Hello! I am Lourdes Kletas, a 4th year student studying commerce. I recently came back from an exchange semester in Barcelona and so this is my semester back at UBC after a while abroad. I am very excited for this course because of my interest in Latin America. I have travelled to Mexico many times but I have not explored any of the rest of Latin America. I would definitely like to travel around Latin America. I’m very excited to learn about such a diverse, complex, culturally rich, and interesting region!
Video Analysis:
The Meeting of Two Worlds III
This was one of my favourite videos because I felt they were telling a story. I found the use of images, videos, and music quite effective as it fit the information they were giving the audience. There were certain points throughout the video that made me feel quite angry. Listening to the narrator speak about how Columbus thought the indigenous people would be good slaves, made me feel a lot of anger towards the colonizers. Furthermore, hearing about how colonizers raped indigenous women, made me even angrier towards colonizers and the idea of colonization. Most of the facts shared throughout this video reinforced my negative sentiments towards Columbus and colonization. I also thought this video was clear and easy to follow. I enjoyed how the narrators explained the meeting of two worlds in an easy to follow sequential fashion.
Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics
I think this video was well done because of how effectively they split the information into different time periods. It was interesting to see how rights and citizenship changed from time period to time period. I was particularly intrigued when they spoke about the encomienda system and how haciendas were established through the encomienda system. I had never heard of the encomienda system and never thought haciendas were related to colonialism in any way. I also liked this video because of how it compared citizenship and rights in different time periods. It was interesting when the narrator compared women’s rights in pre-colonial times to women’s rights in colonial times. I also liked how they spoke about rights in modern day Latin America. I find at times people tend to focus on history and forget to include present day facts and so I was glad they spoke about current citizenship and rights in Latin America.
Caudillos versus the Nation State
This was one of my least favourite videos because of the way the information was presented. The video was hard to follow because the students read the information off a sheet of paper and this made the video monotonous. I would have preferred this video if it had pictures and music. This video did have a lot of valuable and interesting information but it was hard to absorb because it was read so quickly.
Commerce, Coercion, and America’s Empire II
Of the videos I watched, this one was one of my least favourites mostly because of the sound quality. The video was very muffled and so I could barely hear what the students were saying. I also thought the information was read too quickly and so I did not get a chance to fully understand the material.