Azevedo Aluísio. Brazilianization. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 147-150. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Burns, E. Bradford, Neocolonial Ideologies. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 133-138. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
De Turner, Clorinda Matto. Torn from the Nest. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 139-144. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Furtado, Celso. Neocolonial Economics. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 267-270. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino. Civilization versus Barbarism. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 138-139. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Stabb, Martin S. The Specter of Degeneration. In Problems in Modern Latin America: Sources and Interpretations, 5th edition, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 144-147. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
Vasconcelos, José. La Raza Cosmica. In Latin America Since Independence: A History with Primary Sources, 3rd edition, edited by Alexander Dawson, 134-141. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Liberalism of the late 19th century and its reformation in neoliberalism in the late 20th century in Latin America have led to climate disasters around the world. Industrialization and utilizing vast areas of land for commodity production once uplifted Latin American nations in the global market. Measuring their progress in terms of “steam engines, railroad mileage, or gas lights” (Burns 135), Latin American countries, exploited their natural resources to align themselves with the Western world.
Latin American nations today now are held responsible to preserve the environment and prevent any futher damage on the ecosystems within their countries. Beginning in the late 19th century, Latin American leaders once believed their duty was to use land to validate their role in the globe but now they must make attempts to reverse the destruction made by their predecessors. Brazil has been one of the most highlighted nations to take on this role. Due to their holding of the Amazon, a region that produces “20% of the world’s oxygen,” but has shrunk by 17% in the last 50 years (Dawson 203), Brazil is held responsible in preserving one of the world’s most valuable forests. Under former President Bolsonaro, deforestation increased at alarming levels, which then factored into his loss in Brazil’s 2022 election against President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula. Covered by Patrick Greenfield and Fiona Harvey for The Guardian, as one of his many goals for Brazil during his term, ‘“Lula told the climate summit [Cop27] that his administration would go further than ever before on the environment by cracking down on illegal gold mining, logging and agricultural expansion, and restoring climate-critical ecosystems.” As all of Latin America has a history of exploiting their land or allowing foreign businesses to do the same, Lula “vowed to work with other Amazonian countries – including Peru, Colombia, Guyana and Venezuela – to work towards sustainable development in the region while also protecting key ecosystems.” He details some of the many climate disasters that arise out of the climate crisis such as tropical storms in the U.S., droughts and floods in his own nation, to emphasize how everyone has a key role in preserving the climate as they are all equally held accountable for the Amazon’s deforestation and affected by its consequences.
Although Brazil, like its Latin American neighbors, is taking on their role to preserve their respective ecosystem, Lula ensures to hold the Global North responsible as well. If not for Western Europe and the U.S.’ own pressures on Latin America to rapidly industrialize and give up their land in the 19th and 20th century, the climate crisis potentially would not have been nearly as bad as it is today. Lula reminds the Global North of their promises to finance and support the Global South’s efforts to fight climate change as they are all responsible for the planet’s safety and humanity’s survival.
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. 131-157, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. 265-286, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Throughout the Cold War, the U.S., as a self-imposed advocate of capitalism, made countless attempts to prevent the spread of socialism and communism in Latin America, using the radio as one of its main instruments. In the Chilean presidential election of 1964, the U.S. government informally endorsed the Chilean Christian Democrat politician, Eduardo Frei, by promoting what Margaret Powers calls the “Scare Campaign,” against Frei’s opponent and the socialist candidate, Salvador Allende. Using radio programs, Frei and the CIA, convinced Chilean voters that if his political opponent was elected, Allende would descend Chile into a communist dictatorship. These radio ads invoked the peasants’ nationalism and encouraged them to save Chile from totalitarianism. Frei told Chilean men that Allende’s Marxism threatened their wives, and their daughters, and as men, they must save them. The radio campaigns heavily targeted women, arguing that a vote for communism was a vote towards the “loss of their children, the destruction of their homes, and the end of motherhood” (Powers 249). Communism threatened women and their livelihood, stripping them of their femininity. The use of the radio and the exploitation of the people’s fears of the loss of their pride, their families, and their identities by Frei and the U.S. government led to Frei’s victory over Allende as the new president of Chile. (247-250).
Although he authorized land reform and bought majority stakes in copper, Frei and his government lost popular support as Chile faced overwhelming debt and inflation. The socialist Salvador Allende returned to the political scene, posing himself as Chile’s savior. Calling for the legal and peaceful means towards a socialist revolution, the full nationalization of copper, appealing to the middle class (Allende 224-228), Allende won the presidential election of 1970, becoming “the first committed socialist to be democratically elected in Latin America” (Dawson 236). As president, Allende continued the nationalization of copper, the redistribution of land, while increasing wages and supporting workers’ efforts to take over factories. Allende’s Chilean right-wing political opponents called for his impeachment as the U.S. enforced a blockade, another common tool to prevent socialism, but their efforts failed, impelling his opponents towards a violent military coup. The U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, pushed Chilean General Augusto Pinochet to enact a coup d’état against Allende and his government, overthrowing and killing him on September 11, 1973 (236, 239).
As displayed in the document from the National Security Archive at George Washington University, “Armed Forces Statement on Closing Radio Stations,” by the DIA on September 12, 1973, the military instructed for the complete shutdown of radio and TV stations and “only armed forces network reports will be transmitted.” The military threatened anyone who disobeyed the military’s commands with the “military laws enforced.” The new military government ceased all radio and TV stations to cement their rule over the masses and against the left parties. The removal of free press left people in a state of hysteria, and provided the military government control over information, expanding their rule. As seen by Frei’s and the U.S. Scare Campaign, the radio was a highly effective tool to defeat the spread of communism by spreading misleading information about the dangers of communism, pushing the masses away from socialists such as Allende. However, when socialism did succeed, the U.S. depended on and backed the rise of military governments and their efforts to manipulate radio, impose censorship, and infringe on the people’s right to access information. Ironically, while Frei warned Chileans of a communist dictatorship, Allende’s victory did lead to a totalitarian rule, but of the military.
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
During a revival of liberalism within Latin America in the late 19th century, liberal leaders yearned to replicate European customs (Wood, 131) while also establishing their place in the global trade market. Looking to modernize, many different nations implemented railroad construction, as it symbolized progress and industrialization (Burns, 134). In this picture titled, “Children on Railroad Tracks,” from the Tulane University Digital Library, said to be taken in 1850-1900, we see two children in Ajusco of Mexico City, Mexico, walking along railroad tracks. Liberals encouraged the utilization of vast landscape to grow their exports, either “temperate agricultural commodities,” “tropical agricultural commodities,” and “mineral products,” to trade to Europe and the U.S. This new form of transport made these vast untouched lands accessible to liberals and companies to use them to grow agricultural goods. Because of this rapid expansion, railroads facilitated the transport of these goods over long distances. They also carried workers to their job sites. Railroads, that ranged over thousands of miles throughout Latin America, (Dimas, 100) are a physical manifestation of the efforts made by liberals to not only open Latin America to the global stage, but to conform to the standards imposed by the Global north.
Through free trade and establishing an export-oriented economy, liberals brought conditions to the masses in which the economy could support population growths. In the same country in which the picture was taken, Mexico’s “population increased from 9.4 million in 1877 to 15.2 million in 1910,” because of the export boom and exponential growth of capital (Furtado, 267-269). The population growth is represented by the two children pictured. Although liberals attempted to push Eurocentric standards onto the rural masses, famously advocated by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento of Argentina in his “Civilization versus Barbarism,” we see here in this picture the lack of shoes on the children. Sarmiento encourages the masses to take on European attire, as the culture of the countryside is “barbarous” (Sarmiento, 139). Although they pushed this rhetoric of economic and cultural “progress,” the realities of the impoverished masses were commonly dismissed because these large regions physically separated the rural masses from the state (Dawson, 100). Because these new forms of large-scale production over on privatized land demanded mass labor, the peasantry was transformed into a unique working class. Agricultural workers who worked for wages faced exploitative conditions and increasing inequality against landowners. There were massive economic and cultural transformations, at the expense of the rural masses and their children.
Works Cited:
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
As the leader of the first successful independence movement in Latin America, Toussaint Louverture is memorialized in this portrait titled as “Toussaint Louverture Chef des Noirs Insurgés de Saint Domingue,” collected by the John Carter Brown Archive of Early American Images. The portrait, included in a collection of portraits of generals during the French Revolution published in Paris around 1800, depicts Louverture on a horse, carrying a sword, wearing traditional French military attire, with fortifications and a ship behind him, representing his strong leadership of the Haitian Revolution, his inspiration from the French Revolution and his contributions to the formation of independence within Latin America.
As a French colony, Saint Domingue contained a vast population of enslaved Africans, that at its peak totaled at least half a million people, with a considerable population of free People of Color. Contributing 2/5 of the world’s sugar and 1/2 of the world’s coffee as part of the French empire, the colony and its people watched the Estates General of French Revolution dismiss their desires for emancipation and individual rights. As shown in the portrait of the revolutionary leader, not only does his uniform reveal French inspiration in what Louverture wore and how he led, but also represents the influenced rhetoric within Saint Domingue. Using language of republicanism, enslaved people and free People of Color advocated and fought for their own rights, using the French Revolution as its source. Mobilized and led by Toussaint Louverture, formerly enslaved people and initially fought for the French against the British and Spanish in exchange for freedom, but their efforts turned towards independence as threats of slavery loomed over them. Haitian independence was successfully declared, making Saint Domingue the second colony to rid itself of its former colonizer and the first to outlaw slavery. (Dawson, 12)
The results of Haiti were heard around the colonies. However, it did not immediately push the colonies toward independence. (Wood, 27) In fact, colonies only grew in fear of slave uprisings, inspiring planters to discipline enslaved people further. When the colonies began to entertain the idea of independence, Haiti inspired revolutionary leaders to consider slavery as part of their agenda. Enslaved people themselves used Haitian language of emancipation and rights to argue for their freedom. Enslaved people were not monolithic, however, as many chose to fight on behalf of the royalist army, in belief that the Spanish and the royalist army would reward their military efforts with emancipation. Juntas openly criticized slavery and banned the slave trade, with legal promises to phase slavery out of their regions. Liberal and now infamous revolutionary leaders, such as Francisco Miranda and Simon Bolivar, mobilized enslaved people to fight for independence, promising emancipation in return. (Dawson, 12)
The portrait of Louverture represents much more than a general on horseback. It displays a nation of formerly enslaved people courageous enough to fight against 3 dominant and colonial powers for their right to freedom. The painting reveals French republican influence on Saint Domingue, as well as the influence Haiti had on the Spanish colonies, as they showed the colonies how powerful people can be when they join together against colonialism. Through Haiti, liberals learned they were to confront the issue of slavery if they wanted to gain independence. Military leaders like Miranda and Bolivar followed Louverture in his tactics to mobilize enslaved people in their fight for political sovereignty. Haiti served as a model, like the portrait of Louverture, of what Spanish colonies were capable of if they incorporated everyone in their battle for self-rule.
Works Cited:
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
