This week’s readings provided works from both Simón Bolívar in his Letter from Jamaica in which he outlined his political and philosophical ideas for Latin American in his plea to Europe through which he used patriotic words and phrases to create national pride, as well as Hugo Chávez’s letter commemorating Bolívar on his work for “liberation” of Venezuela. These readings, while quite different, had a shared sense of patriotism for their country as they took us through the battles fought and the lives lost in what they believed were necessary actions to liberate their countries. I thought it was interesting to see Bolívar’s dreams first hand, and then compare it to that of his admirers in the power that Bolívar had so many decades later in other political leaders of his beloved country.