Much like anything written, spoken, read, watched or otherwise left to interpretation of an audience, specific members of the audience will always interpret the message of the speaker in the way that suits them best. From the Bible to the Qu’ran to Lord of the Rings to any historical document in the world, people will take the action of explaining the meaning of something to what serves their own interests best. Relating to the excerpts from Dawson’s Latin America Since Interdependence (LASI) to different peoples’ interpretations of actual events such as Esteban Echeverría’s Slaughter House (aka El Matadero) or interpretations of other’s author’s works such as Hugo Chávez’s speech at the XII G-15 Summit (2014) invoking Pablo Neruda’s poetry and piggybacking Simon Bolívar’s rhetoric to push his own political agenda. These being good or bad is not really the subject of importance rather the rhetoric and diction deliberately chosen from and the intent of that interpretation. We see that the use of Neruda’s Chant to Bolívar both reinforces and defines Bolívar as the “father” of modern politics in the region as well as preemptively endorses the proposition Chávez is about to announce. These sorts of interpretations create a rich tapestry which intricately weaves the history of such a diverse region together through art, politics and social revolution.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with arts, blogpost4, Independence Narratives Past and Present, UBC
I think it’s important to recognize the diversity of Latin America and it’s incredibly complex history of immigration. Keeping this in mind, to recognize where some of the sensualization or fetishization of these stories comes from; the story of Catalina de Erauso, or the Lieutenant Nun being a perfect example. One of the major draws of this memoir, besides it being nearly 400 years old, is the fetishization of the transsexual, transgender or cross dressing young Erauso. This young person was raised in a granted, less than ideal setting for anyone, yet almost idealistic for any other woman of this era was afforded, had the opportunity to escape, which they promptly took at the age of 15 as they started onto a journey only bringing benefit to themself.
By no means would I think Erauso particularly worse then any other European colonizer of the 1600’s, nor somehow exempt of their acts of violence they alone committed, what I would argue is that Erauso did what they believed they had to do in order to survive. This is not an argument on their gender identity or their gender presentation, nor sexuality, but rather a statement of facts, Erauso went beyond their personal safety to insulate themselves and become who they had to be in order to feel safe. From the stealing to the lying to the murders and even considering the sexuality, these things all present a desperate desire to feel safe, successful and desired.
At the end of the day, Erauso was not a great person, a terrible icon for any community (LGBT2SQ+, trans, women, colonial, or otherwise), recognizing the main reasons for their claim to fame through literature are frankly unremarkable. Their depictions of life details events they held important, things that iff others were as educated or whose families held these relics in such condition may have rendered this account less then amazing leaving the only draw of their “un-explainable” sexuality or gender presentation to account for their sudden rise in popularity nearlu 200 years ago. There are numerous reasons why this documentation holds valuable historic information, but less about why this account in particular if it were to be written by another.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with arts, blogpost3, colonial experience, UBC
Reading Columbus’ journals leaves me with a reinforced belief that Columbus may not be the villain of Euro-American history, but he played a very significant role as a villain. Although the reality that understanding does not time travel well, the things Columbus did were against the beliefs of his own God, the Church through Antonio de Montesino, Bartolomé de las Casas and the Spanish heads of state, including, albeit arguably, King Ferdinand II and his son King Charles V during that time period. Although the violence Columbus committed against the Natives of the Americas’ was horrific, it was far from surprising. The thing I found most surprising in these excerpts were the lack of the details of what he did to the peoples he had plans to “subjugate” as when the Lucayan peoples refused his orders or him stating “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand”. Unfortunately, this seems to be in the further future of Christopher Columbus.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with arts, blogpost2, chirstophercolumbus, Columbus, UBC
