This week’s reading was about war and violence in Latin America that happened in the years 1959-1990. Not only is it called the terror, but can also be called the “Dirty Wars”. Reading about the wars the happened in Latin America was sort of overwhelming. I did not know there was so much violence and insurgencies in Latin America during that time period.

There were many causes to these wars. It was the U.S. intervention which led to counterculture, the youth who rebelled because they were afraid of their future, and the fight between the left and the right wings. I thought it was interesting how Dawson explains the wars that happened in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.  What stood out to me in this chapter is the events that happened in Peru. “Peru’s dirty war began during the cold war, and was characterized by a struggle between a Marxist left and a free-market right..” (Dawson, p.292).  It was specifically Alberto Fujimori that made the events in Peru standout. As said earlier, I thought this chapter was somewhat overwhelming. I was just puzzled about Fujimori’s story. He was promoted to a high position because “he was an ethnic outsider to Peru’s elite community” (p.298). Further, Fujimori was able to fight Sendero and catch President Gonzalo. Later on he gets arrested in Chile,  then goes back to Peru in 2006 to run again.  He was then put in trial because of corruption and responsible for many killings.

This story leaves me with a question: Did you think Alberto Fujimori was a great politician or not?

Chapter 7 is about well-known politicians in Latin America during the 1920s-1930s. The term populism is brought up, and its relevance to Latin America during the 1930s. More advanced technology and mass media is continued in this chapter. This time, what is new  are radios, radionovelas, comic books, movies, songs, etc. Listening to the radio was apparently the most popular type of mass media at this time because everyone could listen to news and people thought that it was good way to communicate with others in their community. Because listening to radio was so popular, many politicians took advantage of the radio by making announcements and sending messages through it for people to hear and be aware of what they say. Pretty similar to what many politicians do today, except we don’t use radio much anymore, we use social media and TV!

Getting to the part on politicians, the ones that stood out for me in this chapter were Lazaro Cardenas, and Juan & Eva “Evita” Peron. Lazaro Cardenas succeeded Plutarco Elias Calles who was “Mexico’s most powerful figure” (Dawson, p.213). What is great about Cardenas is how modest and generous he was. His salary was cut by a half and would cancel his cabinet meetings to visit the poor (p.213). He was about land reform and distributing them to the poor. On the other hand, the Perrons were very famous in Argentina. Eva, also known as Evita, was an actress who happened to fall in love and became a mistress of Juan Perron. Both grew up in poor/working-class families. The controversial part of their relationship is that many suspected they were using each other for publicity. Eva would take advantage of her fame and use it to promote Perron. Later on, many people wanted Eva to run for vice-president next to her husband as president. I do actually have ambivalent feelings about the Perrons. Although Juan seemed to have great plans in mind as politician, he failed to accomplish those things and was later on exiled. I also did not really understand why many people wanted Evita to run for vice president without having a lot of political experience.

M Blitz. (2015, January 26). The Truth About Christopher Columbus. Retrieved from: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/01/real-christopher-columbus/

The article challenges the myth about Columbus being a hero. Blitz shares stories about what Columbus and his crew did wrong specifically immoral and harsh things he has done. Blitz mentions that Columbus never found America and did not prove the world was not flat. He further argues that many parts of Columbus story are false and some parts were adjusted. What is also brought up in this blog entry is that the majority of what happened during Columbus’s journey was enslaving the natives when initially his main goal was to gain wealth. Women and children particularly were treated worse. For instance, a passage from one of his crew members is quoted, and he shares his story on swaying a woman and Columbus allowing to rape them. Columbus also had sold women into prostitution. One of the things I’m researching for in this project is women involved in Columbus journey. The fact that women (and children) were treated unjust is important to know about Columbus story. Especially that in the Columbus’ journal, it seemed one-sided and biased, it is good to hear a different side to the story, especially one that contradicts to belief of Columbus being a hero.

Rapid City Journal. Top 5 Atrocities committed by Christopher Columbus. Retrieved from: http://rapidcityjournal.com/photos/top-atrocities-committed-by-christopher-columbus/collection_76ebb2b8-f63d-11e3-a137-001a4bcf887a.html#5

Almost like the article referenced above, they talk about how Christopher Columbus was not a hero and has done very harsh and cruel acts to the natives. Columbus’s mission was to find gold and slaves to bring back to Spain. Columbus and his crew ordered their slaves to find gold. He even threatened the slaves that if they did not find gold, the slaves’ hands would be chopped off. The article quotes a passage by Bartolome de la Casas, a young priest who wrote what the Natives had experienced when the Spanish had colonized them. Casas claims that the Spanish were cruel by killing many natives. The Arawaks attempted to get revenge and fight back to the Spaniards. This however did not workout and led them to commit suicide because they thought it was the only way to protect themselves from the Spaniards. What makes this article useful for my project is that we hear another side of the story, specifically negative acts that happened during Columbus journey, which is not much stated in Columbus journal.  As said earlier, Columbus’ journal seemed very biased. What is great about this article too is that it includes pictures which can be used for the video.

Chapter 6 of Dawson reading is about how the U.S. came into interventions with Latin America. It started with the Military interventions, then came economic and cultural interventions.

There are two things that really caught my attention in this week’s reading; bananas and Disney. I found it interesting that bananas are what started the commodities and trades between many countries in the Americas. With the cultivation and production of bananas attracting many people, there formed the United Fruit Company (UFCO) which “immediately became the largest banana company in the world” (Dawson, p.187).  I was also fascinated to hear that Walt Disney got some inspiration from Latin America when creating his cartoons.  I did not know much about the shows The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos but it was interesting to learn that Walt Disney made these shows to promote tourism in Latin America.

Two of the documents in this chapter that stood out to me was Sandino’s Political Manifesto and the film, Silent War. In Sandino’s document, he asserts how he was strongly opposed to influence from the U.S. and that Nicaragua should live more independently. His tone seemed that he was strong about his opinion and was willing to do anything for the better of his country.  In the film Silent War, it emphasizes on what the U.S. can contribute to Latin America and can end up having a positive impact to the people.

The title of this chapter says it all, this chapter emphasizes on problems that happened during modernity. In the previous chapter, we only hear about the great impacts of modernity and how Diaz was optimistic about Mexico’s future. In this chapter though, we hear a contrasting side to the story, we see how Diaz made a blunder during his interview and that not all people experienced positive things during modernity, particularly people from the countryside

Modernity had some negative impact to the countryside. “In Mexico, almost every mile was accompanied by some minor conflict. Rural groups were neither as compliant nor as easily controlled as Porfirio Diaz had hoped” (Dawson, pp.142-143). Many violence had occurred in the countryside. Whenever the rural groups could not agree with the elites, they would respond to them with rebellion.

One of the most interesting things in this chapter is the document La Raza Cosmica by Jose Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos talks about his appreciation of racial mixing, and pretty much describes what is considered “beautiful”.

Overall, what I liked most about this chapter is we hear another side to the story. Rather than just hearing the positive outcomes of modernity, we finally hear voices that were left out in the previous chapter, voices of people who faced negative impacts and struggles during modernity.