Modern Latin America 2020 – Page 4

Lecture: The Ancient Roots of Modern Scientific Racism” THURSDAY @7:30

“The Ancient Roots of Modern Scientific Racism”

Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies at Denison University and Director of Denison Museum, will present a lecture entitled “The Ancient Roots of Modern Scientific Racism” on Thursday, February 27, at The College of Wooster. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Wishart Hall, Lean Lecture Room (303 E. University) at 7:30 p.m. Professor Kennedy says that the lecture will explore “the myriad ways in which ancient approaches to race and ethnicity, studied in the 19th and 20th century as part of standard classically focused educations, were recreated and manipulated as a science of man to justify slavery, eugenics, and white supremacism in the United States.”

Professor Kennedy is the author most recently of Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City (Routledge, 2014) and editor of the Handbook to Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds (Routledge, 2015). She is a translator and editor of Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Hackett, 2013) and editor of the The Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus (Brill 2017). She is currently writing a book on race and ethnicity in antiquity and its entanglements in modern white supremacy and is co-translating a sourcebook of ancient texts on women in ancient Greece and Rome.

Professor Kennedy’s visit is sponsored by Eta Sigma Phi (the Classical Studies honorary organization), the Department of Classical Studies, the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and the Cultural Events Committee. Additional information is available by phone (330-263-2575) or email (jshaya@wooster.edu).

Phi Alpha Theta History Declaration Party

This Thursday, February 27th at 7:00pm, Phi Alpha Theta will be hosting a History Declaration Party, in honor of the students who formally declared their history major.

Everyone in the history major, as well as faculty, are invited. There will be light refreshments and a trivia game in Kauke 200.

Azuela

What does Luis Cervantes represent in The Underdogs?

This time in Mexico was one with an incredible riff between the rich and the poor. The introduction of Luis Cervantes was a strategic move on Azuela’s part in order to show both sides of those who were revolting. It was not only poor ranchers, but also middle class intellectuals who ashamed of the injustices by their government.

Although a progressive move to allow Cervantes into the band, it did not come easily. There was ongoing mistrust between him and the rest. As they question his commitment to the group, Pancracio questioned why they could not “go ahead and shoot ’em dead now…” (20). I think this a good example of real issues that came up between men in the revolution. Azuela himself was a well educated man who was able to flee the fighting, similar to Cervantes.

Latin America in The News: Femicide

Mexico has been making global headlines recently for an issue that has been festering within the country for generations: femicide. There have been an increasing number of female murders within the past year. As BBC reported, this year was a “record high of 3,825 women were killed in Mexico, according to official figures – up 7% from 2018.” This has caused an increase in political movements within the country – all in hopes for more action against the violence.

The most recent protest followed the murder of 26 year old Ingrid Escamilla and 7 year old Fátima Aldrighett. Activists demanded action be taken in order to bring the two women justice, which has not been a positive trend in relation to the other 700 investigations that the Mexican police are conducting. Additionally, they wanted punishment for the newspaper that published grusim photos of Ingrid’s body, calling her murder the “fault of cupid.” The activists gathered in front of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s place to confront him about the issue. Obrador responded to disapproval in the media, as they are distorting the situation. He claims that his government does all that it can for the safety of women.

Although I focused on one BBC article, I read 3 on the same topic: BBC, New York Times, and NPR. All three did a fine job at being objective. I was weary of personal bias being implemented within the articles, which I did not find. However, the sole possibility for this topic to be on the headlines is a product of bias, as this is what the news sites deemed important. I also find this very important. I think this is a major issue that is happening within the country, and there needs to be more awareness about it. However, these articles were a few in the many others based on deaths in Mexico. Latin America, in a bigger picture sense, is always portrayed as a dangerous place — one that people fear being in. I think this has a great influence on the way people in the United States view people from Latin America.

This topic can relate to Chasteen’s mention of women after the Independence movement. Chasteen briefly speaks about the inability for women to move out of their social position after Mexico’s independence. Given the troubling times women are experiencing in Mexico at the moment, it is clear that the foundation of their social standing was never broken — women are still seen as less. I also wanted to connect this to a journal entry written by Melissa Wright. Wright argues that Mexican state leaders often relate the drug issue within the country to Necropolitics. Necropolitics is the use of social and political power to decide when someone dies. Wright believes that leaders in Mexico are not attending to the violence in the country because they see the drug issue within the country and believe the violence will work itself out.

By Lily Walters

Works Cited:

“Activists Decry Femicides After Another Woman Is Killed In Juárez, Mexico : NPR.” Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/799695694/activists-decry-femicides-after-another-woman-is-killed-in-ju-rez-mexico.

Chasteen, John Charles. 2016. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

Fonseca, Andrea. “#ingridescamilla Hashtag on Instagram • Photos and Videos.” Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.instagram.com/p/B80Ba2uhISw/.

“Ingrid Escamilla: Hundreds Protest against Woman’s Brutal Murder – BBC News.” Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51512878.

“Necropolitics, Narcopolitics, and Femicide: Gendered Violence on the Mexico-U.S. Border | Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society: Vol 36, No 3.” Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/657496?mobileUi=0.

“The Grisly Deaths of a Woman and a Girl Shock Mexico and Test Its President – The New York Times.” Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/world/americas/mexico-violence-women.html.

“Los de Abajo”, Azuela

This novel talks about one Mexican farmer Demetrio from the countryside participating in the Revolution . We could see his travels and interactions with different characters from various backgrounds. The protagonist returned to his town Limon, but was skeptical of the Revolution outcomes. He do not end his fight even the official social movement was ended.

After reading this novel, I would like to raise a question of gender roles back in the 1910s. Many narrations have violent components of those male characters through the story. The writer described a scene of the husband talking as a powerful figure to his wife, showing off how many people they have killed and drinking tequila. Apparently, male dominance and machismo was a widely accepted norms. Women’s presence in the story seemed to reflect “la feminidad” and being caring people.

For instance, at the start of the novel, the wife was yelling at the protagonist from dog braking and told that it must be a man invading. She showed a more caring figure as she told the husband where the rifle was at. Later in the first part, they lady was presented as a weaker figure when the intruders approached. Those men told her to prepare food, as it enforced the idea that women were the ones to prepare food. The wife also acted terrified and emotional to the dog’s death.

From the very first scene of the story, we could see the portrayals of gender roles that reinforce the patriarchy. The wife is more a fragile and emotional figure as expected in society while the men are acting strong and violent, as well as alcoholic.

Azuela

What role do women play in the revolution? How does their role reflect the Spanish ideas of honor that we learned about in the colonial era?

In The Underdogs, the role of women is primarily a domestic one. The novel begins in a domestic setting in which Demetrio’s wife helps her husband hide from the Federales who later demand that she feed them. After they leave, Demetrio sends his wife and their child to his father’s house while he goes to join the revolution. This decision illustrates the gendered ideas of honor that were present in colonial Latin America and beyond where the man is expected to fight and stand up to any injustices especially if they include his family while the women are meant to remain in the domestic sphere.

After Demetrio is shot, he comes into the care of the women in the town they are residing in. They are depicted as care givers but not as genuine players in the revolutionary even though they are helping the rebels. Camilla is also an interesting example of gender because she clearly loves Luis Cervantes but she “belongs” to Demetrio showing that she does not have much agency in her own partnerships.

In part two, we are introduced to the character of War Paint who is described as having a “provocative gaze”. She plays a larger role in the revolution than many other women as she is the one who introduces the men to the idea of “pillaging”. She certainly has more agency than other women but she is still defined at times by her relationship. Camilla also returns and begins to travel alongside Demetrio and in some cases convinces him to help others when he was going to ignore them.
There are many instances where we can see the different roles that women were supposed to play in the revolution and the idea of “honor” being illustrated in this novel. Overall, women were not seen as soldiers or rebels but rather as caretakers and people who needed protection. Their roles were minimal and limited mainly to nursing men back to health and housing rebels with the exception of a few.

Reading question blog post – The Underdogs

My discussion question: What is the profile of the men fighting for the revolution?

As the article from class you gave us stated and which readers can observe in the novel, the men on the revolutionary side tended to be poor, rural, workers, and farmers. However, obviously there is some diversity in this which can be seen in the characters of the novel. For example, Demetrio Macías is “a poor, illiterate Indian, is forced to join the rebels in order to save his family” (back cover). Later he shares how he had a house, cows, and “small piece of land to sow” (Azuela 39), all which he was very content with. He represents the typical farming peasant who was fighting in the revolution. Another character, Venancio, is a barber who pulls molars and “applied caustics and leeches” but wanted to become a doctor (15, 34). He had to stop his studies because of the death of his parents, but the men look up to him. He represents someone who was unable to achieve his dreams/full potential. At the same time, there is Luis Cervantes who is a medical student and a journalist (20). He comes from a different class and was drafted by the Federales. When they offend him, he deserts and joins the other side. At first, he experiences some ill-will from Demetrio’s men, but they eventually come around to him. He represents someone who was forced by conscription and soon becomes disillusioned, willing to give up his privileges of his class to join the revolution until he moves to the U.S. These characters play into the prototypes of the people who joined the revolutionary and highlight the diversity of motivations and reasons people fought for the revolution.

Azuela

My question is: what does Palomo represent and how is the treatment of Palomo representative of the Revolution?

Palomo is Demetrio’s dog in the beginning of the book. In Spanish, Palomo means pigeon or dove, thus representing innocence. His alarm at the approaching men (5), signifies a danger approaching for his family. Like the onset of the revolution increasing in intensity, so too are Palomo’s barks (5). Palomo’s jumping over the fence heralds the remainder of the book as the start for Demetrio in the revolution. As innocence dies, the revolution begins.

The treatment of Palomo, in a way is representative of the remainder of the book. Palomo’s anger fuels him to jump the fence (6) yet results in tragedy. So too the anger of the characters leads them to band together with the rebels. All of them fighting for different things in the end. Palomo’s anger at the approaching horses is the beginning of Demetrio’s desire for vengeance.

One central message of this book is that there will always be someone below, who will face the treatment from those above. Palomo is a symbol of Demetrio and all the rebels. Once ruled by one person, fighting for a cause only to be later ruled by someone else. In Palomo’s case killed by an invader.