Max Cameron talked about the “democratic experimentation” that is happening in Latin America today, largely as a byproduct of the USA withdrawing from policing the region (coups are more so a thing of the Cold War at this point). One of takeaways I got from this is that the biggest threat to democracy in Latin […]
Through this week’s reading and videos, it was very powerful to see how las madres de plaza de mayo used…
Alec Dawson on US policy towards Latin America during the Cold War (podcast)
Video by Joe, Felipe, and Olga
For the video project, our group has discussed adding a ‘human’ element to what occurred in Latin America between the 1960s-1980s, rather than simply relate what happened on a macro level and risk losing a real sense of grief over … Continue reading
Second Source: Guatemala and the United Fruit Company: Office of the Historian – United States Department of State. “Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Guatemala.” September 11, 1953. This public document, redacted by the United States Department of State in 1953, outlines in great detail the sentiment towards Guatemala and the Arbenz government taken […]
What I found the most interesting this week was how Arbenz went about changing the way the United Fruit Company had control over Guatemala, mostly through the Agrarian Reform Law, “Plan 900.” The UFCO, which in 1952 cultivated only 139,000 acres of its 3 million acres of property in the country, lost 234,000 acres as […]
I find the general topic of American intervention in Latin America to be intriguing, so this week’s reading was particularly interesting. Latin America essentially entered a new age of imperialism with the introduction of massive (typically American) companies. The example that is highlighted in this chapter is Guatemala. The UFCO at one point had a … Continue reading “Week Nine”
So far this semester we have traveled from the early colonial days of the 1500s to the not so distant past of the 20th century. In particular, this week has focused on continued imperialism against Latin America from its new enemy to the North. Dawson’s reading has two narratives; the more commonly known militaristic intervention […]
The first emotion I feel whenever I hear about the united fruit company is one of disgust; how could a corporation be allowed to be so aggressively expansive and so disrespectful in its treatment of the population it essentially controlled? One of the many monikers for the company was “el pulpo,” or “the octopus,” referencing […]
