Américas joins in solidarity with the people of Haiti by asking our readers to give generously to the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), the OAS response mechanism for emergencies and natural disasters. In upcoming issues, we will continue to bring you stories of Haiti’s challenges and the progress being made there.

This issue initiates two significant anniversaries in the hemisphere. One is the centennial of the House of the Américas, the Washington headquarters of the OAS and a symbol of inter-American unity. The other commemoration is just beginning. Two centuries ago, sixteen Latin American nations from Mexico to Argentina began their struggles for independence from Spain. This issue contains the first installment of history from that fourteen-year period.

And while the passage of time is sometimes met with ritual and celebration, at other times it is noted only with subtle signs, or objects found under layers of sand in remote deserts. Images of cemeteries in the Norte Grande of Chile are a testament to a vivid past now long forgotten.

Not so long ago, children from a Colombian village went to school everyday by crossing a deep abyss on a cable device. The precarious cable is still used to transport farmers and their products to the town center of Guayabetal. They persevere, and so do the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous people of Panama, who continue the increasingly risky tradition of diving for lobsters in the ocean depths.

Two other indigenous groups in Colombia, the Nasa and the Arhuaco, are being supported by the OAS Mission of Support for the Peace Process (MAPP-OAS) as they confront their region’s cruel history of violent armed groups and consolidate new forms of resistance.

In Bolivia and Panama, governments are helping to keep nature and culture in balance by raising awareness about the use of wild bird feathers and other such items in costumes for traditional carnavals.

And speaking of ancestral art forms, two visionary North American artists are helping recover the ancient art of fine book-making among the descendents of the Maya in Guatemala. There, near the colonial town of Antigua, Kachiquel artisans are once again becoming “people of the book.”

Finally, this issue also recognizes some of our hemisphere’s great writers, artists, and musicians, with stories on: José Donoso’s recently released diaries; the controversial and charismatic Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral; and the cultural messages woven into the work of pianist and composer Gabriela Frank.