In her story “Cooking Lesson”, Rosario Castellanos expertly outlines the woes of women and their place in society. She combines two stories to highlight the sacrifices that she has had to take because of the gender roles that tie her down. During the story, the woman/narrator explains her resentment towards being a housewife all whileContinue reading “Week 4: Food and Drink”
Posted in Blogs, Week 4 | Tagged with Food, gender roles
When Jose Marti discusses in the beginning of his article of the fact that those who have no faith in…
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Having studied the French revolution and the Napoleonic empire for the last two years I was excited to find out what had happened in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies beyond my limited knowledge that they had sought independence shorty after Napoleon’s victory. However, I was sad to learn that in the case of Brazil this was done in an effort to avoid the abolition of slavery. Whilst it was not uncommon during the period for the elites to favour slavery as it benefitted them greatly, in all the revolutions I had previously studied the poor so greatly outnumbered the rich it was possible for them to overthrow the regime. Therefore, I was disheartened to learn how during a time of global revolution liberalism was crushed in Brazil in favour of the arguably dated idea of a constitutional monarchy.
After reading José Martí’s “Our America” a concept that particularly stood out for me was governing specifically for the place being governed. It is the familiar idea that no one size fits all but having read this passage it made me think of governments today and how instability arises because the government does not act in the best interests of the people. Martí’s other point that “those unacquainted with the rudiments of politics should not be allowed to embark on a career in politics” particularly resonated with me given the upcoming US election. I believe that Martí’s commentary on governments is still relevant in today’s political climate and that without the support of the people and a competent leader nothing but instability will ensue.
The third point of Martí’s that particularly interested me was that of placing more importance on studying the history of the region you are in than studying that of Europe. I found this especially interesting given recent discussions in the UK over the whitewashing of history taught in schools. In the phrase “our own Greece is preferable to the Greece that is not ours; we need it more” Martí’s highlights that both America and Greece are equal which was not the view of the European colonisers and that the people of Latin America deserve to hear the history of their ancestors over a history they have no relation to. I believe this is still a problem today with children all around the world focusing on European history over their own national history and agree with Martí’s that European history should not be valued higher than the history of any other region.
Discussion questions:
Do you think history taught in schools should include more global history or national history?
What history did you study when you were at school?
Posted in Blogs, Week 4 | Tagged with Brazil, Jose Marti, Our America
Having studied the French revolution and the Napoleonic empire for the last two years I was excited to find out what had happened in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies beyond my limited knowledge that they had sought independence shorty after Napoleon’s victory. However, I was sad to learn that in the case of Brazil this was done in an effort to avoid the abolition of slavery. Whilst it was not uncommon during the period for the elites to favour slavery as it benefitted them greatly, in all the revolutions I had previously studied the poor so greatly outnumbered the rich it was possible for them to overthrow the regime. Therefore, I was disheartened to learn how during a time of global revolution liberalism was crushed in Brazil in favour of the arguably dated idea of a constitutional monarchy.
After reading José Martí’s “Our America” a concept that particularly stood out for me was governing specifically for the place being governed. It is the familiar idea that no one size fits all but having read this passage it made me think of governments today and how instability arises because the government does not act in the best interests of the people. Martí’s other point that “those unacquainted with the rudiments of politics should not be allowed to embark on a career in politics” particularly resonated with me given the upcoming US election. I believe that Martí’s commentary on governments is still relevant in today’s political climate and that without the support of the people and a competent leader nothing but instability will ensue.
The third point of Martí’s that particularly interested me was that of placing more importance on studying the history of the region you are in than studying that of Europe. I found this especially interesting given recent discussions in the UK over the whitewashing of history taught in schools. In the phrase “our own Greece is preferable to the Greece that is not ours; we need it more” Martí’s highlights that both America and Greece are equal which was not the view of the European colonisers and that the people of Latin America deserve to hear the history of their ancestors over a history they have no relation to. I believe this is still a problem today with children all around the world focusing on European history over their own national history and agree with Martí’s that European history should not be valued higher than the history of any other region.
Discussion questions:
Do you think history taught in schools should include more global history or national history?
What history did you study when you were at school?
Posted in Blogs, Week 4 | Tagged with Brazil, Jose Marti, Our America
The readings brought up a lot of interesting topics that I’ve delved into a bit before, albeit for different regions. Having heard from the video about the many allegories Martí weaves into his work “Nuestra América”, especially via imagery of clothing, one segment caught my attention. Martí decried the elites for flaunting “epaulets and judge’s […]
Posted in Blogs, Week 4 | Tagged with America, Chávez, indigenismo, Martí, narrative
To be completely honest I had a very difficult time writing this week’s blog. I found the topic and readings to be confusing and convoluted. I had trouble following the various varying and contradicting perspectives/narratives spread out through time and place. The confusion of this week seems to be part of a recurring theme ofContinue reading “Week 4: Independence Narratives, Past and Present”
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For this week’s blog post I want to focus on the “Our America” essay by José Martí. This essay reflects José Martí’s reaction to the situation that Cuba was in back when it was still under Spanish occupation. I did a little bit of research into the history, and I found out that Cuba was […]
Posted in Blogs, Week 4 | Tagged with Cuba, Jose Marti, natural man, Our America