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Hey everyone and welcome back! This week was a little tough because our midterm! I hope it went well for everyone. This week I would like to talk about the USA-Latin America relationship over time and the common misinterpretation of Bolivar’s “Letter from Jamaica”. As we saw in the readings from this week and fromContinue reading "WEEK 9: The USA, a new colonizer?" read full post >>

I was very interested in the aspect of fear that seemed to drive most of the events that the readings discuss. It seemed that throughout the Americas, every group of people was scared of another group. That fear sometimes led those groups to lash out at another, creating a self-sustaining cycle of fear as violence […] read full post >>

This week really showed us the divide between classes that was present in Latin America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I was particularly interested by the quote “one person’s boom was always another’s crisis” (141), as it helped me put the “golden age” and what that term meant for different groups of individualsContinue reading "Week 8: Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age" read full post >>

The resonating theme for this week’s reading to me was ‘conflict’ – and it seems this has been the case for a great deal of the last few weeks’ readings. Conflict between Latin America and the encroaching imperialism of the … Continue reading → read full post >>

The resonating theme for this week’s reading to me was ‘conflict’ – and it seems this has been the case for a great deal of the last few weeks’ readings. Conflict between Latin America and the encroaching imperialism of the … Continue reading → read full post >>

To me, there was an especially interesting passage in this week’s reading: “When Porfírio Díaz changed his mind and won an obviously fixed election (notable for the fact that Madero was jailed before election and then exiled), middle-class optimism turned to rage.” What struck me wasn’t the middle-class rage, but what caused it. Here areContinue reading "Week 8: Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age" read full post >>

This weeks readings shed more light on another perspective of the development of Latin America in the early 1900s. It is interesting to read from the perspective of the people from Latin America in literary forms that exist outside the sphere of the elites. It is refreshing to try to understand history from perspectives thatContinue reading "Week 8: Belonging to nowhere" read full post >>

Dawson’s definition of revolution is interesting. He states that “revolution is a claim of ownership on history” and “an attempt to shape a view of the past that organises power in the present” through inheritance or attributing meaning. Before the American Revolution, “revolution” was a much more literal word. Revolutionaries would want to “revolve” or […] read full post >>

Dawson’s definition of revolution is interesting. He states that “revolution is a claim of ownership on history” and “an attempt to shape a view of the past that organises power in the present” through inheritance or attributing meaning. Before the American Revolution, “revolution” was a much more literal word. Revolutionaries would want to “revolve” or […] read full post >>

This week I was captured by the Ruben Dario poem, A Roosevelt. I found it to be a beautiful and passionate description of Latin America as well as a scathing rejection of those who try to change or control it. … Continue reading → read full post >>