Modern Latin America 2020 – Page 7

Narrowed Research: Chilean Feminist Protest 2019

I will be focusing my research on the new wave of feminism that is becoming very popular around the world. Originally created in Chile by Las Tesis, the global ‘rape song’ is one about power dynamics and violence against feminism. The group of activist women, Las Tesis, became inspired by a radical feminist and anthropologist, Rita Segato, and wrote their approtraitely acusatory protest song. This song, titled “el violador en tu camino” (“The Rapist on Your Way”), was performed on November 25, 2019 in Santiago, Chile. Chile is known for the amount of violence against women that happens. There is so much violence that Chile, and Latin America in general, has coined the term ‘femicide’ for the high rates of female murders & rapes. I would like to look into how this specific movement has become popular. Obviously, it has spread with the help of social media, but I want to understand what actual legislation and female experiences are driving these intense feelings of violation within Chile. This is an extremely important thing to look into, because the movement is gaining speed for a reason: women are being threatened by the people in power.

Primary Source:

Performance Colectivo Las Tesis “Un Violador En Tu Camino.” Accessed February 16, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB7r6hdo3W4.

Secondary Source:

Pichel, Mar. “La Violación No Es Un Acto Sexual, Es Un Acto de Poder, de Dominación, Es Un Acto Político.” BBC News Mundo, December 11, 2019, sec. Otras noticias. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-50735010.

“‘Chile Woke Up’: Dictatorship’s Legacy of Inequality Triggers Mass Protests.” The New York Times, November 3, 2019, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/americas/chile-protests.html.

Government of Chile. “Circuito de Feminicidio.” Chile: UN Women, 2009. https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/fr/countries/americas/chile/2009/circuito-de-feminicidio.

Cáceres Pérez, Daniela Isabel. “About the Semantics of the Femicide in Chile.” Sociedad y economía 31 (2016): 239-262.

Narrowed: Student Research: Social structures of nineteenth century Jamaica

My project will look at the depiction of the various groups in Jamaica during the nineteenth century. The question I will explore, and answer is, how did the social structures of Jamaica exemplify the social structures of Latin America? This is significant because by doing a case study of Jamaica, a wider analysis of Latin America can be conducted into the social structures between races, economics, and other aspects of Latin American society in the nineteenth century.

Primary Source

Hakewill, James. Llanrumny Estate, St. Mary’s, Jamaica. 1820 and 1821. Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Jamaica. In Yale Center for British Art. Accessed March 20, 2019. https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3632989.

Secondary Sources

Armstrong, Douglas, and Mark W. Hauser. “An East Indian Laborers’ Household in Nineteenth-Century Jamaica: A Case for Understanding Cultural Diversity through Space, Chronology, and Material Analysis.” Historical Archaeology 38, no. 2 (2004): 9-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25617142.

Burnard, Trevor. “European Migration to Jamaica, 1655-1780.” The William and Mary Quarterly 53, no. 4 (1996): 769-96. doi:10.2307/2947143.

Palmer, Colin A. Freedom’s Children: The 1938 Labor Rebellion and the Birth of Modern Jamaica. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469611709_palmer.11.

Paul, Kathleen. “Keeping Britain White.” In Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era, 111-30. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 1997. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv5rdvw1.10.

Robinson, St. John. “Southern Loyalists in the Caribbean and Central America.” The South Carolina Historical Magazine 93, no. 3/4 (1992): 205-20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27568303.

Narrowed Research Post: The Life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

My research question is: How did Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz challenge the gender roles of her time, and how did she affect women after her time leading up to the modern day? This research is significant in that gender roles have changed drastically over time. Understanding the perspective of a woman who had an effect on these revolutionary changes will make history easier to analyze. My research will include analyzing Cruz’s works and how society reacted to her radical views. Additionally, I will research women’s continuation of her views and how this continued to change gender roles over time.

Sources

Brooke, Alice. The autos sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Natural Philosophy and Sacramental Theology. : Oxford University Press, May 24, 2018. Oxford Scholarship Online. Date Accessed 15 Feb. 2020 <https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198816829.001.0001/oso-9780198816829>.

De, La Cruz, Sor Juana Ines. Sor Juana’s Love Poems, University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=3444971. Accessed 15 Feb. 2020

Finley, Sarah. Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz. University of Nebraska Press, 2019. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvb1hr9g. Accessed 15 Feb. 2020.

Fuller, Amy. Between Two Worlds: The Autos Sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz. Vol. 100, Modern Humanities Research Association, 2015. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15zc943. Accessed 15 Feb. 2020.

Seminar on Feminism & Culture in Latin America. Women, Culture, and Politics in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990 1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7c600832. Accessed 15 Feb. 2020.

Narrowed Research Post: LGBTQ+ Rights in Cuba

My research question is: How did deep prejudice toward homosexuals in Cuba during the Revolution motivate the development of Cuban LGBTQ+ rights to the present? This topic is significant because research on this area can help demonstrate how much progress or lack of progress has been made toward establishing more rights for the LGBTQ+ community in Cuba since the initiation and discontinuation of placing homosexuals in labor camps during the Cuban Revolution. Also, this research can be beneficial toward understanding modern Latin America because it will provide greater insight toward the development of the LGBTQ+ movement in Cuba, which may then be compared to LGBTQ+ movements in other Latin American countries to assess the development of these movements as well.

Sources

Guerra, Lillian. 2010. “Gender Policing, Homosexuality and the New Patriarchy of the Cuban Revolution, 1965–70.” Social History 35(3): 268–89.

Leiner, Marvin. 1994. Sexual Politics in Cuba: Machismo, Homosexuality, and AIDS. Boulder: Westview Press.

Majied, Kamilah F. 2015. “Racism and Homophobia in Cuba: A Historical and Contemporary Overview.” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 25(1): 26–34.

Montoya, Óscar E. 2012. “Leonardo Padura Fuentes: Las Máscaras Estéticas y Sexuales de La Revolución.” Hispanic Review 80(1): 107–25.

Pena, Susan. 2007. “‘Obvious Gays’ and the State Gaze: Cuban Gay Visibility and U.S. Immigration Policy during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 16(3): 482–514.

Latin America in the News- Venezuelan Migration Crisis

Since 2015, around 4.8 million Venezuelans have fled from their country to Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and other areas in Latin America and the Carribean (Grattan). These migrants are facing widespread xenophobia and the opportunities available to them in other nations are purposely limited. For instance, individuals such as Adriana Aldana, a 34-year-old Venezuelan mother of three, was verbally abused for being Venezuelan by her boss at her former restaurant job in Colombia (Grattan). Her situation is just one instance of the mistreatment Venezuelan migrants face in other nations.

Since migration has continued to increase, nations have placed tighter restrictions on allowing Venezuelans into their borders. For example, Visa requirements have been placed by Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Peru and Ecuador and seven nations have also placed passport requirements (Barajas). Also, xenophobia toward Venezuelans has become more violent. For instance, it has been revealed that between 2017-2019, the Colombian-Venezuelan border had witnessed 378 migrant deaths (Barajas). Individuals from host countries are against welcoming migrants because of the jobs and opportunities they take away from the already struggling domestic working classes (Grattan). As a result of the continued xenophobia faced by Venezuelan migrants, measures have been taken to promote a more welcoming environment in host countries toward Venezuelans. Specifically, the UNHCR established a campaign called “Somos panas” (We’re mates) to encourage Colombians to aid and welcome Venezuelan migrants the same way Venezuelans helped and welcomed Colombian migrants during their refugee crisis (Barajas). Regardless, the struggles endured by Venezuelan migrants continue to persist as more Venezuelans continue to flee the country.

In the article from The New Humanitarian, the author places great focus on telling the personal stories of Venezuelan migrants who have endured struggles in host countries. This approach effectively serves to more deeply humanize the migrants and condemn the individuals in host nations who have mistreated them. Also, while the article from the Los Angeles Times does admit that migrants have been poorly treated, it places more focus on how the increase in the flow of migrants has created a greater burden on host countries. Additionally, the article from the Los Angeles Times also explains in more detail the restrictions implemented by host countries against migrants.

Moreover, the articles relate to our course themes and readings specifically in relation to the issues with poverty in Latin America discussed in John Charles Chasteen’s Born in Blood and Fire. For instance, the concerns from host countries’ impoverished working classes against migrants’ acquisition of local jobs and opportunities reflect the widespread economic poverty in Latin America discussed by Chasteen (Chasteen 6). Additionally, the “Somos panas” initiative is similar to the Nativist use of the word “Americanos” during the independence era because both terms were used to foster unity among separate populations for the sake of cooperation (Chasteen 107).

Works Cited

Barajas, Julia. 2020. “Fewer Options Abroad for Fleeing Venezuelans.” Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-12/fewer-options-abroad-for-fleeing-venezuelans (February 14, 2020).

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

Grattan, Steven. 2020. “Venezuelan Migrants Face Rising Xenophobia in Latin America.” The New Humanitarian. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/02/13/Venezuelan-migrants-xenophobia-Latin-America (February 14, 2020).

Class Notes 2/10/2020

Marco Peticca

In Modern Latin America on 2/10, the topic of the class was “Race and Nation.” Race and nation are two distinct categories that are often assumed to be one category. A person’s race does not define their nationality and a person’s nationality does not define their race. We started this discussion by looking at scientific racism, a trend in Latin America during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While technological issues prevented us from engaging with Professor Holt’s PowerPoint presentation, we were able to look at these issues through a more discussion-based class. Scientific racism, along with the concept of race itself, was created by Western Europeans in order to divide people into categories. While we know today that race is less scientific than cultural, scientific racism was a widespread method of creating hierarchies that were specific to that time and place.

About halfway through class, we broke into small groups to discuss the two readings from “Race & Nation Building” and “Portraits of a Possible Nation.” These readings highlight that scientific racism was important for Europeans because it provided a method for determining what groups of people were best suited for different tasks. Physical features were thought to indicate distinct capabilities. Because they were considered superior and more capable, Latin American elites pushed to bring in more Europeans. In my small group with Gio and Abby, we discussed particular sections of the readings. We discussed raceless ideology in Cuba which created a problematic ideology that completely ignored differences in race. We also discussed the divide between rural and urban people, the barbershop approach of making people look and think more European, as well as how Darwinism is applied to race. The group spent the most time discussing the love story from Brazil. This was a story that was intended to be very romantic but has become more problematic with the passing of time. The author exoticized an indigenous woman, essentially “othering” her on the basis of race.

One of the key terms that came up in class was “race.” Professor Holt provided the definition of race from her dissertation that says, “Historically specific construction of difference based on an ascribed somatic hierarchy for the maintenance of power.” The aspect of “maintenance of power” makes a lot of sense in the context of Europeans having created race. Europeans essentially created the concept of race to legitimize their own global power.

In “Portraits of a Possible Nation,” Nancy Stepan examines the importance of photography as a science. She writes, “From its beginning, photography was closely related to the sciences, thereby extending the importance of the visual to scientific knowledge. The medium was taken up by anthropologists, engineers, and physicians who believed, as Susan Sontag has put it, that ‘to collect photographs is to collect the world.’ The emphasis in science and medicine on the importance of accurate observation, on the distinction between the knower and the known, and on the way that knowledge could be obtained by inventorying and ordering objects of the natural world within classificatory schemes, all made photography seem not merely an ally of science but an enactment of it.” This passage is an excellent source in understanding how human data was collected from photographs. This data was then used to formulate different categories within scientific racism.

In addition to the two readings for class, these three websites provide accessible information on race:

https://www.raceforward.org/

https://www.understandingrace.org/

https://www.racialequitytools.org/home

Three exam questions:

Who created the concept of race? For what purpose?

Race is based more on (blank) than science.

What was the goal of the barbershop approach?

Class notes 2/5/2020

In class we discussed enslaved life in Cuba and Brazil. The Digital Public History: Slave Voyages site allows a deeper understanding of both larger trends in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as well as micro trends by looking at individual ships, people, and ports through which slave ships would leave from.

The map with the arrows depicting the number of people of African descent leaving Africa and entering other continents shows the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as a global network. Europeans were the economic victors in this history. Within Cuba, Brazil, and other Latin American countries, there were different forms of control than in North America, specifically the United States. In Latin America, the use of violence and manumission were used to control and create a sense of false hope for many slaves. If a slave “behaved” they might be able to be set free in Latin America, thus placing blame for their conditions and punishments on slaves rather than masters.

During the 1835 revolt, many slaves were executed, though what we can learn from this are from the trial records. These records give slaves a voice to an otherwise voiceless subaltern. In some instances, we can also see cultural aspects of slaves. One person, had an Arabic prayer book, thus showing their religion before they were brought to South America.

Overall the life of a slave in Latin America was violent and short. Though some gained their freedom, many were not able to. The systems of slavery in Latin America were fairly different from those of the United States. More slaves entered Latin America because the death rate of people of African descent was higher and therefore demand required more people to be brought over whereas the United States established a system that required fewer slaves to be brought over due to the longer life expectancies and the higher birthrate over death rate.

Research Idea: Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution

I am interested in researching the life of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, and how his experiences and politics shaped Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. Chavez is an interesting and controversial figure, and the central role of his personality in Venezuelan reforms makes a biographical project on him valuable for building an understanding of (roughly) the last 30 years of Venezuela’s history. I have studied and enjoyed working on Venezuela before, but have not had a chance to really investigate key personalities in the nation’s modern History. Chavez seems like an excellent way to deepen my knowledge. In Chavez’s case, there is also a discussion to be had of perceptions and roles attributed to gender. Chavez is often characterized as a kind of reminiscent of Caudillos, due to his military background and cultivation of personal machismo. My focus would be on Chavez himself, with some conclusions potentially on the wider context of Venezuela’s history.