Week 1

“A Revolutionary Process: The Cuban Revolution in the 1960s”

Video by Florence, Kelsey, and Laura “A Revolutionary Process: The Cuban Revolution in the 1960s”, by Florence, Kelsey, and Laura, was a very informative video educating viewers on the entire process of the revolution that happened in Cuba during the 1960s, from beginning to end (in a very quick, seven-minute-long, Spark-notes-kind-of-version of course). Though onlyContinue reading ““A Revolutionary Process: The Cuban Revolution in the 1960s””

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Student Videos

After watching the student videos I saw a great diversity in topics and in presentation. I myself prefer presentations that use humour and creativity to teach a topic. Those make the videos engaging. Even if the content might not be as strong as other videos, the ones who put creativity in them made them muchContinue reading “Student Videos”

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Student Videos Review and Blog

In the student’s video: “Independence Narratives, Past and Present”, the third story of independence revolving around nationhood caught my attention. The students defined this type of independence as “a separation intended to allow a country to operate without the influence of external governance”. This is a concept I have become familiar with, especially in terms […]

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“Independence Narratives, Past and Present”

Video by Anna and Nisa I found “Independence Narratives, Past and Present”, a video by Anna and Nisa to be really good. It is the perfect example of the phrase “short and sweet”. Only seven minutes long, these women tackle the topic of independence in different nations in Latin America in a fun and creativeContinue reading ““Independence Narratives, Past and Present””

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“The Legacy of US Interventionism in Latin America”

Video by Joe, Felipe, and Olga “The Legacy of US Interventionism in Latin America” by Joe, Felipe, and Olga touches base on several examples of interventionism in Latin America on behalf of the United States and its legacy of destruction and monopolization of several nations. Overall, this video was very detailed and informative and offeredContinue reading ““The Legacy of US Interventionism in Latin America””

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Introduction to Latin America

Introduction to Latin America

Alec Dawson on “Latin America” (podcast)

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First Weeks: Welcome and Tasks

First Weeks: Welcome and Tasks

Details on blogs, viewing, and reading for the first and second weeks

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Openness and Internet Security

Openness and Internet Security

We are living in strange times!

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Social Media

Social Media

So many ways to engage with LAST100!

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Blog Post #1: Week 1

*Because of my love of economics and math, I like to name things arbitrarily to maximize clarity. In this blog post, I will label the video on Marti as A and the video on the uncertain future of Latin America as B*

In this week’s videos, I was particularly moved by two subject matters. Namely, I enjoyed the videos labeled as “Marti and Cuba” (A) and “Towards an Uncertain Future” (B). I think these two videos work perfectly with each other because of my belief that Latin America needs influential leaders such as Marti to cause a change in these uncertain times.

Let’s analyze the first video, A. In A, I was moved by the allusions to my geographical Caribbean partner, Cuba and its patriotic icon, Jose Marti. Jose Marti, venerated as the father of Cuban independence, is one of Latin America’s most famous leaders. He lived in exile in New York, earning his living as a foreign correspondent. Throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, it was through Marti’s gaze that Latin Americans were able to see and understand the United States. In essence, he was one of the gatekeepers between the New World (the economic powerhouse of the US) and Old World (the economically developing Cuba). 

Then, in the second video, B, I enjoyed the economic data they provided about the history of Latin America. Particularly, the way the footage analyzed the critical question of “How in fact do you reform institutions with long histories of corruption and mismanagement?” was awe-inspiring. It reminded me of the striking finding in a World Bank study called Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean. Here, economists try to pin numbers into the fact that Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean could have been twice as productive, had they enjoyed the same level of efficiency in the capital and labor use as in the US. In this study, they conclude that a possible answer to the regions efficiency gap is that the region’s workers produce on average just a fifth of the output of a US worker. 

So, how do these videos/studies relate to each other? I think that they meet in the intersection of economics and culture: we need more capable leaders in Latin America. Learning from Marti, and having a comprehensive view on the uncertainty in Latin America, is essential to cause a change in this troubled region. The members of the diaspora are imperative to cause economic well-being.  

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