Olaudah Equiano...

Today we read excerpts from the autobiography of former Slave Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano). If you wish to read the full autobiography, you can find it here…

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/equiano/equiano_contents.html

You can find out more about Olaudah Equiano here…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaudah_Equiano

How do you feel about the excerpts we read? Were you at all shocked by the brutality Equiano describes? How do you think the experience of slavery has impacted the lives of Latin Americans of African descent over the generations?

Native American Genocide?

Today we talked about Bartolome de Las Casas, the Dominican priest who became one of the lone voices amoung the Spaniards and church officials to condemn the treatment of the Native Americans by the Spanish conquistadors and colonizers. Written as propaganda pieces, his accounts may have been exaggerated, but the reality of the devastation of Native American life and culture upon arrival of the Europeans is undeniable.

It is impossible to know with an accuracy the population of the Americas before 1492. At best we can make very generalized, educated guess made from archeological evidence, statistical analysis and anecdotal accounts both Native and European. Here is a chart showing the wide variance among scholars on the subject…

The “consensus” view of many historians is that somewhere near 40 to 60 Million is probably the best guess. By the mid 17th century (1650 or so) this number had been reduced to a mere 8-10 million. That means the Native American population fell by 80-90% in a period of 150 years. This makes it possibly the largest loss of human life in a short period in the history of the planet – likely out numbering the victims and population percentages of the European Black Death. Like the Black Death, the primary culprit was disease (responsible for probably close to 90% of the total number) brought by the colonizers to the New World. But war, mass murder, slavery, removal and exploitation also played an important part.



Links to info on Bartolome de Las Casas…
http://www.lascasas.org/

http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/casas.htm

Theodore De Bry's Illustrations for Bartolome de Las Casas's "Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies"…
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ejg1/doc/lascasas/casas.htm

En Espanol…
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolom%C3%A9_de_las_Casas

http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/otros/brevisi.htm

Question…

Would you use the term genocide to describe what happen to the Native peoples of the Americas after Colombus’s arrival? Please respond on your blog.

Webster’s On-Line Dictionary defines genocide as…

“the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”

Here are some more definitions…
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genocide

http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm

The Devil's Miner, Bolivia & Evo Morales...

The other day we watched the film - The Devil’s Miner - about indigenous Andean children working in the mines in Bolivia. Bolivia continues to be one of the poorest countries in Latin America and has one of the highest percentages of native peoples (indios). Here are some websites with more facts about Bolivia…

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bl.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1210487.stm

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/bl-bolivia

http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?SelectedCountry=BOL&CCODE=BOL&CNAME=Bolivia&PTYPE=CP

Look for some important statistics like…

Infant Mortality Rate
Life Expectancy
GDP – Per Capita
Population below the poverty line
Unemployment rate
Literacy Rate
Ethnic breakdown of the population
Export Commodities
External Debt

As I explained in class the other day, in 2006 Bolivians elected Evo Morales the first indigenous person to the presidency of Bolivia. Morales is a member of the Aymara, one of Bolivia’s largest indigenous ethnic groups. Morales become famous originally as an organizer of the Cocaleros (coca farmers) who resent U.S. foreign policy in regards to Bolivia and the U.S. attempts to eradicate coca production – a traditional crop of the indigenous people of Bolivia. Morales is a close ally of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Ignacio Lula da Silva in Brazil.

You can find out more about Morales here…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1210487.stm

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2438/

http://www.betterworldheroes.com/morales.htm

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2002/501/27822

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3SSlc0L0fg

In light of what we saw in the film, I want you to reflect on these questions throughout the remainder of this course…

1. Why is child labor common in parts of Latin America?

2. Why are the indigenous people of the Americas at the bottom of the social/economic/political hierarchy?

3. What is the source of the region’s continued poverty?

4. How have European, Indigenous and African cultures blend to produce the contemporary culture (or cultures) of Latin America?

Please respond to these questions on your own blogs.

If you want more info on the film you can check out this website...

http://www.thedevilsminer.com/index_new.html