In a recent paper, Jonathan Ablard, associate professor in the Department of History, goes back in time about a hundred years ago to focus on another labor movement that took place in Latin America. Entitled “Proletariats in Ties: Labor Organizing and Strikes by Barbers in early Twentieth Century Buenos Aires,” the paper focuses on strikes conducted by barbers in 1906 in Buenos Aires. Ablard presented the topic at the Mid-Atlantic Conference on Latin American Studies in Charlottesville, North Carolina, from March 24 to 25.
Opinion Editor Celisa Calacal spoke with Ablard about the barber strike, its impact and the re-emergence of the labor movement in the U.S.