Beyond the Burdens of Labor: Minor Utopian Experiences in Central America and the Southern Cone, 1958-1985

As part of the Latin American History Speaker Series, Jeffery Gould will present a talk titled “Beyond the Burdens of Labor: Minor Utopian Experiences in Central America and the Southern Cone, 1958-1985.”

This talk will explore the spontaneous, non-intentional, minor utopian communities spanning Central America and the Southern Cone that emerged throughout Latin America which he argues are critically important for understanding the problematic history of the Left in Latin America.

Jeffrey L. Gould is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies (2022-2024). He has authored six books, most recently Solidarity Under Siege: The Salvadoran Labor Movement, 1970–1990 (2019) and Entre el Bosque y los Arboles: Utopías Menores en El Salvador, Nicaragua, y El Salvador (2021). He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. He has made three documentary films, most recently Puerto El Triunfo. He is currently working with Costa Rican filmmaker Ernesto Jara on a feature-length drama, Dawn to Despair, the story of a working-class family in Alajuela, Costa Rica during the 1930s and 1940s.

Sponsored by the Edward J. Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund