Between 2 and 8 May 2017, the Latin American and Caribbean Conference Trabajo y Trabajadores (“Work and Workers”) was held in La Paz, Bolivia (http://ctt2017.cis.gob.bo/inicio). Organized by Rossana Barragán (IISH, Amsterdam), Amaru Villanueva, and Cristina Machicado (Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, La Paz), it was a remarkable event, bringing together some eighty scholars from nearly all Latin American countries, a few colleagues from Europe, and a multifaceted audience of local researchers, students, and unionists. The conference highlighted major areas of interest in the labor history of colonial and post-Independence Latin America. It also provided a platform to confront distinct historiographies across the region, launch new research agendas and suggest potential collaborations across disciplinary and national boundaries. Moreover, the event resulted in the foundation of RELATT – Red Latinoamericana de Trabajo y Trabajador@s (the Latin American Labour History Network), a new academic infrastructure aimed at giving continuity to the discussions and exchanges started in La Paz through permanent working groups and the organization of academic meetings. The conference program was very diverse. The opening roundtable featured a lecture by Andreas Eckert, director of re:work (Berlin); the testimony of Rosa Quete Castedo, a worker from the rural community of Santa Rosa in Bolivian Amazonia; and a speech by Héctor Hinojosa Rodríguez, the Bolivian Minister of Work, Employment and Welfare. Starting from 3 May, five sessions addressed the following themes respectively: 1. “Representations and interpretations of work” (organizers: Valeria Coronel, Maria Ulivarri, and David Mayer); 2. “Social conflicts and struggles across time” (organizers: Gabriela Scodeller, Lucas Poy, and Larissa Corrêa); 3. “Free and unfree labor, slaving and transitions” (organizers: Beatriz Mamigonian and Paola Revilla); 4. “Local and global migrations” (organizers: Alfonso Hinojosa and Cristina Vega); and 5. “Precariousness and unfree labor relations in the contemporary period” (organizer: Maurizio Atzeni). Three evening events completed the program: a roundtable on “The ILO and Latin America”, with the participation of the Regional Adjunct Director of the ILO, Gerardina González-Marroquín; a lecture on informal labor by Enrique de la Garza Toledo, with comments given by the Vice-President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Álvaro García Linera; and a roundtable on labor historiography, with Willem van Schendel addressing the state of the art in India and South Africa, and other participants presenting the perspectives of three journals: Archivos (Gabriela Scodeller), Journal of Latin American Studies (Paulo Drinot), and the International Review of Social History (David Mayer). The discussion was centered around three main perspectives, cutting across the programed sessions. ver PDF en el sitio del IISG.

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