Week 8: Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age

This topic was building off last weeks material about the beginning of modernity in Latin America. Dawson describes this period of modernity in Latin America as the “gilded” age instead of “golden” alluding to the many problems that the region faced. With modernity and progress came a lot of regress as well, or as Jon

Week 7: The Export Boom as Modernity

This week encompassed the struggles for freedom and citizenship rights. For Latin America, modernity was a dichotomy between emancipation/enlightenment versus more injustice and prejudice. Emancipation was a long process that certainly did not solve all of the region’s problems. All of a sudden there was rapid development, expansion of industries, and urbanization. There was a

Week 2: The Meeting of two Worlds

This week was a great further introduction to the course. The content covered Columbus stumbling upon Latin America and the interaction between the new and old world through various texts. I found it was interesting how Jon talked about 1494 AKA the “first discovery of Latin America” being a “mythical date”. In school, we learned

Week 13: Towards an Uncertain Future

Going into this course, I knew very little about Latin America. Much of my impression of the region was generally comprised of stereotypes and basic generalizations. I soon came to realize how incorrect these preconceptions were. I quickly learned more about the complexity, depth, and rich history of a region that I previously knew so

Week 12: Speaking Truth to Power

This week, “Speaking Truth to Power” was really about individuals groups speaking up against government powers. These people had to find new ways to protest and resist in a time of great violence. We see that especially through the work of the Madres, who campaigned for their missing children that were taken during the military

Week 11: The terror

This week on “the terror” covered the internal strife of the region encompassing civil war and political instability. I think a theme that was present in the readings this week was the concept of the truth- and for lack of a better word the overall “sketchiness” that overwhelmed the period. These concepts are especially exemplified

Mini research assignment: Femicide in Latin America

Source #1: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0094582X13492143?utm_source=summon&utm_medium=discovery-provider The scholarly article, Violence against Women in Latin America by Diana Wilson Tamar is about gender based violence and its different forms with a specific focus on Latin American countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador. Violence against women happens everywhere regardless of a country’s state of development or political

Week 10: Power to the people

This week it was interesting to contemplate the role of “the people” in Latin American politics and how they informed political ideology, such as socialism. Socialism in a sense constructs the concept of “the people” against “they” e.i. the elites. What do you think are some pros and cons of socialism? What places do you

Week 9: Commerce, Coercion, and America’s Empire

It was interesting to learn more about US- Latin American relations this week. It was a topic that I knew virtually nothing about. Learning and reading about the nature of this relationship taught me some more about both places and their histories. There was this dichotomy of the United States’ presence in Latin America being

Week 6: Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics

I thought this week’s lecture was a very interesting topic regarding race and rights. Something important that I learned was how there are still lasting effects from slavery in the Americas today. There is still institutionalized racism/discrimination. I thought it was interesting to compare Latin America’s struggle with slavery to the United states. Emancipation was