Week 6 Reply to Sam

I also enjoyed looking at the individuals during the war and their motives. I liked that all of the classes had something to rebel about which joined them together, even though in the end it just led to more confusion. Like we said in Professor Stark's portion of the class, this was a very unique war. I personally felt like I understood most everyone's motives and how they knew that someone else's motives might not be the same but they worked together anyway.

Week 6

In honors this week we have been reading The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela. It tells the story of the Mexican Revolution from the rebel side. Mariano actually fought on the rebel side so even though the story is fictional, there is still some credibility in the events and behaviors of the men. For today we had to read part two of the book. I felt like a lot of this section focused on women. Here, we are introduced to a couple of new characters. The one who stands out to me the most is a woman named Pintada. The relations between Pintada and the men are different than that of other women. She still isn’t as respected as the men but she definitely holds her own. During one of the loots of this section we are also introduced to two young girls who seem to be almost like prizes for the men and they are not given names. Not only is Pintada given a name she fights and loots with the men and they help her when Macías drunkenly attacks her. I think this is interesting because we recently talked about the role of women in the revolution in Professor Stark’s portion of the class and even though we talked about them having very active roles it seemed so unbelievable to me as women had always been treated as inferior in history.  Seeing Pintada almost be treated as one of the men was very interesting to me.

              Another interesting aspect of Pintada is her loyalty (to some degree) to other women. She tried to help the girl the Cervantes had taken and offered to help Camila get home. That being said that loyalty was nothing compared to her loyalty for the man she loved, Guero Margarito. If anything about him was called into question she would quickly abandon any other ties. In the end, we see how much she meant to him as he agrees with Macías when he wants to send her away and refers to the relief that he has when she was gone. I think this provides an interesting look at the relationship between men and women at the time. Women could be seen as strong but they were next to nothing to the men as can be seen in this instance, Macías’s multiple affairs, and how quickly he got over the death of Camila.

Week 5 Reply to Trenton

My group analyzed a picture that showed Uncle Sam as the protector of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and soon the Philippines. I think it's interesting to see the differences between the two pictures as it provides to different perspectives on the same era. To France, the U.S. was greedy, trying to take over Latin America for it's own gain but to the United States, we were protectors doing good in "less civilized" countries.

Week 5

This past week in Latin American Civilization we have been starting to work on our final projects. I’m very excited to start this new final project. It’s interesting to look at current events in Latin America. All year we have been studying the past and as we approach the 20^th century in the lecture portion of the class everything that we have learned seems to be coming together. At the same time, it also makes it seem like the “past” isn’t so far away. As we draw closer to meeting up with current events the time when we studied the Mexica empire doesn’t seem as long ago.

Additionally, I know that we are getting to the portion of the semester where we will talk about Diego Rivera and possibly his relationship with Frida Kahlo. I personally am a big fan of both artists but I do tend to favor Kahlo. I love to see the art that came out of Latin America in that period and I’m very excited to get to a portion of the class in which we can look at that topic. When we start to study Diego Rivera we will also go to the Detroit Institute of Art. I think it will be interesting to actually see what we’re studying as this past year it felt a little difficult to connect the history that we were hearing to reality.

Reply to Drake Week 4

Reading your post made me think about the way that we look at history. It makes me wonder what else we remember in history differently than it actually was. In my sophomore year of high school I read both A People's History of the United States and A Patriot's History of the United States. They provided two perspectives on American history and the differences were shocking. It was very interesting to look at how history is remembered.

Week 4

This past week in Latin American Civilization we’ve been learning about the Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt. It was very interesting to hear and talk about the United States president from a different angle and to think about him in a modern perspective. Theodore Roosevelt was aggressive and pig-headed, he got what he needed to get done done and he didn’t care what anyone had to say otherwise. He believed that his way was the only right way and anything else was unacceptable. For these traits he was highly revered in the United States as he exemplified a lot of how we identified ourselves at the time. That being said, as we read about his behavior towards other countries, particularly Cuba it begins to change my perspective a little. Additionally, now when I think of Roosevelt, I can help but draw similarities between him and Trump. They both are presidents who ran without the support of their entire party and who are incredibly active. I can’t help but wonder how we in the United States would react to the election of Theodore Roosevelt now. Would there be as much backlash as there is for the current president? Will Trump be held with the same esteem as Roosevelt one day? It’s interesting to see how it all plays out. That being said, I greatly hope that Trump doesn’t push an imperial agenda as hard as Roosevelt, though the times of imperialism seem to be over. Although, our relations with Latin American countries could potentially be very interesting in the next few years.

Reply to Melissa Week 3

I thought this was an insightful look at the way that politics seem to be going as of late. I totally see what you mean have experience many people who say that they're "voting republican" or "voting democrat" which is termed "straight ticket voting". This mindset of voting for the party rather than the individual persons ideals can be a very scary reality that can lead to more and more division in politics in a time when our country needs more unity than ever.

Week 3

This past week in Latin American Civilization we have been speaking about commemoration speeches given in Mexico during times of strife. For the most part, the speech all had a few things in common. They all called upon the past to guide the future or at least explain the present. All the speeches used Mexico’s past and their formation to convince the current citizens to rally behind the person giving the speech’s cause. This practice of drawing upon the past is not exclusive to these speeches and this tactic is used all the time in current practice. For example, recently elected president Trump ran with the slogan “Make America Great Again”. This phrase calls upon the idea that in America’s history we were once a great and powerful nation but if we rally behind Trump than we can be great and powerful once again. Other examples we see in current day America takes place in the women’s rights movement. Often in speeches, women will draw upon the suffragettes who first worked publicly for the furtherance of women’s rights. Women will call upon the rights movement from the earliest days of the movement to the bra-burning of the 1970s to encourage modern women to stand up and continue the practice of fighting for equality. Clearly, history can be a powerful motivator but it can also be looked at from multiple perspectives which can be seen in the differences of the speeches we’ve read. This can also be seen with the differences of looking to the past for inspiration and looking to the past as a cautionary tale. This can also be seen in modern day America as many people draw connections between Trump and leaders who were considered dangerous and tyrannical, mostly seen in his off-handed statements about registering those who practice the Islam. The point is, history can be interpreted in a variety of ways to make a point about the current state of affairs.