A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000: Networks, Integration, and Development by Ignacio Siles

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000: Networks, Integration, and Development by Ignacio Siles Fabian Prieto-Ñañez (bio) A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000: Networks, Integration, and Development By Ignacio Siles. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Pp. xvii + 148. Historical research on the internet has primarily addressed the most connected countries. However, as Janet Abbate and others have advocated, the histories of the vast global system of integrated computers demonstrate multiple visions around this socio-technical system. In Central America, nonprofit organizations and universities pushed the introduction of computer networks to integrate the region, paving the way to the internet's expansion there. A Transnational History examines how initiatives to connect to early computer networks "unfolded and were developed from the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s" in a region that deserves more detailed studies on its role in the history of technology (p. 1). Consisting of seven independent nation-states, Central American countries have participated in transnational infrastructure projects, from the Pan-American highway to microwave networks connecting the region, revealing how integration and interconnection are central to "hemispheric imaginations." Ignacio Siles argues that a transnational perspective is indispensable for rethinking the internet's history (or histories) as a technology. Drawing on archival work and interviews with project leaders in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, A Transnational History tells multiple histories of connection projects. In seven chapters, Siles presents Central American ideas of integration as a political project, with early initiatives for connectivity centered on academic and nonprofit projects. The book points to science and technology study concepts to interpret the transnational circulation of people, knowledge, and technologies, including academic exchanges with Europe and the United States. While the first chapters provide the theoretical background to how technology serves political integration, the following ones show how computer networks in Central America emerged as development projects that supported the expansion and further commercialization of telecommunications privatization in the 1990s (chs. 1–2, 3–6). A Transnational History extends recent efforts studying the circulation of knowledge and expertise to decenter narratives of technology transfer. Siles presents his book as a description of "the creativity of a group of people from countries with few economic resources, in a region devastated by years of war and crisis" (p. 2). In many ways, it resembles Joy Lisi Rankin's people's history approach. Many of the cases presented exemplify the collaboration with the United States, especially between universities in Central America. They also highlight the repercussions of the 1980s civil wars [End Page 582] and crises, as in the case of Nicaraguan women engineers who took the lead in building internet access after men had to join the Nicaraguan revolution (p. 86). Another example is Nicarao, a node of PeaceNET that counterbalanced CIA involvement in Nicaragua's 1990 presidential election. For these reasons, the book serves as a starting point for considering the relationship between infrastructure and politics more closely, from ideas of regional integration to the violence surrounding the emergence of these infrastructures. A Transnational History presents many examples of locally specific designs, whereby university and NGO experiments paved the way for the commercialization of the internet in Central America. It also shows how many infrastructural projects succeeded but were no longer visible after privatization. Making the internet infrastructure invisible, says Janet Abbate, is a social and historical process that involves phenomena as diverse as protocol standards, trade secrets, and user interfaces. In many ways, this book unpacks the social and political consequences of such invisibility. A Transnational History is an attempt to detach the histories of the internet in Latin America from national narratives and early adopters. Siles's contribution interweaves local histories of technology, highlighting the common processes that made it possible to integrate the internet in Central America. Fabian Prieto-Ñañez Fabian Prieto-Ñañez is assistant professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Department at Virginia Tech. He is currently working on a book manuscript about satellite television, copyright, and informal media markets in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1980s. Copyright © 2022 The Society for the History of Technology...