Rafael Acosta Morales's Books

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier

By: Rafael Acosta Morales

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Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier

By: Rafael Acosta Morales

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines how historical archetypes in violent narratives on the Mexican American frontier have resulted in political discourse that feeds back into real violence. The drug battles, outlaw culture, and violence that permeate the U.S.-Mexican frontier serve as scenery and motivation for a wide swath of North American culture. In this innovative study, Rafael Acosta Morales ties the pride that many communities felt for heroic tales of banditry and rebels to the darker repercussions of the violence inflicted by the representatives of the law or the state. Narratives on bandits, cowboys, and desperadoes promise redistribution, regeneration, and community, but they often bring about the very opposite of those goals. This paradox is at the heart of Acosta Morales’s book. Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines the relationship between affect, narrative, and violence surrounding three historical archetypes—social bandits (often associated with the drug trade), cowboys, and desperadoes—and how these narratives create affective loops that recreate violent structures in the Mexican American frontier. Acosta Morales analyzes narrative in literary, cinematic, and musical form, examining works by Américo Paredes, Luis G. Inclán, Clint Eastwood, Rolando Hinojosa, Yuri Herrera, and Cormac McCarthy. The book focuses on how narratives of Mexican social banditry become incorporated into the social order that bandits rose against and how representations of violence in the U.S. weaponize narratives of trauma in order to justify and expand the violence that cowboys commit. Finally, it explains the usage of universality under the law as a means of criminalizing minorities by reading the stories of Mexican American men who were turned into desperadoes by the criminal law system. Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes demonstrates how these stories led to recreated violence and criminalization of minorities, a conversation especially important during this time of recognizing social inequality and social injustices. The book is part of a growing body of scholarship that applies theoretical approaches to borderlands studies, and it will be of interest to students and scholars in American and Mexican history and literature, border studies, literary criticism, cultural criticism, and related fields.

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Page Count

312

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Pess

Published Date

ISBN 10

0268200777

ISBN 13

9780268200770

The History of Havana

By: Dick Cluster,Rafael Hernández

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The History of Havana

By: Dick Cluster,Rafael Hernández

This is the first comprehensive history of the culturally diverse city, and the first to be co-authored by a Cuban and an American. Beginning with the founding of Havana in 1519, Cluster and Hernández explore the making of the city and its people through revolutions, art, economic development and the interplay of diverse societies. The authors bring together conflicting images of a city that melds cultures and influences to create an identity that is distinctly Cuban.

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Page Count

324

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0230603971

ISBN 13

9780230603974

Obstinate Star

A History of the Puerto Rico Independence Movement

By: Rafael Bernabe

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Obstinate Star

A History of the Puerto Rico Independence Movement

By: Rafael Bernabe

Obstinate Star is a history of Puerto Rico’s independence struggle against Spanish and U.S. colonialism. From the time of the Napoleonic Wars, it traces the movement’s currents, within and beyond the island, linking them to ongoing social conflicts and international trends and conjunctures. Beginning with the radical democratic fight against Spanish control, it moves on to the early reactions to U.S. rule, the role of Nationalism, Communism and New Deal currents during the Great Depression and the Second World War, the rise of new forces in the wake of the Cuban revolution and recent struggles in the epoch of capitalist globalisation.

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Page Count

636

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

900470793X

ISBN 13

9789004707931

The Moncada Attack

Birth of the Cuban Revolution

By: Antonio Rafael De la Cova

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The Moncada Attack

Birth of the Cuban Revolution

By: Antonio Rafael De la Cova

The account of Fidel Castro's rise to power is not complete without mention of the failed atacks of July 26, 1953, on the Cuban army garrisons at Moncada and Bayamo. This text views this initial overthrow attempt as a propaganda victory that marked the start of Castro's ascent to national power.

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Page Count

460

Publisher

Univ of South Carolina Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1570036721

ISBN 13

9781570036729

The Puerto Rico Constitution

By: Rafael Cox-Alomar

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The Puerto Rico Constitution

By: Rafael Cox-Alomar

The only book of its kind in the English language, this is the first volume of the Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States to explore the constitution of a U.S. territory: Puerto Rico. The first half of the volume unearths the island's constitutional history from the days of Spanish colonization in the 16th century, through to Congress' enactment in 2016 of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Professor Cox Alomar offers a careful analysis of the most recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court implicating Puerto Rico, Sánchez Valle (2016), Franklin Trust (2016), Aurelius (2020) and Vaello Madero (2022). The second half of this volume provides an in-depth analysis of each of the provisions incorporated by the Puerto Rican framers to the 1952 Constitution, still in full force today. Commentary is provided on each of these constitutional provisions in light of the most recent decisions of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. The volume examines the interaction between the Puerto Rico Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the political branches in Washington. This book is a timely companion in one of the more complex, yet transformative periods in Puerto Rico's constitutional life.

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Page Count

305

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190461268

ISBN 13

9780190461263

Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo

From Plantations to the Slums

By: Rafael Ocasio

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Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo

From Plantations to the Slums

By: Rafael Ocasio

Costumbrismo, which refers to depictions of life in Latin America during the nineteenth century, introduced some of the earliest black themes in Cuban literature. Rafael Ocasio delves into this literature to offer up a new perspective on the development of Cuban identity, as influenced by black culture and religion, during the sugar cane boom. Comments about the slave trade and the treatment of slaves were often censored in Cuban publications; nevertheless white Costumbrista writers reported on a vast catalogue of stereotypes, religious beliefs, and musical folklore, and on rich African traditions in major Cuban cities. Exploring rare and seldom discussed nineteenth-century texts, Ocasio offers insight into the nuances of black representation in Costumbrismo while analyzing authors such as Suárez y Romero, an abolitionist who wrote from the perspective of a plantation owner. Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo expands the idea of what texts constitute Costumbrismo and debunks the traditional notion that this writing reveals little about the Afro-Cuban experience. The result is a novel examination of how white writers' representations of black culture heavily inform our current understanding of nineteenth-century Afro-Cuban culture and national identity.

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Page Count

253

Publisher

University Press of Florida

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813043670

ISBN 13

9780813043678

A Model for Monetary Policy Analysis in Uruguay

By: Rafael Portillo,Ms.Yulia Ustyugova

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A Model for Monetary Policy Analysis in Uruguay

By: Rafael Portillo,Ms.Yulia Ustyugova

Uruguay has recently reverted to a money targeting (MT) framework in the context of a disinflation strategy. We develop a quantitative model for monetary policy analysis incorporating money targets in the policy framework while also retaining a central role for interest rates in the transmission of policy. We use the model to show that tight financial conditions for a period may be necessary for inflation to converge to the middle of the target band. We also discuss various aspects of the MT framework. Two issues stand out. Excessive focus on hitting money targets can result in undesirable changes in the policy stance; while targets that incorporate elements of money demand forecasting are superior to targets that are excessively smooth or do not adjust for base effects.

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International Monetary Fund

Published Date

ISBN 10

1513534025

ISBN 13

9781513534022

Illegally Yours

A Memoir

By: Rafael Agustin

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Illegally Yours

A Memoir

By: Rafael Agustin

A funny and poignant memoir about how as a teenager, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane The Virgin) accidentally discovered he was undocumented and how that revelation turned everything he thought he knew about himself and his family upside down. Growing up, Rafa’s parents didn't want him to feel different because, as his mom told him: "Dreams should not have borders." But when he tried to get his driver's license during his junior year of high school, his parents were forced to reveal his immigration status. Suddenly, the kid who modeled his entire high school career after American TV shows had no idea what to do -- there was no episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack gets deported! While his parents were relieved to no longer live a lie in front of their son, Rafa found himself completely unraveling in the face of his uncertain future. Illegally Yours is a heartwarming, comical look at how this struggling Ecuadorian immigrant family bonded together to navigate Rafa's school life, his parents' work lives, and their shared secret life as undocumented Americans, determined to make the best of their always turbulent and sometimes dangerous American existence. From using the Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez “Latin Explosion” to his social advantage in the ‘90s to how his parents—doctors in their home country of Ecuador—were reduced to working menial jobs in the US, the family's secret became their struggle, and their struggle became their hustle. An alternatingly hilarious and touching exploration of belonging and identity, Illegally Yours revolves around one very simple question: What does it mean to be American?

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Page Count

218

Publisher

Grand Central Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1538705966

ISBN 13

9781538705964

The Mexican Mafia

By: Tony Rafael

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The Mexican Mafia

By: Tony Rafael

It has been called the most dangerous gang in American history. In Los Angeles alone it is responsible for over 100 homicides per year. Although it has fewer than 300 members, it controls a 40,000-strong street army that is eager to advance its agenda. It waves the flag of the Black Hand and its business is murder. Although known on the streets for over fifty years, the Mexican Mafia has flown under the radar of public awareness and has flourished beneath a deep cover of secrecy. Members are forbidden even to acknowledge its existence. For the first time in its history, the Mexican Mafia is now getting the attention it has been striving to avoid. In this briskly written and thoroughly researched book, Tony Rafael looks at the birth and the blood-soaked growth of this criminal enterprise through the eyes of the victims, the dropouts, the cops and DAs on the front lines of the war against the Mexican Mafia. The first book ever published on the subject, Southern Soldiers is a pioneering work that unveils the operations of this California prison gang and describes how it grew from a small clique of inmates into a transnational criminal organization. As the first prison gang ever to project its power beyond prison walls, the Mexican Mafia controls virtually every Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California and is rapidly expanding its influence into the entire Southwest, across the East Coast, and even into Canada. Riding a wave of unchecked immigration and seemingly beyond the reach of law enforcement, the Mexican Mafia is poised to become the Cosa Nostra of twenty-first-century America.

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Page Count

250

Publisher

Encounter Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1594032734

ISBN 13

9781594032738

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier

By: Rafael Acosta Morales

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Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier

By: Rafael Acosta Morales

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

312

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Pess

Published Date

ISBN 10

0268200777

ISBN 13

9780268200770

Book's by Rafael Acosta Morales

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

The History of Havana

The History of Havana

Obstinate Star

Obstinate Star

The Moncada Attack

The Moncada Attack

The Puerto Rico Constitution

The Puerto Rico Constitution

Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo

Afro-Cuban Costumbrismo

A Model for Monetary Policy Analysis in Uruguay

A Model for Monetary Policy Analysis in Uruguay

Illegally Yours

Illegally Yours

The Mexican Mafia

The Mexican Mafia

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes

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