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Week Four: Independence Narratives
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Out of the three narratives we read for this week, I found Chavez' most compelling. Through the use of statistics and comparisons he is able to take a global and powerful stance on the damages of neoliberalism. In particular, I found it interesting how... read full post >>
Week Four: Independence Narratives
Posted by: feedwordpress
Out of the three narratives we read for this week, I found Chavez' most compelling. Through the use of statistics and comparisons he is able to take a global and powerful stance on the damages of neoliberalism. In particular, I found it interesting how he was able to include other countries in his narrative of North versus South, mentioning Africa as another example of where neoliberalism failed left the country struggling. To me I think the Cold War is really an integral part of the story of Northern Paternalism and control. Chavez mentions 1945-1975 as a time where there was more growth than in modern day. This time period aligns with the democratic spring where following world war II, Latin American countries were developing their economies and their own governments before U.S. intervention. The story of neoliberalism begins with the control imposed by foreign governments afraid of the potential power that newly democratic Latin countries held.
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Chavez also incorporates the youth more than the other two pieces, seeing children and in particular the education of children as the future. The use of children has multiple effects in the piece. First it situates the narrative as one of the future and one of hope. Second, children are universal and persuasive. While colonial powers may not care about other countries, they have a political stake in pretending to care about or actually facilitating education, food, and living standard for children. In this manner, Chavez is making both a true and very compelling argument of why Latin America need to expel the North. He also argues for an active rejection of colonial powers; to get rid of the North there must be active and potentially violent struggle. I found this to be an interesting approach as often non violent resistance is triumphed as the best method for political structure.
While arguing for strong resistance, Chavez also suggests tangible goals for Latin America: banks, education, health care programs, and trade agreements. His emphasis on media is also crucial to the struggle especially considering the western propaganda during the Cold War period. I think this mix of both concrete action and larger goals is what makes his piece more compelling as it situates the struggle in achievable realities for the people. His piece is convincing even though he as a leader was not, making me wonder what strong leadership with this framework could have achieved.
Week 4: Authentic vs. Aesthetic Representation
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In order to successfully understand the Independence of the Countries within Latin America it is first important to understand the history of Latin America and why it needed to reclaim independence in the first place. It was interesting to be able to read three different people’s accounts from three different periods in time which depictedContinue reading "Week 4: Authentic vs. Aesthetic Representation" read full post >>
Week 4 | “Silences in Shadows”: Stories of Idependence
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Independence of Latin America is an event I usually generalized based on the facts and information my school and family transmitted and taught me about El Salvador. As far as I can remember, my school teachers didn’t talk anything about the independence processes of other Latin American countries. While reading the 1st chapter of AlexanderContinue reading "Week 4 | “Silences in Shadows”: Stories of Idependence" read full post >>
WEEK 4: SIMON SAYS…
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Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather of Vancouver this week… I am already looking forward for summer! Talking about summer, while in the Northern hemisphere winter is coming, summer is showing up in Conception, Chile where one of my friends stays for her exchange year and she keeps telling how beautifulContinue reading "WEEK 4: SIMON SAYS…" read full post >>
Week Three: The Casta Paintings and Lieutenant Nun
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Learning about the Casta Paintings was interesting and surprising to me, because of the drastic difference it shows in the European colonization of Latin America compared to that of North America. In Latin America, intermarriage between races was so common that they came up with a complex system to classify all the different combinations of […] read full post >>
Week 3 – The Colonial Experience
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In connection to last weeks blog post on Christopher Columbus’ discovery of Latin America I will further discuss how his perception of the indigenous people contributed to Europeans developing an identity anxiety during the colonial period in terms of not only asking about the indigenous people’s identity but also how to classify their own, whichContinue reading "Week 3 – The Colonial Experience" read full post >>
The Colonial Experience, Catalina de Erauso and the Casta Paintings
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What an interesting week! The expectations I had of what this class would be covering have already been exceeded. First off, I’d like to share my thoughts on the opinion of Las Casas versus the opinion of Sepulveda. Here we were presented with two sides of a question: what type of beings are Indigenous individuals?Continue reading "The Colonial Experience, Catalina de Erauso and the Casta Paintings" read full post >>
Week Three: The Colonial Experience
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In this week’s discussion topic, I found the subject of Casta Paintings particularly interesting. Before watching the video, I had never heard of Casta Paintings, the idea of trying to separate and label the different mixtures of people did not come to mind when I thought of Latin America’s “colonial experience”. The paintings show the […] read full post >>
Week 3: Melting Pot or Mosaic?
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Where are you from? A basic introductory question for some and a daunting one for others. My whole life this question has been a tough one to answer, when your appearance and cultural/ethnic heritage differ to the people looking at you and expecting something else it makes it difficult to assign one identity to yourself.Continue reading "Week 3: Melting Pot or Mosaic?" read full post >>
