Rodolfo Stavenhagen (1932-2016) was a doctor in Sociology from the University of Paris. He has been a professor at Stanford, Harvard, Seville, UNAM, Paris, Geneva, and the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro. He was a researcher at the Center for Sociological Studies of El Colegio de México. A specialist in agrarian sociology, ethnic minorities, human rights, ethnic conflict, indigenous peoples, and social development, he was one of the most important scholars of the agrarian environment in Mexico. In 2001, the UN Commission on Human Rights appointed him as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people. He received numerous awards, including the National Prize for Sciences and Arts and the Boutros Boutros-Ghali Prize awarded by the Foundation for the Support of the United Nations. Among his publications are The ethnic question (2001), and Ethnic conflicts and the national state (2000).

Entrevistas

Autobiographical testimonials. Part Two: Marxism and Internal Colonialism

Interview with
  • Rodolfo Stavenhagen

  • Guillermo de la Peña

In the previous issue of Encartes the first part of these testimonies was published. In it, Rodolfo Stavenhagen spoke of episodes from his childhood and early youth: the first years in Mexico, the discovery of anthropology and experiences with indigenism. This second part jumps back to the 1960s: doctoral training in Paris, followed by two years of professional work in Brazil that culminated in the return to their adopted country.

Entrevistas

Autobiographical testimonials. First part

Interview with
  • Rodolfo Stavenhagen

  • Guillermo de la Peña

ROdolfo Stavenhagen (1932-2016) was one of the most important social scientists in Latin America in the last six decades. He had to live and participate in significant moments and scenarios in the history of Mexico and the world: of "interesting times", Eric Hobsbawm would say (alluding to the Chinese proverb: "God save us from interesting times"). On several occasions, during the second half of 2015, Rodolfo agreed to talk with me about his life and work. They were informal conversations, and for me fascinating, in which he let his memory flow spontaneously, while we enjoyed a good tequila on the terrace of his house in Cuernavaca. Not only was I interested in exploring his intellectual development in the context of the Mexican, American, French and Latin American academic world, I also wanted to understand the moral search of a human person committed to his circumstance.