Blogs

Hello!  I’m Audrey Valerio and I’m a third year student in the Land and Food Systems program. I am studying sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on the region of Latin America. I am taking this course to gain a multidisciplinary context on the area I am hoping to do agricultural work in in the future! … Continue reading WEEK 1 → read full post >>

Whenever Christopher Columbus is mentioned, much of the time the discussion goes in one of two directions, either painting him as a hero or villain (I use these terms loosely).  But this week’s material has caused me to think deeper about the narratives that we share, specifically the fact that the character of Christopher Columbus […] read full post >>

My impression of Columbus is one that has never had particularly strong footing. At a young age, he was a sort of folk hero, along the same lines as someone like Hernan Cortes of Ferdinand Magellan. The implications of Columbus’ ‘discovery’, as well as his own character, were of less importance than his arbitrary elevation […] read full post >>

For a while now, I have had the intention of reading the journal of Christopher Columbus but I just hadn’t gotten around to it…until now, well in part at least. And to be honest, I feel näive for feeling surprised at what I read, rather like the shock experienced by the sadness at the end […] read full post >>

Listening to “The Meeting of Two Worlds” videos and reading the journal of Christopher Columbus himself has left me with two feelings. One being, intrigued about what happens next in the historical story, and the second being frustrated with Columbus. The first feeling is usually how I feel when I begin to learn about a […] read full post >>

The first thing to know about Christopher Columbus, is that that is not his real name. His real name is Cristoforo Colombo, an Italian man. I find it interesting because even with the name of this course and the socially constructed term of “Latin America,” we can see that ideas and life courses get translated …

Continue reading "The Meeting of 2 Worlds"

read full post >>

The arrival of Columbus and his people to the Americas in 1492 and what it signifies for both Latin American and European history is an incredibly complex subject. It starts from the way that arrival is framed – is it a “discovery”, a “conquering”, an “invasion”? We tend to quickly classify it as one or […] read full post >>

This week’s subject is surrounding the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and his first interactions with indigenous people. By watching the the videos and reading the articles I became more familiar with Columbus ambitions regarding his reasoning for starting his voyage towards western hemisphere. It was interesting to realize that his main driver for […] read full post >>

Hello! I am a third year student in the Latin American Studies department. I hope to be a documentary film-maker one day and I think there are many stories to be discovered from the region of Latin America. I grew up in Colorado, which had a large Mexican population which may be where my interest […] read full post >>

When I first heard of Columbus, it was in a middle school in Switzerland. Because of Switzerland’s relative disconnection with... read full post >>