This week our lectures focus of the way that Latin America was represented politically. It starts off my asking a question of who is represented in Latin America and the time. From this question it transitions into a summary of the causation of the American Revolution, and then the effects that the revolution had upon Latin America politically. Just as the French Revolution in some ways lead to the American revolution, the American revolution can be seen as a catalyst for the revolutions in Latin America. This meaning that the fuel was there for the revolution; the mistreatment of large populations within a nation i.e. slavery, and the spread of revolutionary ideas ignited the fire of the revolution.

One such revolutionary leader at this time period is none other than Simon Bolivar, who not only helped independence movements on one country but in two different regions of Latin America. He believed that Latin America was destined for greatness, but he saw the journey to this greatness as arduous. However he did not intend to liberate the Latin American people as a whole, he instead turned his back ,as Professor Cameron stated, to the indigenous and Native American people, and focused more so on the creoles. A population of Spanish people who were born in the New World. The creoles were left out of Spanish politics so Bolivar felt that his people did have the voice that they so rightfully deserved in Latin America. One of the problems he thought he faced was that there was no history of his people, since they in essence were a social construct created by the Spanish elite to maintain more power within Latin America. He drew upon the history of political revolutions throughout history within Europe and the United States for a model of government that he could mold Latin America into.

Professor Cameron goes on to talk about the influence that Bolivar had on Hugo Chavez. It wasn’t so much that Bolivar was the model for which Chavez constructed his own revolution it was that Chavez saw what Bolivar did as a base, or an incomplete revolution. Chavez wanted to push past what Bolivar had done and create a country that was more accessible to people from all ranges of life. He gained popular support by being an extremely charismatic leader, who made the people feel as if that he was talking directly to them. This kind of leader, a populist leader, can be seen man times curing different periods of Latin American history. Such as in Argentina with the Perons and in Cuba with Fidel Castro.