‘UK is Finished; India's too Corrupt; Anyone can become Amrikan’


 
 
 The release in 2004 of Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice marked yet another contribution to celluloid’s Austen mania that began in the 1990s and is still going strong. Released almost simultaneously on three different continents (in the UK, US, and India), and in two different languages (English and Hindi), Bride and Prejudice, however, is definitely not another Anglo-American period costume drama. Described by one reviewer as “East meets West”, Chadha’s film “marries a characteristically English saga [Austen’s Pride and Prejudice] with classic Bollywood format “transforming corsets to saris, … the Bennetts to the Bakshis and … pianos to bhangra beats” (Adarsh). Bride and Prejudice, thus, clearly belongs to the upcoming genre of South Asian cross-over cinema in its diasporic incarnation. Such cross-over cinema self-consciously acts as a bridge between at least two distinct cinematic traditions—Hollywood and Bollywood (Indian Hindi cinema). By taking Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as her source text, Chadha has added another dimension to the intertextuality of such cross-over cinema, creating a complex hybrid that does not fit neatly into binary hyphenated categories such as “Asian-American cinema” that film critics such as Mandal invoke to characterise diaspora productions. An embodiment of contemporary globalised (post?)coloniality in its narrative scope, embracing not just Amritsar and LA, but also Goa and London, Bride and Prejudice refuses to fit into a neat East versus West cross-cultural model. How, then, are we to classify this film? Is this problem of identity indicative of postmodern indeterminacy of meaning or can the film be seen to occupy a “third” space, to act as a postcolonial hybrid that successfully undermines (neo)colonial hegemony (Sangari, 1-2)? To answer this question, I will examine Bride and Prejudice as a mimic text, focusing specifically on its complex relationship with Bollywood conventions. According to Gurinder Chadha, Bride and Prejudice is a “complete Hindi movie” in which she has paid “homage to Hindi cinema” through “deliberate references to the cinema of Manoj Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra and Karan Johar” (Jha). This list of film makers is associated with a specific Bollywood sub-genre: the patriotic family romance. Combining aspects of two popular Bollywood genres, the “social” (Prasad, 83) and the “romance” (Virdi, 178), this sub-genre enacts the story of young lovers caught within complex familial politics against the backdrop of a nationalist celebration of Indian identity. Using a cinematic language that is characterised by the spectacular in both its aural and visual aspects, the patriotic family romance follows a typical “masala” narrative pattern that brings together “a little action and some romance with a touch of comedy, drama, tragedy, music, and dance” (Jaikumar). Bride and Prejudice’s successful mimicry of this language and narrative pattern is evident in film reviews consistently pointing to its being very “Bollywoodish”: “the songs and some sequences look straight out of a Hindi film” says one reviewer (Adarsh), while another wonders “why this talented director has reduced Jane Austen’s creation to a Bollywood masala film” (Bhaskaran). Setting aside, for the moment, these reviewers’ condemnation of such Bollywood associations, it is worthwhile to explore the implications of yoking together a canonical British text with Indian popular culture. According to Chadha, this combination is made possible since “the themes of Jane Austen’s novels are a ‘perfect fit’ for a Bollywood style film” (Wray). Ostensibly, such a comment may be seen to reinforce the authority of the colonial canonical text by affirming its transnational/transhistorical relevance. From this perspective, the Bollywood adaptation not only becomes a “native” tribute to the colonial “master” text, but also, implicitly, marks the necessary belatedness of Bollywood as a “native” cultural formation that can only mimic the “English book”. Again, Chadha herself seems to subscribe to this view: “I chose Pride and Prejudice because I feel 200 years ago, England was no different than Amritsar today” (Jha). The ease with which the basic plot premise of Pride and Prejudice—a mother with grown-up daughters obsessed with their marriage—transfers to a contemporary Indian setting does seem to substantiate this idea of belatedness. The spatio-temporal contours of the narrative require changes to accommodate the transference from eighteenth-century English countryside to twenty-first-century India, but in terms of themes, character types, and even plot elements, Bride and Prejudice is able to “mimic” its master text faithfully. While the Bennets, Bingleys and Darcy negotiate the relationship between marriage, money and social status in an England transformed by the rise of industrial capitalism, the Bakshis, Balraj and, yes, Will Darcy, undertake the same tasks in an India transformed by corporate globalisation. Differences in class are here overlaid with those in culture as a middle-class Indian family interacts with wealthy non-resident British Indians and American owners of multinational enterprises, mingling the problems created by pride in social status with prejudices rooted in cultural insularity. However, the underlying conflicts between social and individual identity, between relationships based on material expediency and romantic love, remain the same, clearly indicating India’s belated transition from tradition to modernity. It is not surprising, then, that Chadha can claim that “the transposition [of Austen to India] did not offend the purists in England at all” (Jha). But if the purity of the “master” text is not contaminated by such native mimicry, then how does one explain the Indian anglophile rejection of Bride and Prejudice? The problem, according to the Indian reviewers, lies not in the idea of an Indian adaptation, but in the choice of genre, in the devaluation of the “master” text’s cultural currency by associating it with the populist “masala” formula of Bollywood. The patriotic family romance, characterised by spectacular melodrama with little heed paid to psychological complexity, is certainly a far cry from the restrained Austenian narrative that achieves its dramatic effect exclusively through verbal sparring and epistolary revelations. When Elizabeth and Darcy’s quiet walk through Pemberley becomes Lalita and Darcy singing and dancing through public fountains, and the private economic transaction that rescues Lydia from infamy is translated into fisticuff between Darcy and Wickham in front of an applauding cinema audience, mimicry does smack too much of mockery to be taken as a tribute. It is no wonder then that “the news that [Chadha] was making Bride and Prejudice was welcomed with broad grins by everyone [in Britain] because it’s such a cheeky thing to do” (Jha). This cheekiness is evident throughout the film, which provides a splendid over-the-top cinematic translation of Pride and Prejudice that deliberately undermines the seriousness accorded to the Austen text, not just by the literary establishment, but also by cinematic counterparts that attempt to preserve its cultural value through carefully constructed period pieces. Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice, on the other hand, marries British high culture to Indian popular culture, creating a mimic text that is, in Homi Bhabha’s terms, “almost the same, but not quite” (86), thus undermining the authority, the primacy, of the so-called “master” text. This postcolonial subversion is enacted in Chadha’s film at the level of both style and content. If the adaptation of fiction into film is seen as an activity of translation, of a semiotic shift from one language to another (Boyum, 21), then Bride and Prejudice can be seen to enact this translation at two levels: the obvious translation of the language of novel into the language of film, and the more complex translation of Western high culture idiom into the idiom of Indian popular culture. The very choice of target language in the latter case clearly indicates that “authenticity” is not the intended goal here. Instead of attempting to render the target language transparent, making it a non-intrusive medium that derives all its meaning from the source text, Bride and Prejudice foregrounds the conventions of Bollywood masala films, forcing its audience to grapple with this “new” language on its own terms. The film thus becomes a classic instance of the colony “talking back” to the metropolis, of Caliban speaking to Prospero, not in the language Prospero has taught him, but in his own native tongue. The burden of responsibility is shifted; it is Prospero/audiences in the West that have the responsibility to understand the language of Bollywood without dismissing it as gibberish or attempting to domesticate it, to reduce it to the familiar. The presence in Bride and Prejudice of song and dance sequences, for example, does not make it a Hollywood musical, just as the focus on couples in love does not make it a Hollywood-style romantic comedy. Neither The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965) nor You’ve Got Mail (Nora Ephron, 1998) corresponds to the Bollywood patriotic family romance that combines various elements from distinct Hollywood genres into one coherent narrative pattern. Instead, it is Bollywood hits like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra, 1995) and Pardes (Subhash Ghai, 1997) that constitute the cinema tradition to which Bride and Prejudice belongs, and against which backdrop it needs to be seen. This is made clear in the film itself where the climactic fight between Darcy and Wickham is shot against a screening of Manoj Kumar’s Purab Aur Paschim (East and West) (1970), establishing Darcy, unequivocally, as the Bollywood hero, the rescuer of the damsel in distress, who deserves, and gets, the audience’s full support, denoted

India is currently one of the countries that is showing massive economic growth, even according to Goldman Sachs projections in 2050 India will be in the third position as the country with the largest economy in the world. Economic growth is certainly supported by various sectors, one of which is a large workforce base which is then channeled through migration activities which eventually form a diaspora known as Non-recident Indians (NRIs) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO) with a total number of 30,995 .729 inhabitants and spread in 210 countries in the world. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the main destination country of migration for NRIs and PIOs after the United States and Pakistan, based on existing data the number of NRIs and PIOs in the UAE in 2017 was 3,500,000. The Indian government then used NRIs and PIOs in the UAE to make a significant contribution to India's development as a country of origin including remittances and foreign direct investment (FDI).

Background: A variety of studies have examined the prevalence of germline mutations in patients undergoing genetic testing for a wide variety of breast cancer predisposition genes. Many of these studies have focused on patients of Northern European descent, leaving variant prevalence and clinical presentations of patients from underrepresented, and often underserved, populations much less well understood. Our study aimed to examine the prevalence of germline mutations among referred patients from Mexico, Central and South America, as well as a comparative population of Hispanic patients from the United States. Methods: We analyzed a de-identified laboratory-based cohort of patients who had received physician-ordered germline multigene panel test results between December 2014 and June 2019. Inclusion criteria for this study were a personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer, and either (a) an ordering physician based in Mexico, Central America, or South America, or (b) a Hispanic self-reported ethnicity and a US based ordering physician. For this analysis, Mexican patients were combined with Central Americans. Panel size was per physician discretion, and most (>70%) physicians chose large (at least 20 gene) panels of high- and moderate-risk genes including BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, CHEK2, ATM, and TP53, among others. Full gene sequencing and deletion/duplication analysis were performed as described previously [PMID: 26207792] and variants were classified using a framework based on the ACMG/AMP guidelines for variant interpretation [PMID: 28492532]. Results: Of the 25,249 participants who met criteria, 18,513 were self-identified Hispanic-Amercians and 6,736 were non-US participants. Of the non-US group, 6,398 were from South America (including 1200 from Chile and 3781 from Brazil) while 273 were from Mexico and 65 from Central America. Pathogenic or Likely Pathogenic variants were uncovered in 14.4% of all participants, with 1864 findings (representing 7.4% of participants) in BRCA1 or BRCA2, and 1769 (7.0% of participants) in other cancer risk genes. Stratified by location, mutation positive rates were highest among Central (26.9%) and South Americans (19.2%), and lowest among the US Hispanics (12.5%). Based on NCCN guidelines, many of these findings would warrant consideration of a change in care for the patient and/or reflex testing of family members. Conclusions: Cancer patients in Mexico, Central, and South America may have less access to germline genetic testing than patients in (for example) the United States, although our study suggests that Latin American patients and their families can benefit from genetic testing at least at the same rate as Hispanic patients in the US. The higher positive rate among Central and South Americans in this study compared to Hispanic-Americans may be due to referral patterns and cost impact, although this question requires further study. The relative VUS rates between populations, mutation rates for specific clinical presentations, and relevant psychosocial issues also need further study to help maximize the utility of germline genetic testing in Latin America. Citation Format: Stephen E Lincoln, Daniel Pineda-Alvarez, Scott T Michalski, Shan Yang, Edward D Esplin. Germline mutation prevalence among US and non-US Hispanic patients undergoing genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer predisposition [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-08-19.

President Clinton likes to talk about building bridges to the 21st century, but there is no construction gang on the scene. The truth of the matter is that, nearly a decade since the end of the Cold War, the United States is still without a blueprint for the future. From the Bush administration's vacuous new world rhetoric to the engagement and enlargement effluvia of the Clinton administration, the United States has substituted slogans for strategy. Such policy drift is partly attributable to post-Cold War complacency, and partly to the triumphalist belief in the march of liberal-democracy permeates American foreign policy attitudes. There are, of course, differences in the way foreign affairs practitioners view the world. Neo-Wilsonians believe a rational and educable world will eventually adopt the same values. Realists believe the United States must exert its power and coopt others into joining international posses the American sheriff would naturally lead. American nationalists, so-called neo-Reaganites, contend the United States bears a special duty to create a peaceful and moral international order, while neo-isolationists--America Firsters, libertarians, pacifists--oppose the political and economic cost of an American empire. On the surface, these options appear to be quite different, at least in terms of what is required of the United States. Upon closer examination, however, they are all variations of American exceptionalism, and they all depart from the same premises about the contemporary international environment as it has evolved since the end of the Cold War. The Mythology of Unipolarity Debate about the nature and implications of global change is bounded by two broad assumptions. First, despite the spread of liberal-democracy, the world is far more complicated, unpredictable, and dangerous than it was during the Cold War. Second, the maintenance of a peaceful and stable international system accordingly depends on the moral and political leadership, if not hegemony, of the United States. Of the two propositions, the first is unequivocally true. The assumption it is up to the United States--the world's superpower--to maintain peace and order in a potentially turbulent world is dubious. The United States has been the stabilizing force in the transition from the bipolar order to the current messy multipolarity. It was the United States rescued Kuwait from the clutches of Iraqi expansionism, produced the Dayton accords, and bailed out Mexico in 1995, and it is the United States is taking the lead in addressing the global financial crisis. But the image of an American paladin is also the product of post-Cold War hype. Increasingly, language defines politics. From NATO expansion, to the containment of China, to the defense of human rights in Kosovo, it is the rhetoric of unipolarity and superpowerdom drives policy and supplies its content. Politically, the United States assumes leadership because political leaders believe the world will plunge into chaos without it; psychologically, because it strokes the nation's vanity. America's friends and allies contribute to the hype. Although foreign governments may privately grumble about American hegemony, they happily defer to American power in times of crisis, as they did during the Cold War, because they expect the United States to come to their aid if things go wrong. Post-Cold War U.S. global leadership is further reinforced by the myth of American exceptionalism. The original Puritan settlers and their descendants believed they were chosen by God to build a community others would emulate. Their descendants were uniformly convinced that the entire past of the human race was only preparation for the appearance of American society. In the aftermath of bipolarism, the same religious view inspires contemporary approaches to foreign policy, all of which aim to universalize the American liberal-democratic experience. …

Armed Conflict in Central America and Immigrant Health in the United States.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Framing Latina/o Immigration, Education, and Activism

The world’s largest transnational population is found in India. From the Gulf to Northern America to Europe, the Indian diaspora is found on every continent and in every region. The diaspora is incredibly energetic and lively worldwide. 34 million Indians were living outside of their country of birth, according to the UN DESA population division’s “International Migration 2025 Highlights” report. According to this report, India’s sizable diaspora is dispersed over several important countries of destination, with the UAE housing the greatest number of Indian migrants at 3.5 million, the US at 2.7 million, and Saudi Arabia at 2.5 million. Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Kingdom were among the other nations that hosted a significant number of Indian migrants. The largest Indian diaspora in the globe is considered to be among the most “vibrant and dynamic”. From Mauritius to the US, Indian expats are present in many nations and make substantial contributions to the social, cultural, and economic spheres. The greatest Indian diasporas are found in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The nature and destination of the Indian diaspora are examined in this research. India places great importance on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as a group of Gulf nations. Only the Arabian Sea separates India’s “immediate” vicinity from the Gulf. The GCC is made up of the following six nations: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. The Ministry of External Affairs estimates that 8.9 million Indian migrants were living in the Gulf nations as of 2024. The United Nations reports that the six Gulf nations of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain are home to 56 per cent of non-resident Indians and 25 per cent of overseas Indians. With millions of Indians currently residing in the UAE, the number of Indian expatriates has increased dramatically. Indians are essential to the UAE’s economic growth, working in industries like business, healthcare, and construction. India has a sizable workforce in Saudi Arabia, especially in fields like information technology, healthcare, and construction. The infrastructure and economic development of Saudi Arabia have benefited greatly from the efforts of the Indian minority. There are 3.2 million Indians living in Bahrain, 10.3 million in Qatar, 7.8 million in Oman, and 7.3 million in Kuwait. The diaspora, which serves as a conduit between India and its host nations, has been a source of strength and influence that has an impact on the economy, trade, investment, and foreign exchange reserves. Gulf nations have been important places for Indians to work and conduct business. In actuality, Gulf employers have favoured Indian community members above others for employment due in large part to their professionalism, discipline, and dedication. They now contribute to the growth and development of the Gulf nations. Indians who work in the United Arab Emirates transfer a portion of their salary to their family back home. With increased capital flows, investments, and consumption, foreign remittances help India's economy thrive and provide many people with a substantial source of steady financial assistance. The UAE is the second-largest source of remittances to India because so many Indians work in a variety of industries, including retail, hospitality, and construction. India will be the largest recipient of remittances, with inflows likely to increase 12.4 per cent to $125 billion in 2023 or 3.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to World Bank’s latest report. The importance of the Indian diaspora on India-GCC relations is assessed in this essay. The literature on the nature and destinations of the Indian diaspora in the Gulf, the role of the diaspora in strengthening ties between India and the GCC nations, economic cooperation between the two countries, and strategic partnerships between India and the GCC nations forms the basis of this paper.

Epidemic of Childhood Obesity: Implications for Kidney Disease

Sex, Lies, and Iron Deficiency in 2024: Cost-Effectiveness of Screening Ferritin Thresholds for the Treatment of Iron Deficiency in Women of Reproductive Age

Dynamic weather routes are flight plan corrections that can provide airborne flights more than user-specified minutes of flying-time savings, compared to their current flight plan. These routes are computed from the aircraft's current location to a flight plan fix downstream (within a predefined limit region), while avoiding forecasted convective weather regions. The Dynamic Weather Routes automation has been continuously running with live air traffic data for a field evaluation at the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, TX since July 31, 2012, where flights within the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center are evaluated for time savings. This paper extends the methodology to all Centers in United States and presents benefits analysis of Dynamic Weather Routes automation, if it was implemented in multiple airspace Centers individually and concurrently. The current computation of dynamic weather routes requires a limit rectangle so that a downstream capture fix can be selected, preventing very large route changes spanning several Centers. In this paper, first, a method of computing a limit polygon (as opposed to a rectangle used for Fort Worth Center) is described for each of the 20 Centers in the National Airspace System. The Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool, a nationwide simulation and analysis tool, is used for this purpose. After a comparison of results with the Center-based Dynamic Weather Routes automation in Fort Worth Center, results are presented for 11 Centers in the contiguous United States. These Centers are generally most impacted by convective weather. A breakdown of individual Center and airline savings is presented and the results indicate an overall average savings of about 10 minutes of flying time are obtained per flight.

9/11 conjures up images of the 21st century’s most notorious event – devastating attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people on 11 September 2001. But almost 100 years earlier, another 9/11 saw the birth of modern satyagraha – a peaceful force sparked by Indian immigrants in Johannesburg who came together to protest against prejudice and discrimination. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, the congregation on 11 September 1906 went on to inspire a global movement of passive resistance that rejected violence in confl ict resolution. Reflecting on this fi rst 9/11 presents an opportunity to rethink our conventional approaches to war and peace.

Mortality rates for cervical cancer have increased among foreign-born women in the United States in the last two decades. Previous research indicates that rates of Pap testing are lower among foreign-born women than in U.S.-born women. This study identifies screening rates among foreign-born women by birthplace and duration in the United States. We used data from 4 years (1998, 1999, 2000, 2003) of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to estimate Pap testing rates by birthplace (Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, South America, Europe, Russia, Africa, Middle East, India, Asia, and Southeast Asia) and percent of lifetime spent in the United States for women aged>or=18 years (n=70,775). Rates were age standardized to the 2000 U.S. population. After adjusting for demographic characteristics and health indicators, we found that 18.6% (95% CI 16.7, 20.6) of recent immigrants (<25% of lifetime in the United States) and 9.9% (95% CI 9.0, 10.8) of established immigrants (>or=25% of lifetime in the United States)never received a Pap test in their lifetime compared with 5.8% (95% CI 5.5, 6.1) of U.S.-born women. Adjusted prevalence of never receiving a Pap test was highest among women from Asia, Southeast Asia, and India (19.6%), South America (12.7%), Mexico (11.2%), Caribbean (11.0%), Europe (9.9%), and Central America (9.2%). Significant differences exist in rates of screening for cervical cancer between foreign-born groups by birthplace and by duration in the United States. Nationally and locally funded screening programs may benefit from these findings in developing screening strategies for foreign-born women.

COFFEE AS AN article of commerce and as a factor in our daily lives deserves more study and more consideration than it normally receives. As human beings, we associate an early morning consciousness of its unique and matchless aroma with the most pleasurable sensations of life. As students of commercial geography we are vaguely aware that its principal production is found in South and Central America: as students of economics and merchandising we have some notions, usually vague and usually wrong, concerning the various Brazilian coffee control schemes. What we don't know, or too little appreciate, is the fact that for all practical purposes trade in coffee is Pan American commerce. Without the coffee trade it is probable that our ties with Latin-America, now of such vital importance, would be about as. important to us as our commercial ties with the African Gold Coast. This is true not only because of the very large value attached to our imports, but to the fact that coffee is produced in important quantities by such a large majority of the Latin American countries. In the period 1937-1939 coffee alone represented 34.5 per cent of the value of exports from the fourteen producing countries, and for the most important individual countries the percentage ranged from 44 to 99. This trade in tonnage and value usually ranks among the first three in total United States imports. In our own domestic economy the use of coffee is responsible for the use of some seventy million dollars worth of sugar annually, and makes quite important a contribution to our dairy industry. Coffee, however, has an importance beyond its position as a principal item of export and import between Latin America and the United States. The highly organized industry necessary for the handling of the crop furnishes the contact and organizational background from which many other lines of imports are handled. In other wo ds it is the large and steady trade in coffee that maintains the banking, transportation and other commercial facilities on which all Pan American trade must depend for life and for growth. The day may come when countries of Central and South America are great producers of steel and rubber and cotton goods. They may develop profitable home industries. Some of them may become great industrial states. But today, the majority of them are interested in the production and sale of coffee. It is in this field almost alone that practically immediate results can be expected in our effort to create a solid Western Hemisphere economic bloc. It is literally true that if coffee couldn't have been sold in the United States in increased quantities and at fair prices, every effort at Western Hemisphere solidarity would have been doomed in advance to costly and humiliating failure. Neither a two ocean navy nor a navy for all the seven seas can defend the Western Hemisphere if half of it doesn't want to be defended. As practical men we must realize that friendship between nations may be encouraged only to a very limited extent by good will envoys and attempted exchanges of cultural assets. By and large every nation in its relation with others is guided principally by the slogan Whose Bread I EatHis Song I Sing.

The Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) is one of the most easily observed North American raptors during migration, yet little is known about its distribution during the nonbreeding season. To better understand the winter distribution of Broad-winged Hawks by age, we compiled 2164 Broad-winged Hawk sightings with age data and 25,797 sightings without age data reported to eBird during the nonbreeding period from 2000–2020. The mean latitude of adult birds was significantly farther south than the mean latitude of immatures, with broad overlap in the distribution of both age classes from the United States through South America. The distribution of birds that were not aged overlapped the distribution of both age classes. A higher proportion of immatures was observed in the United States through Central America, with a mean latitude of 15.69°N, whereas adults were concentrated in Central and South America (with a mean latitude of 9.93°N). When only birds wintering south of the United States were analyzed, immatures were still found farther north than adults, although the latitude difference was less. The winter age class distribution for Broad-winged Hawks could result from short-stopping behavior occurring more often in immatures than adults. Further research is needed to understand how geographic, sex, and age class groups may differ in winter distributions and the implications of these patterns. Citizen science data from eBird proved useful in examining broad-scale patterns in Broad-winged Hawk winter distribution and is a valuable resource to scientists evaluating avian distributions.

Retorno:Salvadoran Repatriation and the Landscape of Memory Interview with Mark Menjivar Tatiana Reinoza (bio) INTRODUCTION The Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in San Antonio recently commissioned a multi-media installation by the Borderland Collective, a loosely-knit group of Texas-based artists and educators who produce socially engaged projects.1 Their installation, Northern Triangle (2014), takes its name from the geographic region, one of the most violent in the world, as well as the trade agreement that binds the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.2 Led by artists Mark Menjivar (b. 1980), Jason Reed, and art historian Erina Duganne, Northern Triangle responds to the recent wave of unaccompanied Central American minors apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. On the occasion of the project's initial debut, I sat down with Menjivar to discuss Retorno, a series of photographs made in collaboration with a community of former refugees in El Salvador that figures prominently in the installation, and the complicated relationship that continues to shape politics between Central America and the United States. In 2014, authorities apprehended about 68,000 minors fleeing the violence of the Northern Triangle. Once in custody, immigration officers placed the children in the newly constructed private prisons that dot the South Texas landscape. The detention centers became their temporary dwelling prior to facing deportation proceedings, a remarkable shift in policy given the region's former reputation as an entry-point to the Sanctuary Movement, a religious and political movement that provided safe-haven to Central Americans fleeing war-torn countries in the 1980s. As an example of the current migrant crisis that characterizes our time, and parallels the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe, these Central American minors transformed into what legal historian Mae Ngai calls "impossible subjects." Their presence poses a problem, not only for enforcing the boundaries of the nation-state, but also for visual modes of representation. Taking the refugee crisis as a point of departure, Borderland Collective embarks on a conceptual project that problematizes the violence of the Northern Triangle as a schema long in the making. Inspired by the New York-based art collective, Group Material, and their curatorial mediations, particularly, Timeline: A Chronicle of U.S. Intervention in Central and Latin America (1984), Borderland Collective places art objects in conversation with historical documents from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, news footage, human rights cases, and personal documents. Reed and Menjivar contribute photographs, while Duganne establishes a research-based approach to the display and accompanying wall text. Several invited artists, including Adriana Corral, Vincent Valdez, and Ricky Yanas, extend this dialogue to create open-ended works that question the constructed nature of mainstream images of the crisis. The result is a provocative and disquieting installation that doubles as a history museum and classroom. One critic commented that the installation "functions as a kind of puzzle."3 Viewers move through the space slowly (Fig. 1), connecting images with historical narratives, approaching three-dimensional objects such as an empty blue water barrel that signals the stakes as bodies, not much different from our own, traverse geopolitical borders. The work on display Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Installation shot of Northern Triangle (2014–) at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio. Courtesy of Borderland Collective. [End Page 181] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 2. Installation shot of Northern Triangle (2014–) with Mark Menjivar's View from Santa Marta on the left. Courtesy of Borderland Collective. deconstructs "the language of colonization and power," as one Artforum critic put it, in order to unsettle our assumptions about a region whose violent history is often shaped by outside forces.4 It is within this diverse range of objects, discourses, and texts that viewers get acquainted with Menjivar's luscious photographs. (Fig. 2) Born in Richmond, Virginia, to a Puerto Rican mother and a Salvadoran-American father, Menjivar is a military brat, whose unusual upbringing took him overseas to Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador during the 1980s, an intense period of U.S. intervention in Central America. While many viewed the surge in unaccompanied Central American children at the border...