¿Qué sabemos del Cantar de Fernán González?

The Poem or Book of Fernán González was probably written c. 1250 by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza (Burgos, Castile) to strengthen the legendary foundation of his monastery by the tenth-century Castilian Count, Fernán González, and to promote his tomb cult there. The Arlanza poet was competing with the benefits that Santiago and San Millán de la Cogolla were trying to get on legendary accounts of the champion of the independence of the County of Castile from the Kingdom of León. It is clear that this is a work of monastic propaganda, designed to attract pilgrims and donations; therefore perhaps a better title for it would be Poem of the Foundation of San Pedro de Arlanza. The Arlanza poet was fond of the popular and orally transmitted Romance epics (Hispanic and Carolingian songs). He knew Siete infantes de Salas, the tradition of the Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo (Gesta de las Mocedades de Rodrigo), the anti-Carolingian song(s) of Bernardo del Carpio, and the Roncesvals Matière. We also suspect that the poet was recasting a now-lost epic cantar de gesta of Fernán González. This cantar was probably also known by Gonzalo de Berceo, who was actively working in San Millán de la Cogolla, a few years earlier, trying to attract pilgrims and donations. In this article, I try to analyze how much we know of the lost Cantar de Fernán González and if the Monastery of Sahagún (León) also reappropriated it for its own propaganda.     

El Caballero de Dios y la muy noble reina: María de Molina's patronage of the Libro del Caballero Zifar

This article analyzes the political discourses on chivalry and gender in Libro del Caballero Zifar and provides textual evidence in support of the theory that María de Molina was an original patron of this anonymous work from the cathedral school of Toledo. Using the portrait of the queen in the prologue as a point of departure, this study explores the intertextuality of Libro del Caballero Zifar and contemporary royal chronicles, elucidating the manner in which the political discourse of the former supports the political propaganda of the latter, ultimately creating a legitimizing discourse for María de Molina's rule as queen of Castile-León at the turn of the fourteenth century.     

‘Es honor de su nación’: Legal Rhetoric,Ethnic Alliances and the Opening of an Indigenous Convent in Colonial Oaxaca

This article examines the manner in which the caciques (noble Indians) and principales (Indian notables) from the Oaxaca region in New Spain adopted a ‘legal rhetoric’ in their quest to open a convent for noble Indian women during the eighteenth century. Through a close reading of the legal documentation produced in the petition for the convent for indigenous women in Antequera, I find that the caciques strategically used the same laws that had placed them in a subordinated place in the social hierarchy of the colony in order to negotiate certain rights and privileges. Aware of their belonging to the legally determined category of ‘Indians,’ indigenous peoples from the Valley of Oaxaca appealed specifically to the laws that had granted them a special judicial place in the colonial scheme. By referencing the Recopilación de las leyes de las Indias and several royal decrees (cédulas), the caciques appealed to colonial officials at a key historical moment, when Bourbon reforms sought to modernize all institutions, including the Catholic Church.     

Maurofilia y maurofobia en el Libro del conde de Castilla

The Poema de Fernán González (or Libro del conde de Castilla) is not a crusade song, nor is it an epic poem or a historical account commemorating the foundation of San Pedro de Arlanza Monastery. It is rather a hybrid text that employs all the literary and historical resources available around the middle of the thirteenth century to an educated poet who was intent on transmitting to future generations the memory of the Count who made possible the independence of Castile. All episodes in the poem point to Castile's unique place in history, describing through the protagonist's bellicose deeds its hegemonic ascendency as the most important kingdom of the Iberian peninsula. Its destiny is determined by the hero's combative character against all enemies, whether Christians or Moors, and more specifically by confronting the powerful kings of neighboring states León and Navarre.     

MakingGüeras: Selling white identities on late-night Mexican television

This article examines discourses of whiteness and color in Mexico through a discussion of White Secret, a widely available skin-lightening cosmetic product. In an analysis of a televised infomercial advertising the product, we examine contextualizations of whiteness in Mexico, as figured through the product's representations of light-skinned female bodies and advanced cosmetic technology. We consider the ways that White Secret can speak to broader conceptualizations of whiteness and identity and, furthermore, argue that such an engagement points to the need to interrogate the geographical and epistemological limits of current understandings of whiteness based in Anglo-American and Latin-American contexts.

Creando güeras: La venta de identidades blancas en la televisión Mexicana de media noche En este artículo, hacemos un análisis sobre los discursos de ‘blancura’ y de color con respecto a la población en México a través de una discusión sobre ‘White Secret’, un producto cosmético para aclarar la piel que es muy disponible en México. Por un análisis de un ‘info-nuncio’ que sale por la televisión anunciando el producto ‘White Secret’, exploramos los entretejemientos de la construcción de blancura en México y como este ‘info-nuncio’ manipula imágenes de los cuerpos de güeras (mujeres de piel clara) y tecnología cosmética avanzada. Reflexionamos acerca de las maneras que el producto ‘White Secret’ pueda hablar a concepciones más amplias sobre la construcción de identidad y blancura y además, discutimos que tal exploración indica la necesidad de interrogar los limites epistemológicos y geográficos de la comprensión actual de la construcción de blancura basados en los contextos Latino Americanos y Anglo Americanos.     

A new Patagonian long-lived species of Cyclochlamys Finlay, 1926 (Bivalvia: Pectinoidea)

Pastorino, G. & Griffin, M., March 2018. A new Patagonian long-lived species of Cyclochlamys (Bivalvia: Pectinoidea). Alcheringa XX, xx–xx.

A new species of the bivalve family Cyclochlamydidae is described from the southwestern Atlantic in Argentine waters. Cyclochlamys argentina sp. nov. is the second representative of the genus known to live in the Magellanic area. In addition, this long-lived species is also recorded from lower Miocene rocks in the province of Santa Cruz exposed along the Atlantic coast of the Monte León National Park. The material was collected from the Punta Entrada Member of the Monte León Formation. These small mollusks clearly belong in Cyclochlamys because of shell characters such as the irregularly pitted prodissoconch I and right valve with commarginally elongated rectangular prisms over most of disc. Cyclochlamys argentina sp. nov. shows affinities with taxa such as C. aupouria and C. shepherdi, all of which are known from areas of New Zealand.

Guido Pastorino [gpastorino@macn.gov.ar] CONICET—Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’. Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Miguel Griffin [patagonianoyster@gmail.com] CONICET— División Paleozoología Invertebrados, Museo de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina.     

Equal Rights and Individual Freedom: Enlightenment Intellectuals and the Lascasian Apology for Black African Slavery

Juan Antonio Llorente's edition of Bartolomé de Las Casas's writings, Colección de las obras del venerable Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolome de las Casas, defensor de la libertad de los Americanos, illustrates how Las Casas was perceived and condemned in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In this article, I seek to explain why and in what ways Bartolomé de Las Casas's early propositions on African slavery played a fundamental role in Juan Antonio Llorente's edition of Colección, an ambitious editorial work that involved much more than selection, editing, and publication. By approaching the Colección's production and reception from the perspective of book history, I explore how Llorente's Colección reflects the role that colonial affairs and race had in the challenges faced by European rule and white hegemony.     

Commons and the construction of power in the early Middle Ages: tenth-century León and Castile

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role played by the control of common lands (commons) in the configuration of power in the northern Iberian Peninsula during the early Middle Ages. Although there were marked differences between them, the kings of León and the counts of Castile consolidated their power over local society by guaranteeing the defence and correct management of commons. Their example provides the basis for this study, which investigates whether these higher levels of commons protection and management could have been a way of building and consolidating power (whether as lords, royalty, counts, or in urban areas) during the Middle Ages.     

Disruptive marginality: The representation of wildness in Lope de Vega’s Baroque dramatic art

Abstract

The theatrical production of Baroque Iberia exhibits an obsession with wildness that remains to be fully explored. By the time Segismundo takes the stage dressed in animal pelts in Calderón’s La vida es sueño, the wild figure had already enjoyed a long history on the Spanish stage, first appearing in Lope de Vega’s El nacimiento de Ursón y Valentín in 1588. Enduring popularity until Bances Candamo’s 1693 comedia, La piedra filosofal, this steady preoccupation with the concept of wildness offers unique insights on the evolving landscape of Baroque ideologies over time, which are rarely considered diachronically. Dramatic representations of wildness signify the transgression of a prescribed norm—be it social, political, racial, or otherwise—which leads to its necessary elimination to resolve the conflict of a given play. In this article, I will plot the trajectory of dramatic conventions in their diminishing ability to resolve the recurring problem of wildness, thus offering a literary history of the comedia’s social efficacy as it struggled to sustain the weight of its own ideological commitments. Furthermore, I will examine the implications of my approach on longstanding debates on the ideological function of Baroque Iberian drama by analyzing the theoretical problem inherent in the existence of the marginal terrain wildness inhabits. My approach considers who stands to benefit from social order and those who, like the wild figure, find themselves excluded. At a time of renewed energy for exclusionary ideologies, aspirations of encompassing the marginalized are as important today as they were in 1588.     

Alongside Violence: Everyday Survival in Chocó, Colombia

The naturalization of violence in Colombia has made gory testimonies a common yet counterproductive product when creating narratives that reproduce some of the violence they attempt to scrutinize. This article explores women’s activism as an everyday survival practice, as well as the ethics of researching and writing about survival in Chocó. I focus specifically on two groups of Chocoan women activists and their counternarratives of violence: (1) the group Vamos Mujeres founded by women from the rural community of San Francisco de Ichó and (2) the members of the Gender Commission of a farmworker’s organization, both groups belong to Consejo Comunitario Mayor de la Asociación Campesina Integral del Atrato (COCOMACIA), the Main Community Council of the Integral Peasant Association of the Atrato River. Based on my ongoing collaboration with COCOMACIA’s Gender Commission since 2010, I argue that everyday practices reflect an ‘alongside’ (which is neither oppositional nor resistant) narrative of violence that challenges linear explanations of survival within the Colombian armed conflict. Centering survival narratives allows us to move from gory memories that reproduce violence, to an ethical rehearsal that recognizes the utopian potential of moving beyond victimhood.     

Diplomatic and the Cid revisited: the seals and mandates of Alfonso VII

The royal chancery of the kingdom of León- Castile appears to have adopted the use of the seal towards the middle of the twelfth century. Examination of the surviving impressions from the reign of Alfonso VII (1126-57) suggests that he had at his disposal not one seal but two. They were sometimes used for the authentication of the solemn diplomas by which lands or privileges were granted; it is suggested that they were used also for sealing the short administrative orders called mandates. Documents of this latter sort, which have not hitherto been studied, appear to derive from the mandates used by Aragonese rulers of the early twelfth century, and they in their turn from the Capetian mandement and the Anglo-Norman writ. The use of sealed mandates in Alfonso VII's chancery is a further example of the play of foreign influences upon the kingdom of León-Castile at this period and may be of more than fugitive interest to historians of literature who are concerned to date the composition of Spain's most famous medieval epic, the Poema de Mio Cid.     

Pornoprecariedad: crisis biopolítica,trabajo y régimen visual en Hermosa juventud (Jaime Rosales, 2014)

ABSTRACT

Entendiendo por “pornoprecariedad” el entramado visual que explota y consume como forma de entretenimiento la exhibición de las nuevas formas de miseria en las que se sostiene y que reproduce el neoliberalismo, en este artículo se analiza cómo el largometraje de ficción Hermosa juventud (2014), de Jaime Rosales, cuestiona constructos sobre los que se asienta dicho acercamiento mediático dominante a la precariedad. Relacionar críticamente precariedad con pornografía hace emerger problemáticas relacionadas con la representación visual, la recepción de esta y la dimensión ética de ambas, planteando interrogantes acerca de la responsabilidad, el mirar o las relaciones de género y poder. El film de Rosales dialoga con tradiciones artísticas y reflexivas que trabajan con desarrollos socioeconómicos de largo alcance que la crisis biopolítica patente especialmente desde 2008 en la Europa meridional ha sacado a la luz.     

En tiempos del condestable Dávalos: Enrique de Aragón,poeta quejoso en Crónica. Año de 1420, de Jerónimo de la Escosura

Infants of Aragon are very important figures in the history and literature of the nineteenth century, but it is rare that one of them, Don Enrique, is the protagonist. This work analyzes the romantic story Cronica. Año de 1420, published by Jerónimo de la Escosura in 1839. In it, Enrique de Aragón is a cunning courtier and a poet in love, and he manages to change history because he changes the story with his verses.     

On the Dialectics of Differencing: Disabled women,the state and housing issues

In this article, I discuss how neoliberal state policies and practices and processes of negative differencing have contributed to growing economic and housing insecurity for citizens in need, in particular disabled women in need of provincial income assistance in Ontario, Canada. I argue that their increasingly insecure relationships to housing and home can be explained as outcomes of dialectical processes of differencing through neoliberal regimes of state rule. A key advantage of this approach is that it emphasises how growing economic and housing security for more affluent citizens is linked causally to increasing insecurity and misery for others. I begin by discussing how diverse relations to housing and home can be conceptualised as outcomes of dialectical processes of differencing in advanced capitalist societies. Next, I illustrate this approach by discussing how changes in state regulation of housing and income assistance programmes in the province of Ontario have worked to advantage more affluent citizens at the expense of disabled and other citizens in need. This is followed by a detailed analysis of regulatory processes shaping how women receiving provincial income assistance are negatively differenced and situated in relation to housing and home. Here I draw on interviews with women receiving provincial income support through the ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Programme).

Las dialécticas de hacer diferencia: Mujeres discapacitados, el estados y asuntos de vivienda

En éste artículo, discuto como los procesos, practicas y políticas neoliberalistas estatales de la producción negativa de diferencia han contribuido al crecimiento de inseguridad económica y de vivienda para ciudadanos marginalizados, especialmente mujeres discapacitados que requieren asistencia económica provincial in Ontario, Canadá. Argumento que las relaciones cada vez más inseguro a vivienda y hogar para éstas mujeres se pueden explicar como consecuencias de procesos dialécticos de hacer diferencia a través de regimenes neoliberalistas del estado. Una ventaja de ésta enfoque es que enfatiza como la aumentación de seguridad económica y de la vivienda para ciudadanos afluentes está entrelazado con indiferencia al crecimiento de inseguridad y desesperación para otra gente. Empiezo discutiendo como las diversas relaciones a viviendas y hogares se pueden conceptualizar como consecuencias de procesos de hacer diferencia en sociedades capitalistas avanzadas. Luego discuto, ilustrando ésta enfoque, como los cambios de reglas estatales de viviendas y programas de asistencia económica in la provincia de Ontario han ayudado más los ciudadanos afluentes a costa de los ciudadanos discapacitados y en necesidad de ayuda. Ésta discusión se sigue por un análisis detallado de los procesos que determinan como las mujeres que reciben asistencia económica se hacen diferente negativamente y se sitúan in relación a vivienda y hogar. Aquí utilizo entrevistas con mujeres que reciban asistencia provincial económica por el ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program, Programa de Asistencia para Discapacitados de Ontario).     

Guada-narco-lupe,Maquilarañas and the Discursive Construction of Gender and Difference on the US–Mexico Border in Mexican Media Re-presentations

This article explores the ways in which Mexican media works to construct gender and difference in relation to the US–Mexico border. Through a discourse analysis of one Mexican newspaper, I argue that discursive violence, ‘narratives of eviction’ and silences are implicated in the construction of women as weak, sexualized objects, and Mexicans as raced, backward ‘others’. In so doing, I elaborate several discursive moments, specifically, ‘woman as anonymous, replaceable body’; ‘woman as victim of the border city’; ‘Guada-narco-lupe’; ‘woman as dependent appendage’; and ‘othered Mexican’; to illustrate that the production of knowledge about gendered subjects is a political and discursive practice embedded in national ideologies. Mexican media representations present a rich palette for thinking about constructions of gender and difference along a raced, sexed border. An investigation of the unequal and essentialist elements present in specific newspaper articles offers a fresh perspective on the socio-spatial aspects of particular discursive strategies and their role in underpinning dominant textual images.

Guada-narco-lupe, Maquilarañas y la construccíon Discursiva de Género y Diferencia en la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México através de representaciones en la media Mexicana. A través de un análisis de tres artículos este ensayo investiga las maneras en que la prensa mexicana funciona para construir la diferencia y el género en relación a la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Yo discuto que la violencia discursiva, las narrativas de evicción, tanto que los silencios están involucrados en la construcción de mujeres como objetos sexualizados y débiles, y la construcción de Mexicanos como ‘racializados’, atrasados, y diferenciados a través del método de análisis de discurso de un periódico mexicano. Para llevar a cabo este análisis, yo elaboro varios momentos discursivos, específicamente, ‘la mujer como cuerpo reemplazable y anónima’; ‘la mujer como victima de la ciudad fronteriza’; ‘Guada-narco-lupe’; ‘la mujer como apéndice dependiente’; y‘el mexicano diferenciado’, para ilustrar que la producción de conocimiento sobre los sujetos géneros es una practica política tanto que discursiva arraigado en las ideologías nacionales. Las representaciones de los medios mexicanos presentan una pallete amplia par reflexionar sobre las construcciones de diferencia y géneros por la frontera norte, la cuál es a frontera ‘racializada’, y sexualizada'. La investigación de los elementos desiguales y esencialcitas colocados en varios artículos de la prensa mexicana provee una nueva perspectiva sobre los aspectos socio-espaciales de estrategias discursivas específicas y el papel que juegan estos aspectos en sostener imágenes dominantes textuales.     

Landscapes on the Margins: Gender and homelessness in Canada

This introductory article examines the issue of gendered homelessness and asks why so little academic feminist writing addresses this theme. The article begins with reference to a feminist novel—The Longings of Women by Marge Piercy—that does tackle this matter. The invisibility of the novel's homeless character is used as a way of introducing some distinctions between women's and men's homelessness. More generally, the article has two objectives. The first is to examine what feminist and other critical geographers have said, conceptually and empirically, about gendered homelessness, especially in Canada but also in other Western contexts. The second involves highlighting the problematic nature of too great a focus on visibility in relation to gendered homelessness, and offers an alternative reading drawn from examining the relations of bodies and urban space in conjunction with a discussion about the politics of scale and difference. All told, this collection of essays is an effort to highlight the often hidden and variable nature of gendered homelessness in Ontario, Canada and to argue that the theme is worthy of greater attention by feminist geographers.

Paisajes en los margines: género y la falta de vivienda

Éste artículo introductoria examina el tema de género y la falta de vivienda y pregunta porque hay pocos escritos feministas académicas que toca éste tema. El artículo empieza con relación a una novela feminista—The Longings of Women por Marge Piercy—que trata el tema. La invisibilidad del personaje sin hogar en el libro se utiliza como una manera de introducir algunas distinciones entre la falta de vivienda de mujeres y hombres. Más generalmente, el artículo tiene dos objetivos. El primer es examinar lo que feminista y otros geógrafos críticos han dicho conceptualmente y empíricamente sobre género y la falta de viviendo, no solo en Canadá sino en otros contextos Occidentales. El segundo involucra destacar la naturaleza problemática de un enfoque extensivo en la visibilidad en relación a género y la falta de viviendo, y ofrecer una lectura alternativa que viene de examinando las relaciones de cuerpos y espacio urbano conjuntamente con una discusión sobre las políticas de espacio y diferencia. En general, ésta compilación de ensayos es una tentativa para enfatizar que la naturaleza de género y la falta de vivienda en Ontario, Canadá son a menudo escondidos y variables, y además para argumentar que éste tema vale la pena de tender más atención por geógrafas feministas.     

First record of the ichthyodectiform fish Xiphactinus (Teleostei) from Patagonia,Argentina

Abstract

We report the first record of the genus Xiphactinus from southern South America. The recovered fossil material consists of an associated maxilla and abdominal vertebra, probably derived from latest Maastrichtian marine deposits of the Salamanca Formation in Chubut Province, Argentina. Xiphactinus has been widely reported from Late Cretaceous strata throughout the Northern Hemisphere, although to date, equivalent Southern Hemisphere occurrences include only a single specimen from Venezuela. Our new discovery thus indicates that Xiphactinus had a much more cosmopolitan distribution, encompassing the southern paleolatitudinal extremities of South America during the terminal Cretaceous.

Julieta J. De Pasqua [julietadepasqua@gmail.com], Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Av. Ángel Gallardo, 470, C1405DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina;

Federico L. Agnolin [fedeagnolin@yahoo.com.ar], Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Av. Ángel Gallardo, 470, C1405DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina. CONICET; Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología, Universidad Maimónides; Hidalgo 775 piso 7, C1405BDB, Buenos Aires, Argentina;

Sergio Bogan [sergiobogan@yahoo.com.ar], Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología, Universidad Maimónides; Hidalgo 775 piso 7, C1405BDB, Buenos Aires, Argentina.