This weeks readings are focus on how the populations in ‘Latin American’ began to protest against the imperialist rule of the countries that ‘owned’ them. The experience between North America and ‘Latin American’ experience differ considerably on their yearning for independence. The majority of the population in ‘Latin American’ countries were forced there, rather than the largely freedom of choice in North America.

Around the late 1700s there was a growing discourse of universal rights. This inspired many countries in the New World to rebel against the crown that was controlling them. In North America, the term “No taxation without representation” was a catalyst to the rebellions that started in the Southern lands of America. This newfound confidence led to a desire for political and economic freedom from the monarchies that were controlling the New World.

However, ‘Latin America’ was concerned of being controlled again by the North American individuals, so many of the independence narratives identify how their freedoms wants to be separate to that of their Northern counterparts, because of the destruction that the European monarchy already instigated.

Out of all the Independence narratives, I found José Marti’s the most interesting because of its literary foundations. He focuses on ‘Latin American’ identity and how this has been moulded by their collective experience.

The language that he uses to refer to ‘Latin Americans’ is that of familiarity, as he calls them ‘brothers’. This conveys the idea that they are part of a family, fused by their unfortunate exploitation by the European, particularly Spanish rule. This relates to how they have developed a strength and courage that can not be matched by their colonisers. For example, Marti uses the metaphor of a tiger in order to portray the strength of the oppressed: ‘The tiger, frightened by gunfire, returns at night to his prey.’. This clearly presents how although their colonisers. The use of the word ‘prey’ when identifying the European colonisers is important as it conveys the idea that although they seem powerful, its identity of being ‘prey’ means that it will eventually succumb to its inferior position to the tiger.

In both of this week’s readings there was a occurring theme of identity; and parallel to this the complexity it. In the Catalina De Erauso reading, the behaviour that Catalina portrays while she is travelling around is a complete contrast to the type of lifestyle expected of a nun. I think this conveys how the ‘New World’ was fertile was new opportunities that were inaccessible to her as a nun. I am not condoning Catalina’s behaviour, but it is interesting how she adopts the colonial behaviour of bloodthirsty violence.

The second reading looked at how the casta paintings have become increasingly controversial, because of the racial ‘hierarchies’ that the paintings exhibit. When first looking at the paintings, it can seem almost progressional because of the intermingling of races. However, after reading the article it is clear that the paintings seem to be a sensationalisation and romanticism of racism. The article itself explained how the Casta paintings were part of the ‘European desires for exotica’. There are clear distinctive features which the paintings have for races, whether that be the facial expressions or the surroundings. For example, one of the paintings which depicts an African man who seems to be married to an indigenous woman. The man seems to have caricature facial features, which depicts the underlying racial stereotypes.

The image that I found the most interesting was one that had multiple paintings of couples below a Virgin Mary figure. This painting was interesting because the colours that surrounded Mary were very light, mainly white colours which were only transferred to the women in the paintings. I think that this reflects how these paintings subtly convey how white people, in this instance the women, are the on the same level in desirability to biblical characters.

Another thing that I picked up on, was the number of white women – 5/8 women – in the paintings compared to other ethnicities in the painting. Although this is just an interpretation, it seems that these paintings have the preliminary white man’s fear that men from other races will ‘steal’ their women and corrupt them.

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This week’s readings were about the ‘discovery’ of America by Christopher Columbus and also about the history of Peru and its government.

The main comments that I have are from Christopher Columbus’ journal. The first impression of the journal is that Columbus believes that he is going to India to try and spread religion and Spanish rule. The beginning part of the journal was not as interesting as the second half when Columbus made it to land.

As soon as Columbus finds land, he states how he ‘made the necessary declarations’ (Columbus, 1492 pg 94) to take possession of the land. I think this sets the tone for the rest of the piece, as it portrays the ignorance that explorers had towards the indigenous people’s claim to the land that they were already settled on. Moreover, this idea is supported through the constant references that Columbus makes to how the indigenous people seem easy to convert to Christianity.

The language that Columbus uses seems very passive, in the sense that all of his revelations in the new land that he has discovered is not necessarily beneficial to him as an individual but to the Spanish monarchy. The constant references to how the ‘fertile’ ground, vast green trees and streams are instrumental to the growth and success of the Spanish rule on this land. This passivity that Columbus portrays through the language of his journal reflects his position on this journey. He was trying to persuade the Spanish monarchy that his journey to another land was advantageous to Spain, because of the money that he had promised to them from his journey.

The theme of money and wealth is prevalent in Columbus’ obsession with gold that is observed to be on many of the ‘islanders’ that he has encountered. Also, once he gets to land his new quest is to find the king of the land, who is supposedly the ‘Great Khan’. From the extracts, it seems that Columbus’s desire to find the gold is his lifeline, as he is constantly changing direction in order to try and find where the king and this gold is.

Another thing that I wanted to bring up were the religious tropes that I believe are scattered throughout Columbus’s journal entries. This is greatly because of the overwhelming natural imagery of the ‘trees and fruits, their plants, their harbours and all their splendours’ (Columbus, 1492, pg 127). Focusing on the ‘trees and fruits’, pulls similarities to the illustration of the Garden of Eden, and how Columbus is trying to purposefully represent how this land he has discovered is like that in the Bible which is so important in Spanish society.

I watched a couple of videos on the same topic in order to try and compare the different styles and also the content. The topic for the videos were ‘The Meeting of Two Worlds’.

In the first video I watched by Sophie Chevalier, Michelle Marin, Elena Munk, and Christiana Tse. It was a clear and simple video that identified a variety of complex topics. Primarily, the group focused on the differences between Spanish and Aztec traditions: including the different beliefs in prophecies and warfare. I really liked the simplicity of the video, as it made the content easy to understand even though the ideas that were depicted in the video was interesting and made room for more research and discussion.

The second video that I watched was by Thomas Seagrave, Daniel Fielburg, Jasmin Jhaj, Rick Cheng, and Christine Santa María. This video was very interesting, with a lot more in the video compared to the first video. There was a clear opinion on Christopher Colombus’ behaviour towards indigenous people, slaves and also women. The focus on gender was intriguing because of the unique perspective that this gave the video. However, the video was very long with a lot of information that was crammed into the 5 minute video. I think a clearer structure would be useful in order to present a transparent topic of what the video’s intentions are.