Costa Rica´s Southern Caribbean at the 17th Annual Eastern Caribbean Islands Cultures Conference (‘Islands in Between’)

The relationship between the struggle for full land rights of the Southern Caribbean peoples and its relationship to the further development of the multiethnic and pluricultural autochtonous livelihood of peoples in Cahuita, Manzanillo, Gandoca and Puerto Viejo will be jointly presented by Glenda Halgarson (Puerto Viejo), María Suárez Toro (Manzanillo) and Anabelle Contreras (University of Heredia) at the 17th Annual Eastern Caribbean Islands Cultures (‘Islands in Between’) Conference will address the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures of the Eastern Caribbean. 

The conference will take place on November 6-8, 2014 at Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede Regional del Caribe, Port Limón City.

Language, Literature, Culture, History, and Education in Limón; Eastern Caribbean Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Cinema, Essays, Biographies, etc.; Language and Culture, Identity, and/or Gender in the Eastern Caribbean; Creole Linguistics and the Creolization of Languages and Cultures in the Eastern Caribbean; Art, Music, Dance, Cuisine, and Popular Culture of the Eastern Caribbean; Eastern Caribbean Carnival, Religions, Other Performance Traditions; The Environment, Tourism, and Development in the Eastern Caribbean; and Culture and Politics, Society, History, Law, and Economics in the Eastern Caribbean.

The paper by the three Costa Rican scholars will address the uniqueness of the Southern Caribbean region, and lays out arguments for why we need a special law for the area to resolve a number of problems in a comprehensive and permanent way.  The paper  empahisizes the hollistic approach between land rights, culture and envoronmental protection that is being proposed by the For Caribe Sur in an area in Costa Rica where the historical model, characerized by a afro based multiethnic social fabric that developed an authochtonous model includes, for example, a family-based economy based on micro-tourism enterprises combined in many case with sustainable agriculture and/or fishing or artesanry.  The model is designed to protect and balance the rights of the people and the environment, which in the past led to creation of a number of special environmental reserves in need of protection from “greenwashing policies” y corporate enterpreneurs that want to “develop” it according  to global market trends.

For more information about the Conference: islandsconference@gmail.com

Information regarding the conference will be available on the Islands-In-Between web page:

 humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/students/resources/islandsinbetween.htm