To begin class, Peyton discussed the story of two people that had been found dead at butterfly reserves in Michoacan, Mexico. The first man, Homero Gomez, was found dead in the bottom of a well with blunt force trauma. A tourist was later found with stab wounds at another nearby butterfly sanctuary. It is speculated that these murders are linked to the cartel, as there are resources on the butterfly reserves that are very valuable. To obtain those resources, the cartels are trying to scare off tourists and staff. Environmental activists have also been killed by cartels to secure the natural resources. Overall, the article shows us more on corruption and organized crime in Mexico.
We then talked about nationalism and the Spanish empire in the 19th century, which was still present in Cuba and Puerto Rico. We talked about Jose Marti, one of the greatest fighters against the Spanish colonization of Cuba, and his thoughts on nationalism. They were central to our discussion, as he believed in “Our America”, meaning you must know the land you are governing, thus Latin America’s leaders should come from within, not Europe or the US. In relation we also discussed Ada Ferrer, who wrote about how the anti-slavery movement in Cuba became a part of the anti-colonial movement.
After, we looked at two political cartoons showing US imperialism in Latin America. One depicted an unshackled Cuba being invited to join the US as a state, and the other showed Uncle Sam holding reckless babies each labeled as Latin American countries. The first cartoon shows the US’s reach into Latin America during that time period, and the second shows the perception of Latin America by people from the United States and that the US should be the parent to those countries.
To end class, we talked about individual primary sources from our book, my group’s being “Education and the Mexican Revolution” by Octavio Paz. He analyzes thoughts of “The Cosmic Race” by Jose Vasconcelos, which discusses the resurgence of nationalism in Mexico through the arts and dance. He also states that Mexican nationalism, once Catholicism and liberalism were no longer serving them, became centered around race.
Leave a Reply