Post-modern design captures our cultural moment’s yearning for unique and inspiring objects, even if they are of little use. The French master pours it all into his legendarily inefficient lemon juice squeezer.
Author: Alidad Vassigh
Born in Tehran, educated in Britain and France, I have been a freelance translator since the late 1990s.
The Brazilian president-elect’s plans for his first foreign trips offer just one clue to neighbors about how regional alliances are set to be turned on their heads.
The main open dump in the Colombian city evolved over decades from an informal home to scavengers to becoming a focus of communal resurgence.
The tendency of politicians in Latin America (and beyond) to cite Christ in their speeches may indicate both megalomania and contempt for institutional democracy.
-Essay- PARIS — I shall spare my readers today a highfalutin reflection on the obsolescence of the French Fifth Republic, evolutions in Romanian culture or the worldwide rise of the extreme Right — thanks to Banksy! The uber-famous but ever elusive London street artist recently returned to the limelight with another of his visual pranks: […]
Older LGBT people have lived to see dramatic improvements in how society treats sexual minorities. But scars remain.
President-elects Jair Bolsonaro and Andrés Manuel López Obrador may not have the same ideology, but their respective radical declarations are prompting concerns over the rule of law and treatment of minorities.
Colombian novelist Héctor Abad Faciolince recounts how a man in Denmark claimed to have lived exactly as one of the writer’s characters. Eventually, the two would meet.
Forget nylon!. Local clothing lines like Animaná are rediscovering all-natural fibers such as lama and linen, and even producing fabrics the old-fashioned way.
New President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is calling for a paradigm shift in Mexico’s war on hyper-violent drug cartels. Colombia’s peace deal with the FARC may serve as a model.
There’s something strangely familiar about the 99 images on display at the Abadía Art and Latin American Studies Center in Buenos Aires.
The U.S. has long enjoyed hegemony over the 2.7-million sq km Caribbean basin. But whether Washington likes it or not, Beijing is showing that it too wants a piece of the pie.
The Venezuelan crisis impacts Colombia directly. But military intervention, as hinted by Trump, could be disastrous.
A pair of agro-engineers from Argentina are helping a U.S. company boost crop yields in Uganda, and help local, small-scale farmers in the process.
Jair Bolsonaro is threatening to curtail rights and liberties, and bring the army back into politics. He’s also the front-runner heading into Sunday’s presidential election.
With more sanctions for China and curbs on NAFTA, Donald Trump is fulfilling his campaign pledges to curtail globalization — free trade and vast business interests be damned.
Uber still has plenty of critics in Argentina, but its clearing key legal hurdles is a sign that there’s no turning back the clock on a digitally-driven marketplace.
The flood of people fleeing Venezuela’s dire economic and political situation is more than any one country can handle. But so far, there’s been little effort to organize a coordinated reaction.
-Analysis- CARACAS — Artificial Intelligence is opening up new opportunities for the economy and society. But it will also affect millions of human jobs, and thus poses a huge challenge for public policymakers, warns a 2016 White House report on AI’s projected impact on the U.S. economy. Among other things, the report predicts that AI […]
Latin Americans call it the Movimiento Gordo, accepting weight differences as a way to resist a mass consensus typical of our time. One Argentine author offers her portrait.
Ancestral agricultural practices can provide a sustainable and creative way to boost rural economies in Latin America. And China could help.
Easing pain and ‘old-fashioned’ home care, rather than intensive hospitalization, are proving themselves as better and cheaper ways to treat terminal patients.
-OpEd- MADRID — Since September 2015, when the UN General Assembly launched its 2030 Agenda — a plan to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within 15 years — the concepts have been gaining momentum worldwide. The ultimate purpose of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty, and slowly but surely, people are realizing their importance […]
The information storage technology can safeguard entire transaction histories and allow firms and consumers to see where food ingredients came from — and fast.
Proposed changes to the trilateral trade accord could scare off investors, hurt Mexican automakers, and sour relations with Canada, analyst Luis Rubio argues.
The Argentine pontiff, used to navigating politics in Buenos Aires, is battling at a whole different level now. And his papacy may hang in the balance.
Scientists from the University of Magdalena in Colombia discovered six new species of tardigrades, microscopic ‘water bears’ that are remarkably resistant to extreme conditions and may help medical researchers.
In his most recent book, best-selling author Paulo Coelho revisits his nomadic past, when he embarked from Brazil on a voyage that took him all the way to Kathmandu.
Rising tariffs between the U.S. and China may boost trade between China and Latin American states, but ultimately this could harm their economies if all China wants is energy and commodities.
BUENOS AIRES — Facebook irritates me, entertains, consoles, bores and infuriates me, moves and depresses me — but above all, it exhausts me. Rewind to 2008, and I am in Pittsburgh working in a migrant help center. My Belgian friend Marie enters the office with her laptop and shows me a new platform where you […]
‘Alternative’ sexuality is despised in the traditionalist, native or Afro-Caribbean communities of northern Colombia. The choices for gays and lesbians tend to be harsh: face down your family and neighbors, or leave.
By allying themselves commercially, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru have created a massive consumer base — just what new, home-grown tech firms need to grow and prosper.
News used to be a cherished staple for writer and conflict-resolution expert Aldo Civico. But when Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential elections, he had to take a break — for sanity’s sake.
Avant-garde art projected itself through provocation in the 20th century, but has provocation simply become a great marketing ploy for artists?
Hyperinflation comes from ignoring some basic economic rules. That is unlikely to change any time soon under the Maduro government.
BOGOTÁ — The peace accords signed two years ago with the demobilized FARC guerillas continue to divide Colombians politically, as do questions over how the country should go about ending the conflict with ELN rebels, solve the problem of drug production, and terminate the illegal businesses that have fueled so much barbarism over the years. […]
The peace process he helped guide in Colombia isn’t perfect. Nor is it complete. But by ending the decades-old war with the FARC, outgoing President Manuel Santos definitely made his mark.
Modern Latin American history holds examples of insurrections to topple dictators, which contemporaries and posterity have judged positively. Why should there not be a rebellion today to free Venezuelans of its inept and tyrannical regime?
After decades of dictatorship, democracy in Latin America seemed destined to take root through the 1990s. But from Brazil to Nicaragua, things can change quickly.
None should be more dismayed by Daniel Ortega’s despotic slide than those who hailed his revolution as a triumph of democratic socialism, some 40 years ago.