Hello!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Melissa and I am a fifth-year Anthropology major. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and my mother is from Brazil…it is needless to say we cannot watch soccer in our house.

This week I watched a number of the Student Videos posted on the website and have since developed a couple of points I would like to discuss further throughout the course. It is difficult for me, as a student, to choose two videos to be my favourite and two to be my least favourite, as I understand the amount of work and effort that goes into putting together a final project.

However, I can say that a major problem I had watching some videos, but especially watching “The War on Drugs” (2015) were the broad statements made, like, “…cause the deaths of hundreds or thousands of lives” or “…resulted in deaths of many people”. Additionally, I did not think that the video explained what the “War on Drugs” and at one point even mentioned that “…Escobar started the war on drugs”, which to my knowledge is quite opposite from fact. The efforts were to reduce the production of drugs. I had the same feeling while watching “Power to the People” (2014), which did not address the complexities of populism , Peronism, and Kirchnerism but rather gave it a spotlight like it was an idea that only the ‘less educated’ folk would be interested in…which is not necessarily the truth in practice.  These ideologies have literally split families because they are not so cut and dry.

Another video that began with a very open and overarching statement was, “Independence in Latin America” (2015), which immediately begins with a student stating that, “…in our world we believe”, and continues by stating what that group’s belief on what independence is.

Although I thought both  of the following videos made broad statements about their respective subjects, which I did not find to be helpful, there were some positive aspects in my opinion. In “Power to the People” (2014), the students did a very good job in describing how the spread of populism really did affect and change Argentina as a nation, as well as the concept of populism having changed in itself throughout the years. They also emphasized quite well the importance of media in the spread of populist ideas, but I believe that all social classes were victims of propaganda, not just the lower class as they mentioned. “The War on Drugs” (2015) video also did a great job in describing how drug production molded their respective countries and how its effects were so strong that even an area in Sao Paulo was named after crack cocaine.

I also quite enjoyed the video on “Modernity in Latin America” (2016) as it did a good overview on various causes of modernization alongside the areas that they modernized. The mention of trade and export, the advances of the social status of women, the production of coffee and the effects of international investors upon countries in Latin America were very well introduced and described. One major problem I did find was that there was no initial description of what this group believed ‘modernity’ was in the first place, so I was forced to use my own perception in order to continue on with the video.

The reason I point out these broad statements is because the issues concerning Latin America are extremely complex. To be vague or impose one’s beliefs upon a whole group of countries, potentially comprised of various continents, can become problematic, especially when dealing with sensitive matters and subjects that affect people day-to-day.

I am looking forward to exploring the complexities of the various subjects in the syllabus!