Week 6: Citizenship and Rights in the New Republic: ERASURE

The readings ,much like the prior weeks didn't dwelve into anything too shocking, that within itself is kind of horrifying. Something I did extract as an underlying issue for the independence movements in L/A was a form of ancestral/ethnic  (ethnic for a lack of better term) erasure. The role this played in the undermining of citizens from uniting with people of similar ancestral colonial relations and erasing all issues that didn't effect the ruling classes in a negative way. This similarly parallels the erasure of current issues facing the Black Lives Matter Movement, wherein people erase issues of marginalization and violence by "not seeing colour", or stating that these people are "all just Americans",  like what was said in this weeks readings where the Peruvian government was recalled saying such things as there's no such things as "Indians", that everyone is now just Peruvian. These types of "micro"-violences erase the reality of those in marginalized groups/communities by denying identity to these groups and enforcing horizontal or internalized racism. Internalized and horizontal violences can work their way into these communities/peoples and reinforce already present doubt and/or self hatred. This has never been okay and as the interference of people obtaining their rights has always been  (later) deemed as unlawful and unethical, so must be deemed the process of erasure.
 These actions have and will always be just an attempt to stop progress of marginalized communities in either establishing or obtaining their literal human rights, fortunately, these actions while generally win battles, do not win wars of equality.

Week 5: Caudillos Versus the Nation State

Comparing the excerpts from Alex Dawson's Latin America Since Independence from last week to this week's Esteban Echeverría's The Slaughterhouse (1838/1871) we move from speeches where the main power comes from rhetoric and recycling authors to a highly religiously powered text. The main purpose of Echeverría's The Slaughterhouse is to belay a perception of historical events through his lenses which he chooses to present the events as a sort of God influenced cosmic retribution for mans' sins. The creation of this story, whether true or not, is one of few examples or stories told from a traditionalist perspective during this time period in Latin American history.

Combining Narratives

Much like anything written, spoken, read, watched or otherwise left to interpretation of an audience, specific members of the audience will always interpret the message of the speaker in the way that suits them best. From the Bible to the Qu'ran to Lord of the Rings to any historical document in the world, people will take the action of explaining the meaning of something to what serves their own interests best. Relating to the excerpts from Dawson's Latin America Since Interdependence (LASI) to different peoples' interpretations of actual events such as Esteban Echeverría's Slaughter House (aka El Matadero) or interpretations of other's author's works such as Hugo Chávez's speech at the XII G-15 Summit (2014) invoking Pablo Neruda's poetry and piggybacking Simon Bolívar's rhetoric to push his own political agenda. These being good or bad is not really the subject of importance rather the rhetoric and diction deliberately chosen from and the intent of that interpretation. We see that the use of Neruda's Chant to Bolívar both reinforces and defines Bolívar as the "father" of modern politics in the region as well as preemptively endorses the proposition Chávez is about to announce. These sorts of interpretations create a rich tapestry which intricately weaves the history of such a diverse region together through art, politics and social revolution.