Modern Latin American History Final Exam:

All questions are essays. You must answer all three. YOU MUST USE FORMAL ESSAY FORMAT!!!...

I. Intro paragraph – including thesis statement
II. Supporting argument paragraph
III. Supporting argument paragraph
IV. Supporting argument paragraph
V. Supporting argument paragraph
VI. Conclusion paragraph paragraph

1. Compare Brazil (Matt Korni), Bolivia (Leonel Hernandez), Mexico (Eric Lipari), and Cuba (Josh Rivera) – how are the countries similar? How are they different? Pay close attention to important social indicators like – 1. life expectancy, 2. infant mortality, 3. literacy, 4. per capita GDP and 5. percentage of persons living in poverty. Also look at the economic base of the country (exports) and the ethnic and “racial” makeup of the country.


2. Compare the social indicators of Haiti, Honduras (Noe Espino), Argentina (Aaron Booth) and the Unites States. How different are the economic and social conditions in these 4 countries.


3. The governments of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and the recently elected FMLN in El Salvador have reacted negatively to the economic model that the United States has advocated for Latin America. What do they reject about the “Washington consensus” or neo-liberalism? What do they hope to accomplish? For some ideas, check out my recent blog entries at…

http://mrmeadlucero09.blogspot.com/

You must post your answers to your blog by 9:00 AM on Friday morning, March 20th

FMLN wins presidential election in El Salvador...

On Sunday, the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front), the former Guerrilla Army (remember the movie Innocent Voices) turned political party, won the elections for the presidency of El Salvador. Their candidate Mauricio Funes is a former television news reporter who criticized the government and the military for its massive human rights abuses during El Salvador’s brutal 12 year civil war. This election is the first time a leftist government has come to power in El Salvador. The FMLN rejects many of the economic policies promoted by the United States in Latin America. However, President Funes has promised not to make radical changes. Here are some links to more info…

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509438,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801775.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-elsalvador13-2009mar13,0,3098771.story

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885573,00.html

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B19E6AA84-DCAF-4108-B996-5DB0F378CCD2%7D)&language=EN

From independence struggles to the rise of the Caudillo...

This week in class we discussed the various independence struggles that washed like a tidal wave across the entire continent, starting with Haiti in 1791 and ending in the mid 1820’s with almost all of Latin America freed from rule by their former colonial masters. The men (and unfortunately less well known women) who lead these struggles were often inspiring individuals, filled with the ideas of the Enlightenment and a hunger for justice. They were also mostly Criollos (with the exception of a few) who were not immune to the prejudices of their caste. Upon successfully declaring their independence from Spain, Portugal or France, they inherited societies of extreme inequality and entrenched social hierarchy. All were predominately agricultural societies that lagged far behind Europe and the United States in terms of technology, infrastructure and industry.

Within a decade, every one of these newly independent nations would, to a greater or lesser extent, abandon republican ideals (if not the name republic). Enlightenment principals and liberal democracy did not take hold during the 19th century over most of the continent. Why?

Please reflect on these questions…

1. Why did real democracy prove so elusive post independence in Latin America?
2. Why did so many of the newly independent nations of Latin America end up being ruled by Caudillos?
3. Why did political independence not bring economic prosperity to the masses of Latin America?
For more background information, read this description of Simon Bolivar. It is from a document written by a group of film producers who are seeking to make a documentary on his life (the link to the site is at the bottom)…

The Power of Ideas:
Simón Bolívar, an indefatigable man of action, was also a man of ideas. The producers will emphasize that Bolívar’s ability to fuse these two realms was central to the successes he had. Bolivar’s intellectual flowering began when he was summoned to Spain by a well-connected relative. Just a teenager, Bolívar got a whiff of imperial decadence. A few years later, traveling in France, he became an avid reader of the period’s most radical thinkers. Enlightenment ideas had already fueled revolutions in France and North America. Bolívar drank up their spirit of inquiry and dissent and helped bring them home to South America. He was a prodigious writer of pamphlets, political tracts, proclamations and personal letters. His eloquent calls for freedom, self-determination, and equality are useful reminders that such principles were incendiary in their day and remain inspirational in our own.

The Problem of Race:
While Bolívar’s story highlights the power of eighteenth century ideas, it simultaneously underscores the limits of Enlightenment programs, at least in their actual application. South America was and is multi-racial to its core. By Bolívar’ s time, Spain had dominated the continent for centuries. The indigenous population had been decimated by war, disease, and economic degradation. Millions of Blacks had been imported as slaves from Africa. European immigrants had established rigid hierarchies. A small White elite sat atop a massive population of Indians, freed Blacks, mixed-race people, and slaves. This dark-skinned majority alarmed Whites on both sides of the political divide by arguing that independence from Spain wasn’t enough: they wanted wholesale social change. Few Whites shared that goal.

Bolívar played all sides. His on-again / off-again promotion of full equality became a hallmark of his career. It also became a lasting feature of his continent. South America, like other regions, still struggles to reconcile its noblest ideals with political and social reality. Some of the conflicting demands are particular to Bolívar’s native land. Some, however, are universal. Bolívar’s artful juggling of entrenched power, un-leashed aspirations, military exigencies, racial prejudice, and simple demographics - to name but a few of the issues he faced - spotlights some of the enduring and cross-cultural dynamics of racial politics…

The Rise of Personal Rule:
Bolívar exerted a profound impact on South America. But this program will explore other themes that resonate beyond his native continent, too. Simón Bolívar was a complex, often contradictory figure operating at a time of global political ferment. It was the dawn of modern democracy, and reformers everywhere worried that the new system could buck in unexpected directions. While the United States would follow one path, many South American nations - and later, other developing countries - would walk with Bolívar down a more authoritarian route. The more violent and protracted their independence struggles, the stronger their militaries became. And the more fractured and contentious their new polities, the more attractive seemed military solutions. For some, at least, order was preferable to chaos. And strongmen like Bolívar seemed able to succeed when democratic institutions fell short. Bolívar himself apparently came to hold this view. Military populism . rule by strongmen or caudillos . was thus part of Bolívar’s legacy, too. Bolívar’s input, of course, was hardly singular. But he did cast a particularly long shadow. For better and worse, generations of Spanish American leaders from Argentina’s Juan Peron to Cuba’s Fidel Castro to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez would consciously model themselves after the first American Bonaparte. They would imitate his use of military symbols. mimic his rhetoric about patriotic virtue. and endlessly invoke his name. Bolívar didn’t invent the model, but he eloquently, persistently, and boomingly projected it forward across the nineteenth century and into our own. And here it thrives.

Excerpted from the following website…
http://www.kovalfilms.com/SimonBolivar/White%20Papers_files/Narrative.pdf

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins right to run for president again…

On Monday the controversial President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez won a referendum that struck down term limits for the presidency, meaning he can run for a third term as president in 2012. His right wing opponents claim that this is a sign Chavez is becoming a dictator like his ally Fidel Castro in Cuba. His supporters, most of whom come from the working class and the poor in Venezuela point out that perhaps no other politician in the world has received more democratic validation. Chavez has won three presidential elections (1998 with 56% of vote, 2000 with 60% of the vote, 2006 with 62% of the vote) an attempted recall vote in 2004, a constitutional referendum in 1999, and his party has won multiple parliamentary elections.

Chavez has won much admiration among the poor across Latin America for his use of Venezuela’s oil wealth to improve the lives of the poor through education, health and other social programs. He has also become the most reviled leader in Latin America amongst the Latin American elite and the government of the United States. They reject his attempts to build a “socialist” society in Venezuela and his opposition to U.S. foreign policy.

Chavez calls his program for Venezuela’s transformation the “Bolivarian Revolution”.

Respond to the following…

1. What do you think? Has Chavez been good for Venezuela or not?
2. Is Chavez a dictator or the most democratically elected president in the hemisphere if not the world?
3. Why does he call his efforts the “Bolivarian Revolution”?

Here are some links to help you…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/world/americas/17venez.html?ref=world

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-cooper/chavez-wins-socialism-or_b_167281.html

http://www.alternet.org/audits/77286/venezuela%3A_why_the_barrios_still_love_hugo/

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/febrero/lun16/08si-i.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1925236.stm

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187165,00.html

Read chapter 2 for Wednesday...

Hi all Latin American History students,

This is just a reminder that you should have read through chapter 2 (P. 89) by next Wednesday (Feb. 4th).

Social networking site Facebook has removed a group looking to hire a gunman to assassinate Bolivian president Evo Morales...

Read the article here...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Facebook-Removes-Bolivian-President-Evo-Morales-Assassination-Group-Users-Wanted-To-Hire-Gunman/Article/200901415211659?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_15211659_Facebook_Removes_Bolivian_President_Evo_Morales_Assassination_Group%3A_Users_Wanted_To_Hire_Gunman

The Poems of Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz…

A number of you took a real interest in Sor Juana, so I thought I would add this link to a few of her poems. The six poems listed here are in both the original Spanish and in English translation…
http://www.poemhunter.com/sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz/poems/page-1/

As you can see in these poems, Sor Juana is perhaps the first feminist in the Americas. Her writings challenged the restrictions placed on women’s roles in Colonial Latin American society. In her early years, it seems that she held surprisingly modern views on sex and sexuality. As you already know, she was later forced to recant these views. You can also see in these poems why some have concluded that she had relationships with other women that may have crossed the traditional lines of friendship.

Here is one example of her poems attacking the sexism of her society…

You Men:

Silly, you men-so very adeptat
wrongly faulting womankind,
not seeing you're alone to blame
for faults you plant in woman's mind.

After you've won by urgent plea
the right to tarnish her good name,
you still expect her to behave--
you, that coaxed her into shame.

You batter her resistance down
and then, all righteousness, proclaim
that feminine frivolity,
not your persistence, is to blame.

When it comes to bravely posturing,
your witlessness must take the prize:
you're the child that makes a bogeyman,
and then recoils in fear and cries.

Presumptuous beyond belief,
you'd have the woman you pursue
be Thais when you're courting her,
Lucretia once she falls to you.

For plain default of common sense,
could any action be so queer
as oneself to cloud the mirror,
then complain that it's not clear?

Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.

With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful--
succumbing, you call her lewd.

Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.

What happy mean could there be
for the woman who catches your eye,
if, unresponsive, she offends,
yet whose complaisance you decry?

Still, whether it's torment or anger--
and both ways you've yourselves to blame--
God bless the woman who won't have you,
no matter how loud you complain.

It's your persistent entreaties
that change her from timid to bold.
Having made her thereby naughty,
you would have her good as gold.

So where does the greater guilt lie
for a passion that should not be:
with the man who pleads out of baseness
or the woman debased by his plea?

Or which is more to be blamed--
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?

So why are you men all so stunned
at the thought you're all guilty alike?
Either like them for what you've made them
or make of them what you can like.

If you'd give up pursuing them,
you'd discover, without a doubt,
you've a stronger case to make
against those who seek you out.

I well know what powerful arms
you wield in pressing for evil:
your arrogance is allied
with the world, the flesh, and the devil!