Daisy, Latin American Studies 2019

Out of the three narratives we read for this week, I found Chavez' most compelling. Through the use of statistics and comparisons he is able to take a global and powerful stance on the damages of neoliberalism. In particular, I found it interesting how he was able to include other countries in his narrative of North versus South, mentioning Africa as another example of where neoliberalism failed left the country struggling. To me I think the Cold War is really an integral part of the story of Northern Paternalism and control. Chavez mentions 1945-1975 as a time where there was more growth than in modern day. This time period aligns with the democratic spring where following world war II, Latin American countries were developing their economies and their own governments before U.S. intervention. The story of neoliberalism begins with the control imposed by foreign governments afraid of the potential power that newly democratic Latin countries held. Chavez also incorporates the yout...

Catalina de Erauso is really a story of more than just gender, but she is also a story of the New World following the influx of conquistadores. Her ability to perform a variety of jobs such as lieutenant, merchant, and farmer reveal the pure amount of opportunity for Spanish men within the New World. As we have discussed many made the journey in hopes of becoming elite or wealthy as the social stratification within the New World was at its beginning phase. It seems as though there was a sort of desperation to create these old systems of order within new environments as the Casta paintings suggest. The detailed nature of the Casta paintings reflect a kind of desperation to have hierarchy as people are divided and subdivided into as many categories as possible. Of course these paintings favor the conquerer as the superior race yet I found it interesting how the indigenous woman was positioned higher in society than the African woman. It speaks to the intensity of anti-black racism but th...

As a child I sang a song in elementary school about Columbus' discovery of the New World. The catch was that "somebody was already there." While initially Columbus had a more neutral position in society, even sometimes positive, by the time I reached middle school my perception of him and his actions was entirely negative. Columbus' journal poses an interesting nuance. While he seems rather forgiving, kind, and well tempered I knew that in his later journeys he would create the grounds for the Taino extinction. In the context of knowing his later impacts on native culture and life, I found his attitudes to be disingenuous towards the Native people he interacted with. Let alone the capture of six individuals points to a sort of objectification of human life, as those people became disposable in his quest. We also know that in many native cultures, like the Aztec, although they interacted with Cortes later and not Columbus, they viewed the Spanish as gods or magical f...

Hi, my name is Daisy Sessions and I am a second year student in the Faculty of the Arts. I am planning on minoring in Latin American Studies as I have really enjoyed the history classes I have taken that focus on Latin American culture and society. Right now I am in the History of Mexico and it has been quite interesting already to see the overlap of information that pertains to this class. I found the student videos to be quite different and interesting ways of communicating the story of Columbus. My two favorites were The Meeting of the Two Worlds II and The Meeting of Two Worlds: Aztec addition as they were both the most engaging in my perspective. In particular the Aztec addition was really interesting to me as it highlighted how cultural differences actually spearheaded many of the losses throughout the time of occupation. The Aztecs' perception of the religion on the battlefield cost them often such as the feathered headdress that was supposed to scare the Spanish into retr...