Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Varese, Stefano
- Abstract:
- Articles by Varese, correspondence, and lecture and conference materials.
- Extent:
- 19 linear feet
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Stefano Varese Papers, D-555, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Articles by Varese, correspondence, and lecture and conference materials.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Stefano Varese was a professor of Native American Studies, University of California, Davis. Varese was born in Genova, Italy in 1939 during the tumultuous eras of Fascist Italy and World War II. In 1957, he traveled to Peru where he lived with his father and obtained a Diploma in History (1964), B.S. in Ethnology (1966), and a Ph.D. in Anthropology (1967) at the Catholic University in Lima, Peru. Liberation Theology greatly influenced Varese’s worldview and he devoted his studies to the sovereignty of Indigenous people in Peru and the Amazon. These formative years shaped Varese’s Indigenous-centric philosophy of social justice that combined a Marxist materialist analysis with indigenous spirituality and epistemology.
During President Juan Velasco Alvarado’s administration, Varese was the director of the administration’s National System of Social Mobilization (SINAMOS) and helped lead the government’s agrarian land reforms. He was also a signee of the Declaration of Barbados, which accused Latin American and Caribbean governments and private interests throughout the region of conducting genocide against Indigenous populations.
Following the military coup led by General Morales Bermudez, Varese fled to Mexico in 1975. He became an investigator at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Oaxaca, Mexico (1975-1979) and the director of the Oaxaca Regional Unit for Peoples and Indigenous Culture (1981-1985). During this time, Varese continued to advocate for Indigenous sovereignty in Mexico, Peru, and throughout Latin America. From 1980 to 1987, he participated in the Mexican state’s Popular Cultures initiative which attempted to undo the damaging effects of assimilationist economic initiatives enacted by prior governments. During this time, he helped develop an Indigenous model of economic and social empowerment. In 1986, he served as a member of a fact-finding delegation from the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Human Rights and Academic Freedom commission to investigate confrontations between the Sandinista and indigenous populations on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.
In 1990, Varese eventually joined the faculty of Native American Studies department at UC Davis after serving as a visiting professor. He founded the Indigenous Research Center of the Americas (IRCA) at UC Davis in 1991 and helped establish the department’s Native American Studies Graduate Program. He co-hosted the Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignties: A Hemispheric Convocation conference in 1998 where intellectuals from across the western hemisphere gathered to discuss the field of Native American studies. In 2013, he was awarded the Activist Scholarship award from OXFAM Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and, in 2017, the Medal Haydee SantamarĂa from the Casa de las AmĂ©ricas and the Cuban Government. He currently serves as a professor emeritus with the department and regularly offers the Environmental Justice in Indigenous Ecuador summer abroad course.
- Processing information:
-
Liz Phillips encoded this finding aid with help from student assistant Aditi Sinha. The biography was written by Sacramento State Public History graduate student Desun Oka.
- Physical location:
- Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Stefano Varese Papers, D-555, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.
- Location of this collection:
-
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library100 NW QuadDavis, CA 95616-5292, US
- Contact:
- (530) 752-1621