When we talk about the influence that the United Sates had on 20th century Latin America, it is also important to talk about the influence Latin America had in the US in that time. When we compare both influences, it is clear to see that they vary greatly in purpose and message.
US influence in Latin America, not only politically but in media comsumption was widely spred. Especially with the integration of the TV in people`s daily lives, American content was being comsumed on a daily basis by many Latin Americans, and the culture was infiltarting the communities. The ideal was to dress and live like the North Americans, because that was what the picture of success and prosperity was for people at the time.
On the other hand, influences from Latin America in North American television were scarse and controlled. They created these carichatures from latin American countries that were supposed to represent us, and appear frienflier to make political alliances more easily, but in reality those charicatures were really just reinforcing negative stereotypes of Latin America. Like Dawson said, ” It is a reminder that individually Brazilians are as good as anyone, but that collectively they are second class.” (195). This is more clearly exemplifies when we look at what kinds of roles latin Americans played in these North American movies. Latin American men would usually be portrayed as criminals, while women would usually be highly sexualised.
On another topic, I found the video about Silent wars really interesting because it reminded me of what happened in Brazil in the early 1900’s. Called the “vaccine rebellion”, it was a movement starte by the poor people living in Rio de Janeiro, against the smallpox vaccinations being given by the europeans. You see, the Europeans did not find it worth their time to inform people about what a vaccine was, and how it would be beneficial to them in the long term, they instead decided to just make vaccinations mandatory for everyone. That means officers could invade your home at any time and insert unkown substances into your arm and your children`s arms. This, amongst other factors, made people unwilling to take the vaccination, as they felt violated and scared, and it led to a rebellion. I don’t know if this happened in any other countries, but when the video shows the europeans giving latin americans the vaccines and patting themselves in the back, it doesn’t show HOW they did it, and the consequences it had.