a discipline, to propose the use of cultural agency as a term ”to name and recognize [...] a range of social contributions through creative practices” (1). Or simply said, to ”put culture to work” (l), just like the mayor of Bogota, Antanas 119 ” , The Latin Americanist, Fall 2007 Mockus, did in 1995to allegedly revive the city. Whether we agree or not with Mr. Mockus’s methods, for example to hire “pantomime artists to make spectacles of good and bad performances at traffic lights” (2)-as if mimes were not hated enough already- he put culture to work, and that requires a lot of compromises. Cultural Agency is divided into three major parts labeled ”Media,” ”Maneuvers,” and “Cautions.” “Media” gathers four interesting essays (the first two by the same author) loosely related to globalization in which the authors literally invite us to action. Particularly interesting is the essay of Nestor Garcia Canclini about cultural policiesusing Mexico City as example. Mexico City, he explains, has more museums than New York City, S3o Paulo, or Buenos Aires and ”is well situated in terms of communication, cultural offerings, and workforce qualification” (84); that city also, against what is commonly believed, accommodates a multicultural population. In this context, Canclini argues, to keep its preeminent place, Mexico City has to think of “what it means to be a metropolis in the process of globalization as well as to establish alliances with other cities” (89). Equally interesting is Diana Taylor’s analysis of what she calls ”DNA of performance” (57)-the practical use of DNA and ID pictures by the parents and...