Hello all, my name is Sarita Ponce. I am excited to be studying with you in Latin American Studies. I am half Latina (Salvadorian) and I am excited to learn more about the culture and history of Latin America. I previously studied biology and health care at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I look forward to meeting you all on Thursday.
Sarita 🙂
This week I wanted to talk about the letter written by
It starts off on a personal note, he discusses how he has been after his son’s death. You can tell that this letter is written by a grief-stricken father. He also talks about the countless other sons and parents. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a son and feel like your government is the one at fault. It reminds me of Vanessa Guillan and the Fort Hood military base. She was killed and the military based were uncooperative in helping her family find their daughter. I do want to mention that I think the military was covering for their people, now this is based on how the military cooperated or rather didn’t, but to clarify this is my opinion.
If you want to learn more about Vanessa here about the case.
https://time.com/5858587/vanessa-guillen-fort-hood/
Finally, I wanted to mention that I want to mention that the change in tone when he begins to make statements in which ‘we have had it up to here’ with… etc. I thought it was interesting because he addresses the politicians and the criminals in the same. We talked a lot about the similarities of how he addresses them both
Sarita ????
Week 11 Blog Post
Ernesto (Che) Guevara someone that I’ve heard of but never really known who he was and what he did. I heard that he had done some ‘bad’ things but never really know what they were, and now I wish I knew earlier.
Che took part in Fidel Castro’s plans to coup the Batista’s government. Chels role was to lead a small group of guerrillas. Once Castro successfully took power, Che was given charge of the prison called La Cabana Fortress. During this there were 144 prisoners executed.
Soon after Che became the president of Cuban National Bank. A year after he eventually became the Minister of Industry. Then left.
In this time (about two years later) he also rallied the people of Bolivia to revolt against their government. Unfortunately, he was unable to recruit many and still had that small guerilla, because of this Che was captured and killed. He died by the Bolivian army.
Like me I feel like this video proves that I wasn’t the only who was so ignorant to not know who he really is. Its crazy to think that Che’s face has become a quick way to market t-shorts to people who really don’t know who and what he’s done. I also wanted to mention that this video does have some over the top edits but at the same time it shows just how easy it is for uninformed individuals to buy it thinking its a nice motif.
I included this next video to provide some more information about Che that I maybe didn’t see as worthy to keep in my blog, and so that if you’re interested you can learn more.
Sarita 🙂
Sarita Ponce
November 17, 2020
The research that I am doing for this video project is to establish a concise biography for General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The following resources should give an idea of who Santa Anna was and his role in the battle of San Jacinto.
This first resource comes from; https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/santaanna.htm. I chose this resource as it came from a .org website and it looks to be fact based and less opinion based. I chose this resource because it allows me to be able to describe Santa Anna’s life and his impact on Mexican history. I learned a lot about how he became a prominent leader and all about his downfall. It was interesting to understand how self centered he was, and ignorant to the real threat the US posed to Mexico. I found it interesting that at one-point Santa Anna was bored of his presidency and decided to leave the responsibility to his Vice President. Even though this text is short I found it highly informative, and it helped me understand his role in the San Jacinto.
Santa Anna is well known for his self-centered attitudes and his participation in selling a large portion of Mexico to the US. He was born in 1794 in Ver Cruz, and he quickly began his climb up the army ranks at the age of sixteen. Santa Anna began as a cadet and made his way up to the highest ranking General.
He began his career by fighting for the Spanish in the Mexican Independence war. He later switched sides to fight for Mexican Independence in 1821. This same year he was given the highest general position. 8 years later the Spaniards tried to reconquer Mexico, but Santa Anna was able to led and win. This increased his reputation within Mexico.
In 1833, Santa Anna was the popular vote in the presidential election. In the span of 22 years Santa Anna was elected eleven times. In 1835 the battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna grew “careless and over-confident” and lost the battle to Sam Houston (an American). He later lost half of his left leg in the battle of Vera Cruz in 1838. Because of his self centered nature, he made a spectacle of his lost limb and had a burial for his leg.
Santa Anna is a figure Mexico is not proud of, especially because he sold so much of Mexican land to the US. San Jacinto was the last straw for the Mexican citizens, Santa Anna’s clear disregard for preparation and understanding of the threat in front of him resulting in Mexico losing the fight. Santa Anna was determined to help his country and yet it seems that his own vanity was what made him unsuccessful.
The second resource I have chosen to talk about is a online resource from the museum of San Jacinto. This resource is important as it speaks to the events that occurred during the San Jacinto battle. The battle that started it all is the battle of Alamo in 1835. I was started by General Martin Perfecto de Cos. Cos lost this battle at Alamo, and it left both himself and Santa Anna disappointed. Cos then found a way to win a new battle at Alamo in 1836. This resulted in Santa Anna beginning the battle of San Jacinto.
San Jacinto began because Santa Anna split his army to survey Texas. Santa Anna was upset because this was not his intention, he was not looking for another battle. Regardless, he had to fight. Unfortunately, the Texans were organized, they were prepared for the fight. Santa Anna and the Mexican army were unprepared and it resulted in Santa Anna being caught and imprisoned.
Santa Anna was eventually released. The battle against the French was next, in 1838. This was the battle were Santa Anna lost his left leg. After he won this war with his army, Santa Anna proceeded to move in and out of the popular vote amongst Mexicans and exile. When he retired in 1874, he wrote memoirs, he passed away two years later.
I found this resource interesting as it reason or rather a timeline of events that led up to San Jacinto and he eventual death. It was interesting to learn that Santa Anna was not necessarily self centered or conceited nature but maybe his pride that made him and his army so vulnerability. Its interesting to think that after the war with France he made it a point to have a burial for his leg.
I think that Santa Anna was someone who was largely used to fight Mexico fights, he was elected eleven times. If they truly liked his lead why not keep him in office? Santa Anna had his flaws, but he did help Mexico gain their independence and he fought to make sure they stayed independent. Unfortunately, he is hated for selling so much of Mexican land to the US. So, the question remains did Santa Anna help or hurt Mexico?
Resource url: https://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/The_Battle/Commanders/Santa_Anna/#Pane2
Sarita 🙂
This week we looked at populism and Argentinas’ first lady Evita.
This week we learned of the concept of populism political representation. When I googled the definition of populism I got a vague answer; “A political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups”. I then thought don’t all politicians make an attempt to sympathize with the citizens of the country they are looking to lead? As I continued to read the lecture I learned that a lot of the politicians I thought about could be considered populist. I also learned that this term was hard to define because of its overuse. It has been used to describe many politicians, this makes populism hard to define because it is used to describe so many.
This is a list of Populists in the Americas. (via Wikipedia)
A well known Argentinan populist is Maria Eva Duarte de Peron. Evita, as she is named by those who loved her, she became an icon for her humanitarian efforts. Evita was born into a poor family, she left her childhood home as a teen to become and actress in Buenos Aires. She met her husband at a fundraiser. They got married a year later and she began her fight for women’s rights and working toward providing aid to the poor class and children and women.
Her humanitarian efforts led to her follower’s love and support for her run for Vice Presidency. In fact, when she had to resign from the run her supporters rejected her decline. She would have been able to continue her candidacy with her husband if she wasn’t diagnosed with cancer. This cancer took her from her loving support at the age of 33. There were some things she did that have continued a legacy for Evita. In fact, there is now a museum all about it.
Something that I learn through my own research is that she can be seen as a hypocrite. Some see her lavish lifestyle that she lived as hypocritical. As she continues to help out women and children who are poor while wearing expensive clothes and jewels is seen as a hypocritical act. Those who didn’t like Evita had this as one of their reasons to dislike her.
What are your thoughts on Evita? Is she a humanitarian or a hypocrite?
Here is the video of the Evita Museums’ opening.
Sarita 🙂
This week we look at the growing US power and their relationship with Latin America.
I would first like to share my thoughts on the “Manifesto” written by Agusto Sandino. He addresses “Nicaraguans, Central Americans and the Indo-Hispanic race” in explaining or elaborating on the increasing US threat to Latin America. He exclaims no in reaction to the idea of Latin America being ruled by the US. he continues to talk about citizenship and those who betrayed Nicaragua. He names Adolfo Diaz, Emiliano Chamorro and Moncada. Diaz and Chamorro are accused of tarring down the Nicaraguan flag and therefore no longer Nicaraguan in Agustos’ eyes. This idea of Agusto having the right to revoke someone’s citizenship reminded me of our discussion in Week Six. We discussed the idea of what it means to be a citizen in the zoom class that week but I had never considered how someone can lose their rights as a citizen.
What do you think, can any other citizen revoke another citizen’s citizenship?
Next, I wanted to touch on a line in the Donald Duck text. The text states, “Thus we find the metropolitans not only searching for treasures, but also selling the notice comics …to teach them the role assigned to them by the dominant urban press”. I found it interesting to think of these comics as messages to up Latin Americans in their place, or rather to play the role the US would prefer them to be in. The role could easily be described as the US wanting Latin America to be dependant on and controlled by the US. Going back to one of the videos we saw in class and talking about how America presents themselves. They want to seem like the helpful big brother, but in reality is that really the relationship Latin America has with the US?
Do you think that over time the relationship between Latin America and the US has gotten better or worse? How so?
Sarita 🙂
This week we reviewed/ revisited the idea that Latin America is, as Alexander Dawson describes it, as being Gilded with modernity. Modernity affects only parts of Latin America and ignores others.
The Poet Ruben Dario
This week I wanted to focus on the poem by Ruben Dario, called “To Rosevelt”. I found this poem to be powerful and meaningful. At the beginning of the poem, Dario states how the U.S. is. He powerfully states how the US is a mixed bag of “primitive and modern” nature. He continues by recognizing that the US is becoming a stronger force, but he also makes a point to remind the reader that Latin America is also strong. He makes a strong statement acknowledging that Latin America is made up of many races (mainly as a result of colonization). He warns the US that they, Lain America, are children of the Sun and to beware. I loved his expression of pride and admiration of what Latin America has become and its potential. I really enjoyed this poem and interpreting it.
Santiago, Chile
What did you think about this weeks poem? Were there any other parts of the poem you found? Do you think there is anything Canada or America can do to help Latin America become more widely spread and bring all of Latin America to ‘equal modernity?
Sarita 🙂
This week we are looking at modernity and what that looks like in Latin America. We will begin to look at economics and the introduction of technology and how they contribute to the integration of modernity.
Look at our technology today, from the accessibility and growing necessity of the internet to our dependence on smartphones and social media. It is crazy to think that in the pandemic we are in today we still have the ability to attend classes and continue some jobs via the internet. There was a time when this would not have been possible because there wasn’t the advancement of things like skype, facetime, google meet, zoom and many more. At this point, K-12 students would have lost or been delayed almost a year of education, and they would not have been able to continue until the pandemic ended. The adults who had to attend work to support their family would have been unemployed and left looking for a job.
With the introduction of modernization to the post-colonial world, new jobs and careers were introduced. These new jobs created the middle class. No more was the simple divisions of the rich or the poor. Now the poor class had the ability to grow and get higher-paying jobs and move into this new growing middle class. Society was becoming more complex.
Let’s begin by classifying the ways modernity can present itself. Dominant modernity is the current way of being. Residual modernity is what’s left of how it was in the past. Finally, emergent modernity is what might come in the future. Some examples that I think would fit the description of dominant modernity is the integration or the internet, social media, social justice, consumerism (it has at least increased with online shopping and retailers like Amazon) entrepreneurs (more and more people are choosing to start their own business and or choose other forms of ‘unconventional’ jobs [ie streamers, social media consultants, influencers, creating and selling your own products). For some reason I am having troubles coming up with a residual form of modernity, I was thinking that maybe the consumer industry can be considered as also being residual from the beginning of modernization. The consumer industry has changed a lot since then, today we can look for what we want from our smartphones and purchase it right at our fingertips without having to leave our homes. What were some residual modernities did you come up with? Some examples of emergent modernity are social accountability and demanding social change, I think that this has become more apparent in the last few years.
Modernity brought to Latin America the ability to participate in the export and import trade. It allowed them to participate in the emerging consumer lifestyles, by selling or trading their natural resources and thus growing their economy. Haiti had a big part in helping the rest of the world develop. Haiti put the work in but they themselves were left behind by the rest of the world. Latin America has been developing at different rates all over; modernized cities are right next to underdeveloped towns.
Exports from the Americas
It’s interesting to learn that Latin America had the most to gain from the export boom, but did not have the resources to transport any of it. The above image (From this week’s resources) illustrates what Latin America had to offer to the rest world. If they had a way of exporting their goods they would be in a better economic position. The solution to this problem was to take the help of the northern countries that needed the natural goods Latin America had, and accept the technology and resources the north had in return. This resulted in the productions of railways that would allow goods to be exported out of Latin America and to the north. In exchange, Latin America gained things like barbed wire, shoes, machine guns, home appliances, radio, cameras. etc.
Without outside help, Latin America would have had a difficult time evolving into modernity. How would the world be today if Latin America didn’t evolve with the rest of the world? How much harder would attaining resources and natural goods for the rest of the world if Latin America didn’t accept the help. Would the consumer industry be delayed, and possibly an emerging modernity for us today?
What are other examples of modernity did you think of? Do you think that we would be where we are today if Latin America delayed the construction of railways until they could afford them themselves?
Sarita 🙂
To recap the conclusions of last week’s readings, the Caudillo was the best governing system for post-colonial Latin America. This system kept the rich where they wanted to be, at the top with the ability to control laws and to decide if they would like to impose them. The poor and marginalized inherit the new benefits, in which they have the ability to have some say in the laws and taxation imposed on their town, as long as they know someone higher up. Moreover, the casta paintings proved that liberalism would not work in the post-colonial world. It was as we’ve discovered, an attempt to understand and impose assumptions on the people shown in the paintings. This way of dividing people could have never allowed for those higher up to see everyone as equals. It was also a way of making sure minorities knew their place within society.
Even today, there are certain assumptions that have been placed on minority groups. What were the first assumptions or stereotypes that you first thought of today’s assumptions? more importantly what minority group did you think of first? Was it that Latinos are either lazy or hard-working gardeners or construction workers? Black/ African Americans are criminals or dangerous? These were my first thoughts I had when I was looking for the most common assumptions of minorities. The weird thing is that I don’t remember ever being told/ taught these assumptions, so where did I get them from? Again, these assumptions are all an attempt to control or manage minority groups. The casta paintings are intended to form assumptions about these races, their jobs, their homes, economic status, social status.
I want to quote something from the lecture, “And the stain of racial violence endures into the present”. This reminded me of the current social movements. Black/ African and Indigenous fights for the recognition of past and present genocide, prejudice, stigma and injustice. Again we have become more aware of these movements over social media and quarantine. Something that shocked me a few weeks ago and continues to shock me is the number of Africans that were taken to Brazil. For 365 years (from 1501 to 1866) , approximately five million people were stolen and forced into slavery. Five Million. In 1888, slavery was finally abolished. I was only 132 years ago. The average life expectancy in Canada is 82 years, this implies that families still have fresh wounds, stories and memories their elders have told their great-grandchildren. This is heartbreaking to think that their pain is so fresh.
From the citizen text, I wanted to point out this statement, “One of the greatest prizes a mestizo male could gain was a wife who was whiter than himself, the surest guarantee of both her virtue and a better future for his children”. This text reminds me of the booming industry of skin bleaching, specifically in South Asia. There is this inherited thought that a light-skinned partner is virtuous. When you are born with darker skin, you are seen as less than, and you are constantly advised to bleach your skin. I read this article that talks about how this young girl was called blackie ny her family because she wasn’t as fair as her siblings and cousins. she saw herself as ugly because there was no one to represent her in media. The rest of the article talks about the message Bollywood actors are sending to young South Asian kids (refer to the ad below; its in Punjabi, but easy to understand the message).
How do we move away from assumptions that have been inherited to all minorities? How do we end this narrative? Does the fact the someone is a citizen change their narrative or assumption?
Sarita 🙂
Last week we discussed how important political representation. This reminded me of why it is so important to vote and use your voice to elect the representation you want. When you don’t vote you don’t have the opportunity to be represented when decisions are being made that will directly affect your way of living.
Independence is not as it seemed for the Latin Americans. Ultimately someone still has to make decisions and the inhabitants need to be willing to follow along or listen to the new ‘leader’ or governing party. Other issues that came after independence were the numerous wars. They not only fought against their colonizers but also amongst themselves (Latin Americans). There were also racial, political, and social fighting. They were also suppressing Indigenous and I am sure, although it is not explicitly stated, African Slaves, and mixed raced people too. It’s also important to not that fighting, and war was not just happening within Latin America but also in Europe.
The idea of liberalism is great but in practice it fails has many times. Liberalism is the idea that everyone is equal under the law. But Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) and Moslem know better. These individuals are at a disadvantage because of race, colour, and/or religion. There is much left to be desire where the rights of BIPOC and Moslems are concerned.
BIPOC: Look at what is happening in the US with the Black lives matter movement, it brought forth so many issues we have ignored in Canadians regarding the treatment and genocide of the Indigenous people. Its important to acknowledge that Canada has swept a lot under rug, and we need to support BIPOC who fighting for justice.
Its crazy to think we still do not teach or educate each other on the realities of the discrimination that happened in the past and that continues to happen today.
The Caudillo system seems so favourable and yet it really only benefits those who know someone of higher status and those who are of higher status. It is a system that allows the rich to stay rich. Whereas the poor only get small favours that will not help them escape their status. For those who did not know anyone of high enough status what happened to them? How did they make it by? Did they just have to endure all taxations and laws placed on them? How was this system good for them?
This is one of the images that comes up when you google search Caudillo, I thought it was interesting that this was the image that is conveyed as a Caudillo. Almost as if they were royalty?
Finally, the one thing that has stuck out to me in the Caudillos Versus The Nation State readings is that The Illinois National Guardsman took General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna left prosthetic leg as a form of victory or treasure. General Antonio was the eleven-time Mexican president fighting in the war they called the North American Invasion. Little was said about the importance of stealing this prosthetic, it was just mentioned that it served as a trophy like reward for the men who stole it and a show of how disrespectful the Guardsmen were towards the Mexicans.
I was also mentioned that when General Antonio lost is leg, he had a funeral for it. At first, I thought why, then I wondered if there was some sort of significance to burying your lost limbs. I then learned that his political enemies dug up the grave and dragged this leg until, as the text describes, it disintegrates. Why is it that they (his political enemies) hated him so much? What did this act symbolize? What message was it meant to send? Disrespect obviously.
Sarita 🙂
This week we looked at how history is told. We talk about Simon Bolivar, Marti, Hugo Chavez, the Haitian revolution and who the elites began to worry. Finally is mentioned in the readings so I took a moment to read about who she was.
Simon Bolivar was a masn looking yto stop the Spainards who were destroying his land. He was a Venezuelan man and solider in the Sounth American moement, looking for libsrstion from the Spanish rule. In his letter to the ‘gentalman of the island (Jamaca)’, he explain how the raign of Spain has neen detrimentsal to not only Venezuels, but also Chile, New GranadaGuetemala, Puero Rico, and Cuba. He lobies for the people of South America to fight or rebekl against the Spainards. Bolivar fighnts for South Americas Independnce by expining effects that the Spainards caused. He later linberates Venezuela in 1813. He was given the title of “The Liborator” as hee had liberated not only Veneuelsaa but also New Granada (1819)/ Quito (1822) and Peru (1824). He vsalso later establishes Boliva in 1825. Not all the credit can go to Bolivar, we ,ust also recognize Manuelita Saenz.
Manuelita Saenz snd Simon Bolivar
I thought it important to talk about Manuelita and her role in Bolivars’ movement. She is famous for being Bolivars’ mistress when in fact she played a much bigger role. Manuwlita was gifted two slaves who later help her spy on the Spaniards and they would report back to Bolivar and his troops. she was later married but ran way to join Bolivsr at the front lines. she was amazing for her drive to ho against he norms and use your smarts against the men who saw here and her two slaves as simple ,imded women.
Manuelita Saenz
Video tells the history of Manuelita Saenz
Do you think that Manuelita Saenz should get more credit for her role in the South American Revolution? How could we honour her efforts today (breaking gender boundaries and role in revolution)?
Saita