j.r.hentschke@ncl.ac.uk 23rd August 2019

I have known Caroline since she joined the Society of Latin American Studies committee in, I believe, 2007. She then became vice-president in 2011, president in 2013, and past president in 2015. Her love of the Society, its informality, friendliness and yet also efficiency, and her commitment to it were immense. And so was her conscientiousness. I will always remember the committee meeting at Aberdeen. Caroline had a very serious cold and I had offered to deputise, but she would not allow that and wanted to lead in the preparation of the conference. She was also in charge, when the golden jubilee conference took place in London, with about 350 attendees, which must be a record in the history of SLAS. This meeting, organised by Jasmine Gideon's team at Birkbeck, with contributions from ILAS and IA, was a major success, not least due to Caroline's prudent and energetic leadership. She was always a great strategic thinker, but also an excellent listener, profoundly honest and polite, and always keen to include everybody into deliberations and decision-making. During Lucy Taylor and Caroline's presidencies, SLAS and BLAR faced an existential threat from the Open Access agenda, because subscription fees for BLAR are the Society's main source of revenue. Again, Caroline showed extraordinary diplomatic skills in negotiating with stakeholders and defend the interests and future of the Society. She also showed great leadership in the support of institutions and colleagues who were threatened by restructurings. When SLAS was asked whether it would be interested in taking on the management of the Standing Conference of Centres of Latin American Studies in the UK, the committee unanimously accepted this task, and Caroline was one of the strongest supporters. We wanted to make some changes which were to help develop the field in the UK. Any institution with at least 5 colleagues in the same or different departments researching or teaching Latin America should be invited to apply; this would give them exposure and might help them institutionalise the field(s) at their universities - as it happened at Westminster. There would be not one, but two, meetings every year to give the Standing Conference momentum, and a Steering Committee would support the Chair. We also wanted to focus on strategic issues, such as institutional restructurings, undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment, the Research and Teaching Excellence Frameworks, and the implications of austerity and Brexit. Finally, we wished to invite policy-makers. The office of Chair would rotate with that of Past President of SLAS, and Caroline became the first incumbent during a transitory period and drafted the new Constitution. When I became Chair, she continued to support me as member of the Steering Committee, once again with enormous commitment and generosity. Since her University would not fund two trips to Newcastle, she paid for one herself. Caroline was absolutely dedicated to support postgraduates and postdocs, be it at her university or through SLAS and PILAS. One postdoc, Dr Silvia Espelt Bombim, who defended her doctorate at Newcastle, then replaced me during my AHRC fellowship, and eventually worked with Caroline at Bristol, wrote: "She was a wonderful person, always extremely kind with me and supportive of my research." The consistent increase of SLAS bursaries for PGRs and postdocs, like Silvia, was very important to Caroline. She often talked about this. Yet, she was equally committed to UG studies and always a safe pair of hands in big administrative tasks. As Deputy Head of School at Bristol, she worked incessantly to restructure their programme. From 2013-17, Caroline was also external examiner for Latin American Studies at Newcastle, and everybody here not only respected her impeccable judgment, empathy with students, and collegiality; staff also loved her as a person. She made us review our at times too restrictive use of Firsts, but also told us what positive experiences from Newcastle she will take to Bristol and try to apply. Her death is premature in so many ways. I had told Caroline that she should apply for a professorship. It was overdue, in my view. Not only was she a leading colonial historian of Latin America, who had won the Tibesar Prize of the US-based Conference on Latin American History for the best article published in 'The Americas' in 2014; she also established a great working relationship with volcanologists at Bristol. This project, which focused on Central America and received external funding, bridged the Humanities and natural sciences in a very innovative and rare way. She sent me a first article that resulted from this project and is fascinating. I asked her to report to the Standing Conference about this research. Caroline loved working in this all-female and mutually supportive team. Above all else, Caroline was a wonderful human being, modest, attentive, caring, charming, with a good dose of dry humour. She very quickly became a very good friend of mine. When she came to Newcastle as external examiner or for Standing Conference, I usually met her the day before in the Royal Station Hotel. In this Victorian listed building, with its old-world charm, we talked about 'God and the world', as Germans say. Caroline loved a glass of good red wine, her Argentinean roots, as she explained with a captivating smile, and a cigarette from time to time. Most recently she lost her mother, and she suffered from this loss. I think her religious beliefs helped her in this difficult situation. But she would also celebrate life and always see its bright sides. I am very sad, knowing that I will not see dear Caroline again, but she will have a special place in my memory and heart, and I know that she will look down at us and make sure that her loved ones do well and that SLAS will progress. Jens