No comments about Karl Mannheim and the Crisis of Liberalism: The Secret of These New Times.

No comments about Escritos Sociologicos: En Homenaje a Salvador Giner.

No comments about Erving Goffman.

No comments about Max Weber (Key Sociologists).

5 comments about Gringa Latina: A Woman of Two Worlds.

1. This book beautifuly describes the life of a woman embodying two different cultures.



2. I really enjoyed this book. She did such a wonderful job describing Peru and the complexity of her feelings being a "Latina" based on geographic reasons, and "Gringa" according to her ethnicity. I also found it interesting how she was perceived when in America. Reading this book also made me want to see Peru and all it's beauty.



3. In Gringa Latina we have a character that his not Peruvian or Hispanic because her family comes from Italy, when she leaves Peru and comes to the states she is a latina because she in not American, and so it goes that she is never fully at home in either culture or though we get a brilliant portrayal of her youth in the South American continent. Excellent book.



4. (comment dated June 23rd, 2005)
   Really, I coudn't stop reading it from the beginning to the end. I was raised in several towns and villages in Peru, and wound up finishing high school in a Jesuit School in Tacna, ran by this "jesuit priest" de Ferrari mentions in a small passage of this book. The book is a delicious reminiscence of the years passed by the author in this small and heroic village in the southern end of Peru, causing a strong wind of nostalgy in those like me who know the town and its wonderful people. I will start talking about some mistakes in the book. In my opinion, she is feeling "too" strange to the people of Tacna. I really don't think so. Even though her parents were Italian, Tacna was populated by many European colonies, all of them outnumbered by the Italian colony, which, even in my times (the 70's), was still composed of several thousand people, including Italians and their descendants, like her. Many of the current most important names in Tacna are still Italians, and tho there has been a social turn in the last 20 years, the Italian immigration to Tacna and Arica in the XIX century (then a part of Peru) is a passage of our history rarely studied.
   There are some other mistakes in the book, which being a non-fiction book is something I can not help pointing out. The Inca Empire extended from Colombia to the north of Argentina, and de Ferrari claims it extended from north of Venezuela to the Patagonia in the south of Argentina. Hummm. Huge mistake for a girl who was educated in Colegio Santa Ana, the Italian private School of Tacna. A few other historical misunderstandings spot here and there along the book. Her point of view about the birth of the Shining Path is also a common place, but that popular theory (that the Shining Path was some sort of indigenous rebellion) was later discovered untrue, being the SP a urban movement leaded by urban and well educated college teachers who belonged to the "white" class from Ayacucho and other Sierra cities.
   But, in general, I enjoyed a lot reading the description of the places and especially about the food, which seems an obsession for this woman, congratulations, she really is a gourmet. I am a passionate for those territories and especially for those people, who, like the de Ferrari's, I think compose the best group of people living in a so disfunctional country like mine. The peruvian peoples from Tacna, Arica, and Tarapaca suffered a severe loss in the 1880's when they were forced to change their nationality, but across the border, many ancient families still prevail, keeping a bright peruvian light in their hearts. This is especially true regarding the Italian families, many of whom hold repeated names on both sides of the current border, keeping contact with relatives and families.
   I still have to read "A Cloud on Sand", but I presume this fiction book must be based in de Ferrari's life in Tacna as a teenager.
   Congratulations Gabriella, I still wonder how many of your "paisanos" have read your book, and if it wouldn't be necessary to transate it into Spanish. Anyway, I will take a copy of your book to Father Fred (the Jesuit priest) so he can enjoy the book too.
   
   (Updated Feb 16, 2006)
   I already did, I took a copy of the book to Father Fred, who was happy to have it, and claimed to have recently seen Gabriella upon her mother's pass away.



5. I liked Armando's comment about the huge historical mistakes made by someone who attended the Santa Ana private school. I guess he is right considering we used to have history class every year since the 6th. grade. I suppose Cristo Rey (the Jesuit school he talks about) always had a better curricula for their students!
   Back to the book, I guess it is very tough to write about our memories from Tacna or even Peru in general, when this country seems to take away part of our objectivity in just a matter of months. We tend to remember good things as being "great" and bad things as "really bad" perhaps. Tacna is certainly a small city but I have never thought of it as a "village". Perhaps we still don't have a Mc Donald's or a BK there, but that doesn't mean anything really. Although "drugs and fear" have always been present, I highly doubt that they would have made such a great difference during the years the author lived there. Yes, perhaps we continue to fill the news every day with stories about murder, corruption and rape, but that's just what we care to show to the world. I lived in Tacna until 1999, part of one of these Italian families who migrated over there and enjoyed the privileges of having money and building a reputation that now is almost vanished. I won't deny that I tell stories about Tacna all the time, in some cases; these stories are even phrased similarly as to the ones in the book. They excite people. Still, I believe it is mostly because our lack of open minds and the way we managed to carry traditions from one generation to the other. This is the greatest mystery of all I think; we can only see it as such and relate it in such a magical way after going through the major change of leaving that city.

No comments about Freedom and Consumerism: A Critique of Zygmunt Bauman's Sociology.

No comments about The Sociology of Oliver C. Cox: New Perspectives (Research in Race and Ethnic Relations) (Research in Race and Ethnic Relations) (Research in Race and Ethnic Relations).

1 comments about Journeys to the Edge: In the Footsteps of an Anthropologist.

1. Journeys To The Edge: In The Footsteps Of An Anthropologist by Peter M. Gardner (Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia) is the story of the author's years of field trip based anthropological researches in his chosen field of study. Readers will learn of the collective findings and studies of Gardner in his endeavors involving medical and travel emergencies, magical fights, natural dangers, playful friends, and scientific discoveries as he focuses his research whence among the many hunter-gatherer tribes of Canada's Northwest Territories, Japan, India, and many more. Journeys To The Edge is a scholarly and informative collective observational studies of anthropological explorations, enhanced with intimate personal content. Very strongly recommended reading for all students of indigenous peoples of the world, anthropology, Taoism, nature, homeopathic or natural medication, and travel for its vivid and intriguing stories and observations. Journeys To The Edge is appropriate for both aspiring students of anthropology as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in this particular area of scientific advances and discoveries.

No comments about Joseph Keene Chadwick: Interventions and Continuities in Irish and Gay Studies.

1 comments about Interpretative Origins of Classical Sociology: Weber, Husserl, Schutz, Durkheim, Simmel (Mellen Studies in Sociology, Bd. 52).

1. Professor Wanderer presents the development of a complex area of sociology in a logical, cogent manner. He sets forth similarities and differences in the approaches of four important founders of sociology, essential in understanding the subject matter. It must be read with some reflection. The book is well footnoted and presented logically.