Hi! My name is Carolina Rueda Miramontes and I am a first year student in the Faculty of Science. I was born in Mexico City and I lived there until I was about 10 years old. I moved to the Vancouver area about three years ago and have lived here ever since. I decided to take Latin American studies to learn more about my Mexican heritage, as well as broaden my knowledge of other Latin American countries.

The War on Drugs:

This video was really interesting because I found it explained a very complicated (and sad) business in Latin America in a simplified way. However, it included enough detail for the audience to realize how devastating the situation really is. I liked the way they focused on three different countries throughout the video. This gave the audience a chance to compare the three countries and emphasized how large this business has become. It also helped understand where the issue originated and how it has progressed. I also wonder if the expansion of the business from Colombia and Brazil up north to Mexico was inevitable. Geographically, it makes sense that they would manage the drug trafficking farther north, closer to the United States (one of their biggest consumers). However, towards the end of the video they talk about how Mexico saw a management “chance” and took it. What I’d like to know more about are some of the reasons as to why it was Mexico that undertook this charge as opposed to say, Venezuela, or even Colombia.

Independence in Latin America:

I liked this video because it featured people from different parts of Latin America. I got to learn a little more about how independence came to be in other Latin American countries as well as my own. I also liked the fact that each person had some type of diagram or explanation written on the background and although it was a little hard to see, it helped visual learners like me. The last part of the video also made me reflect on the topic of solidarity. I do think most people are proud to belong to a region so rich and diverse as Latin America. Also, I think in a way independence helped nations realize that if the come together they are very much able to overcome any challenges.

Modernity in Latin America:

I thought this video was quite engaging due to the many pictures that it featured. At the beginning, it was a little dull to listen to since some of the voices sounded slightly monotone. Fortunately, the subtitles were there to keep me focused and helped understand the video much better. However, what peaked my interest was the fact that women were allowed to work on factories, despite the fact that they obviously did not have equal rights as men. I thought it was really cool that they had the foundations of a feminist movement, even if it did not progress very much. I was also surprised at the rate of expansion of the railroad system in Brazil. This urgent need of expansion shows how countries full of resources (in this case, coffee) are so essential for trade in the rest of the world.

Caudillos:

This video was perhaps my least favourite out of the four. It contained really interesting information however, because there was only few drawings on the screen at a time I found that it was not as engaging. Although I was not a huge fan on how the information was presented, it was nice to see the different types of pictures that people had drawn and made the video quite cute. Fortunately, this video still got the main message across and taught me about some Latin American historical figures that I had not previously heard of.