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What
do you hope your online work accomplishes?
I am trying to create a place where people can
find a wide selection of internet resources relating to Latin
America, particularly the US-Mexico border. I have divided my
page into categories so that readers can find Latino-related websites,
Latin America-related websites, as well cultural, political and
economic sites.
Readers will also find information about how to
find Latin American-related information on the web. This info
is both in English and Spanish.
I try to make this data as useful as possible, so in the directories
I include the URLs along with the links, so that if and when pages
are printed out, instead of just surfed, the data is useful to
the print as well as the internet reader.
Have you lived in Latin America?
Yes, I lived in Nicaragua from May 1984 to March 1986. I first
attended a Spanish language school and lived with a Nicaraguan
family. There were four generations of women all in the same house.
I spent three months in the school and after that I started working
for a bilingual magazine, translating the original Spanish articles
into English and helping with the typesetting of the English edition.
It was very important at the time for the Nicaraguan media to
reach readers in the United States and Europe, so we felt that
our efforts to translate these publications into English were
very worthwhile.
After my "official" time at the language school was over, I
shared a house with people from Chile, Spain and Nicaragua. Several
of us were musicians and our house became a sort of "peña" (a
gathering place) for Nicaraguan and foreign musicians. It was
a wonderful way to learn about the folk music scene in Nicaragua
and all over Latin America, and a great way to learn Spanish by
listening and playing music.
One of my favorite sayings is that "no experience is ever
wasted." Would you say that having lived abroad has impacted your
online work?
Well, the living abroad came before I ever did any online work,
but it definitely impacted the direction I took once I went to
graduate school and became a professional librarian. I knew I
wanted to focus on the study of Latin America in academia and
it just happened that the Internet became a tool for doing that
at about the time I started working as a professional librarian.
The net made it easier for scholars and activists to communicate
about their work in Latin America and to maintain solidarity networks
in the United States and other parts of the world. As I've said
before, the net makes possible "communities of affinity" rather
than just geographic and cultural communities. For example, environmentalists
or human rights activists in Latin America can share information
with their counterparts in Europe, Asia or the United States through
email and websites.
How popular is your directory of Internet Resource for Latin
America?
I have no idea! The entire Latin America/Border section of our
web (http://lib.nmsu.edu/subject/bord) is the most popular subject
area on the entire university site. It has a lot more depth, and
for some reason people know about it. But I haven't had time to
check out the statistics in depth to figure out which part of
the site is the most popular.
Outside of the site you've created, why are so many of the
border web pages out-of-date or simply useless?! I've visited
many university sites, but many of the sites are little more than
promotional brochures.
Well, I suppose it is because putting things on the web is a
sideline for most of these groups. Here at NMSU (and at many other
places I imagine) web pages are voluntary efforts that have yet
to be incorporated into organization charts -- i.e., those of
us who work on stuff do it in addition to, (or sometimes instead
of) other more official things.
I get frustrated at the small amount of time I have to devote
to working on my resource pages and realize how quickly they become
outdated.
How does the web differ from other media in its ability to
provide information about Latin America?
As a librarian I can say that it makes it much easier to get
current events info. It does not give us much behind the headlines
that is useful for research though, although there is great potential.
One major plus is that it allows small organizations, research
centers and individuals to reach out directly to people with common
interests. I said in one paper soon to be published in the Handbook
of Latin American Studies, that the internet promotes communication
among "communities of affinity rather than geography."
I admire and often consume what can be called the "alternative
press," both online and offline. I still have the (vaguely fading)
optimistic viewpoint that the net offers more, rather than less,
space for alternative viewpoints than other media. |
