Greetings from Medellín! This week's monitor is my dear old dad, Hugo Cardona, in Milwaukee. An engineer for 44 years, he became a businessman and after 28 years in the corporate world, has been running not-for-profit organizations as business with a heart and trying to make a difference for those in need. The link for the organization he runs, La Causa, is in the links box on the right side of this page. Welcome, Dad!
I got here late last night, and it's all been going well so far. The guy in whose apartment I'm staying is super-nice, and he was kind enough to take me on a quick orientation drive last night. So this morning, I had no problem getting to the metro, and there's a stop right next to the archive. The weather here is wonderful, I'm in an Internet cafe that has its doors open, in my shirtsleeves, at 6pm. Bogota is much colder!
There's a lot of good stuff in the state historical archive, which is situated just off a charming little courtyard. Today, I started going through police and army records from the early 1950s, looking to get a clearer sense of who controlled what, who paid for what, and what that all meant for the way the conflict played out. There are thick volumes full of complaints from towns throughout the state about public order problems - often about the police themselves. I had assumed it was always the police who would flip to the side of the rebels, but I saw one instance where it was an army soldier. My strategy tomorrow will be to take a specific time period - the first six months of 1951 - and triangulate three different sources: army records, police records, and executive-branch records. My aim will be to see how these different actors talk about the same episodes - or if they even do. In the meantime, I started writing up some of what I found today.For lunch, I had the classic dish of Antioquia, bandeja paisa, which is a no-holds-barred assault on the digestive system: beans, rice, french fries, a quarter of an avocado, a fried egg, a piece of sausage, ground beef, green tomato slices, half a plantain and, wait for it, chicharrón (click at your own risk). No, I'm not lying. No, I didn't eat it all. Yes, I may still die. The mora (Andean blackberry) juice in water was good, though.
I'm headed back to the apartment now, which has spectacular views of the valley in which Medellín is located. I'm really glad I came so far - gathering subnational data isn't done all that often in comparative politics that deals with the types of macro themes that interest me, so it was a thrill to step across the threshold of the archive this morning into that new territory. Here's to further exploration tomorrow!
3 comments:
Mr Chris!
I had not read any of your postings in a while. As you know I am also struggling to complete my own project, but I was happy to see how much progress you have made. I also read you thought on (in)security in Central America. In the case of Nicaragua I am not surprised, because the Military is the most trusted institution and the current police chief (a woman) has also cleaned up a lot of the corruption wihin its ranks. Both of these institutions were born out of the Sandinista Revolution and do not have any of the baggage (death squads, torture, disappearances) that the other security forces in the region have.
Anyways, I hope you are enjoying an Arepa de Choclo right about now.
Buena suerte en tu busqueda.
October 17, 2007
Dear Son:
How proud I am of the commitment you made and the progress that you have made in completing your Dissertation. I am very honored to be your partner this week and I had anxiously waited for the beginning of my assignment. In the meantime I have read and reread your site. As you well know, an Engineer doesn’t know much about Political Science so my contribution is in the places where I believe I have some expertise.
I have prepared three files that contain the following information:
1. All of your postings
2. All of the comments made, and
3. A statistical summary of all the hours that you have expended since you begin this dissertation journey, as of last night
Here is summary of the number of hours and how you have expended them according to your log and I will send you the 3 documents to your e-mail.
READING/RESEARCHING 268.5
MEETINGS 16.0
EMAILING 30.8
PLANNING 9.5
WRITING 90.5
ADMINISTRIVIA 34.3
TOTAL HOURS WORKED 449.5
PAGES WRITTEN 136
# COMMENTS POSTED 145
Because of them I have several comments that I would like to offer:
1. READY PAGES -- You have 135 pages now, as you complete them define which ones you consider ready and which ones need to be revised, create a special code to mark them
2. MORE DEFINITION IN YOUR CATEGORIES – I suggest that you account for the number of hours that you invest in travel, which are different from meetings.
3. TIME SHEETS -- Create an electronic form that you can use to track your time every day. As someone commented, someday you or someone else may want to use your model to write their dissertations [DISSERTATION MODEL FOR DUMMIES]
Reading your entry last night brought many memories of my childhood. As you know, the Violence that started in 1946 affected my family and me. My memories tell me that when the Conservador Party got elected they began a systematic campaign to replace the police members, which was very Liberal at that time, for members of their own party. Please remember that on those days the police was not educated or selective as it is today. The army was drafted so it was harder to change and that is one of the reasons, I believe that General Rojas Pinilla was able to have his military coup in 1953.
I am looking forward to your new posting.
Ti voglio tanto bene, Il Babbo
Wow, thanks guys! I'll look forward to your email, Dad!
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