Week 13 – Towards an uncertain future

And just like that, just in a flash, another term is over.

I must say I loved how Dawson distributed the information in 3 subtopics; Exit, Voice and Loyalty. There is something about separating a sentence in that way that gives me goosebumps, anyways, back to the chapter.

Nature will always be greater than ourselves, it can unite people for the good or the bad, in the México’s case, it was for the bad. The earthquake of 1985 has been one of the strongest one to strike the country and it not only showed mexicans «who is superior» but also showed them the poor response of the government, I guess not all of it is to blame to Miguel de la Madrid as he was only starting his period and the economy was not doing so great, yet, taking so long to start coordinating the emergency bodies is unforgivable. This Dawson’s quote «Mexicans had given up on their government long before the earthquake» makes me feel sad as its completely true and still continues until this day. The consequence of this «lack of faith» of the people towards their own goernments? The exit of the country to work somewhere else, before it was physical work what was «exported» and now not only that but educated people looking for better job opportunities.

And just to keep up with the México’s topic… yet again another earthquake strikes this year, its true that the affectations of these were not as severe as the one of 1985 (which show us how citizens, workers, etc are very well prepared) we could see how little does the government care. While there was this «national attention» the government was sheltering people and giving credit cards (yup, Peña Nieto’s administration solution) yet when the interest in Mexico was gone the aid stopped and people were left alone, as always… And yet, the people will raise again (*patriotic senses triggered*) I was surprised with videos in social media showing how mexicans unite in the worst moments possible; the red cross started to ask volunteers to go home as there were to many and they could not move, people singing «cielito lindo» or the national anthem while delivering supplies, food collection and medical services coordinated by civilians, etc.

Here is the video im refering to:

And if you are curious about the lyrics «sing and do not cry, because singing, cielito lindo, makes hearts happy».

Finally, if you for some reason, want to know more about the «experience» of the earthquake of 1985, there is this book of a famous mexican writer; Juan Villoro «8.8 El miedo en el espejo» which describes his experience.

Week 12 – Speaking truth to Power

I just can’t get out of my head the first day of class and how when trying to describe Latin America most of the descriptions were related to either violence or drugs. I know i have mentioned this before but its a matter that truly worries me as it is a reality… Dawson’s chapter tells the truth of Latin America, how violence has always existed and gives a pretty good reason for it; it s the only way development governments can mantain power or oder.

The chapter covers (in my opinion) two major points. The first one; it shows how government deals with manifestations, first in Argentina and then in Mexico, people tend to dissapear. I recall another proffessor in my home university saying how this «dissaperances» are worse than being kidnapped or murdered, the explanaition he gave us as a class was relatively simple; there is no closure. If you are murdered at least your relatives know the truth, when you are kidnapped there is always a possibility to come back but… when you dissapear? There is absolutely nothing, no hope or «easy» way to accept what has happened. Its sad that governments continue to deal with pacific manifestations in this way (a recent case in Mexico was the dissapearance of 43 students).

Another issue covered in the chapter is the drug war, it was about time until we reached one of the biggest stereotypes (reality?) of all Latin America. As Dawson says, the drug bussiness has such high profits that if it stops in one country, another one will take the advantage and replace it. The biggest problems with drug traffic is that it does not only involve… drugs… but corruption of the government and police and military. At the same time, it brings violence within «gangs» and inocent people as they are kidnaped by different groups to get money. I come from a city where the drug war was pretty heavy during the years Dawson describes, yet there are states as Tamaulipas where the drug war is still present and far worse than what I experienced. It takes people’s life away, I got a friend who lived in there and he just told me what he had to experience as a daily basis, you can’t have your own bussiness as drug lords will come for «territory dues», there is a curfew in the streets at 8 pm, etc. Its sad that after almost 10 years there are states and countries that have to deal with this kind of problems.

Short research assignment

The selected chapter for the team is Citizenship and Rights in the New republics, our focus is on women rights. As we saw through the course, after independence was reached another problem surged; Who belong to the country? What rights are people entitled? Are we all the same? Fortunately, these questions were “solved on their own” as the discriminated groups decided to play a part in the new society that was achieved and took action by expressing their need of rights and fighting for them until they were achieved.

The mentality of Latin America (and other countries outside of it) is that of “men are the strongest gender” therefore the other one is marginalized, this until such extent that if you are a woman you will have to struggle more to achieve certain life standard.

The topics planned to discuss are how they were threated before (1900s) and how they are included today in society, the group objective is to determine if something has changed in Latin America; Are women fully included? What has been done to do so? Do they have more rights?

My selected source is “The economic, social and cultural rights of women in Latin America: Status and Strategies, written by Gaby Ore Aguilar. The article explains a major issue with gender equity, “Latin American women today are more educated, but they are also poorer”. Women have less opportunities for getting a job and are usually paid less than males for doing the same job. The article explains the necessity of implementing an organization to regulate the ESCR (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) of women. The first section of the journal provides the background information of today’s scenario as well as doing a contrast with previous years (including data from 1985 to 2001). The second part includes the rights that women are entitled and that should be guaranteed, these rights include aspects in education, the right to work in good laborable conditions, rights to enjoy of cultural activities, etc.

The document shows how women right’s organization fail in doing what they are supposed to protect, Gabe Ore argues that this happens for not following the ESCR framework and focusing in other topics (that have more priority) such as sexual and reproductive rights.

In conclusion, the article proves useful to the focus as not only does it provide background information on women’s rights to do a comparison of before and today but it includes a now a day’s issue, which is economy. The article shows how after more than 100 years total gender equality has not been achieved in Latin America, it sure has improved yet has not reached a total inclusion in all society’s aspects. The author also criticize modern institutions that do not fulfill the requirement for women right’s in Latin America and provides feedback and learnings on how to include these important aspects.

Week 11 – The terror

Dawson couldn’t describe better this week’s topic; tragedy.

I feel like this chapter destroyed Latin America and showed us all that is wrong with it, what is has always been wrong; violence, corruption, drugs, etc. Dawson mentions all of this since the begining of the chapter and, because nothing has really changed since Latin America was «created», these words are no longer a description, but what most people think after hearing any Latin country. And I dont blame them, its true until some extent.

From the beggining of the chapter I could sense how the author changed his tone, compared to other chapters this one seemed darker and way more crude. I discovered why immediatly, Latin America was covered in blood; from murderers, torturers, kidnappers… There is definetly no way to put all this topics together and keep a light tone.

We can see from the first part of the chapter how Latin America is a small world, it surely is influenced by other countries yet these country behave very different. What do I mean by this? The way Latin America suffered a «mini cold war» yet in other countries outside Latin America it was more of an ideological war in Latin America violence was always present, in some of them more aggression than others but with the same result, the death of inocent people. I believe this were the principal attempts of the Left economy to raise in Latin America, this time on the «young and educated» generation whose ideals were of change.

I wish Dawson included of texts of this «testimonio» current, not for a morbid pleasure but to picture what happened and to show solidarity to all the people that suffered. I don’t know if the last document is part of this literary current but it sure shows the rawness of this dirty war, after reading this part; «I remember their response to the horror that he called only “a simple excess . . .  Their tanks at the head of their victorious general to intimidate Congress, their accomplices closing the path to our mothers dressed in black, the delivery my sister’s remains in a cardboard box, their forbidding her to be buried, the fraudulent sentences from the military, their midnight laws…» I could not do anything but to feel sorry for the people that suffered all these tragedies and hope that they never repeat again.

 

Week 10-Power to the people

We did it. A week without an actual fight in Latin America. This week presents some of the populist leaders, dawson’s description seemed a little like the one from caudillos… is there any relation? The difference its clear, the «clientelism» concept doesn’t apply anymore as there is a federal government. Dawson’s podcast starts with how politics work, i must say that his definition confused me a little, because it reminded me once again about caudillos, he says that resources are «divided» depending on friendships and favours which seems to be the same concept seen before.

Once again we see the power of mass media, the first glance we took was with the zapatist movements using the internet and now, the influence of the radio (i know the radio came first than internet). The description of how music was used seemed to me a little bit utopic, playing songs to make people «proud» of their country… yet… it works. Mexico has done this before, however, i dont like the way it has turned right now (politicians use popular songs to spread their own campaigns in hope that people will think of them when they listen to the normal song on the radio). It is clear that mass media takes an important place in society and politicians at the time used this to get closer to people, as Dawson says in his podcast, Latin American’s have a «weakness» for integration, people want to feel included and part of the group.

I found interesting the case of Argentina, how Evita renounced to power after all her words and pride of being part of argentina yet, by the word of the people she decided to finally stay out of the authority. Its weird that whatever was said to her is not presented in the text and how strong where their words to make her change her course. I wonder how today’s politics would be if politicans actually listened to the people’s will and respected what they have to say.

I learned a few different things about Lazaro Cardenas, I think my education on him only consist in the importance of his biggest feat; the expropiation of petroleum (ups, not anymore) and the cristero revolution crisis, i did not know about how he threated people and how he «sacrificed» part of his salary, nor of his relation with people.

 

week 9 -Commerce, Coercion, and America’s Empire

On the last few weeks we’ve seen the importance of the United States in Latin America, we’ve seen documents in which some kind of critic is exposed from an author to United States. In this week’s topic «all doubts» of the influence of USA should be erased. First of all, what surprised me (not related to the actual discussion) BANANAS ARE NOT AS WE KNOW THEM, I know most fruits and vegetables have GMOs but i certainly didnt expect bananas.

Dawson’s reading was quite short yet enjoyable, I liked how he described the construction of the Panama canal, I didn’t know the project was started by the french and then finished by americans. In this case, the infuence of USA in Latin America is not only with the construction of the canal but with the cure/vaccine for the mosquitoe infection, quite surprising how the french and panama’s citizens lived all their lifes with such an epidemic disease and how after one year of research by an american the epidemic stopped almost completly. Once agan, the great power of the United States.

About the texts, the manifesto was quite surprising as it reminded me of the revolution, people fighting for their lands, but this time, it was not only an internal conflict but it was combined with an external one. People were protesting how their lands were taken for the production of bananas and they couldn’t get them back. I found interesting the last sentences of the manifesto «Having expressed my ardent desire to defend my country, I welcome you to my ranks without regard to your political tendencies, with the one condition that you come with good intentions to defend our nation’s honor. » I find this lines interesting because people in Latin America are no longer afraid of defending what’s their right, contrary of what we could see during the independence and revolutions were «secret meetings» where held. At the same time, it shows the «weird patriotism» that we Latin Americans have, whenever foreigners get in one’s nation we raise.

Finally, the document that impressed me the most was the one of Donald Duck, I didn’t expect any of those cartoons to be related with the historical context, however, i do remember seeing characters as the «indians». The comic of Donald Duck trading things without value for valuable things is just a reminder on how the conquistadors threated the native people. I found this dialog hilarious as its the pure representation of it:

Week 8 – Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age

Another week, another problem with Latin America. Looking on the bright side… i guess its better to have internal conflicts that with other nations as you are now forming (or reforming) society.

In Dawson’t text i appreciate the photos displayed about the mexican revolution and how they show a fractured division (once again) between social classes, the farmers living in the city with they confused look and the typical photograph of Francisco Villa sitting in the presidential chair. Fun fact: eventhough  Francisco Villa was a revolutionary heroe, he used to be one of the worse bandits at the time. It seems that the mexican revolution was an attempt to give back the power to the people, this is where Francisco I. Madero starts the movement, as Dawson’s text says… Madero didn’t fulfill his promises causing problems between him and Zapata (who was fighting for the land). I find fun how I never actually got a chance to read the document of Plan de Ayala, and its clearly seen that the main objectives from it where to take the land from their «feudal owners» (hacendados) to people who worked the land, and to recognize the agrarial changes in the mexican revolution.

I liked the perspective of Jose Vasconcelos and how he sees mestizaje as a way to get the best qualities of different races while discarting the bad ones, he tries to unite the different social classes, he mentions ignorance as the enemy as it causes problems between people and at some point, discrimination (in these case of the «indians»), I think he even proposes one solution to the problem, which is education. In my own perspective, he is trying to take all the racism that the Spanish colonist brought to America and throw it away. I wish to say that In Mexico (and Latin America as a whole) this kind of thinking where race doesnt matter is achieved but i still believe we need to work more in it, specially now a days with gender discrimination.

And once again, the poem of Dario… reading the traduction didn’t really make any sense to me so i had to google the original version… and such a difference. Once again, brace yourself as some of my patriotism kicks in. The second stanza is just lovely, i love the description of the whole Latin America and how (for me) it felt as if Dario was screaming «United States, you are strong, but we are stronger».

Week 7 – Modernity an Modernization in Mexico

I absolutely loved this week’s reading, specially the interview of Creelman to Porfirio Diaz, most of the documents so far have been a little boring or hard for me but this one… i simply surprised myself devouring the text and finishing it before i realized. Dawson’s interview couldn’t describe better what i’ve always understood (what i think Mexico (Latin America?) understands) by «modernity»; to resemblance the European countries (and how better to do it in Mexico than getting our own charming Dictator with a Paris trauma).

About Porfirio Diaz; I believe he is one of the most controversial figures in Mexico, most people consider him as some kind of villian while others defend his honor and consider him one of the best presidents. In my experience, professors since middle school are supposed to place him as the villain of the Mexican Revolution while Francisco Madero is the heroe, this is also reflected in the name of streets in Mexico. Streets are usually named after the so called «heroes» of the country  and they repeat each other in every municipality (smallest division of power), the ones with the name of «the good guys» are always close or surrounding each city hall, however, the «Porfirio Diaz street» is always left appart and is usually placed far away from them. I do consider him a heroe, and i do agree with how Creelman portraits him (maybe that why it was such an enjoyable lecture?) I truly believe modernization in Mexico (introducing arts and education for everyone in a chaotic place full of wars between other countries and their own people is not an easy job, building railroads to impulse the economy, reducing the idolatry of religion, etc.) was achieved because of him, its for sure that his methods of censorship and hardness towards the people were wrong yet i feel like saying he is a villain or the worst thing to happen to Mexico is such an exageration. It depends on which side you are focusing and whether you believe that the end justify the means or not.

What I didn’t like of Creelman’s text is that you could actually feel how much he appreciated Porifirio Diaz and his interview seems to only favour the good thing he did without mentioning the bad things, during every description of the Porfirio Diaz and the ambiance that the city was living I actually got goosebumps, specially in the aprt where Creelman mentions how great Diaz is for staying that long in the presidency, longer than some kings and then when adding phrases of Diaz saying how he is not staying in Power because he wants to, but because is his duty to the mexican country.

 

Week 6 – Madness

This week’s topic was interesting. It was also surprising, What surprised me? Well… the fact that slavery didn’t really ended with the independece in Latin America. I believe that  one of the reasons for which Mexico seeked its independance was to avoid slavery (thing that I also believe was accomplished), however, I never really thought about the rest of the Latin American countries.

I think this week’s topic show us the effects of the Spanish colonization and how it affected people’s mind, i feel like history is just repeating itself; first the colonists impose the castas as the first sign of discrimination (which ended up with slavery), at some point, people «get tired» of them and start the Independence movements (because we are tired of being slaves and not being treated equally, right?) just to end up in a chaotic place in charge of «a new elite» whose actions seem to be keeping up with slavery and now discriminating not only the indiginous people but women (wait, what went wrong?). So far, Latin America seem to keep one step forward and two steps back.

Now, to keep things fair… I do recognize people in Latin America to be fighters, we can see this through history, we come from being dominated not only from other countries but within our own people and we finally came thruough. The documents in Dawson’s reading prove that as people where now fighting for their own rights, they created their own groups to support themselves and earn their own space in society.

The documents where easy to read as they were mostly manifestos in which groups of people were defending themselves in order to be recognized as citizens and to get their rights.

I believe this is a topic that takes place right now, at least in Mexico woman are still fighting for their rights in order to avoid being discriminated by men, citizenship is hard to obtain because with the arrival of the colonist all rights were removed from the indiginous, then, with the independence of the countries people had to start «from scratch» while building a new society.

Well, I guess this wraps it up for this week. If you are slightly curius of why the title is «madness» is just for a song i was listening while reading Dawson’s chapter and for some reason the lyrics bonded together with the topic that was being discussed.

Week 5 – Caudillos vs state

Answering the question of the podcast… Latin America was a «fertile ground for caudillos» because the Independece brought nothing but chaos. It was carried away with such high expectations by people that when they finally obtained it, they did not know what to do with it. They immediatly realised the real problems that they were facing being comunication and order some of the hardest. Latin American countries are known by their large territorial land so trying to establish a new order is easier said than done. I find that caudillos surged as an immediate response to this problem and tried to bring order to different parts of land.

I found this week’s reading was more fluent than the one from last week, I agree with the description of Dawson, caudillos are well known (at least in Mexico’s history) for their charisma, leadership and militar power, I believe this last point is the reason of why they were popular among the poor, caudillos represented «order» in the land and some kind of deal was made between them, where the caudillos gave them protection in exchange to being military pawns. As the podcast says, because this deal was only based on words the most favored ones were those close to their «patron» giving them enough space for corruption, maybe Latin America’s corruption problem surged from this very moment.

I like Echeverria’s text because its a clear example of the corruption that this caudillo system brought to society, it shows how being close to the patron will be more beneficial. I found that the reading is completely graphical, as i was reading I could not help myself but picturing not only the panorama but all the descriptions he made about the meat. What i didn’t understand was the relation of the story with the Federation, as he makes reference to it in the last paragraph of his text.

My final thoughts;  I think caudillos played an important part in the formation of Latin America. Personally, and using Mexico’s history, I don’t think that caudillos just wanted to be favored by people but they were honored to serve (as most caudillos in Mexican history end up taking the presidency).

It is clear that Independence didn’t bring the liberty and peace that everyone was expecting but more conflicts, in this case, between the old elites and the new type of government (which was non existant and assumed by caudillos), however, independence had to happen and even this civil conflicts are part of what Latin America has become.