research and Writing
CURRENT PROJECTS: Book-length projects
The Peruvian wild west: an environmental history of Chimbote, 1940-1990
A sleepy fishing village before 1940, during the postwar era the city became the center of Peru's steel industry and the world's largest fishing port. In 1968, Chimbote's fishermen landed more fish than the entirety of the US industrial fleet. Along with the steel plant, Chimbote's shores moored over 400 boats and housed 30 factories producing first canned fish, and later, fishmeal. A high-protein additive for hog, fish, and poultry feeds, converting fish into fishmeal was a dirty, fetid problem. The city's industrial boom caused social, economic, and environmental problems for local and national government: both industries massively polluted the land, sea, and air, and little was done to constrain the industrial growth. Attracted by high wages and plenty of jobs, the thousands of migrants - its population grew from 4,200 in 1940 to over 200,000 in 1971 - flooded into the city and struggled and succeeded to find a home and create a community.
The chaotic development of the boom came to a screeching halt in the early 1970s. Not only did a devastating earthquake leveled much of the city's infrastructure, but also the fish disappeared. A decade of overfishing combined with the effects of the 1972 El Niño decimated the industry, its workers, and the city. Over the course of next two decades, the industry recovered, though the environment did not.
I study how Chimbote's leaders and citizens managed (or mismanaged) the port's rapid insertion in the global economy. I use extensive archival and print sources, as well as oral histories, to recount the growth (1940-1972), decline (1972-1983), and rebirth (1984-present) of Chimbote.
El Capitán: A biography of Luis Banchero rossi
My second book project will be a biography of Peruvian entrepreneur Luis Banchero Rossi (1929-1972). In just forty years, he came to epitomize the ideal of the 'self-made man'. The humble son of Italian immigrants, Banchero turned his profits from selling small quantities of kerosene in the highlands into the dominant position in the nation's burgeoning fishmeal industry and he became one of Peru's richest men. He expanded and diversified his empire, to include two daily newspapers, an insurance company, a soccer club, and a vegetable cannery. His murder on New Year's Day 1972 captivated the nation, given the official explanation for the murder did not hold water. Banchero is still remembered as one of Peru's greatest businesspeople.
My biography of Luis Banchero looks not only at his remarkable business career, but also the creation of the myth around Banchero. While still one of Peru's most well remembered figures, the memory of Banchero does not reflect the reality of his impact. I seek to broaden the interpretation of Banchero and his legacy.
Current Projects: Manuscripts in process
El terremoto, la Doctrina del Shock y la Revolución peruana en Chimbote
This paper, to be published in Lima in 2021, looks at how Peru's Revolutionary Government (1968-1975) used the "Shock Doctrine" (Klein 2007) to reconstruct Chimbote after the 1970 earthquake. They created the Plan Chimbote, a new vision for what had become the nation's most important and problematic industrial center. As part of this new vision, the state planned to turn Chimbote into a second industrial development pole, and gave out land titles, giving the city's newest residents permanent rights to their homesteads. The end result was closer to regularized chaos than it was the creation of a new industrial paradise.
The paper also focuses on the San Juan shantytown, founded in the hours after the earthquake, and how the residents used the Shock Doctrine for their own benefit. Just as capitalists use disasters to further their interests, the settlers of San Juan took advantage of the chaos to claim and remain in their new plots of land. Many of those original occupiers, remain in their plots today.
previously published works
Chimbotazo: The Peruvian Revolution and Labor in Chimbote, 1968-1973
Part of The Peculiar Revolution: Rethinking the Peruvian Experiment, 1968-1975 ( 2017), edited by Paulo Drinot and Carlos Aguirre. I study the labor movement in Chimbote in the years prior to the Peruvian Revolution (1968-1975), demonstrating how Chimbote was one of the most important sites for labor activity, and the military government's repression of a massive labor mobilization in May 1973 de-legitimated it for many Peruvians. Translated into Spanish for publication by the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in 2018,
Revolutionizing the Tragic city: Rebuilding Chimbote, Peru after the 1970 Earthquake
Published in the Journal of Urban History in 2015. Looks at the rebuilding of Chimbote after 1970 earthquake, the most powerful and deadly in the Western Hemisphere until the Haitian earthquake in 2010. The military government seized on the chaos created by the earthquake to reform Chimbote and present a detailed plan to make the port into an industrial pole to rival Lima.
book reviews
Breve historia de la esclavitud en el Perú: una herida que no deja de sangrar by Carlos Aguirre, in Hispanic American Historical Review 86: 3 (August 2006)
Experiencing Nature: The Spanish-American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution by Antonio Barrera-Osorio, in The Latin Americanist 50: 1 (Fall 2006)
The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810-1821 by Eric Van Young, in Revista Andina 43 (Second Semester 2006)
Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition, and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico by Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, in The Latin Americanist 50: 2 (Spring 2007)
From Frontier Town to Metropolis: A History of Villavicencio, Colombia, since 1842 by Jane Rausch, in The Latin Americanist 53: 2 (June 2009)
Aftershocks: Earthquakes in Latin American History edited by Jürgen Buchenau and Lyman Johnson, in The Latin Americanist 54: 2 (June 2010)
Diálogos con el Peru: Ensayos de Historia by Charles F. Walker, in The Americas 67: 2 (October 2010)
Before the Shining Path: Politics in Rural Ayacucho, 1895-1980 by Jaymie Patricia Heilman, in The Latin Americanist 55: 2 (June 2011)
Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform by Enrique Mayer, in Bulletin of Latin American Research 30: 4 (October 2011)
The Allure of Labor: Workers, Race, and the Making of the Peruvian State by Paulo Drinot, in The Latin Americanist 56: 2 (June 2012)
A Living Past: Environmental Histories of Latin America edited by John Soluri, Claudia Leal, and Jose Augusto Padua, in Bulletin of Latin American Research, 38: 4 (Sept. 2019).
Coastal Lives: Nature, Capital and the Struggle for Artisanal Fisheries in Peru by Maximilian Viatori and Héctor Bombiella, in Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 45: 2 (July 2020).
presentations
“El terremoto, la Doctrina del Shock y la Revolución peruana en Chimbote” Jornada Preparatoria de la Conferencia Internacional “1970 un Cataclismo en el Norte del Perú” Conference streamed on FaceBook due to COVID-19 (May 2020)
“Identidad e investigación de Chimbote” Conferencia Magistral, Municipalidad Provincial del Santa , Chimbote (June 2019)
“Chimbote: Social, Economic, and Ecological Struggles on a Commodity Frontier” Tri-College History Lecture , Moorhead, MN (April 2019)
“Emerging from the Rubble: The Creative Destruction of the Poor after the 1970 Ancash Earthquake,” Cities and Disasters: Urban Adaptability and Resilience in History Conference, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study at the University of London , London, UK (November 2016)
“Living on the Edge of a Global Commodity Chain: the Environmental Politics of the Fishmeal Industry in Chimbote, Peru,” Geopolitical Economic Research Group Conference , Winnipeg, MB (September 2015)
“”Velasco and the Fishermen”: The Peruvian Revolution in Chimbote, 1968-1978” Rethinking Military Nationalism: New Perspectives on the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces, Peru, 1968-1975 , University College London, London, UK (October 2013)
“Reforming the Tragic City: Rebuilding after the 1970 Earthquake in Chimbote, Peru” American Society of Environmental History Conference , Toronto, ON (April 2013)
“Fishing and Depletion in Twentieth-Century Chimbote, Peru” Look to the Past: Environmental History Around the World , Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC (November 2011)
“Confronting the Tragic City: The Impacts of the 1970 Earthquake and the Peruvian Revolution in Chimbote” Place and Placelessness: A Virtual Environmental Workshop, Network in Canadian Environmental History (October 2011)
Panel chair and commentator for “Looking at the Land” Northern Great Plains History Conference , Grand Forks, ND (October 2010)
“Becoming Chimbotanos: Migrant Identity in Chimbote, Peru, 1940-1980” Latin American Studies Association Conference , Toronto, Canada (October 2010)
"Working in the World's Biggest Fishing Port: The Environment and Labor in Chimbote, Peru, 1955-1973" American Historical Association Annual Meeting , San Diego, CA (January 2010)
“The Smell of Money: Industrial Pollution and the Fishing Industry in Chimbote, Peru,” Honors Lecture, Minnesota State University Moorhead , Moorhead, MN (November 2009)
“The Culture of Fishing and Environmental Degradation in Peru, 1955-1973.” Northern Great Plains History Conference , St. Cloud, MN (October 2009)
“Controlling Chaos: Urban Environmental Crisis in Chimbote, Peru, 1940-1980,” Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting , Boston, MA (April 2008)
“The Dream of State-led Development in Chimbote, Peru,” Brownbag Series , Center for Latin American Studies, Champaign, IL (Nov. 2006)
“Reforming Chimbote: The 1970 Ancash Earthquake and Urban Planning in Peru,” Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems Seminar , Champaign, IL (Mar. 2004)
“Reaction to Disaster: Governmental Responses to the 1970 Earthquake in Peru,” Midwest Association of Latin American Studies Conference , Charleston, IL (Nov. 2003)
“A Trip to Vicos: The Peru-Cornell Project Reconsidered”, Tinker Foundation Conference , Center for Latin American Studies, Champaign, IL (Nov. 2003)
““Ese hombre era muy bueno”: Oral History and the Life of Luis Banchero Rossi, Peruvian Fishmeal Magnate,” Brownbag Series , Center for Latin American Studies, Champaign, IL (Feb. 2003)
“Education Reform in the Mexican Revolution,” Phi Alpha Theta Latin American Sessions at the Southern Historical Association , New Orleans, LA (Nov. 2001)
“The Mexican Revolution in Guanajuato: the Case of the Hacienda de Roque,” Pacific Coast Conference of Latin American Studies Conference , Tijuana, Mexico (Mar. 2001)
“The Hacienda de Roque as an Educational Institution for Mexican Peasants,” Institute for Latin American Studies Student Conference , University of Texas, Austin (Feb. 2001)