As millions of other Americans and people from all over the world, on March 17th, 2020, we began working from home and under lock down quarantines. In the midst of a pandemic taking so many lives, infecting our family, friends, neighbors and colleagues near and far, it was difficult to watch the news and not having feelings of dismay and frustration.
From the hopes of doing something useful and productive with the resources at hand, the idea of monitoring the legal responses to the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean was born. I created this project because, like a lot of you, I have family, friends and colleagues throughout Latin America and the Caribbean region. Furthermore, I think it’s important in this moment of global crisis affecting every single one of us to also be aware of what is happening in the rest of our shared continent.
Here in the United States, it’s easy and inevitable to some extent to read news from or about Latin America and the Caribbean region only when it affects us directly or too late to understand much at all. As law librarians, I’d like to think that we have the expertise and the network to strive for a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding either right away or in the future. I hope this project achieves that and more.
Please reach out and let us know your thoughts on our project. We always welcome collaborations and ideas to write about the ramifications of these conversations in the law, information science, media studies, government, political science, area studies, etc.
Let’s hope this is one first stepping stone into reaching out to each other from a tragic situation, and to lift us up to the promise of a better future for everyone.
Sincerely,
Monitoring the Legal Response to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean 