The first paper by Thomas Perreault, Tony Bebbington and Thomas Carroll addresses the critical importance of social capital formation in the development process. Through a case study of irrigation management in northern highland Ecuador, the authors focus attention on the struggle for land and equitable water allocation, and they argue for a compelling link between privatization policies and increased out-migration from rural indigenous communities. John Hamer's article on the copper mining region of Sonora, Mexico, takes an historical approach to the relationship between dependency and development. Hamer argues that this region demonstrated fewer indicators of dependency during the Mexican era of import-substitution industrialization compared to the previous 'American' era. His findings suggest that the current era of free trade may be moving towards a renewed level of external dependency, and he contends that neoliberal policies of development may be less sustainable than previously thought.

Ines Miyares and Kenneth Gowen analyze the distribution of Latin Americans in New York City from data in the 1990 U.S. Census. They argue that Latin American political, social, and economic borders have been recreated in New York City, resulting in segregated settlement, often along the lines of source-country patterns. The next paper by Taylor Mack delves into rich archival sources to trace the evolution of contraband trade in Trujillo, Honduras, in the 18th century. He suggests that political-economic rivalry between Spain and Britain influenced the development of Central America's Mosquito Coast and that smuggling laid the foundations for levels of local independence that would contribute to the eventual political fragmentation of the region.

The fifth paper in this year's edition of the Yearbook also takes an historical approach as it traces the development of chicle and tunu gum production in northeastern Nicaragua. Karl Offen situates gum production in the broader context of the global commodity system and he argues that local people were able to maneuver within these broader transforming socioeconomic structures to achieve some level of limited independence. Peter Waylen, César Caviedes, and three of their colleagues bring us back to a contemporary issue in their analysis of rainfall distribution in Costa Rica in response to El Niño. They argue that research on the spatial and temporal sequence of events related to the El-Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is crucial for Latin America, particularly Pacific coast regions. As they demonstrate, knowledge of these events may have very practical implications in countries such as Costa Rica, where devastating floods and droughts can wreak havoc on communities and economies.

Juanita Sundberg examines the process of conservation and development in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. She argues that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) may be generating development discourses that do not reflect local [end p. v] reality in the Reserve, and she shows how local people are reacting and interacting with these discourses. Joe Scarpaci takes us into contemporary Cuba to analyze how the Castro government is reshaping tourism in the post-Soviet era. Two themes stand out in this paper: the changing nature of the military's role in the political-economic structure of Cuba, and the role of foreign investment in tourism and its impact on the built landscape. Scarpaci highlights some of the contradictions embedded in Cuba's search for 'hard' currency through the development of tourism and he suggests that a new model of hybrid central planning seems to have emerged.

The penultimate paper in this Yearbook evaluates strategies for the management of household waste in northern Honduras. Jennifer Goett argues that the absence of organized sanitary services does not mean that local communities indiscriminately dump waste in the community. Her research shows that local communities in northern Honduras have developed household waste management strategies that are both effective and rational. Finally, R. B. Brown and Rolf Sinclair attempt to shed light on the first reports of an earthquake, comet, and eclipse in Chihuahua, Mexico. They evaluate the writings of Joseph Neumann, a 17th-century Jesuit missionary in Mexico, who describes these events in some detail.

At the July 1997 meeting of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers convened in Peru, the organization presented the 1997 Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Award to Clarissa Kimber and the 1997 Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholar Award to Karl W. Butzer. Comments by Michael Camille, Joe Scarpaci, and Bill Doolittle on the award recipients are reproduced in this volume, along with a brief film review by James Wiley.

All of the manuscripts submitted were reviewed by the authors' professional peers, although the final decision to accept these papers was made by the editors alone. We are grateful, as usual, to all of the authors who agreed with the reviewers' and editors' suggestions and modifications of their texts, figures, and tables. We also thank the many colleagues who reviewed the sixteen manuscripts submitted for the 1998 volume, including those published here and those that could not be included in this issue. They include: Brian Godfrey, Betty Smith, Campbell Pennington, Gregory Knapp, Linda Newson, Martha Geores, David J. Robinson, Gary Elbow, Jeff Mitchell, Marie Price, Michael Trapasso, Jock Galloway, Michael Camille, Richard Sambrook, Tom Klak, Tim Brothers, Philip Reeder, Andy Sluyter, and Barbara Friedrich. Our sincere apologies if we have failed to recognize any reviewer.

Finally, we are indebted to the Department of Economics and Geography at Hofstra University and to the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University for logistical and other office support. [end p. vi]