bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Traffic in Indian Slaves in the Province of Pánuco, New Spain, 1523-1533
Authors: Chipman Donald E.
Published: July 2006

After The Fall of Tenochtitlán in 1521, the focus of Spanish attention was quickly shifted to the peripheral areas of New Spain. One of such areas, variously known in colonial times as Panuco, the Huasteca, or Vitoria Garayana, was conquered by Cortés in late 1522 or early 1523. In the spring of 1523 the Conqueror founded the villa of Santisteban del Puerto on the Panuco River; granted encomiendas to some one hundred Spaniards; and returned to Mexico City. Despite an early challenge by Francisco de Garay, the governor of Jamaica, Pánuco was administered by Cortés or the royal treasury officials of New Spain until May, 1527. At this time the crown appointee, Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, arrived in the province with the title of Governor of Panuco which he held until the last months of 1533. In the pages that follow, an attempt will be made to present evidence relating to a decade of slaving in Panuco. This will involve the activities of both Cortés and Guzmán, as well as some traditional accounts relating to the topic. The author wishes to state at the outset that he is neither defending nor prosecuting the moral issue of Indian slavery.
The Conquest of Mexico The Views of the Chroniclers
Authors: Greene Paul E.
Published: July 2006

The historian often confronts contradictory sources. The inconsistencies are frequently synthesized into an account satisfying the historian's world view. Sometimes the points of agreement and disagreement are systematically examined. The chronicles of the conquest of New Spain provide the opportunity to engage in this latter process of collation. The sources under consideration in this essay are the chronicles of Francisco López de Gómara, Hernán Cortés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Francisco de Aguilar, and Andrés de Tapia. The first three men write for specific objectives; the latter two do not.

Cortés addressed his letters to the king of Spain seeking to legitimize his precarious position vis-à-vis the governor of Cuba, from whom he was seeking autonomy. For this reason, the captain's actions appear in the most favorable light.
Labor in Amazonia in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Gross Sue A.
Published: July 2006

Labor questions put their indelible stamp on colonial life, whether in Brazil, Spanish America, or the North American colonies. Methods of labor recruitment varied among these regions, however, as did the social consequences of enslavement, race mixture, and destruction or modification of native cultures.

The poverty of the Amazon region, the old state of Maranhão e Grão Pará, prevented a system of black slavery such as characterized the Brazilian Northeast. Indians, whether slave, or held as free men in mission villages, dominated the labor market. The perennial lay-ecclesiastical fight for jurisdiction over the Indian has been vividly documented by historians such as Boxer, Kiemen, and Leite. This ground need not be retraced. What may be of interest is to examine the variety of sources from which labor was supplied to the plantations, cities, and fortresses of Maranhão e Grão Pará during the first half of the eighteenth century, just before the disruptions brought by Pombal's reforms.
Bourbon Reforms in Central America: 1750-1786
Authors: Wortman Miles
Published: July 2006

The Bourbon reforms of the late eighteenth century are important in understanding the fiscal, economic, and political structure both prior to and following the independence of Latin America. Although these measures have been generally analyzed in great detail, the decrees and compliance with them varied from region to region. This becomes quite obvious when one views Central America during the period. Considered a “backwater colony” by contemporary historians, the Reino de Guatemala still was strongly affected by fiscal reforms and subsequent political changes. An inordinately strong merchant class controlled not only commerce, but equally prices, trade regulations, and tax collection. The area was more a fief than a kingdom, with Spanish and Guatemalan merchants ruling over the Central American domain. The new Bourbon measures represented more than an attempt to gather additional fiscal resources, but to actually regain that sovereignty which earlier Spanish monarchs allowed to dwindle.
Review Article: On the Personal Service of the Indians in Central America
Authors: Zavala Silvio
Published: July 2006

William L. Sherman has written a good book on the personal service of the Indians, a theme so important in the society of Spanish America but here limited to Central America.

Series of studies exist on this topic for the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru but Central America, the intermediate region, has received only sporadic attention. Now it receives an impressive and more complete study, based on documents from the archives of Central America and Spain: actas de cabildo, letters, official depositions, law suits, juicios de residencia and notarial registers. Both the old and modern bibliography is cited, with some omissions.

In his volume, Professor Sherman includes all the distinct institutional forms of Indian labor. The first is Indian slavery either as the result of war or barter. This section enlarges our understanding of that topic for the entire region. Of special interest is the trade in Honduran Indians to the Antilles and those of Nicaragua to Panama and Peru. The Peruvian sources consulted are limited. In this connection, he recalls (p. 387, note 11), even though the matter does not concern Central America, the exportation of the Indians from the Province of Panuco in New Spain to the Spanish Islander of the Caribbean.
Pulperías and Contraband Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires Province
Authors: Slatta Richard W.
Published: July 2006

The pulpería, a country store and tavern, stood with the estancia as the most important socio-economic institutions of the Argentine pampa. The store served multiple social and commercial functions (both licit and illicit) and survived into the twentieth century despite virulent verbal attacks and calls for legislative restriction from the colonial era on. Some commentators lauded the pulpería as the outpost of civilization on the savage frontier and projected the pulpero or proprietor as civilization's lonely representative in a barbarian world. He supposedly embodied patriotism, culture, and free enterprise in a hostile, alien environment of anti-social, localistic, unlettered gauchos—the itinerant horsemen of the pampas. Evidence weighs heavily in the opposite direction; however, and the pulpero of fact rather than myth functioned as a contraband capitalist exploiting the landless rural masses and preying upon ranchers whose livestock provided the goods for illicit trade. Far from encouraging culture and civilization on the vast pampa, the pulpería housed excessive drinking and gambling, prostitution, and served as an arena for violent, often fatal, knifefights.
The Construction of the Teatro Colón
Authors: Hodge John E.
Published: July 2006

The Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires stands as one of the few truly great opera houses of the world. Completed in 1908 after two decades of intermittent disasters which threatened to leave it a crumbling ruin before it ever opened, it remains unsurpassed as a building for the presentation of operas on a grand scale in an elegant setting. With one of the largest auditoriums of the world's opera houses, it combines splendid acoustics and a stunning exterior. Over 3,500 spectators can be easily accommodated in a seating arrangement which could make room for more were the chairs in parts of the house not so commodious nor so generously spaced. Nearly all the most renowned singers of the twentieth century have performed there and deemed it a signal honor.
Cotton Planters, The State, and Rural Labor Policy: Ideological Origins of the PeruvianRepublica Aristocratica, 1895-1908
Authors: Peloso Vincent C.
Published: July 2006

In the Treaty of Ancón ending the War of the Pacific, the government of Peru signed away two provinces on the south coast and much of the country's future guano income. The settlement stripped Peru's treasury bare and exposed the narrow, extractive and agricultural base of the country's economy. A few years later the same Peruvian government, led by the hero of the Chilean war General Andrés Cáceres, signed the Grace Contract whereby the foreign debt was canceled and railway development for the next 66 years fell under the control of the foreign-owned W. R. Grace corporation. The economic and political consequences of these decisions were deeply felt in Peruvian society. Economically, they placed renewed emphasis on export agriculture and mining at the expense of primary industrial development and made stronger demands upon the rural labor force. Led by these sectors, modernization of the economy proceeded in a regional form, with accelerated growth in the coastal valleys and a few highland areas and stagnation elsewhere. A shift of population from the highlands to the coast accompanied this process.
Economic Nationalism and Tax Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Chile
Authors: Sater William F.
Published: July 2006

It has traditionally been argued that Free Trade and its principal oracle, Jean Courcelle Seneuil have adversely affected Chile’s economic development. Such diverse individuals as Aníbal Pinto Santa Cruz, Julio César Jobet, Andre Gunder Frank, and Francisco Encina have asserted that the introduction of Economic Liberalism destroyed Chile. Before Courcelle Seneuil, they claimed, Chile enjoyed the possibility of becoming an industrial nation. The advent of Free Trade, however, knocked down the barriers behind which the nascent industries had prospered. Chile’s factories, unable to compete, withered away, reducing the nation to a raw material producer; an economic colony for the industrial powers of Europe and the United States.
Commerce and Orthodoxy: A Spanish Response to Portuguese Commerical Penetration in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1580-1640
Authors: Cross Harry E.
Published: July 2006

They have made themselves masters of commerce. The Merchant's Street is almost theirs; the Merchant's Lane is all theirs, as are most of the retail booths. … As a result, they have gained control of merchandising. … The Spaniard who has not a Portuguese as a business partner has limited chances for success.

This remarkable statement, issued by the Lima Inquisition, suggests the extent to which Portuguese and their descendants had penetrated the Peruvian commercial system during the six-decade union of the Spanish and Portuguese Crowns. Spanish concern over the presence of Portuguese merchants in the viceroyalty extended to the royal bureaucracy and Lima Consulado. For example, one important government functionary writing to the King in 1619 assessed the situation as follows: “These Portuguese … in the Provinces of Peru are many of them rich, powerful, and very intelligent in all aspects of commerce. They maintain communication with many other Portuguese retail and wholesale merchants who reside in the stated realms. …” The Consulado issued numerous complaints against Portuguese merchants and often agitated for their expulsion on the grounds that they increasingly dominated trade to the detriment of Spaniards. By 1639, the majority of Portuguese merchants had been expelled from Lima and from many other parts of the viceroyalty thanks to a rapid and far-reaching expurgation by the Inquisition. Indeed, Spanish merchant monopolists and their government-sanctioned trading association, the Consulado, acted in concert with the Lima Inquisition to harass and eventually to oust their Portuguest competitors. The establishment of Portuguese merchants in Peru and their subsequent purge by the Holy Office comprise a crucial chapter in the business history of imperial Spain.
From Martín Fierro to Peronism: A Century of Argentine Social Protest
Authors: Winn Peter
Published: July 2006

At first glance, nothing could be stranger than a paper discussing the relationship between Martín Fierro and peronism. It is not just the disparity of genres. The gulf of history that separates their worlds and styles appears to be unbridgeable. Martín Fierro is emblematic of the gaucho, the endless pampa, man alone, the pastoral economy, individualism and the search for personal transcendence. Peronismo, on the other hand, calls up images of the factory worker, the city, mass society, the industrial economy, corporatist idealogy and the struggle for collective salvation.

Despite these differences, however, Martín Fierro and peronismo are in both clear and complex ways of the same lineage and an analysis of their relationship illuminates both generations—and a century of Argentine social protest. The world's of Martín Fierro and peronismo may be different, but the line of descent that joins them is as clear as that which leads from Fierro's pampa milonga to the tango of porteño peronismo and as complex as that which runs from the singer in the pulpería to the orator in the Plaza de Mayo.
Sources in Lima for the Study of the Colonial Consulado of Peru
Authors: Clayton Lawrence A.
Published: July 2006

When the old Palacio de Gobierno was demolished in 1938, a mass of papers and volumes were discovered and saved. They turned out to be the heart of the colonial archive of the Lima Tribunal of the Consulado (or Merchant’s Guild) and represented a substantial portion of the colonial Hacienda, or treasury, papers of Lima as well. An archive, the Archivo Histórico de Comercio y Hacienda, was created (and opened in 1944) for the express purpose of housing these documents and its first director, Frederico Schwab, was entrusted with the organization and cataloguing of this valuable collection. Schwab and Luis Felipe Muro Arias’ Catàlogo de la Sección Colonial del Archivo Histórico del Ministerio de Hacienda was published in Lima in 1944 and listed all of the major documentation held by the new archive relative to the colonial affairs of the Consulado and the Real Hacienda. A few years later Robert Sidney Smith, another scholar to reach and work this rich depisitory in its early years, transcribed the original index to the archive created by the Consulado to house its papers in the late eighteenth century. This work, El Indice del Archivo del Tribunal del Consulado de Lima, appeared in 1948 with an excellent preface to the history of the collection by Schwab and a valuable introduction to the Lima Consulado prepared by Smith himself. Since then, scholars such as the Peruvian Manuel Moreyra y Paz-Soldan and the Frenchwoman Marie Helmer have been able to take advantage of this great collection because of the pioneering work of Schwab, Smith, and their colleagues. The archive has since lost its autonomy and is now incorporated into the Archivo Nacional, which was a logical step in centralization since both archives are located in the Palacio de Justicia in Lima.
The Pulque Trade of Late Colonial Mexico City
Authors: Kicza John E.
Published: July 2006

Over the course of the colonial period the Spanish in Mexico, whether Creole or peninsular, not only created an economic and marketing structure based on their own practices and preferences but also penetrated and even came to dominate the marketing of certain Indian commodities, when these products were exchanged in a cash rather than a barter system and when involvement in the marketing appeared sufficiently lucrative. Cacao was probably the first item in the indegenous market economy whose distribution was taken over by Spaniards. Cacao had been a long-distance import item of high specific value even in the pre-Conquest world and the victorious Spanish quickly replaced the disappearingpochtecaclass of merchants which had controlled its distribution.
Patrons, Brokers and Clients in the Families of the Elite in Colonial Caracas, 1595-1627
Authors: Blank Stephanie
Published: July 2006

THE elite of seventeenth century Caracas manifests characteristics which can be related to the colonial nature of the society. Under conditions of imperialism centers of economic and political power are far removed from the local community. The elite in this situation must serve a dual role—it must face inward to master and develop the economic and political resources of the colony and at the same time it must face outward to exchange these resources with the metropole on which it is dependent. In an examination of the colonial society as a whole it appears that the elite is one monolithic group of men performing both these functions. But a study of the internal operation and structure of colonial elites may produce a schema of multiple character types—patrons, brokers and clients. In an environment which favors the operation of patron-clientelism as described in my previous article, “Patrons, Clients and Kin in Seventeenth Century Caracas,” the dual role of the colonial elite may distinguish patrons and brokers. Patrons may control the resources to which the community gives value while brokers transfer the valued resources which they do not control between the local dependency and the imperial system.
Antonio De Alcedo: His Collaborators and His Letters to William Robertson
Authors: Ronan Charles E.
Published: July 2006

This article is divided into two parts. The first deals with Alcedo and his collaborators; the second treats his correspondence with the Scottish historian, William Robertson.

When Antonio de Alcedo y Bexerano published his valuable five-volume Diccionario geográfico-histórico de … América … (Madrid: 1786-1789), he was painfully aware that, given its magnitude, it inevitably contained errors and omissions. To remedy these deficiencies in a revised edition that he planned to bring out later but never did, he requested in his prologue that readers inform him about mistakes and shortcomings they might detect. Exactly how many heeded his call, we do not know; but prominent among those who offered assistance and whose correspondence has been found were three: two expatriated Spanish American Jesuits, the Mexican, Agustín Pablo de Castro, and the Argentinian, Francisco Javier Iturri, and the former Spanish governor and commander-general of Guayana, Colonel Manuel Centurión. Only the letters of Castro and Centurión to Alcedo are published here. Those of Iturri, one of which has already appeared, will be published later.
Barcelona Merchants and the Latin American Wars of Independence
Authors: Costeloe Michael P.
Published: July 2006

The main outlines of Spain's trading relations with its Latin American colonies are well known. Although in the eighteenth century, under pressure from international political and domestic economic considerations, the Bourbon monarchs had permitted some liberalization, the fundamental policy remained that of confining transatlantic commerce to the mother country. Even after the so-called free trade laws were issued by Charles III, only certain ports within the peninsula and relatively few merchants were able to engage in the American trade. These merchants acted on their own account buying and selling cargoes within Spain or from Europe, or as commission agents arranging the import-export cycle for a fixed fee or percentage. Few were manufacturers in their own right and most gained a substantial part of their business from the fact that Spain remained to a large extent a channel through which foreign manufactures were sent to the colonies. Organized in their powerful guilds, they constituted an effective and influential vested interest group, determined to protect their highly privileged position against any attempted incursions by foreigners or Spaniards. Their reasons, of course, were obvious and often denounced at the time. Commerce with America was highly lucrative and large fortunes were made from it, particularly during the last quarter of the eighteenth century when a significant expansion in the value and volume of trade took place.
Indian Unrest in the Peruvian Sierra in the Late Nineteenth Century
Authors: Blanchard Peter
Published: July 2006

A watershed in Peru's development, and perhaps its most traumatic experience as an independent republic, was its humiliating defeat at the hands of Chile during the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). The impact of the war was profound. Virtually every aspect of Peruvian political, economic, and social life was affected. The army was defeated, the country invaded, and Lima occupied. By the peace treaty, Peru's nitrate-bearing southern provinces were handed over to Chile, depriving it of its most important source of income. The economy of the country was further undermined by the war-time destruction of many coastal sugar and cotton plantations. Economic collapse was accompanied by political chaos. Fighting continued after the end of the war as forces loyal to General Andrés A. Cáceres, who had carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against the Chileans in the sierra, now aimed their guns at the Chilean-imposed government of General Miguel Iglesias. In December 1885 they captured Lima, paving the way for Cáceres' election as president.
Institutional and Political Impediments to Spain's Settlement of the American Rebellions
Authors: Anna Timothy E.
Published: July 2006

Spain's imperial government, in facing the political and military threat posed by the Wars of Independence in America, could be no stronger than the sum of its parts. Among the important questions not previously detailed concerning Spanish American independence, a significant one is why metropolitan Spain itself responded so weakly and indecisively to the danger. There were, of course, severe constraints on resources as well as limitations in terms of the leadership. These two elements, however, while they were certainly real, need not have been automatically decisive. After all, despite incredible hardship and difficulty, the Spanish Comisión de Reemplazos—the Cádiz-based supply committee made up of merchants—alone and by its own tally between 1811 and 1820 dispatched thirty expeditions of peninsular troops to America involving more than 47,000 men and a cost of 350 million reales. The Morillo expedition in 1815involved 12,254 men. The so-called “Great Expedition” that gathered at Cádiz for use in Buenos Aires consisted of 14,000 men before it revolted in January 1820. In July 1820 the minister of War told the Cortes that Spain had sent a total of 27,342 troops to America since the king's restoration in 1814. Thus there was a military response from the metropolis, to say nothing, of course, of the more critical military mobilization of the American viceregal governments. One could also argue that, despite the undoubted failings of individual Spanish leaders under both the Cortes and the absolutist regimes, the political chaos at least brought a number of differing political persuasions to power. After all, Spain experienced in these years six major transformations of its political system. The leadership ran the gamut of political ideology, from extreme conservatives to extreme liberals. Pintos Vieites, in an attempt to revise Ferdinand VII favorably, even argues that the king in the first restoration purposely appointed moderates in order to hear their advice. While the parliamentarians of 1812 and 1820 tended to be young and relatively inexperienced, most of the ministers had served in the previous reign or had substantial experience.
Journalism in Asunción Under the Allies and the Colorados, 1869-1904
Authors: Warren Harris Gaylord
Published: July 2006

Some of the Latin American republics have produced newspapers that rank with the best in the world. In Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia there have been great editors who presided over especially noteworthy journals. Political stability certainly contributed to the development of such papers as La Prensa and La Nación in Buenos Aires and of El Mercurio in Chile. While political stability is a prerequisite for continuous good journalism, freedom of expression, guaranteed by government and jealously guarded by legal institutions, is even more important. Equally important is self-discipline by the press, nowhere more clearly shown than in Chile where the important law of 1872 brought under control abuses that had plagued Chilean journalism for three decades. A free press is incompatible with dictatorial or authoritarian government, a truism amply demonstrated by the Paraguayan experience.
Slave Confraternities in Brazil: Their Role in Colonial Society
Authors: Mulvey Patricia A.
Published: July 2006

One of the most important colonial institutions which joined church and society in the Brazilian cities were the lay confraternities which were attached to churches, convents and monasteries. These voluntary associations of laymen and women joined people of all classes and races in common religious activities and social works of mercy. In colonial Brazil there were separate lay associations for different races, although these racially suggested societies might parade together during religious festivals and share side altars in a common church. Free blacks, mulattoes and slaves joined separate religious associations since the white confraternities were very exclusive and discriminatory towards the poorer non-white population. The slave confraternities of the cities of 18th century Brazil were the only lay religious associations in that society which were open to all people regardless of class, race, sex or ethnic background. However as the century wore on some of the black brotherhoods tended to differentiate among themselves according to tribal distinctions, language, social condition and the extent of assimilation in Portuguese America. The larger slave confraternities like the Rosary brotherhood usually had a more diverse membership of free and slave brothers, mulattoes, Creoles and tribal Africans, blacks and whites.
Cuba and the Inter-American System: Exclusion of the Castro Regime from the Organization of American States
Authors: Jamison Edward A.
Published: July 2006

The course taken by Fidel Castro's revolution brought it into early conflict with certain of the principles that were most deeply engraved in the Charter of the Organization of American States. Political organization of the member states “… on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy” and strict adherence to the non-intervention commitment were proclaimed as cardinal elements of the inter-American structure that had been created since World War II. Even though such noble ideals were not by any means fully realized by all the members, Castro's early sponsorship of interventionist activities and the moves he quickly made toward creation of a dictatorship—some said an increasingly communistic one—seemed to mark a new and more virulent challenge to the convivencia interatnericana than it had previously encountered. Whatever his reasons—and they will be long disputed—Castro had by 1961 brought his revolution gradually but decisively into dependence upon and, in effect, alliance with the Soviet Union, and that seemed to many to constitute precisely the kind of challenge the inter-American system had been designed to meet.
Agrarian Policy and Instability in Porfirian Mexico
Authors: Stevens Donald Fithian
Published: July 2006

In the struggle sustained from time immemorial by the people with the haciendas, I shall be on the side of the people, once I obtain power.

— Porfirio Díaz, 1876

Given the importance of rural unrest in the destabilizing of Porfirian Mexico, it seems at least ironic to find these words attributed to Díaz during his Tuxtepec revolt. And, given the attention paid to the repressive elements of the Díaz dictatorship, one might easily argue that Díaz never intended to fulfill that promise, vague though it may be. A number of works seem to blame Díaz personally for the land problem which lead to his overthrow. Others maintain that Díaz remained aloof and was isolated from the common people; but by far the greatest number of works employ such amorphous or monolithic concepts as the “State,” the “Díaz regime,” “porjirismo,” or simply “the government” and focus exclusively on evidence of repression in Porfirian Mexico. Repression has attracted attention in part because it has been important in explaining dissatisfaction which lead to the Revolution of 1910 and in part because violence attracted a great deal of attention from contemporaries. This interest provides historians with more accessible sources while evidence of a more conciliatory attitude has remained hidden in the collection of Porfirio Díaz's presidential papers.
Labour in the Colonial Mining Industry of Honduras
Authors: Newson Linda
Published: July 2006

Gold and silver production in Honduras probably never exceeded 5% of that produced in Spanish America at any one time during the colonial period, but it was of considerable importance to the local economy and employed a significant proportion of the total workforce. In Spanish America as a whole the types of labour that were employed in mining were extremely varied. During the early Conquest period Indian slaves were used to pan gold in the Antilles, and later Mexican silver mining relied on the employment of free labour supplemented by that of Indian and Negro slaves. In Colombia the repartimiento provided Indians for mining up to 1729, by which time the Indian population and gold production had declined, but in Peru the mita continued to supply labour for the mines until its abolition in 1812, although by that time the mines had become heavily dependent on free labour. The dominant type of labour employed in mining in any one area at any one time appears to have been strongly influenced by the availability of Indian labour, which was largely determined by the size of the Indian population and the number of competing demands for labour, and by the profitability of mining, which determined the ability of miners to overcome shortages of labour. These influences were very apparent in the mining industry in Honduras, where during the colonial period many different types of labour were employed: Indian slaves, Indians working in the service of encomenderos, Negro slaves, Spanish immigrant workers, Indians working under the repartimiento and free labourers.
Cantonismo: A Regional Harbinger of Peronism in Argentina
Authors: Rodríguez Celso
Published: July 2006

Interpretations of Juan Domingo Perón and his movement have been and will continue to be a recurring and highly controversial theme in Argentine history. Studies of the nature of Peronism indicate that there is a wide diversity of viewpoints regarding its origin, its structure, its grassroots appeal and its mode of recruiting. Peronism has been analyzed within the framework of Argentine national developments, and it has been compared with foreign models—Fascism, Bonapartism, Nasserism—with which it shares some important characteristics. An analysis of Peronism and the reality of Argentina under Perón from a comparative viewpoint, is useful. But the search for the causes that brought Perón and Peronism to power in 1946 and shaped them until 1955, should be focused primarily on Argentina's own historical experience. Eldon Kenworthy has aptly questioned the approach followed by some American scholars in explaining Peronism, because in general, Kenworthy notes, they “have tended to interpret Peronism in terms of global trends salient to the United States rather than as a stage in Argentina's historical evolution.”
The Black Man's Contribution to Cuban Culture
Authors: Valdés-Cruz Rosa
Published: July 2006

The well-known ethnologist and investigator, Fernando Ortiz, has recognized that “without the black, Cuba would not be Cuba,” a statement that makes clear the tremendous importance of the African contribution to present-day Cuban culture.

It is a known fact that the aboriginal base of Cuban society was quickly destroyed by the first Spaniards to reach the island, thereby creating the necessity for a new slave population, a new race: that of the blacks of Africa. They came from various regions but primarily from near the mouth of the Niger River.

The cultures which they brought were varied: some elementary and others sufficiently developed, like the Dahomeyan and Yoruba, which manifested a degree of complexity that made them comparable in many aspects to European culture of the Middle Ages. They had agriculture, trade, centralized government, mutual protection social organizations, highly developed oral folkloristic literature (they lacked writing), and a degree of development in certain branches of art—such as music.
Orange and Red Organic Light‐Emitting Devices Employing Neutral Ru(II) Emitters: Rational Design and Prospects for Color Tuning
Authors: Tung Y.‐L. , Chen L.‐S. , Chi Y. , Chou P.‐T. , Cheng Y.‐M. , Li E. Y. , Lee G.‐H. , Shu C.‐F. , Wu F.‐I. , Carty A. J.
Published: July 2006

A new series of charge‐neutral Ru(II) pyridyl and isoquinoline pyrazolate complexes, [Ru(bppz)2(PPh2Me)2] (bbpz: 3‐tert‐butyl‐5‐pyridyl pyrazolate) (1), [Ru(fppz)2(PPh2Me)2] (fppz: 3‐trifluoromethyl‐5‐pyridyl pyrazolate) (2), [Ru(ibpz)2(PPhMe2)2] (ibpz: 3‐tert‐butyl‐5‐(1‐isoquinolyl) pyrazolate) (3), [Ru(ibpz)2(PPh2Me)2] (4), [Ru(ifpz)2(PPh2Me)2] (ifpz: 3‐trifluoromethyl‐5‐(1‐isoquinolyl) pyrazolate) (5), [Ru(ibpz)2(dpp)] (dpp represents cis‐1,2‐bis‐(diphenylphosphino)ethene) (6), and [Ru(ifpz)2(dpp)] (7), have been synthesized, and their structural, electrochemical, and photophysical properties have been characterized. A comprehensive time‐dependant density functional theory (TDDFT) approach has been used to assign the observed electronic transitions to specific frontier orbital configurations. A multilayer organic light‐emitting device (OLED) using 24 wt % of 5 as the dopant emitter in a 4,4′‐N,N′‐dicarbazolyl‐1,1′‐biphenyl (CBP) host with 4,4′‐bis[N‐(1‐naphthyl)‐N‐phenylamino]biphenyl (NPB) as the hole‐transport layer exhibits saturated red emission with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 5.10 %, luminous efficiency of 5.74 cd A–1, and power efficiency of 2.62 lm W–1. The incorporation of a thin layer of poly(styrene sulfonate)‐doped poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) between indium tin oxide (ITO) and NPB gave anoptimized device with an EQE of 7.03 %, luminous efficiency of 8.02 cd A–1, and power efficiency of 2.74 lm W–1 at 20 mA cm–2. These values represent a breakthrough in the field of OLEDs using less expensive Ru(II) metal complexes. The nonionic nature of the complexes as well as their high emission quantum efficiencies and short radiative lifetimes are believed to be the key factors enabling this unprecedented achievement. The prospects for color tuning based on Ru(II) complexes are also discussed in light of some theoretical calculations.
Evidence on the effectiveness of occupational health interventions
Authors: Ruotsalainen Jani H. , Verbeek Jos H. , Salmi Jukka A. , Jauhiainen Merja , Laamanen Irja , Pasternack Iris , Husman Kaj
Published: July 2006

Background

At present there exists no overview of the range of evidence currently available regarding the effectiveness of occupational health interventions (OHI).

Methods

Articles published in 2000 and 2001 in 16 general and specialized biomedical journals were searched for evaluations of OHI studies.

Results

Out of 8,687 articles searched there were 148 OHI studies. In 21% of the studies the study design was a randomized controlled trial, in 28% it was a controlled trial, an interrupted time‐series in 7% and a different design in 44%. The occupational health outcome was exposure in 27% of the studies, worker behavior in 12%, disease symptoms in 30%, disability or sickness absence in 24%, injuries in 4%, and quality of care in 3%.

Conclusions

High quality evaluation studies are conducted in all areas of occupational health. However, it is clear that more are needed and the methodology used could be improved. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mortality in the catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome: Causes of death and prognostic factors in a series of 250 patients
Authors: Bucciarelli Silvia , Espinosa Gerard , Cervera Ricard , Erkan Doruk , Gómez‐Puerta José A. , Ramos‐Casals Manuel , Font Josep , Asherson Ronald A.
Published: July 2006

Objective

To assess the main causes of death and the prognostic factors that influence mortality in patients with the catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS).

Methods

We analyzed the case reports of 250 patients included in the CAPS Registry up to February 2005. To identify prognostic factors for CAPS, we compared the main clinical and immunologic features and the types of treatment in the patients who died with those features in the patients who survived.

Results

Recovery occurred in 56% of the episodes of CAPS and death occurred in 44%. Cerebral involvement, consisting mainly of stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, and encephalopathy, was considered the main cause of death, being present in 27.2% of patients, followed by cardiac involvement (19.8%) and infection (19.8%). The only factor we identified that was prognostic of a higher mortality rate was the presence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A higher recovery rate was associated with combined treatment with anticoagulants (ACs) plus corticosteroids (CS) plus plasma exchange (PE) (77.8%), followed by ACs plus CS plus PE and/or intravenous immunoglobulins (69%). In contrast, concomitant treatment with cyclophosphamide did not demonstrate additional benefit.

Conclusion

Cerebral involvement (mainly consisting of stroke), cardiac involvement, and infections were considered the main causes of death in patients with CAPS. The presence of SLE was related to a higher mortality rate. According to the results of the present study, ACs plus CS plus PE should be the first line of therapy in patients with CAPS.
Regeneration of B cell subsets after transient B cell depletion using anti‐CD20 antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Roll Petra , Palanichamy Arumugam , Kneitz Christian , Dorner Thomas , Tony Hans‐Peter
Published: July 2006

Objective

Transient B cell depletion with the monoclonal anti‐CD20 antibody rituximab has resulted in favorable clinical responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, little is known about the regeneration profile of different peripheral B cell subpopulations. The aim of this study was to delineate the regeneration profile of different B cell subsets in the peripheral blood after selective anti‐CD20–mediated B cell depletion.

Methods

Seventeen patients with RA refractory to standard therapy were treated with rituximab. Patients 1–6 received 4 weekly infusions of rituximab at a dose of 375 mg/m2, and patients 7–17 received 2 infusions of rituximab (1,000 mg), 2 weeks apart. Four‐color staining was performed at several time points, using CD38, IgD, and CD27 in addition to other cell surface markers. In one patient, the mutational status of the immunoglobulin receptor was examined.

Results

The analysis revealed a distinct pattern of B cell regeneration. The first wave of repopulating B cells were immature B cells (CD38high,IgD+,CD10+,CD24high), the immunoglobulin receptors of which were not yet somatically mutated. In parallel, a recirculation of plasma cells was observed. Later, the number of naive B cells increased, and these cells predominated in the peripheral blood B cell pool. CD27+ memory B cells showed a slow and delayed repopulation, and the level of these cells stayed significantly reduced (<50%) compared with baseline values, for more than 2 years.

Conclusion

Our findings provide evidence for a characteristic regeneration pattern of B cell subpopulations, with long‐lasting modulation of B cell subset composition, after selective anti‐CD20–mediated B cell depletion.
Regulation of interleukin‐1β–induced chemokine production and matrix metalloproteinase 2 activation by epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate in rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts
Authors: Ahmed Salahuddin , Pakozdi Angela , Koch Alisa E.
Published: July 2006

Objective

To evaluate the efficacy of epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG), a potent antiinflammatory molecule, in regulating interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β)–induced production of the chemokines RANTES (CCL5), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP‐1/CCL2), epithelial neutrophil–activating peptide 78 (ENA‐78/CXCL5), growth‐regulated oncogene α (GROα/CXCL1), and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP‐2) activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial fibroblasts.

Methods

Fibroblasts obtained from RA synovium were grown, and conditioned medium was obtained. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay. RANTES, MCP‐1, ENA‐78, and GROα produced in culture supernatants were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. MMP‐2 activity was analyzed by gelatin zymography. Western blotting was used to study the phosphorylation of protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms and nuclear translocation of NF‐κB.

Results

EGCG was nontoxic to RA synovial fibroblasts. Treatment with EGCG at 10 μM or 20 μM significantly inhibited IL‐1β–induced ENA‐78, RANTES, and GROα, but not MCP‐1 production in a concentration‐dependent manner. EGCG at 50 μM caused a complete block of IL‐1β–induced production of RANTES, ENA‐78, and GROα, and reduced production of MCP‐1 by 48% (P < 0.05). Zymography showed that EGCG blocked constitutive, IL‐1β–induced, and chemokine‐mediated MMP‐2 activity. Evaluation of signaling events revealed that EGCG preferentially blocked the phosphorylation of PKCδ and inhibited the activation and nuclear translocation of NF‐κB in IL‐1β–treated RA synovial fibroblasts.

Conclusion

These results suggest that EGCG may be of potential therapeutic value in inhibiting joint destruction in RA.
Distinct synovial immunopathologic characteristics of juvenile‐onset spondylarthritis and other forms of juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Authors: Kruithof Elli , Van den Bossche Veronique , De Rycke Leen , Vandooren Bernard , Joos Rik , Cañete Juan D. , Tak Paul P. , Boots Annemieke M. H. , Veys Eric M. , Baeten Dominique
Published: July 2006

Objective

To characterize the synovial immunopathologic features of juvenile‐onset spondylarthritis (SpA) in relation to adult SpA and other forms of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods

Synovial biopsy samples were obtained from 10 patients with juvenile‐onset SpA, 23 with adult SpA, 19 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 8 with juvenile polyarthritis, and 12 with juvenile oligoarthritis. Synovial immunopathologic features were studied by extensive histologic and immunohistochemical analyses.

Results

Synovitis in juvenile SpA was characterized by marked lining layer hyperplasia, clear hypervascularity, and pronounced inflammatory cell infiltration with lymphocytes and macrophages, independent of disease duration or time of sampling. The immunopathologic features of juvenile SpA resembled those of adult SpA in terms of hypervascularity and absence of RA‐specific intracellular citrullinated proteins and HLA–DR4/human cartilage glycoprotein 39263–275 complexes, but differed markedly by a stronger lining layer hyperplasia and lower numbers of CD163+ macrophages. Accordingly, class prediction analysis failed to classify juvenile SpA synovitis in the SpA group. Comparison of juvenile SpA with other JIA subtypes showed a broad overlap, with the exception of slightly lower vascularity in juvenile polyarthritis and higher inflammatory cell infiltration in juvenile oligoarthritis. Unsupervised clustering analysis identified a subgroup of samples characterized by high plasma cell infiltration, which corresponded with active, longstanding JIA, mostly of the oligoarthritis subtype.

Conclusion

Despite some similarities with adult SpA, the findings with regard to lining layer hyperplasia and CD163+ macrophage infiltration are indicative of important differences in the synovial immunopathologic features of juvenile‐onset SpA. The partial overlap with other JIA subtypes emphasizes the need for further biologic characterization of JIA in order to define pathophysiologic, rather than phenotypic, subgroups.
Confirmatory Seamless Phase II/III Clinical Trials with Hypotheses Selection at Interim: General Concepts
Authors: Bretz Frank , Schmidli Heinz , König Franz , Racine Amy , Maurer Willi
Published: July 2006

Traditional drug development consists of a sequence of independent trials organized in different phases. Full development typically involves (i) a learning phase II trial and (ii) one or two confirmatory phase III trial(s). For example, in the phase II trials several doses of the new compound might be compared to a control and/or placebo with the goal of deciding whether to stop or continue development and, in the latter case, selecting one or two “best” doses to carry forward into the confirmatory phase. The phase III trials are then conducted as stand‐alone confirmatory studies, not incorporating in their statistical analyses data collected in the previous phases.

Seamless phase II/III designs are aimed at interweaving the two phases of full development by combining them into one single, uninterrupted study conducted in two stages. In the dose‐finding example above, one (or more) dose(s) are selected after the first stage based on the available data at interim, and are then observed further in the second stage. The final analysis of the selected dose(s) includes patients from both stages and is performed such that the overall type I error rate is controlled at a pre‐specified level regardless of the dose selection rule used at interim. The adequacy of the dose selection at interim is obviously a critical step for the success of a seamless phase II/III trial. In this paper we focus on the description of flexible test procedures allowing for adaptively selecting hypotheses at interim and thus allowing the combination of learning and confirming in a single seamless trial. We review the statistical background, introduce different test procedures and compare them in a power study. In a subsequent paper (Schmidli et al., 2006) we give several applications from our daily practice and discuss related implementation issues in conducting adaptive seamless designs. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Generation of a mouse for conditional excision of progesterone receptor
Authors: Hashimoto‐Partyka Minako K. , Lydon John P. , Iruela‐Arispe M. Luisa
Published: July 2006

The progesterone receptor (PR) is required for several aspects of mammalian female reproduction. PR null mice have overlapping defects that preclude an understanding of its multiple functions in ovulation, pregnancy, mammary gland biology, and sexual behavior. We have generated a PR conditional excision (PRCE) allele in which loxP sites flank exon 1. Homozygous PRCE females are fertile and appear to be functionally normal. Global cre mediated excision of the floxed exon 1 using EIIa‐cre mice resulted in systemic loss of exon 1 and PR protein. Female mice homozygous for this null allele were sterile, as expected for PR knockout (PRKO) females. Conditional loss of PR will facilitate investigation of the spatial and temporal roles of PR in both normal development and disease. genesis 44:391–395, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.