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

This article contributes elements for a critique of Canadian multiculturalism that takes into account the concerns of the Latin American Diasporas established in Canada. The author argues that it is necessary to understand how three aspects are incorporated into this policy: propaganda, the aspiration to turn the country’s cultural diversity into a competitive advantage, and the concern for national security. To understand this, the ideology that orients Canada’s immigration and cultural diversity policies must be put in perspective. 

Desde el crisol de las relaciones internacionales se presenta una visión holística de la evolución y transformación del régimen internacional para la inversión, que aunque no cuenta con el respaldo de una organización multinacional, se deriva de las normas emanadas de los diferentes acuerdos sobre inversión y la extensa participación de los países en los mismos. Dicho régimen internacional ha transitado por diferentes etapas y actualmente se encuentra en un punto crucial para su desarrollo, ya que se está enfrentando a una crítica muy fuerte de sus principales pilares, con una particular participación de los países en desarrollo.    

 The book review is on Harvard Professor Dean Williams´latest book regarding leadership in a cross cultural perspective. As a member of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, Prof Williams has extensively written about the adaptive leadership framework and leadership challenges faced in the private as well as in the public sectors. In his last book, Prof. Williams addresses the problem of what to do when leading involves having to cross cultural boundaries and having to help different groups to change maladaptive practices in order to solve shared problems. This book may be of great help for young and not so young public leaders in Mexico in order to change or strengthen leadership skills to promote social change from a multicultural perspective.  

Setting immigration policy is reserved for the federal government in both Mexico and the United States. However, de facto, the states in both countries carry out certain immigration policies. Chiapas and Arizona have both faced challenges in this area. The government of Arizona has followed an anti-immigrant logic, while the government of Chiapas has focused on the defense of migrants’ human rights. The aim of this article is to understand the practically opposite roles played by these two states in managing immigration.

Deportations from the interior of the United States have transformed the image of success associated with migrants. This article uses a survey, in-depth interviews, and newspaper and magazine documentation from 2013 and 2014 to analyze the stigma linked to a certain kind of deportee: those living on the streets in Tijuana. For them, the border is a liminal territory where the precariousness associated with poverty, violence, and transnational mobility is sharpened by the day-to-day discourses and practices of criminalization and discrimination. 

The environmental services provide ecosystems depend on predominant climate conditions of local scales, as well as in the vegetation structure and composition. The main goal of the present study was to simulate and quantify the impacts that a possible climate change have affect on the hydrologic regulation and on the water infiltration capacity in the National Park “El Chico”, Hidalgo. It was modeled the geographic distribution of climatic variables like temperature and precipitation, taking as baseline scenario the period of 1961-1990. It were applied the North American and English climate change models for the scenarios A2 and the years 2020 and 2050. The water balance was estimated according to the Thornthwaite modified or third version in order, to evaluate the hydrologic behavior and the infiltration capacity in different scenarios. The main results obtained by followins the english model show a decrease in aquifer recharge in 26% and 32% for 2020 and 2050, respectively. The North American model considers an increase in the infiltration rate of 6% and 22% for the 2020 and 2050, respectively. The growing period did not show significant variations in the studied scenarios. The English model pointed out more drastic conditions, because of it that must be considered to plan adoptive and mitigation measures to prevent park deterioration and it can continue providing environmental services deterioration that climate change put in risk.

Earlywood, latewood, and total ring width series from Pseudotsuga menziesii were developed in a mixed conifer forest at Cerro El Mohinora”, Chihuahua. The tree-ring series extended for the period 1657-2005 (349 years) and were used to analyze hydroclimatic variability for southwestern Chihuahua. A seasonal winter-spring precipitation reconstruction was developed with the objective to determine high and low frequency precipitation variability and to analyze the impact of dominant atmospheric circulatory patterns. The reconstruction indicated high interannual, decadal and multiannual variability. Severe droughts were reconstructed for the periods 1695-1715, 1753-1760, 1785-1792, 1798-1806, 1819-1830, 1841-1870, 1890-1897, 1906-1912, 1924-1941, 1971-1977, and 1994-2005. The most extended droughts took place in the periods 1695-1715, 1841-1870, and 1924-1941. The last three decades of the 20th century and the current years of the 21st century have been particularly dry for northwestern Chihuahua but the ecological and socieoconomical impacts have not been determined.

The loss of forest resources in the Mexican Huasteca region is a complex problem, which requires a multidisciplinary approach and a participatory process of local stakeholders in order to detect problems and develop mitigation strategies. The objective of this study is to analyze the local perception of the population regarding the environmental assessment and the loss of forest resources in the Ejido Laguna del Mante and the Tocoy Community of the Huasteca in San Luis Potosi. A methodology for the analysis was developed to evaluate the perception of the local population and semi-structured interviews were applied to stakeholders. Also, a participatory mapping of perception of the past, present and future of the forest resources and other land uses was performed. Finally, in both communities the cover and land uses were classified, and its changes were calculated. The results point out that local population perceives the loss and degradation of their forest resources according to their local knowledge based primarily in the experiences of their productive activities, which is expressed in the interviews and participatory mapping of perception. Both communities suffered considerable deforestation for the period 1973-2014. The methodology based on local perception, supported by participatory mapping and the analysis of land cover and land use change, allowed the understanding of scenarios for the state of forest resources and the productive dynamics developed in the study area. It should serve as a tool for strategies and local policies development towards the conservation and management of the forest covers in the Huasteca.

This study investigates the perceptions of environmental services provided by forested wetlands by inhabitants of Monte Gordo, Veracruz. Information from key informants in the community was collected through semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed and reinforced with perceptions obtained during a pilot test, and the latter were categorized according to potentially productive population (PP) and younger students (PE). The analysis included perception and reflections between young and adult people (generational). We found that perceptions of environmental services such as considering wetlands as wildlife habitat, natural water treatment areas and using them as landfill sites varied according to groups of PP and PE as compared to the reflective level generational analysis. Key informants perceived that the major ecosystem services that wetlands provide are: foodstuff, raw materials for construction, and as a tourist attraction. The role of wetlands as sites of flooding and coastal protection was not clearly perceived. Wetland loss is perceived as a situation that has increased over time in the community, however, the situations that have caused it and the local importance varied among respondents regarding their activities. Food resources and other wetland services affect them collectively so that local initiatives are required so that they integrat the villagers, local authorities and landowners from the upland areas of the community whose activities also affect the current status of wetlands in Monte Gordo. Collective action for the common good must be strengthened.

Woody neotropical streetscapes: a case study of tree and shrub species richness and composition in XalapaThe urbanization process goes far beyond the replacement of preexisting non-urban systems, transforming the land in such way that represents worrisome ecological threats. In the novel urban systems, original vegetation is removed and/or replaced with a combination of native and exotic species. In this study, our aim was to generate an updated species list of the trees and shrubs that thrive in the streetscape of Xalapa (Veracruz, Mexico), describing their native/exotic ratio. For this, we followed a city-wide approach comprised by a grid of 106 sampling sites. We recorded a total of 140 tree and shrub species, of which 32 had not been previously reported for the city. Exotics represented more than half of the recorded species, which together with native ones were distributed unevenly throughout the city. Most frequent species include: Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina), Chinese Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), Paperflower (Bougainvillea glabra), Rhododendron (Rhododendron sp.), Mexican Cypress (Cupressus lusitanica), and Little-leaf Boxwood (Buxus microphylla). It is noticeable that sites at which we recorded no trees or shrubs were located near downtown and peripheral areas of the city. Our findings should be considered carefully, as the unequal distribution of plant diversity in urban areas can compromise the benefits that vegetation provides to citizens, as well as their ecological functions.