Week 10

Latin American Boom
In the 1950's after world war II, Latin America had increasing economic prosperity, and as a result of its it's new-found confidence gave rise to a literary boom. This explosion of literature writing is what is commonly known as the Latin American Boom. It put Latin American literature on the world map in the 1960s and 70's. The notoriety of the writings was sparked when the work of a group of Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. These latin- american writers challenged the status-quo of Latin American literature. Their work was experimental and was out of the norm of what was commonly wrote during that time. Also, many of these novels were somewhat rebellious from the views of that time's Latin American culture. Authors crossed traditional boundaries, experimented with language, and often had interwoven styles of writing in their literary works. Political unrest in countries such as Cuba at this time influenced the literary boom as well. In the years from 1960 to 1967 was when the major works of the boom were published. Jorge Luis Borges, though not really a Boom author was influential source of the new latino writers.

Popular boom authors and the works during that time were;
Borges: Ficciones, A Personal Anthology, El Aleph and Other Stories Cabrera
Infante: Three Trapped Tigers
Carpentier: Explosion in a Cathedral, The Lost Steps, Reasons of State
Cortazar: The Winners, Hopscotch, Blow-Up and Other Stories
Donoso: Coronation, This Sunday, The Obscene Bird of the Night
Fuentes: Where the Air is Clear, The Death of Artemio Cruz, Aura, Change of Skin, Terra Nostra
Garcia Mirquez: No One Writes to the Colonel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Autumn of the Patriarch
Guimaraes, Rosa: The Third Bank of the River, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Puig: Betrayed by Rita Hayworth, The Buenos Aires Affair
Rulfo: Pedro Paramo Sarduy: From Cuba With a Song, Cobra Vargas
Llosa: The Green House, Conversation in the Cathedral

Cesar Chavez and the United Farm workers
I wrote about Cesar Chavez because I was very interested to find out the whole story of how Cesar struggled to help the migrant farm workers in the United States whom we Americans have exploited over the years.

Cesar Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona.in March of 1927. It appears that it was many of the events that took place in Cesar's early life that probably had the greatest influence and ignited his drive for agricultural farm worker reform. When Cesar was young, his family was swindled in a land deal by dishonest locals (Caucasians). Cesar's father had agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land that adjoined the home. An agreement was made and subsequently broken which caused Cesar see very clearly the white man's unfair treatment of Latinos first hand. He would never forget that.

In 1938 he and his family moved to California to look for work. He thought the only way out of his low social status was work his way up the ladder and send children to college. He and his family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard, Atascadero, Gonzales, King City, Salinas, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Selma, Kingsburg, and Mendota. In California again, there was more mistreatment. In school, speaking Spanish was forbidden. He violated that rule and was disiplined many times. Some schools were segregated and he remembers having to listen to a lot of racist remarks and seeing signs that read whites only. He and his brother, Richard attended thirty-seven schools. Because his father had been in an accident and because he did not want his mother, Juana, to work in the fields, he only made it to eighth grade, quit school and became a farm worker. While at first Cesar didn't believe in education, that all changed. He said that the end of all education should surely be service to others - a belief that he practiced until his death in April, 1993. He joined the Navy at the age of seventeen where again he experienced discrimination. Cesar returned to San Jose where he met one of his his mentors, Father Donald McDonnell. They talked a lot about farm workers and strikes. Cesar then began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross. Through the support of Ross and McDonald,

In 1962, Cesar founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers - commonly known as the UFW. In the beginning, the union struggled. By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized most of that industry. At one point in time they had over 50,000 dues paying members. The primary reason for that success was Cesar Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966. Cesar Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance, fair treatment and dignity of all farm workers. It was the beginning of a cause that was eventually supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students. Cesar Chavez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use boycotting and picketing as their as their weapons.

At the end of his life, Cesar, who was now the president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO was in Yuma, near where he was born, was helping UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc., a large Salinas, CA based vegetable producer. The company demanded that the farm workers pay millions of dollars in damages resulting from a UFW boycott of its lettuce during the 1980's. Rather than bring the legal action in a state where the boycott actually took place, such as California, Church and Co. looked around for a friendly court in the conservative, agribusiness state of Arizona-where there had been no boycott activity. He died of natural causes while helping defend the union.


The impact of Cesar Chavez
Here are a few examples of what people said about the impact and work of Cesar Chavez;

“No one ever really thought about the farm workers until he came. Just to hear him talk about his goals, it was a mesmerizing experience and you never forgot it.”

"Before Cesar and the movement, we didn’t even have water or bathrooms in the fields. Now, wherever we go there is a truck with water following us.”

"What we see today — benefits, wages — are here because working people came together."

"When you come together you get a better say ... that’s what (Chavez) preached, and he lived by these standards.” "

"A lot of the wineries here started to have decent wages, people starting supporting farm worker housing. They recognized what Chavez was trying to do, and several of them went out of their way to be decent employers.”

He had a simple message: We’re people and are not afraid of anything when it comes to our future. We’re here to work, not to beg.”



Sources
http://bostonreview.net/BR03.2/coleman.html http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/history468/Cesar%20Chavez%201984.htm (Address by Cesar Chavez, President, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, The Commonwealth Club of California from http://www.ufw.org/commonwealth.htm site) http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html&menu=research http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/chavez http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/03/29/news/local/doc460bb80051500110500492.txt Educational Institutions, Libraries and newspapers are all commonly accepted credible and frequently documented sources of information

Comments on Students work from last week

Susan wrote about the book, The rise of African slavery in the Americas (David Eltis) because it gets down to the truth about slavery and how the slaves came to be here.

Theresa wrote about architecture and said that Another priority of the conquerors was the conversion of the indigenous people to Christianity. They created a new type of architecture for this purpose: a large, open-aired sanctuary called an atrio.

Kim wrote that Prior to Hatai’s independence, there was a French custom to eat soup on New Year’s Day, however blacks were not allowed to participate because they were not “upper class”.

Julsia wrote that Our Lady of Guadalupe has been celebrated for 16 centuries. Guadalupe is an icon for Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.

Nancy wrote that José Martí is a national hero of Cuba. He was a political activist, a revolutionary, a poet, a journalist, a college professor of literature, and a consul.

Candice wrote about Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. He declared his revolt against Spanish Rule. He stood on his pulpit on September 16th, 1810 and made what was known as the battle cry for Mexican independence.

Jamison wrote about Simón Bolivar. He was a liberator who organized and led thousands of military forces, to free the northern portion of South America from Spanish rule in the early nineteenth century.

Shannon wrote about Jose Marti. One thing she found very compelling about Marti was his intense passion for his cause of Cuban independence but even more so for the cause of the decency of mankind.

Gray wrote about Gran Columbia. The area covered country's that are known as Venezuela, Ecuador, And Panama. Also parts of Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil and Guyana.

Maria wrote about Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz and said the interesting thing that she discovered about her was that she defended woman's rights (which was very uncommon in that period of time).

Week 9 Independence Era

Independence Era
Independence is usually the result of a revolution. And by their nature, revolutions define a change in the Social, Economic and political structure of a societal or way of thinking. The Independence era occurred in Latin America roughly between the years 1808 and 1826 . Latin countries had been dominated by European countries and for the most part under the influence of the Spanish and Portuguese, fought and won their independence in a series of bloody battles, culminating in Latin American independence. Like the American Revolution, one single event didn't define Latino Independence.

The first sign of decline for the European oppressors was the rise of Napoleon following the French revolution. In 1807, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal with his army. This invasion scattered the rulers, and left the government in disarray. With no solid ruling power in the homeland, the question of who ruled was up in the air, and the colonists saw their chance at revolution. It should be noted that the there was a deep-rooted history of colonial discontent with empire. They desired a government where they could have have the primary say, and one that would allow a free market economy flourish.

After a series of battles, the final stage of revolution was in Mexico where there was more of a social revolution, which frustrated the rulers in Spain enough to grant independence in 1826. Thus, most of the Spanish empire was demolished, What had been a flourishing adventure for the Spanish turned into ruins, and ultimately defeat .


The Story of Camila O'Gorman (1828-1848)
I'm writing this week about Camila O'Gorman. Her story struck me as interesting in that she was atypical of the women found living in 19th century Argentina. Her execution, along with her clandestine lover during the last stages of her pregnancy caused an uproar and contributed to the political demise of then Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Her crime seems to have had been to fall in love a bit too much - at the wrong time and in the worst place. Her murder is documented as one of the most atrocious and unlawful acts in a century where murders were commonplace and laws were disregarded by the government that her death helped end.

Her Story
At the time of her execution, Camila O'Gorman was a 20 year old woman who was born into high status in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In her late teens she met Father Ladislao Gutiérrez, a priest who had attended seminary with her brother. The O'Gorman family was very powerful and two of her brothers had respectable careers - one a police officer and the other a priest. In her family, Camila was considered to be a pillar of high society and in social circles was very active.

In 1847 nineteen yr old Camila and Fr. Gutiérrez eloped on horseback and found refuge in the nearby Corrientes Province, which was under the control of a warlord who was hostile to her family home's regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas. When when it was discovered that she was missing,it was suggested that she had been kidnapped. They were were tracked down, found and arrested by an Irish priest, Fr. Michael Gannon, who suggested to Camila that she had been kidnapped. Camila would not have any of that and claimed that indeed she was the one who instigated the affair. Subsquently, they were both arrested and put in prison.

Camila's father, Adolfo O'Gorman, a very strict man obsessed with religion, morality and honor had become enraged by how the family name had been dragged through the mud by Camila's blatant indiscretion. Her father and the Rosas were good friend - and Camilia best friend with their daughter. In spite of that (or becasue of it) and the desperate pleas of his family, he writes to Rosas and he demands the death penalty for his daughter.

On the orders of Governor Rosas, Camila O'Gorman, 8 months pregnant, and Fr. Gutiérrez were executed by a firing squad in August of 1848 in the prison town of Santos Lugares de Rosas. On the morning of her execution, according to Rosas’ mandate and the laws of the church, Father Castellanos, the prison chaplain, visits Camila’s cell to baptise the baby. The ritual consisted of making the mother drink holy water and sprinkle a handful of ashes on her head.

A movie has also been made - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camila_(film) based on the story of the 19th-century Argentine socialite Camila O'Gorman. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Of course, this whole story could make you think about the Latino culture in general as it existed in that day and you would have to wonder about the separation of church and state (if any existed), and if Camilla was doing this out of spite or was she really in love? And what about the role of woman during that time frame in history?


Sources
http://www.educoas.org/Portal/bdigital/contenido/interamer/BkIACD/Interamer/Interamerhtml/Millerhtml/mil_conc.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camila_O%27Gorman

http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/08/18/1848-camila-ogorman-father-ladislao-gutierrez-traditional-family-values/

http://www.irishargentine.org/julianello.htm

http://www.trincoll.edu/classes/hist300/group3/latin.htm

http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/70



Comments on other students Work from last week...

Brandon wrote that Mexico is rich with iron deposits and has many mines. Ironworking was the first craft regulated in what is now Mexico.

Susan wrote that the Spanish conquistadors around 1600 mined the islands for gold which they brought back to Spain. The result of this economic exploitation was plantation dependence.

Nancy wrote about the Miuslims of Spain; The Moors were North Africans that had previously been conquered by the Arabs and had adopted their language, Arabic, and religion, Islam. At the pinnacle of their power the Moorish empire dominated land from China to Africa.

Robert wrote aobut Columbus because he wanted to learn what his part was and the impact this “conquisitor” may have had on Latin America.

Sara researched colonial architecture and thought the the different features were fascinating, and the fact that they are that way for a reason or purpose makes these features even more interesting.

Kelsey wrote that Mexico's Central Valleys contained 19 million people until the Spanish arrived. Once they arrived, the population came to 2 million because of the disease of smallpox.

Theresa noted that Many aristocratic Spanish families altered their family trees to intentionally remove any trace of Muslim heritage from their written past.

Gray wrote about the bells used in Missions ...Bells played a large role in the mission San Juan Capistrano. Bells were rung to signify meal times, to call people to work or religious services, births, deaths, and at other significant occasions. Originally, bells hung from a tree, until they completed a large bell tower in 1791.

Stacy wrote about Colonial Art and said that the colonial integration produced many conflicts which are depicted in the art as well.

Paul wrote that before Cortez had ventured into Mexico to go after the Aztecs and their gold, he had all but one of his ships sunk as a challenge to see if any of his men were feeling weak and wanted to go back.

Week 8

The Colonial Era
The start of the Colonial Era is marked with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. His first contact was in the newly discovered world was made with the Lucayans in the Bahamas, natives in Cuba and others along the northern coast of Hispaniola. Subsequently, the major sea powers in Europe sent expeditions to the New World with the premise of building trade networks and colonies and also to convert the native Latin-American people to Christianity. During this time, Spain had claimed the entire Caribbean - but they actually settled only the larger islands of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad.
With their aggressive posture, the Spaniards didn't make many friends in the Caribbean or with their neighbors from other parts of Europe. Sir Francis Drake was an English privateer (state sponsored pirate) who attacked many Spanish ships and forts in the Caribbean, including the San Juan (Puerto Rico) harbor in 1595. His exploits are legends even today. These exploits made him a hero to the English nobility, but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he was known as El Draque (spanish) or Draco which is latin for "The Dragon" His most well known Caribbean adventure was the capture of the Spanish Silver Train at Nombre de Dios in March, 1573. Since he and other privateers were sponsored by and reported only to the Queen of England they could be viewed as state sponsored terrorists. Not that the Spanairds activites in the region were any better.

So the topic of Pirates and privatering in the Caribbean is interesting to me in that it seems to parallel the behavior of many countries in the world today. Lets find out more about the role they played in the Colonial Era.


Pirates of the Caribbean
Nowadays days, pirates, in general are well known and glamorized in books, movies and music and portrayed as cruel men with peg legs, parrots and buried treasure. Pirates have been around for a long time, long before the colonial era. For example, for several centuries, the Vikings ransacked, looted and plundered western European coasts and waters. In the past, Muslim pirates also terrorized the Mediterranean Sea, using naval warfare and thievery with the abduction of slaves.

Following Columbus's voyage in 1492, Spain was a dominant force in the Caribbean - mostly because of its strong Navy. Spain's powerful presence made bedfellows of the English, France and the Norwegians who endorsed the use of privately owned ships, which were known as privateers. The purpose of the privateers was to fight battles, conduct raids, disrupt trade and basically harass the Spaniards. This strategy was used in order for them to gain a foothold in the area without having to have a real navy there. Privateers would often split the loot (aka booty) they seized with the particular country that hired them. One of the most famous figures of this era was Henry Morgan, who was commissioned by the British government of Jamaica to carry out attacks against the Spanish. Morgan and the pirates under his command captured settlements in Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. According to the History Channel, Morgan had a reputation as a skilled but brutal military strategist who would hang men by their genitals to make them give up their possessions. Morgan was later knighted and appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica. And the now well known Rum (Captain Morgan's) was named after him which is still sold today.

The lure of wealth and treasure was strong and and it was difficult to define the line between privateering and piracy,in which the sailors' actions aren't sponsored by any particular nation. During what is known as the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, a number of legendary pirates emerged, including Edward Teach, a former English privateer who became known and feared as Blackbeard.

According to history, other famous pirates in that era included Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts, who captured hundreds of ships, and Captain "Calico" Jack Rackham, nicknamed for his colorful attire and also remembered for a crew that included two female pirates. Calico Jack was hung for his crimes in 1720 in Jamaica; but the two women in his crew avoided the same punishment by claiming to be pregnant. Clever. Another name you might be familiar with is Captain Kidd, who was executed for piracy in London in 1701. Some of Kidd's buried treasure was found at the eastern end of Long Island, New York, and legend has it that more loot is hidden nearby .

Even though pirates were lawbreakers who were loners, heretics, criminals and the "low life's" of society, they had their own code of conduct. For instance, Pirate crews elected their own captains and the loot or "treasure" was distributed equally among crew members. And if you stole from your mate and were caught you could be marooned or perhaps be made to "walk the plank". Pirate ships flew red or black flags, known as Jolly Rogers, which featured skulls and crossbones which symbolized death and intimidated their enemies. There is not any evidence that pirates buried their treasure as a regular practice. In that era, Port Royal, Jamaica, was the safe haven for pirates. It was a place of great wealth, degeneracy, corruption and vice and was also known as "the wickedest city on earth."

The pirate's reign of terror in the Colonial Era ended by the 1720s, when pirates were challenged by European military forces in the Caribbean. Piracy declined throughout the late 18th century and early 19th century. However, piracy has never disappeared completely. In recent years, cargo vessels have been targets of modern-day pirates. Today, the waters off Indonesia and Somalia are among the world's most dangerous.

About my sources
Video source author and historian Ed Kritzler talks about pirates in Jamaica on the History Channel. Wiki history sources are cited in the Wiki web pages. The History channel is part of the A and E television network and is partnered with many credible educational sources and programs such as; HISTORY EN ESPAÑOL: CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE

As the only member of the Cable in the Classroom organization to provide free Spanish language teaching materials, History en español™ takes its commitment to education and the Latino community very seriously. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, History en español™ features lesson plans and biographies of significant Latino leaders and events from throughout history. Each issue of AETN’s Idea Book for Educators features a special Spanish-language History en español™ lesson plan for the classroom.

http://www.history.com/content/pirates/history-of-the-caribbean-pirates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpMU-3co6j8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=089nVyM_ues
http://www.diageo.com/en-row/AboutDiageo/OurHistory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Caribbean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Latin_America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Morgan


Part 2 - My Comments on Classmates Work for week 6

1. Michelle - Found out that the third largest pyramid in the world and the largest in Teotihuacan is called The Sun Pyramid

2. Susan said about the Aztecs "At the time of the European conquest, they called themselves either "Tenochca" or "Toltec," which was the name made up by the bearers of the Classic Mesoamerican culture."

3. Theresa on the Olmecs - The Olmecs adopted an ancient form of Mande script, which was first used by the Mande speaking tribes in North Africa. This would seem to mean that the Olmecs may have immigrated from Africa.

4. Logan worte that the Olmec religion mainly focused on Animalism. Among the animal kingdom the Olmec primarily focused on the worship of the jaguar.

5. Alyssa wrote about the Aztecs and said they would bring back capatives and give those hearts to their Gods. They would sacrafic one or even sometime thousands of people. (This was graphically portrayed in the Mel Gibson movie "Apocalypse Now".)

6. Kathy wrote an interesting story about the The Guarani who are a little known group of culturally related indigenous peoples of South America.

7. Candace wrote that she is very interested in Tattoo's and has often seen people with Aztec style tattoo's. Every Aztec tattoo was hand crafted and had individual meaning.

8. Robert wrote that It is said that the Aztecs established an empire so brilliant, that the only comparable empire in the New World was that of the Incas of Peru, and that it rivaled those of any other ancient cultures within America and the Old World.

9. Kim wrote that the Mayas are one of only 2 civilizations to develop a community in a tropical rainforest.

10. Melissa pointed out the she has some Aztec blood in her heritage and that was part of what drove her interest in writing about the Aztecs.