Introduction

Steven L. Driever and Daniel Hopkins
Department of Geosciences
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499 USA

It is now twenty-five years since since this organization published its first Newsletter, under the name Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers. The nine articles published in this Yearbook indicate something of the breadth of the organization's interests and expertise; another dozen interesting papers, equally varied in topic, scope, and method, were submitted but, regrettably, could not be accommodated here. We received manuscripts from all over the hemisphere: the authors of the papers published here are based in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

The first article, by John Brohman, raises hard questions about recent revisions of the traditional agroexport model to emphasize non-traditional exports. The article focuses on Central America but is relevant to all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Ana Garda de Fuentes and Susana Pérez Medina consider a recent trend in the industrialization of Mexico, the diffusion of the maquiladora industries to the Yucatán, and the significance of this globalization for the peninsula's residents. James Wiley's paper discusses another aspect of global economic integration, the effect of the European Union's creation of a single market for bananas on Latin American banana-exporting countries.

Pat Farrell, Timothy Beach, and Bruce Dahlin present a preliminary analysis of the soils in the vicinity of Chunchucmil, in the northwest Yucatán; their research is likely to contribute significantly to the study of the agricultural basis of densely populated centers in the Maya Late Classic Period. Oliver Coomes reports on a major field study of the economics of Amazonian peasant households in Northeastern Peru. He is particularly interested in identifying renewable forest resources, with an eye to the conservation of tropical rain forests.

The last four articles all concern themselves with cultural and historical geography. Catherine Doenges, working with archival sources, reconstructs the complex patterns of geographic mobility of men and women, Indian and non-Indian, in late colonial Celaya, Mexico. Michael Camille describes the rise and fall of the Belizean logwood trade from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. Michael Steinberg, in his paper on the Mopan Maya of Belize, takes a critical look at the association of folk house-types and other cultural traits in changing times. Finally, Gary Elbow surveys the maps and other political icons deployed in Ecuador's long-standing border dispute with Peru.

All the manuscripts were reviewed by the authors' professional peers, although the decision to include these nine papers and not others was made by the editors alone. We thank the authors, including those whose work was not published on this occcasion, for their patience, understanding, and cooperation in the editorial process.

At the meeting of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers in Honduras in January, 1996, the organization presented the 1995 Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Award to César N. Caviedes and the 1995 Carl O. Sauer Distinnguished Scholar Award to W. George Lovell. The awards were presented by Joseph Scarpaci and Marie Price, and their statements are reproduced here. Finally, to mark CLAG's anniversary, Tom Martinson very kindly prepared a detailed history of the organization's first quarter-century, with which the Yearbook closes. [end p. v]

Many people worked on this Yearbook. The folllowing individuals, some of whom are not geographers, but scholars in other fields, were kind enough to review papers for us: David Buisseret, César Caviedes, David Clawson, William Crowley, Willliam Davidson, Michael Day, William Doolittle, Gary Dunbar, Herbert Eder, Clinton Edwards, John Everitt, Robert Ford, Elizabeth Graham, Ernst Griffin, Dean Hanink, Peter Herlihy, Peter Hoffman, Oscar Horst, Dimitri Ioannides, Terry Jordan, Philip Keating, Robert Kent, John Kicza, Thomas Klak, James Kus, Elizabeth Kuzenof, Elizabeth Larson, Palmyra Leahy, George Lovell, James McConnell, Tom Martinson, Klaus Meyer-Arendt, Mark Miller, Keith Muller, Laura Raynolds, Roy Ryder, Joseph Scarpaci, Alfred Siemens, Andrew Sluyter, Rolf Sternberg, Michael Swann, James Tjaden, Billie Turner II, Rolf Wesche, Martha Works, and Karl Zimmerer.

Gary Barber, of the University Communications office of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, laid out the Yearbook. We can scarcely express adequately our appreciation of his skill, hard work, and patience. Indispensable financial support was provided by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Geosciences here at UMKC.

Finally, we wish to thank Gary Elbow, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, Robert Kent, Thomas Klak, Klaus Meyer-Arendt, Susan Place, Milton Rafferty, David Robinson, Marty Ross, Darlene Wallbillich, Patricia Zahniser, of the Comisión de Intercambio entre España y los Estados Unidos de América, in Madrid, and many others, besides, who kindly assisted us in one way or another. We are very grateful. [end p. vi]