Latin American and Caribbean Guggenheim Fellowship Awards, 2011

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded thirty Fellowships to a diverse group of artists, scholars, and scientists from Latin America and the Caribbean.  Chosen from almost 500 applicants, this year’s new Fellows are from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru.

The Foundation grants Fellowships through two annual competitions:  one for citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada; the other, for citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean.  Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of notable achievement and exceptional promise.  In its selection process, the Foundation consults with distinguished scholars and artists regarding the accomplishments of the applicants and the significance of their proposed projects, and presents these evaluations to a Committee of Selection, all of whose members are past Guggenheim Fellows. 

One of the many hallmarks of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the diversity of its Fellows.  The ages of this year’s Fellows range from thirty-six to sixty-three, and twenty-two fields of study are represented.  The projects supported by this year’s Fellowships are as varied as the Fellows themselves.  Argentinean Claudia Adelina Acuña will write about the machinations of sexual exploitation of Dominican women in Argentina.  Antonio Bernardo Carvalho of Brazil will explore the origin and evolution of Y-chromosomes, and Eduardo Miguel Castaño of Argentina will research the genetic bases of neuronal vulnerability in human dementias.  Guatemalan Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos will study Cotzumalhuapa sculpture as an expression of art and society at that pre-Columbian city.  Raquel Gil-Montero of Argentina will conduct a study of miners and herders in the Andes from the 16th to the 19th centuries.  Mario Hamuy of Chile will work on improving the management of the robotic telescope for supernova searching at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.                            

Argentinean Esteban Gabriel Jobbagy will investigate how contemporary societies shape and capture productivity in semiarid ecosystems, and Natalia Majluf of Peru will study Francisco Laso’s paintings of the Indian as indicative of 19th-century Peruvians’ image of their nation.  Gustavo Paratcha of Argentina will research the negative modulation of neurotrophic factor receptor signaling and new therapeutic opportunities for neurodegenerative disorders.  Andrés Rivera of Chile will study ice dynamic responses to non-climate-related driving factors.  Peruvian Catalina Romero will explore religious diversity and its influence on politics in Peru and across Latin America.  Alejandro Rosas of Colombia will research the psychology and evolutionary biology of moral judgment.   

The creative arts will be well represented by a number of new Fellows, including choreographer Adriana María Barenstein, poet Susana Villalba, and artist Matias Duville, all from Argentina; Mexican artist Tania Candiani; Peruvian photographer Milagros de la Torre; film/video artists Claudia Joskowicz of Bolivia and Sebastián Lelio of Chile; and novelists Pedro Palou of Mexico and Eduardo Halfon of Guatemala.

In a time of decreased funding for individuals in the arts, humanities, and sciences, the Guggenheim Fellowship program is all the more important.  According to President Edward Hirsch, since its establishment in 1925 the Foundation has granted more than $290 million in Fellowships to nearly 17,200 individuals. The continued and ever more generous donations from friends, Trustees, former Fellows, and other foundations have ensured that the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation will be able to continue the mission Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim set for it:  to "add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding.”