Give a brief introduction to the text, situating it historically.
This piece was written by Simon Bolivar who led the fight for independence of Latin America from Colonial Spain. He has left such a large impact that two countries are officially named after him: Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela and Estado Plurinacional del Bolivia. After losing a battle, Bolivar was sentenced to exile/prison in Jamaica where he wrote his original letter entitled “Letter From Jamaica”.
Who is the author(s)? What is their situation?
The author here is, again, Simon Bolivar. Since he originally writes “Letter From Jamaica” and gets a response, he replies back with this piece entitled “Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island [Jamaica]”. Here, the letter begins quite positive as he understands that his receiver understands the gravity of his situation, that Spanish presence in Latin America is unwanted and is causing danger as well as suffering.
Summarize in your own words the main argument of the piece you’ve chosen.
Simon Bolivar is writing to gain empathy from the British. They are in desperate need of help and even writing to Britain can hold Spain accountable. In this letter, Simon Bolivar is trying to convince his reader that Spain is wrong in being tyrannical, that people in Latin America are in fact people and is time for them to be freed.
Bolivar also tries to use Logos. On page 46 he questions Europe and their values and asks them if they can ignore what is going on in Latin America if it’s so wrong compared to what they hold true. On page 47 Bolivar asks if Europe can allow Spain to continue if they know that Spain is growing weaker and weaker from trying to expand more.
What is strong about it? What is weak?
While I understand that Simon Bolivar needs to be writing to his audience, I feel like he was very wordy. I even though this piece is very short, it needed to get to the point faster.
The reason that it is strong is the way it was written, to whom it was written, and the fact that it was written by Simon Bolivar himself. He is a man who gained a lot of credibility and that made him a reliable source. Since his original letter was published in Great Britain, I think it was smart that it was written to an Englishman in Jamaica because now he has the support of one of Spain’s enemies. On the topic of wordiness, it was very eloquently written, and that’s why I stated before that I understand that Simon Bolivar had to write the way he did to reach his intended audience.
Do you think it is successful in conveying its message?
I think it is. The whole letter is explaining what is happening in each section of Latin America. In New Spain, in New Grenada, in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and other areas. It’s kind of like the Declaration of Independence where almost every offence is listed. The only difference here, is that the offences are explained a little bit more seeing as there is a more physical presence and thus more physical offences.
Looking back from 2015, do you think progress has been made?
In the topic of Spain in general, I learned in my IDC 4050H class that there was a summit and all Latin American Countries were in attendance as well as the Kingdom of Spain. While Spain has no, and I mean NO, say in what each Latin American country does, (disregarding the islands in the Caribbean that they have as well as the Canary’s in the Atlantic) Spain still tries… My teacher told our class that the King of Spain was trying to “control” the speakers of the summit and they weren’t responding, especially Castro who kindly told him to be quiet.
As far as Latin America as a whole… Even after Spain left, there has been a long, Long, LONG history of military occupations, invasions, and dictators in all of Latin America’s countries. It’s really sad and people today are still not happy with the governments and the leaders they have, but many of the countries are doing really well.
Lastly, when the letter briefly brought up Puerto Rico and Cuba, I could not help but think about the indigenous people that they completely eradicated… it’s sad that Puerto Ricans today can’t every know what life was like back then. In Panama, for example, where we still have our indigenous people, we can still learn from them and gain insight to how things were in the past. For Puerto Rico, this will never be the case…
