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Books : History : Americas : Central America : Belize
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“The first time we came here I didn’t know what to expect,” she told me as we paddled upstream. “What we found just blew me away. Jaguars, pumas, river otters, howler monkeys. The place was like a Noah’s Ark for all the endangered species driven out of the rest of Central America. There was so much life! That expedition was when I first saw the macaws.”
As a young woman, Sharon Matola lived many lives. She was a mushroom expert, an Air Force survival specialist, and an Iowa housewife. She hopped freight trains for fun and starred as a tiger tamer in a traveling Mexican circus. Finally she found her one true calling: caring for orphaned animals at her own zoo in the Central American country of Belize.
Beloved as “the Zoo Lady” in her adopted land, Matola became one of Central America’s greatest wildlife defenders. And when powerful outside forces conspired with the local government to build a dam that would flood the nesting ground of the last scarlet macaws in Belize, Sharon Matola was drawn into the fight of her life.
In The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, award-winning author Bruce Barcott chronicles Sharon Matola’s inspiring crusade to stop a multinational corporation in its tracks. Ferocious in her passion, she and her confederates–a ragtag army of courageous locals and eccentric expatriates–endure slander and reprisals and take the fight to the courtroom and the boardroom, from local village streets to protests around the world.
As the dramatic story unfolds, Barcott addresses the realities of economic survival in Third World countries, explores the tension between environmental conservation and human development, and puts a human face on the battle over globalization. In this marvelous and spirited book, Barcott shows us how one unwavering woman risked her life to save the most beautiful bird in the world.
"Barcott’s compelling narrative is suspenseful right up to the last moment." –Publisher's Weekly
"An engrossing but sad account of a brave and quirky champion of nature."–Kirkus
“…A riveting account of one woman’s fight to save one of the last bastions of an endangered
Species. . . Barcott writes of international politics, ecology and endangered species, and human relations with equal facility. This real page-turner of narrative nonfiction is hard to put down.”
–Booklist
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Central America is a wonderful birding area, supporting a rich and diverse avifauna. Belize is one of its more accessible and tourist-friendly countries, beginning to rival Costa Rica as the most popular Central American birding destination of all. The colour distribution maps indicate the range of breeding and visiting species. This is the first guide ever published to the birds of Belize, and will be a vital aid to all those birdwatching in this spectacular country.
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With more than 700 color paintings arranged by families for quick comparison of similar species, and with detailed information on range, habitat, size, and voice, this field guide describes and illustrates 1,038 species of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador.
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Belize, until recently undeveloped, underpopulated, and unknown, has become a star destination for ecotourism, a crossroads for the international drug trade, a sanctuary for persecuted people, and a giant nature reserve. This postmodern, multicultural nation in the margins is now being made, or remade, in a globalized, deterritorialized world that rewards social and cultural creativity. Theories of globalization that paint marginal areas as losers in the world economy are challenged by this book, which documents the history and the rapid globalization of Belize as it contronts postmodernity.
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A narrative report of a tour of Belize followed by detailed information on the reefs, rain forests, and Mayan culture. Also included is the history of Belize, its government, and facts about the country today.
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More than a thousand species of birds occur in Mexico and in the adjacent countries of Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Of these birds, a unique mixture of temperate-zone and tropical species, less than half are found in the United States, and many cross the border only a short distance into the southwestern states. This practical field guide contains detailed annotations for easy identification of all of Mexico's regular species. The descriptions include the English, Spanish, and Latin names; a general range statement for each bird, along with its specific occurrences in the region; its typical habitat(s) and abundance; and its physical characteristics, including size and plumage. Excellent color plates with drawings of over 850 species make this the most fully illustrated guide to the region. Published by the author in 1972 and 1989, this convenient take-along guide is now totally revised, updated, and re-designed to provide handy assistance and enjoyment to professional ornithologists and amateur birders alike.
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Tiny, island-dotted Belize, perched on the Caribbean, south of Mexico and east of Guatemala, is a fascinating blend of Creole, Mestizo, Maya, Garifuna, English, East Indian, Mennonite, Lebanese and Chinese cultures. With its colonial background (English remains the official language) and a history of fending off its Latin neighbours, Belize has emerged as a relatively stable democracy that is as much Caribbean as it is Central American.
In Understanding Belize, Alan Twigg tells the story of the country, from its bizarre early days as a haven for pirates, through its colonial period as British Honduras, to its new status as an ecotourism mecca and a hotspot for Mayan archaeology. This lively history includes original photos, a comprehensive timeline and a feature on nation founder George Price, the longest serving democratically elected leader in history.
Understanding Belize is an eye-opening alternative to the glossy tourist brochures. Lobster-and-orchid-rich Belize looks great from a hammock on Ambergris Caye, the place that inspired Madonna's song "La Isla Bonita," but don't go buying that seaside lot until you learn more about this beautiful--but problematic--paradise from the author of Cuba: A Concise History for Travellers.
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In 1962 Joan Fry was a college sophomore recently married to a dashing anthropologist. Naively consenting to a year-long “working honeymoon” in British Honduras (now Belize), she soon found herself living in a remote Kekchi village deep in the rainforest. Because Fry had no cooking or housekeeping experience, the romance of living in a hut and learning to cook on a makeshift stove quickly faded. Guided by the village women and their children, this twenty-year-old American who had never made more than instant coffee came eventually to love the people and the food that at first had seemed so foreign. While her husband conducted his clinical study of the native population, Fry entered their world through friendships forged over an open fire. Coming of age in the jungle among the Kekchi and Mopan Maya, Fry learned to teach, to barter and negotiate, to hold her ground, and to share her space—and, perhaps most important, she learned to cook.This is the funny, heartfelt, and provocative story of how Fry painstakingly baked and boiled her way up the food chain, from instant oatmeal and flour tortillas to bush-green soup, agouti (a big rodent), gibnut (a bigger rodent), and, finally, something even the locals wouldn’t tackle: a “mountain cow,” or tapir. Fry’s efforts to win over her neighbors and hair-pulling students offers a rare and insightful picture of the Kekchi Maya of Belize, even as this unique culture was disappearing before her eyes.(20090406)
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Belize in Pictures explores the history and government, economy, people, geography, and cultural life of Belize. This edition includes comprehensive text with strong curriculum ties, beautiful full-color photography throughout, and interesting, detailed sidebars.
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The small Central American state of Belize has an unusual history. It was an important part of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization, which also embraced most of Guatemala, northern Honduras, and southern Mexico. Having fallen between three early Spanish colonial jurisdictions, Belize was then settled in the seventeenth century by British adventurers, many of them ex-buccaneers. This book traces the outline of this complex history in as objective a way as possible, allowing the facts recorded in files in London and Belize to speak for themselves.
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Winner of the 2010 James M. Blaut Award in recognition of innovative scholarship in cultural and political ecology (Honors of the CAPE specialty group (Cultural and Political Ecology))Decolonizing Development investigates the ways colonialism shaped the modern world by analyzing the relationship between colonialism and development as forms of power.
- Based on novel interpretations of postcolonial and Marxist theory and applied to original research data
- Amply supplemented with maps and illustrations
- An intriguing and invaluable resource for scholars of postcolonialism, development, geography, and the Maya
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An anniversary is a reason to celebrate, and when on September 21st 2006, Belize commemorated its first 25 years as a new nation, Belizeans indeed rejoiced. In this collection, the first of two volumes, distinguished economists, conservationists, lawyers, sociologists, and other scholars all longtime observers of Belize and its people take stock. In most cases they present, for the first time ever, essays that focus on Belize, a country that is at once deceptively uncomplicated yet surprisingly complex. The essays, which reflect on what brought Belize to this point, are eminently readable, but provocative and challenging. The authors' in-dept analysis and evaluation of data, policies, laws, and practices from the economic, environmental, societal, and cultural sectors are just the beginning. Policy-makers, decision-makers, stake holders, and concerned citizens are beckoned to use the essays to assess and evaluate the authors' findings, appraise the current status of the country, and examine its proposals, initiatives, challenges, and promises, mindful of what has transpired and what the country and its people will face in the next quarter century. The essays are a bid for independence - independent thinking, analysis, and evaluation. All who know and study Belize will value this fourth contribution to The Belize Collection.
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This collection of thirteen original essays by experts in the field of Caribbean studies clarifies the diverse elements that have shaped the modern Caribbean. Through an interdisciplinary examination of the complexities of race, politics, language, and environment that mark the region, the authors offer readers a thorough understanding of the Caribbean's history and culture. The essays also comment thoughtfully on the problems that confront the Caribbean in today's world.The essays focus on the Caribbean island and the mainland enclaves of Belize and the Guianas. Topics examined include the Haitian Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; labor and society in the nineteenth-century Caribbean; society and culture in the British and French West Indies since 1870; identity, race, and black power in Jamaica; the "February Revolution" of 1970 in Trinidad; contemporary Puerto Rico; politics, economy, and society in twentieth-century Cuba; Spanish Caribbean politics and nationalism in the nineteenth century; Caribbean migrations; economic history of the British Caribbean; international relations; and nationalism, nation, and ideology in the evolution of Caribbean literature.
The authors trace the historical roots of current Caribbean difficulties and analyze these problems in the light of economic, political, and social developments. Additionally, they explore these conditions in relation to United States interests and project what may lie ahead for the region. The challenges currently facing the Caribbean, note the editors, impose a heavy burden upon political leaders who must struggle "to eliminate the tensions when the people are so poor and their expectations so great."
The contributors are Herman L. Bennett, Bridget Brereton, David Geggus, Franklin W. Knight, Anthony P. Maingot, Jay R. Mandle, Roberto M‡rquez, Teresita Mart’nez Vergne, Colin A. Palmer, Bonham C. Richardson, Franciso A. Scarano, and Blanca G. Silvestrini.
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This work is a comprehensive study of a unique Maya site offering the full range of undisturbed architectural features. For two millennia, the site now known as Blue Creek in northwestern Belize was a Maya community that became an economic and political center that included some 15,000-20,000 people at its height. Fairly well protected from human destruction, the site offers the full range of city components including monumental ceremonial structures, elite and non-elite residences, ditched agricultural fields, and residential clusters just outside the core. Since 1992, a multi-disciplinary, multi-national research team has intensively investigated Blue Creek in an integrated study of the dynamic structure and functional inter-relationships among the parts of a single Maya city. Documented in coverage by National Geographic, "Archaeology" magazine, and a documentary film aired on the Discovery Channel, Blue Creek is recognized as a unique site offering the full range of undisturbed architectural construction to reveal the mosaic that was the ancient city. Moving beyond the debate of what constitutes a city, Guderjan's long-term research reveals what daily Maya life was like.
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An authoritative, detailed, and up-to-date checklist of the 566 bird species reliably recorded in Belize.
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The small nation of Belize has long been separated from its Central American neighbors by history, language and culture. Formerly a British colony, this English-speaking country has traditionally looked towards the Caribbean islands rather than Central America for its economic and political links. Yet Belize's enclave status is increasingly a thing of the past, as trade, cross-border migration and a booming eco-tourism industry break down old barriers and put pressure on the country's social structures and natural resources. As Belize's agricultural mainstays face an uncertain future, the country has opted for green tourism and service industries as economic alternatives. Beaches, coral reefs and the rainforest are now at the forefront of the Belizean economy, a development with serious implications for the country's environment and indigenous communities. Belize in Focus is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to this spectacular country. It explores the land, history and politics, economy, society and people, culture and environment, and includes tips on where to go and what to see.