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Chapter 3 of the book "Representing Argentinian Mothers: Medicine, Ideas and Culture in the Modern Era, 1900-1946," by Yolanda Eraso is presented. It discusses the relationship between the Argentine Catholic press and the Marian Cult, or devotion to the Virgin Mary, in Córdoba province, Argentina from the 1920s through the 1930s. The Catholic press's perspective on feminism, women's social conditions and mothers, including the Catholic newspaper "Los Principios'" attitude, are discussed.

Reports on the outcome of the Transcultural Architecture in Latin America conference held at the University of London, England from November 9-10, 2001 and organized by the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Department of Hispanic and Latin America Studies of the University of Nottingham, England with the support of the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of London. Focus of the conference; Professional background of the attendees; Overview of the essays presented in this issue of the journal.

An epilogue of the book "Representing Argentinian Mothers: Medicine, Ideas and Culture in the Modern Era, 1900-1946," by Yolanda Eraso is presented. Topics within the aforementioned book, including early 20th century motherhood in Argentina, medicine, obstetrics, the relationship between the Catholic Church of Argentina and feminism and the depiction of poor single Argentine mothers in the press, are discussed.

In a naturally phenomenological land, filled with contrast and excess, it is no wonder that the first hybrid architectural products were Baroque churches. These were designed to honour and comfort the converts and to instil awe and fear into natives and sceptics. However, the characteristic mestizo aesthetic, resulting from the native artisan's traditional craft used to built such baroque churches, would prove hard to classify according to existing European canons. Consequently, it would be recorded in history as provincial and bastardised. Contrary to this generalised association, I am proposing the Baroque as a lens through which we may re-examine Latin American Modernism to understand it as a symptomatic process of transculturation and hybridity now exacerbated by globalisation. Three hundred years before the wave of rationalism swept through Latin America during the first decades of the twentieth century, the first examples of Baroque architecture opened the doors for an architecture deviating from the canon. It is an architecture that can be seen as a native improvisation on ecclesiastical high drama. Yet, this sensibility reappears at the dawn of Brazilian modernism in Cândido Portinari's tiled murals or azulejos, Affonso Reidy's undulating housing block of Pedregulho and the seductive yet schematic minimalism revealed at Oscar Niemeyer's Pampulha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cities of Latin America are expanding rapidly largely through the energy and efforts of ordinary people who are creating their own dwelling environments in informal settlements with varying degrees of support or condemnation from municipal authorities. Although there is considerable diversity between settlements, most share three key characteristics. Firstly, these environments are conceived and constructed by the occupants themselves independently of external controls or professional advice: secondly, occupation and construction frequently take place simultaneously: and thirdly, such places are usually in a process of dynamic change and demonstrate considerable ingenuity and creativity within limited resource constraints. To explore these process of informal place-making and the resulting environments this chapter draws on data from a study of squatter settlements in northern Colombia. Through analysis of the processes of making, both collectively and at household level, we will gain insights into the multiple influences on the decision-making processes involved. Far from the common image of inadequate, chaotically organised places it will be argued that these environments respond to clear, culturally embedded ideas about how cities and dwellings should be configured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]