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.