Acknowledgements vii List of Contributors ix List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii An Introduction to Latin American Environmental History Christian Brannstrom and Stefania Gallini 1 Part I: Territories: States, People, Environments Chapter 1 A Maya Mam Agro-ecosystem in Guatemala’s Coffee Revolution: Costa Cuca, 1830s - 1880s Stefania Gallini 23 Chapter 2 The Geographical Imagination, Resource Economies and Nicaraguan Incorporation of the Mosquitia, 1838 - 1909 Karl H. Offen 50 Chapter 3 From Lakeshore Village to Oil Boom Town: Lagunillas under Venezuelan Dictator Juan Vicente Gomez, 1908 - 1935* Nikolas Kozloff 90 Part II: Commodities: Export Booms and the Environment Chapter 4 Transforming the Central Mexican Waterscape: Lake Drainage and its Consequences during the Porfiriato (1877 - 1911) Alejandro Tortolero Villasenor 121 Chapter 5 Deforestation and Sugar in Cuba’s Centre-East: The Case of Camaguey, 1898 - 1926 Reinaldo Funes Monzote 148 Chapter 6 Talking to Sediments: Reading Environmental History from Post-Settlement Alluvium in Western Sao Paulo, Brazil Christian Brannstrom 171 Part III: Knowledges: New Technologies and Organisms Chapter 7 Bananas, Biodiversity and the Paradox of Commodification John Soluri 195 Chapter 8 Zebu’s Elbows: Cattle Breeding and the Environment in Central Brazil, 1890 - 1960 Robert W. Wilcox 218 Chapter 9 Individual Agency and Ecological Imperialism: Aime Bonpland in Southern South America Stephen Bell 247 Bibliography 273