Fernando Coronil: “where people can dream their futures without fear”

On a sad note, anthropologist Fernando Coronil passed away after battling cancer. For a very moving and personal account, see “A Tribute to Fernando Coronil” by Genese Sodikoff.

I had recently discussed Coronil’s critique of Scott in the Anthropology and government planning blog-post. An original thinker for Latin Americanists and many others. There are some nice reflections on Coronil at Craig Calhoun’s blog-post “One of Fernando Coronil’s Last Wonderful Essays” which has a link to a pdf of reflections on the left, Utopia, and Latin America.

Also out from Laurent Dubois, posting at Duke University Press, “A Tribute to Fernando Coronil.” Dubois has a great discussion of Coronil’s introductory essay for Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar by Fernando Ortiz, which was also the first essay I read by Coronil. From the Norwegian Latin American Research Network, “In Memory of Fernando Coronil.” From Gary Wilder at the CUNY Graduate Center, “In Memoriam: Fernando Coronil.”

Para hispanohablantes, ver “Fernando Coronil: distinguido intelectual venezolano falleció en Nueva York” y “Aporrea: Muere en Nueva York Fernando Coronil.”

Fernando Coronil will be missed–he worked toward the moral optimism of anthropology promoted by this blog. As others have, I quote from the final paragraph of “The Future in Question: History and Utopia in Latin America (1989-2010):”

Of course, given the unequal structures of power within which this leftward turn has taken place, it is possible that its new imaginings may be co-opted or crushed. But given that these imaginaries now unite South and North in a politics that fuses the pursuit of well-being and sheer global survival, it is likely that a counterpoint between the embers of the past and the poetry of the future will continue to conjure up images of worlds free from the horrors of history. Politics will remain a battle of desires waged on an uneven terrain. But as long as people find themselves without a safe and dignified home in the world, utopian dreams will continue to proliferate, energizing struggles to build a world made of many worlds, where people can dream their futures without fear of waking up. (2011:264)

For more analysis of this essay, see “The Future of the Left, and a Tribute to Fernando Coronil” at Facile Gestures.