Raimundo (Raymundo) Nina Rodrigues, The Fetishist Animism of the Bahian Blacks (O animismo fetichista dos negros bahianos) (1896-1900), excerpt. (Dawson 91-94)

This excerpt talks about some of the violence that people had to endure under slavery, specifically in a religious context. Any behaviour or lifestyle that was not Christian, white, and European was considered inferior. Rodrigues explains the misconception that the upper class about the people they had brought over from Africa for slavery. They were under the impression that they needed to convert these people to Christianity and that they had no established belief system. However, there were already religious practices that had existed for generations and generations within their communities. In relation to the week’s theme of citizenship and civil rights, there was no freedom of religion in place to protect alternative belief systems. This is an important part of the video project because it adds dimension to the kind of rights that Latin America was lacking in and the consequences of it.

I found this week’s readings quite interesting for the most part. In all honesty when I saw the “Bananas Are Our Business” sections I thought that it was a bit ridiculous but reading about it was actually really fascinating. Every once in a while, as I was reading, I would just stop and think… this is about bananas. I mean clearly there were other factors but it was a bit incredulous at first. It was really interesting how something like the United States importing bananas for their nation’s consumers turned into the monopolization of the industry and then lead to them having so much control in a foreign country. I wonder what would be different today had the United Fruit Company not been so involved in the economy of Latin American countries. What really got to me was how the United States used their fear of communism as a reason to drive out the Guatemalan president, Arbenz.

Augusto Sandino’s document “Political Manifesto” was also captivating. The way that he wrote really held my attention. It was a very intense read, clearly he had a vision for the future of Nicaragua and how to get it.

The modernization of Mexico under Porfirio Diaz’s rule seemed like a step in the right direction on the surface and I think that the vast improvements made were beneficial but I also think they the uneven development of the country lead to more problems. While the elite in the country were able to reap the benefits of modern technology, the rural and poor communities did not have the same level of access.

Something that I found to be interesting while reading was the different groups in the revolution. Some groups wanted democracy, some wanted land and others wanted rule of law. They had different priorities, but everyone knew that something had to change. It’s interesting to see that while the country was in the midst of a revolution, there was division within that.