Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean: Coping with Calamity

Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean: Coping with Calamity explores the relationship between natural disasters and civil society, immigration and diaspora communities and the long-term impact on emotional health.

Natural disasters shape history and society and, in turn, their long-range impact is determined by history and society. This is especially true in Latin America and the Caribbean, where climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of these extreme events. Ranging from pre-Columbian flooding in the Andes to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this book focuses on long-range recovery and recuperation, rather than short-term disaster relief. Written in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the author shows how lessons learned about civil society, governance, climate change, inequality and trauma from natural disasters have their echoes in the challenges of today’s uncertain world.

This book is well-suited to the classroom and will be an asset to students of Latin American history, environmental history and historical memory.

June Carolyn Erlick is the editor-in-chief of ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America and publications director at Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. She is the author of three books, including Telenovelas in Pan-Latino Context (Routledge, 2018). She teaches journalism at Harvard Extension School.