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It was really interesting to read about all of the differences and similarities between the USA and Latin America in regards to how they treated women, racial minorities, and slaves. The thing that surprised me most was the stereotype in Latin America that women who worked in any job had “loose sexual morals” and were […] read full post >>

The scars of slavery are present and it fact remain deeply gashed into the fabric of North America. For me the most alarming thing is the lack of accountability and reconciliation on the part of many Latin American countries. I’ve … Continue reading → read full post >>

The scars of slavery are present and it fact remain deeply gashed into the fabric of North America. For me the most alarming thing is the lack of accountability and reconciliation on the part of many Latin American countries. I’ve … Continue reading → read full post >>

Due to some time constraints, actually sitting down to write this was a bit of a struggle, but here we go! Most are aware of the place that slavery in our past held, but I think we seldom go into the details of how these individuals transitioned from being slaves, with no rights or freedoms,Continue reading "Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics" read full post >>

In this week's blog post I was particularly interested in the concept of constitutionalism in Latin America. In my perspective, constitutions are the backbone of citizenship and studying the way laws and first principles have been forged in Latin America will give us a comprehensive understanding of the rule of law in this region.

To study this, I read Mirrow's Latin American Constitutions. This book provided me with a comprehensive historical study of the concept of constitutionalism in Latin America. It ventures out from the independence period (similar to the ones we studied in Week 4) to the current day. One of the most important focus areas of the book is the Constitution of Cadiz. After coming across this topic, I shifted my focus to this document.

The Constitution of Cádiz or the Spanish Constitution of 1812 has an important place in the development of liberal constitutionalism in Europe and Latin America. It also played a very big role in the independence of many Latin American republics. This is because in Cádiz. “The American
question” involved issues of the representation of American populations and the citizenship of indigenous populations. Whether various populations counted for purposes of representation was debated with concern and passion in this document. Just as the United States Constitution was forced to consider issues of slaves, slavery, and the slave trade, so too we find these issues at the forefront of the American question in Cádiz, Spain.

I would like to argue that these constitutional ideas and experiences were brought back to Latin America countries, many of which were already well on the path to complete independence. read full post >>

In this week's blog post I was particularly interested in the concept of constitutionalism in Latin America. In my perspective, constitutions are the backbone of citizenship and studying the way laws and first principles have been forged in Latin Ameri... read full post >>

This week’s topic focused on rights and emancipation, particularly in the aspects of race and gender. It is quite jarring to think about the reality of race and the effects it had — and frankly still has — on both North and South America. For instance, the very fact that the last abolition date of […] read full post >>

This week we are learning about why liberalism never quite thrived in Latin America, and why perhaps liberal ideals were never fully absorbed and integrated into Latin American cultures and societies. As we learnt last week, the Caudillo revolutionaries had ideologically great ideas for the future of Latin America, included in these were: freedom, equality,  …

Continue reading "Post-Revolution Latin America: Race and Acceptance In a ‘New’ Society"

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The concept of citizenship granting equal rights and freedoms to a national community is the most idealistic approach to politics. However, as with liberalism, this functions best in theory under the guise of colonial rule. And as we all know, in this post-colonial age, this ideal and theoretical grasp on citizenship is far from easyContinue reading "Week 6: Withholding rights for economic prosperity?" read full post >>

First of all, my favourite thing from this week’s reading was learning more about Cuban history. Where I come from, Cuba is demonized for its socialist background, and therefore, we know very little about it. I studied Brazilian history throughout my entire academic life and still, I was surprised to discover what a great parallelContinue reading "Week 6: Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics" read full post >>