Calero, Luis Fernando

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Calero, Luis Fernando
(Luis F. Calero)

PERSONAL:

Education: Loyola University, B.A., 1974; Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, M.Div., 1983; University of California at Berkeley, Ph.D., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053. E-mail[email protected].

CAREER:

Anthropologist, historian, educator, and writer. Loyola University, New Orleans, LA, assistant professor of anthropology and history, 1987-90; Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala, visiting professor of anthropology, 1991-96 (spring terms); Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, assistant professor of anthropology, 1991-97, associate professor of anthropology, 1997—, acting director of the Ethnic Studies Program, 1998-2000; senior fellow at Bannan Center for Jesuit Values, 2002-04. Also served as member of the Board of Trustees, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, 2001-04; Santa Clara University representative, Jesuit Excellence Tour to Central America, 2002-02; member of the Board of Trustees, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, 2001-04.

WRITINGS:

Pastos, quillacingas y abades, 1535-1700, Banco Popular (Bogota, Colombia), 1991, published as Chiefdoms under Siege: Spain's Rule and Native Adaptation in the Southern Colombian Andes, 1535-1700, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1997.

Contributor to books, including From Power to Communion: A New Way of Being Church Based on the Latin American Experience, edited by Robert Pelton, C.S.C. University of Notre Dame Press, 1994, and Apostle of Peace: Essays in Honor of Daniel Berrigan,edited by John Dear, Orbis Books, 1996; contributor of book reviews to periodicals, including Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, America, and Hispanic American Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Luis Fernando Calero is an ethnohistorian and author of Chiefdoms under Siege: Spain's Rule and Native Adaptation in the Southern Colombian Andes, 1535-1700. In his book, the author focuses on the native peoples and societies found in southwestern Colombia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Calero points out that the various Indians of the Pasto region, unlike other peoples and cultures of South America, were not part of an intricate state system like the Incas and others, who have been the dominant focus of anthropologists and historians. Rather, these Indians were broken up into small chiefdoms that were greatly influenced by the establishment of a tribute system set up by the invading Europeans. Calero describes in detail how the life and society of these Indians, which was based on a self-sufficient existence, came under attack as the Spanish and others wanted them to exploit the natural resources for trade. He also discusses how the Pasto-Nario Indians fought back by running away or refusing to work. "This book adds significantly to our understanding of the impact of European colonialism on a hitherto little-studied area of the northern Andes; and because it deals with non-state societies, it reveals much about the experiences of the majority of Spain's native subjects under colonial rule," wrote Suzanne Austin Alchon in the Journal of Latin American Studies. Writing in America, J. Leon Helguera called Chiefdoms under Siege "a tour de force of ethnohistory," adding that it "is a pithy, impressive and clearly written book that deserves a wide audience."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, August 29, 1998, J. Leon Helguera, review of Chiefdoms under Siege: Spain's Rule and Native Adaptation in the Southern Colombian Andes, 1535-1700, p. 14.

Journal of Latin American Studies, May, 2000, Suzanne Austin Alchon, review of Chieftans under Siege, p. 580.

ONLINE

Santa Clara University Web site,http://www.scu.edu/ (October 31, 2006), author's curriculum vitae.*