Pitches wanted (Central America) | $100-$250 per article
Added 2024-11-23 15:53:01 +0000 UTCCOMPANY/PUBLICATION: NACLA REPORT
Deadline: 13 December 2024
From the modern university to the casa museo, Central America and its people have a rich and complex history of autonomous and people-centered knowledge-making—grounded in grassroots organizing, community, and student activism—that looks to and beyond the state and its officialdom for recognition, inclusion, and justice. The state, too, has also played a determining role in establishing national myths, enshrining history, and in funding preservation, as it actively curates the past and future of the nation.
From teachers and young people in Panamá taking to the streets to protest extractivist corporations and politicians, to Salvadoran working-class migrants in Washington, D.C. who organize to protect their undocumented neighbors and families while also chronicling and archiving their decades-long presence in the region, to the alarming attacks on historical memory and archival preservation in the isthmus itself, this issue challenges one-directional approaches to knowledge production by considering how activists, scholars, artists, community members, and advocates have called for, devised, and promoted popular histories and forms of knowledge preservation in Central America and its diasporas.
Extending the notion of a “people’s history” to oft-forgotten places, this issue asks who have and have not been recognized as legitimate producers of knowledge? We wish to explore how questions of language, migration, culture, and xenophobia have excluded entire groups of people from the category of personhood as well as from having histories worth preserving. Stimulating forms of historical accounting, collecting, and even oral traditions, Central Americans have innovated strategies to document the past both distant and near. For instance, we invite pieces that explore how cuir/LGBTQ+ and gender-expansive communities have documented practices of communal care and justice and welcome articles that examine how Black and Indigenous communities challenge narratives of erasure and assimilation, from the isthmus and beyond.
The Summer 2025 issue of the NACLA Report, co-guest edited by Kaysha Corinealdi, Jorge Cuéllar, and Paul Joseph López Oro will explore these and associated themes. For this issue, we are looking for pieces that address the links between community histories and state histories, that engage the documenting of communal, family, and personal narratives; that investigate the way “official” knowledge is produced, negotiated, contested, and authorized; that explore the tension between formal and informal learning; and that reflect on memory-keeping practices across transnational isthmian communities.
We’re interested in articles that address topics including, but not limited to:
Making community, organizational, radical, and family archives
Knowledge practices on Central America’s Caribbean and Pacific Coasts (e.g. Black Atlantic and Black Pacific)
Creative practices as strategies for documenting history
The role of museums and memorials in popular history
Student-led protests and university activism
Oral history, archival projects, and community trust
Politics of historical memory and preservation in diaspora
Garifuna/Creole (Kriol) memory-keeping and language retention
Language revitalization and alternative schooling in Central America and its diasporas
Indigenous and Black knowledges, especially in ancestral land defense and activism
For articles, we are interested in pieces that examine specific, narrowly defined topics and are written in a lively, accessible manner. We give preference to articles that are based on original research and interviews. We also welcome artistic and creative proposals and are interested in working with artists to showcase their work in hybrid print and digital formats.
Please send a brief pitch (250 words) outlining the thrust and tone of your proposed piece and why you are well positioned to write it by December 13 to managing editor Julianne Chandler jchandler@nacla.org. We will respond to pitches by January 6. Drafts of accepted articles (2,500-3,500 words) will be due February 28, 2025.
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CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):
Questions/submissions: jchandler@nacla.org
TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:
Learn more about the publication: NACLA Report on the Americas is a quarterly magazine published by the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). It covers political, social, and economic issues in Latin America and examines the region’s relationship with the United States. The publication provides analysis and reporting on topics such as social movements, environmental justice, and human rights, with a focus on amplifying perspectives often overlooked in mainstream media. More information here.
Read through a selection of recent articles/stories on its website.
Review the submission guidelines here. Note that these are the publication's general guidelines to help you refine your pitch. You must still follow the editor's specific instructions above.
Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.
Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.
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