Latin American Studies 100

This extract highlights the ideology of The Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN), a military group with a guerilla-like structure whom address their attention on the need to fight for the liberation of their people (The Mexican people). In this document, they refer to their incorporation of women into their revolutionary struggle for Women’s Revolutionary Law. According to them, Women are to be given the same amount of rights and freedom as men are. Women in Mexico and the rest of Latin America have experienced great amounts of ordeals for…read more

Texaco was deemed liable for the environmental damages caused by their oil extracting operations in Ecuador. The dumping of approximately 16 billion gallons of “production water”, which was illegal, led to this court case, as well as Texaco’s system to discharge their waste into the local environment in a “cost-effective” manner without taking into consideration the local environment and the health of the local communities surrounding the area.   The Court awarded an approximate total of US$9.5 billion as a result of the damages to rivers and soils from Texaco’s…read more

In this political manifesto, Augusto Sandino who is a Nicaraguan revolutionary, criticizes Diaz and Chamorro who wanted to govern Nicaragua with the support of invaders who held weapons, portraying the need of aggression by the North, in order to invade or slowly impose their culture on Sandino’s homeland.  Sandino conveys a great sense of patriotism; evident by the way he degrades the United States of America to attract supporters (the locals), blaming them for trying to break up their country in a socio-environmental manner. More importantly, his quote “A Man…read more

In this extract, Josefina Pelliza refutes Miss Maria Eugenia’s ideas on the present condition of women during the 19th century. She believes that making women “entirely free”, such as the independence of men, would lead to the loss of their charms and poetic prestige of their weakness. She also highlights the idea that women have a sacred throne in the household (where they best belong), which doubles their beauty. She claims that independence of women would lead to a change in society, in the aspect that a change in gender…read more

In this poem, Ruben Dario expresses his concern on the role of active violence towards his “naïve America”, where Indian blood is being spilt. Roosevelt is described as cultured and able, and opposes to Tolstoy, who was a philosopher & political thinker who believed there should be no violence when it comes to politics. Ruben claims Roosevelt to be like a hunter, and that they will not give up to the United States until they are clutched in their iron claws, in other words, forced to do so. There are…read more

In this excerpt, Porfirio Diaz, the President who served Mexico for 40 years, is described as the man who set the Mexican people free. After centuries of Spanish cruelty and greed, he established order and through that progress in Mexico. He created a “modern” Mexico, and as a result was named as a Heroic figure to his people. In his 40 years of presidency, he managed to increase foreign trade and investment in Mexico, with the hope to become modern and see positive results from socio-economic growth, and at the…read more

The “Caudillo vs Nation State” text portrays the violence which was unleashed in Latin America in the 19th century by the Spanish Imperial rule and the response to this mistreatment by the Caudillos, such as Ramon Castilla in Peru, which was to defend the locals against pernicious outsiders. This text shows the importance of “Caudillos” in Latin American history. They were figures in societies, which were torn by various conflicts after the collapse of the Spanish Colonial state. I found it very interesting and saddening how an exterior threat, such…read more