Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

In philosophy, as in everyday life, we consider imagination most frequently as an enabling power, essential to perception, memory, and understanding. This essay examines theories and a literary example that define literature as a particular kind of failure of imagination. A sustained look at the concept of imagination shows that its history contains unexpected ambiguities and contradictions, such that it often appears to be a more a mystery than a method. In a reading of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s well-known, fantastical legend “La cruz del diablo” (The Devil’s Cross), I elaborate the idea of a “wounded imagination,” relating the production of a literary text to the process of healing a wounded psyche. I then examine Tzvetan Todorov’s contention that fantastic literature provides a privileged place to observe the essence of literature, characterizing his ideas as an application of Maurice Blanchot’s profound meditations on literature.

This paper is focused on the study of the figure of the guide in two stories which are set in Christmas time: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and “Fantasía” by Emilia Pardo Bazán. In both accounts, the main character will go on a journey through space-time, beyond the known world. Faced with this fantasy experience, the guide character is essential as an element which joins both worlds, because he is going to introduce new concepts and ideas and because, with his acts and words, is looking for a reaction on the part of the main character. Subsequently, it will be analysed how both stories, which share the subtext of Dante Alighieri´s Divine Comedy, are also questioning the readers themselves.

Miguel Will, by José Carlos Somoza (premiered in 1997, and Miguel de Cervantes Theatre Prize), imagines a theatrical production of Don Quixote by William Shakespeare. The objective of this article is to perform an analysis of this play with special emphasis on its metafictional features, which coincide with the usual lines of the reception of Don Quixote in contemporary Spanish theatre.

In his German Letter (1937), Beckett wrote about the meaningless of English, his mother tongue: “my own language seems to me more and more like a veil that has to be torn”. To break that veil the autor exposes what will be his literary program point by point. I pretend to use him to understand in depth his first novel: Molloy (1951). At the same time, I would say that the journey cannot be done in one direction: the reading of Molloy from German Letter is parallel to the reading of German Letter from Molloy. 

Antecedentes. El banano requiere de grandes cantidades de nutrientes, pero el precio de los fertilizantes es prohibitivo para muchos de los pequeños productores y por tanto se requiere de desarrollar tecnologías basadas en fuentes locales de nutrientes y potenciando la actividad biológica en el sistema. Objetivo. Evaluar la factibilidad de integrar el manejo de inoculantes micorrícicos, abono verde y fertilización organo-mineral en banano. Metodología. Se evaluaron en banano cv FHIA 18 sobre suelo Pardo mullido carbonatado, diferentes tratamientos integrando compost y ceniza de caña de azúcar como fertilizantes orgánico-mineral, Canavalia ensiformis como abono verde precedente e intercalado y la inoculación con Rhizoglomus irregulare (INCAM-11) durante los ciclos de planta madre, vástago-1 y vástago-2. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques al azar con cuatro repeticiones. Resultados. La inoculación en el trasplante con R. irregulare mantuvo su efectividad en los tres ciclos productivos. La inoculación micorrízica de C. ensiformis aumentó la biomasa y la cantidad de nutrientes reciclados, y originó la producción de grandes cantidades de propágulos micorrícicos en el suelo en la plantación de banano. Implicaciones. Los resultados demostraron la factibilidad de integrar los inoculantes micorrízicos y los abonos verdes con dosis bajas de fertilización órgano-mineral, para garantizar altos rendimientos, estado nutrimental adecuado y un funcionamiento micorrízico satisfactorio. Conclusiones. La integración de cepas de AMF eficientes y abono verde aumentó los beneficios de ambas prácticas y es una forma prometedora de manejar la simbiosis micorrízica arbuscular en la producción sostenible de cultivos.

Background. Malnutrition is the biggest problem currently threatening human wellbeing across the world directly affecting one-third of people and occurring in many forms. In developing countries, it expresses itself via stunted growth in children, diseases occurrences and deficiency of vital nutrients required for normal physiological functions. In the perspective of animal production, addressing poor animal protein intake by increasing supply of meat for consumption is a viable option for fighting the menace of malnutrition. Main findings This paper identified malnutrition and hunger as major problems in developing countries and suggested rabbit production as cheaper alternative for increasing protein supply because rabbit production is cheap and can supply affordable meat, it has short gestation interval hence it has potential for high yield per production period, it has superior meat quality and require minimal capital investment for its production compared with other animal production units. Implications. Apart from its roles in food supply; rabbit has strong relevance in bioscience research as model animal in studying pathophysiology of diseases and metabolic dysfunctions of man because of its genetical and physiological closeness to humans. Conclusion. This paper summarized and made cases for re-introduction of rabbit as micro-livestock for meat production and it use as model animal in biological research investigations.

Background. Climate change, the loss of ecosystems, the increase of poverty, the rise of marginality within rural communities and the decrease of food security, are global concerns in need of urgent attention. In this regard, an important number of studies focus on studying the way agro-ecosystems may face such challenges, as they provide ecosystem services (ES), which generate higher levels of resilience, adaptability, productivity and self-sufficiency. Hence, the valuation of ecosystem services plays a relevant role in the decision-making process toward the design and management of agro-ecosystems. Nevertheless, the assignment of value to these ES is usually done exclusively under the economic-monetary dimension, thus leaving other dimensions of value aside. Objective. To propose a hierarchical structure of Ecosystem Services assessment that integrates the value dimensions principles and criteria. Methodology. The method employed to define the hierarchical structure was a comprehensive literature review the fields of Agroecology and Ecological Economics, based on information search strategy and classification. 182 scientific publications were full paper screened within the period between 2000 and 2017. Implications. Outcomes of this work provide a foundation for further discussion of ES assessments and its potential application in agro-ecosystem and specific contexts. Conclusion. There is an important number of studies identifying the significance of ES in agroecosystems from different dimensions. Nevertheless, such works do not associate their importance with the value of such services. Therefore, it remains a challenge for research projects to achieve relating their contributions to their multidimensional valuation.

Background. Vegetable crops in Ecuador are produced primarily by smallholders in the Andes. Cuenca is an intermediate city in Southern Ecuador whose demand of fresh vegetables is supplied mostly by small farms located < 60 Km from the city. Objective. The objective of this study was to characterize smallholder vegetable farms located on the outskirts of Cuenca using input/output energy balances. Methodology. One hundred and four vegetable farms were visited during the first semester of 2016. Farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire about the inputs used by them for crop production and the outputs of their crops. Results. Most of the farms (83) produced negative energy balances with energy efficiencies ranging from 0.16 to 0.97 whereas farms with positive energy balances had efficiencies ranging from 1.03 to 1.97. The largest energy input in most farms was from organic fertilizers, followed by the planting material and direct energy use for pumping and other farm activities. A positive significant correlation was detected between farm size and energy efficiency. Implications. Our results reveal opportunities to improve the functioning of these farming systems and the need to take into account efficiency considerations in the design of technological and policy interventions oriented to improve the sustainability of these systems. Conclusions. Most smallholder vegetable farms in periurban Cuenca operate producing negative energy balances. Organic fertilizers and direct energy are the largest energy inputs used in these farms.  Potential energy economies of scale were detected both in energy efficient and energy inefficient farms.

The present article intends to analyze how Miguel del Arco deconstructs in his work Juicio a una zorra the myth of Helen of Troy, transmitted mainly by the patriarchal tradition, through different ancient sources (Homero, Safo, Gorgias and Euripides among others) and even some contemporary (Helen in Egypt by Hilda Doolittle). We will show how del Arco makes his character a woman who, having been a victim of men, claims the right to tell her own story and to vindicate herself through her own words and her love for Paris.

Juan Mayorga premiered in 2007 his version of Phaedra,basically based on Hippolytusby Euripides. The deviation of this new Phaedrawith respect to the tradition of the myth is not very relevant, but it is worthwhile in ending. The staging of the performance was given to understand a falling in love of Hippolytus that is not included in the text, which leads to raise, once again, the differences between a theatrical literary text and its performance. Or those who can be between the theatre writing of an author and the liberal interpretation of whom performs the play.