From the editor.

• Position: Editorial

True to its mandate of increasing understanding among the peoples of the Americas and promoting knowledge of their cultures, Americas invites you once again to travel through our vast hemisphere through stories that reveal the multi-faceted essence of what it means to be American.

Alejandro Balaguer celebrated the International Polar Year--which began March 1--by joining a scientific expedition in the Antarctic that is studying the effects of the polar ecosystem on our hemisphere. Professor Edith Fanta of the International Polar Year Joint Committee explains the importance of this unique venture of international cooperation and how it is gathering important information on the biological, physical, and social processes of the polar regions.

In South America, controversial president Evo Morales dedicates some time from his long work day to share with Amparo Trujillo aspects of the "irreversible change" that has begun in Bolivia. This first indigenous president of the continent is very interested in the Inter-American Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, currently being negotiated at the OAS with the native peoples of the hemisphere. "It is hard to understand how the indigenous movement could continue to be seen as a bunch of savages," he says.

Mitch Snow shows us the humorous urban inventions of Argentine architect and photographer Augusto Zanela, who for more than a decade has devoted himself to turning public spaces in Buenos Aires into human-sized optical illusions. And Mark Holston reveals a little known side of an extraordinary Colombian artist who, in spite of being turned away from the school choir for "sounding like a goat," took the music industry by storm not only in her country, but around the world. Through her Fundacion Pies Descalzos, Shakira uses the vibrato of her voice and her untiring energy to help children who have been displaced by the war that has afflicted her country for three decades.

In Central America, the organization Pedals for Progress collects bicycles and sends them to low-income people who...