In concluding this course, I feel like it has been a very sad course. At the beginning of the course we see the white superiority of colonization over indigenous peoples, the era of Lieutenant Nun, and the low class lives of most of the non-elitists in Latin America. There never seemed to be a happy part f this course, which is kind of surprising because many times we think of current day Latin America to be happy. The sunny weather and vacation spots that scatter this region, seems to glare over the true identity of the region; geographically and culturally. This chapter seemed to be a fitting end because there are uncertainties within the region.
In an increasing world of globalization, I believe we are going to see further inequality between the Global North and the Global South, which doesn’t bode well for many Latin American countries. These countries are not the typical periphery countries when applying migration theories because of the amount of natural resources within the countries. It makes sense for many of these people to try to make a living within their homeland, however because of global powers they are still stuck in developing economies as developing countries.
Through much of the violence and civil wars and the episodes of hard realities, the people of Latin America have become socialized into a culture where government can not always be counted upon, and politics, most definitely is not the answer. Dawson uses Mexico as an example with the earthquake, and how people had already given up on the government to make any sort of response useful. A lack of a government direction to this incident has had lasting impressions because of the economic butt-kicking/crisis the country faced at the time, and how it has affected the future generation.
Critical question…Why? Many countries face war and violence and democratic issues, but WHY has many Latin American countries still not have been able to recover?
How will these countries recover; can they fully?