Simon Bolivar’s “Letter from Jamaica”, definitely introduced me to new facts, and ideas regarding colonialism and independence. It was interesting for me to see how Bolivar called the Spaniards “destructors”. I had never read a historical excerpt where colonists were called out for their destructive behaviour. For some reason, I considered critiquing colonialism more of a modern day attitude. I did not like how Bolivar compared the elite in the New World to slaves. The elite had slaves, and so this remark was quite out of touch although I’m assuming he meant to exaggerate to accentuate the fact that the elite felt politically powerless.

It was interesting to me how the creole elite saw the Haitian revolution as an inspiration but also a threat. The creole elite found themselves in a position of wanting independence but also worried that this independence would shake up the social order already present in the new world. I never thought of this other side of the independence movement. Mistakenly, I always figured that everybody, no matter what class, would want independence wholeheartedly. To me, the fight for independence was a “no brainer” and I never thought someone would doubt it. I liked learning about Tupac Amaru II and his fight against colonialism. This was completely new to me and so I found it very interesting. Bolivar’s comment on governing Latin America being like ploughing the ocean made it clear how much conflict and divisiveness existed at the time. Politically, these were evidently tumultuous times. Currently, in Latin America, tumultuous political times in certain countries still exist. In Mexico, there is clearly a rift between the upper and lower class. This rift seems to have existed since colonial times and persisted even after independence. It is evident that when studying history, one is able to fully understand a country’s current state.

Personally, I found Martí’s writing very hard to understand because of the allegories and the metaphors. I think this extensive use of allegories and metaphors is tied to the crisis of representation in Latin America. When reading Martí’s work, I thought of Columbus’ journal entries because I found that a crisis of representation was noticeable in both. In class, I would like to discuss whether independence always is positive or not. Are all sovereign countries truly independent? I also wonder whether the slaves were better off living in colonial new world versus the post-colonial new world.