Blog 10 Final Reflections

     This has definitely been an interesting semester to say the least! Last semester we covered a lot of pre-columbian and colonial history, which is all very interesting but sometimes it is a little difficult to truly process as a reality because it happened so long ago in a place with a history and background than our country. I would say that I got a similar feeling from this semester for a very different reason. I think we all grew up hearing that we were lucky to be born in the greatest country on Earth and I think that learning about all the things that the U.S. did or assisted in has been a little mind-boggling. We were told that we were "the world's superhero" but never told how much we hurt Latin American countries in the name of capitalism and "democracy." It has been interesting for me to come to terms with the realities of how countries interact and what it means to be the "good guy" or the "bad guy." I truly think that, at least some of the time, the actions that the United States took in Latin America came from a good-hearted place rather than always one of manipulation and greed. I think that there were truly people who believed that their actions would help the countries they were interacting with, even if the end result didn't portray this. This class has definitely inspired me to look at history from multiple perspectives and that what we are taught is not necessarily "the truth" but rather one person's view of the truth. Maybe truth is just that, one person's perspective.
     On a lighter note, this has been an interesting class and semester for me, personally. I broke my foot pretty early on in the semester so it's been a bit of a struggle! I have definitely learned a lot about myself this semester, particularly how much I can take. I don't think I have ever worked this hard in my life and I don't think that I have ever, EVER been under this much stress. That being said, I've made it through and, honestly, I think that I have handled it really well!

Blog 9 reply to Sam

I thought that his speech as really interesting! Like you said, hearing his speech gave me a new appreciation for the film industry and not the big screen cinema productions but the films that have a lot of heart and soul. Since hearing his talk I've been trying to pay more attention to choices that directors make and it has been really interesting. I noticed that in doing so, I tend to make a much more emotional connection to the movie and I think that I understand it on a deeper level. I'm really glad we got to hear him talk.

Blog 9

This past week in Latin American Civilization and Culture we have been looking at Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet and their roles in Chile. What I think is interesting is that we are also looking at the same topic in my Spanish class right now. In class we talked a lot about all the awful things that Pinochet did with the support of the U.S. but not so much the outcome of his presidency. In Spanish, we learned that he called for economic support from the U.S. and brought in a bunch of economists from Chicago (or at least that's what I got from our lecture in Spanish). Since his presidency, the per capita GPD has risen drasitically and inflation was somewhat taken care of. This creates a really interesting polarization of his legacy. We read some articles on how he is remembered in Chile and the reality is that people are really split. Some remember the horrible torture and murder and other atrocities that he committed while others see that he "saved a generation" from poverty and starvation. Chile is now a thriving country in the southern cone and it appears that some of that success is due to him and his dictatorship. I think that that is incredibly interesting. I think we like to look back at history and decide who is the good guy and who is the bad guy and we believe that we assume that bad guys only do bad and good guys are the saviors of their countries. Looking at Pinochet, we can see that this is not necessarily true and the parallel between being a good person and doing good for your country isn't always quite so clear.

Week 9 (blog 8) reply to Eric

I really liked your inclusion of the quote about history repeating itself, I think that's very true. You talked about how there are generations of people who are ignorant to the actions of the United States and I see the danger that you have pointed out. I think that it's vital that we as Americans truly learn our history, both the good and the bad. Ignoring our wrongdoing doesn't only hurt others it hurts us as a country because we can't learn from our mistakes. We have been told our whole lives that the United States is the best country in the world but if we truly want to be the best we need to accept our failures and improve upon them.

Week 9 (blog 8)

This past week in Latin America Civilization and Culture we watched The Motorcycle Diaries which was about the story of Che Guevara before he was the political activist that he is known for being. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. I think that it's easy to forget that the popular figure we see are real people that had lives and friends. Seeing this movie reminded me that Che Guevara was more than a figure. He was a man whose heart-broke at the sight of all the people who were hurt by poverty that he saw while traveling around South America. It was also interesting to see the origin of a man who is so polarized in the eyes of the world. To many in South America he is revered as a hero of the people but in the U.S. he is regarded as a violent communist, or at least that was the impression I got growing up. Having been born in the United States, I was raised to fear communism and was told that Cuba was a place of distress and poverty because of its corrupt and evil leaders. Taking this class, it has been incredibly interesting to see these figures and these countries from a different perspective. Watching The Motorcycle Diaries really reminded me that the people who fought for these ideas weren't evil monsters out to destroy the world, they were just people who were willing to give up their lives for what they believed was right. I think this sentiment is truly encapsulated in a video clip I saw of Fidel Castro recently when he was swarmed with newscasters. I can't remember the exact words that were said but I remember one of the newscasters asking him something about wearing a bulletproof vest and in response Castro unbuttoned his shirt exposing his bare chest and saying something along the lines of, "I have a moral vest." That statement really stuck with me. This was a man who wasn't fighting to win for himself, he was fighting because it was what he believed was right.

Week 7 Reply to Carter

I agree with your sentiment. My world history class in high school could hardly be considered a class. In it, I learned next to nothing about Latin America or really any countries for that matter. That was one of my main motivations for taking this class. The reality is that before this class I knew next to nothing about Latin America and especially nothing about the U.S.'s interference.

Week 7

This past week in Latin American Civilization we have spent some time analyzing the book The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela. This book followed some fictional men in the Mexican Revolution who Azuela used to represent his general sentiment towards the war. When he wrote this novel, he had been exiled to the U.S. and his opinions were rather bleak as he did not know that the war would pick back up. He takes a hard look at the revolution as well as the revolutionaries motives. We looked at his views in comparison of the men who fought in the revolution in comparison to the men portrayed in the film Viva Zapata! It was interesting to see the differences but also the similarities between the two. In Viva Zapata!, we see Emiliano Zapata who was simply fighting for the rights of his people. When he saw himself begin to become corrupt, he quickly drew away from power and went back to fight for his people once more. In The Underdogs the corruption is seen in revolutionaries pretty quickly. They murder and steal, as well as partake a whole host of other miscreant deeds. Azuela, seemingly, was trying to portray that there was not a big of a difference between the Federales and the rebels as others seemed to believe. It was as if he wanted to point out that both sides of the war were being fought for selfish reasons, fought because it benefited the individual and the ideology of the war came second. This stark contrast demonstrates that there was more to this war than simply one idea or one motivation. It was deeply complicated and personal.