Introduction

O my America, my new found lande, My kingdome, safeliest when with one man man'd, My myne of precious stones, my Empiree, How blest am I in this discovering thee! --John Donne, "To His Mistris Going to Bed"An abstraction grew around him . ..the ruling abstraction of himself which he saw reflected nowhere.He was a ruler of men and a ruler of nothing.The sun rose into the blinding wall and river before him filling the stream and water with melting gold.He dipped his hand in but nothing was there.--Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (1960) At the beginning of the 21 st century, divisive regional thinking continues to dominate relations among the countries and territories that comprise the Western Hemisphere.For many, "America" is still only the United States.In this construction, Canada is, at best, an afterthought, a nation indistinguishable from the U.S. even at the level of international telephone dialing codes.Others use "America," as in José Martí's famous phrase "Nuestra América," to refer exclusively to Latin America, bypassing Brazil and the Caribbean (except for Martí's native Cuba).Much is lost, at times nearly destroyed, in these limited, and limiting, constructions of the hemisphere.What is one to do about this?How can one begin to dispel the misapprehensions that so many American-in the extended sense of that plural-hold about each other?The Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt and its new journal, AmeriQuests, believe that the answer lies in furthering the beneficial impact that ideas and academic research have on lived realities.Bringing together scholars and innovators of all sorts, the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt investigates the cultural, economic, and political interactions between the countries and territories of the Western Hemisphere and between the region and other parts of the world.Using its research, the Center develops and helps sustain lasting partnerships that solve problems of particular importance to the Americas.In the process, the Center reshapes the ways in which the academy conducts research, evaluates research results, and trains future generations of scholars.This is the Center's mission.In practical terms, the Center develops innovative research, pursues endeavors that cross disciplinary, social, and national borders, and endeavors to make it widely accessible in languages other than English, notably Spanish, Portuguese, and French.The list of the problems that trouble the Americas today and thus create the subjects of the Center's work is, regrettably, a long one.It includes immigration and human rights tensions, poverty, racial and ethnic discrimination, the limited quality and availability of education, public health crises, and widespread abuses of natural resources.But since these problems are hardly unique to the Americas, what, beyond wanting to

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