Works Cited:
A Timeline of Women’s Rights in South America – The Borgen Project
Dawson, Alexander S. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.
Author: Megan Russo
Module Four by Megan Russo
The leader Fidel Castro, who became prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 until 2008. As president, “[Castro] announced land reforms, the nationalization of foreign property, and built closer ties to the Soviet Union. He drove thousands of opponents into exile. At once radical and authoritarian, his government was simultaneously a revolution and a socialist regime intent on concentrating power” (Dawson, Latin America Since Independence, p. 209). Castro’s regime did maintain concentrated power and its socialist character, and its effects continue to have a stain on Cuban life and politics in the 21st century.
The Communist Party of Cuba, the sole ruling party in Cuba, was founded in 1965, and continues to be the ruling force in Cuba today. The people are suffering daily. The economy throughout the years has gotten so terrible, and many Cubans make very little a month despite what their job might be. The economic crisis in Cuba has become unbearable for the common people. In the New York Times article “In Cuba, Desires for Food and Freedom May Spark a Rare Day of Protest”, Ed Augustin discusses the effect the government has on the people in Cuba and their growing discontent with it. In Cuba, “The line [for food] starts during the day and stretches into the night. In the dark before dawn, there are hundreds of people waiting. Four women sleep on cardboard boxes, sharing a thin blanket. Others chat to stay awake. A nurse arrives after a 24-hour shift and takes her place. They each hold a ticket to enter a Cuban government supermarket, which is the only place to find basics like chicken, ground beef and toiletries” (Ed Augustin, The New York Times). The Cuban government has such a grip on Cuba’s economy and businesses that the only legal place residents of the island can obtain certain essential food items for everyday life is at a government supermarket.
For these reasons and others, young Cubans, at the time of the article being written, were planning a protest called “Civic March for Change.” Protesters, some of whom were afraid to take to the streets in fear of being punished, were “encouraged to hang white sheets outside their homes, applaud at 3 p.m. and find other creative ways to demonstrate if they do not feel comfortable taking to the streets (Augustin)”. Some people were arrested protesting against President Miguel Diaz, and Augustin mentioned that the younger generation of Cubans, who grew up under Fidel Castro and Raul, often dissent against the government’s strict policies. More and more people, in 2021, were taking to the streets to show their disapproval against the government. The number of protestors and public opinions against the government is “unprecedented” and “never seen before.” An activist stated, “The first cries were not for freedom. The first cries were more urgent: food, medicine, electricity,” she said. “Freedom came afterward” (Augustin).
Works Cited
Augustin, Ed. “In Cuba, Desires for Food and Freedom May Spark a Rare Day of Protest.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/14/world/americas/cuba-protest.html.
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources . https://www-taylorfrancis-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/books/mono/10.4324/9781003146094/latin-america-since-independence-alexander-dawson.
Che Guevera in Bolivia: Module 3 Assignment by Megan Russo
The United States and Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara had a tense relationship of mistrust. Guevara’s hope was to create a focal point to unite Latin America’s countries through politics in a confrontation against the United States. After a clash in the wilderness at a guerilla camp in Bolivia, Guevara was identified as their leader, and soon Lyndon B. Johnson caught word Guevara was, in fact, alive, and attempting insurgence.
The document I chose is a very historically important one that talks about a historic event-the Bolivian government’s decision to kill Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera. On June 14th, the CIA issued a report which stated events in Bolivia must have been Cuban-inspired. Eventually, Bolivian troops found Che’s camp and he was ordered to be killed. The document titled CIA Memorandum, Richard Helms to Dean Rusk et al., “Capture and Execution of ‘Che’ Guevara,” October 11, 1967 (declassified January 10, 2011) states that Guevara was captured on the ninth of October, 1967, and was questioned, but refused to give information. Two other guerillas from Bolivia were also captured.
The Second Ranger Batallion was given orders from Bolivia Army Headquarters in La Pas to kill Guevara and were carried out two hours later. The US did not want Guevara to be killed because they sought information, but Bolivian leaders feared a trial and more publication of Guevara would garner the sympathy of Latin Americans and people across the world. Bolivia’s leaders were very wary of the man who had managed to “[Start Latin America’s] most successful social revolution in the remote Sierra Maestra mountain range on the southern coast of Cuba, an island with one main city and hundreds of villages” (Dawson, p. 210). Bolivia hoped that the death of Guevara would signal a potential end to revolutions in Latin America, particularly communist, and violent ones. As Castro’s most important diplomat, and someone who had traveled to Russia to hope to forge Cuban and Soviet relationship, Guevara’s death during a time of political tension during the Cold War between Cuba and the United States and the Soviet Union was shocking, especially to his supporters.
Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Module Two Project
https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A11521
Housewife and children cooking
This photo, called “Housewife and her children cooking” by an unnamed photographer, shows a woman and her child holding her infant sibling sitting in their home. The mother is cooking and the two of them are both looking at the photographer. One of the main parts to note about the photo is the expressions on both of their faces. They both look a bit perplexed as to why they are being photographed, perhaps unfamiliar to the technology. This assumption would show, if correct, their lack of access to modern technology in the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Secondly, their faces appear to be dirtied and their clothes tattered and/or old.
Their home, a small dwelling appearing to be made with straw, stone, and clay, is a stark contrast to the kind of homes the wealthy and often Spanish-descent people in urbanized Peru lived in. The family in the photo appears to be from a rural area, where many natives in Latin America resided. Many of them were alienated, often ostracized, from the Euro-centric Latin American political and cultural society, often by choice and often forcefully. The lives of this family most likely were similar to the lives of other indigenous families in Peru, and across Latin America in the sense that they had few resources and possibly kept their indigenous culture closer to them than European culture.
Refusal to adopt into European systems of social life and to denounce one’s native or African roots often led to mistreatment and to being ostracized across Latin America, often solely based on their ethnic or racial identity. As Argentine president Sarmiento stated, “His [a native’s] way of life is different, his necessities peculiar and limited. Argentina is therefore composed of two entirely different societies, two peoples unconnected with each other. What is more, the countryman, far from aspiring to resemble his urban counterpart, disdainfully rejects urban luxuries and cultivated manners” (Problems in Modern Latin American History, p. 139).
“Creole portee en hamak” – Megan Russo
The image titled “Creole portee en hamak” found in the John Carter Brown archive depicts a woman Creole, a person of European descent born in the Americas, being transported on a hammock by two indigenous men. The scene portrayed in the image takes place in The Guianas in 1701-1750 and was published in Paris. In the image, the indigenous men are dressed simply and the woman is in white robes. The men also appear to be struggling with carrying the weight, resorting to using their shoulders to help. The woman is holding her hand over her face, most likely as an attempt to keep from being too hot.
Every aspect of this image demonstrates the struggle people of indigenous and African descent faced under Spanish influence in the Americas. The woman opting not to walk and instead forcing two men to carry her demonstrates her own willingness to adopt slave labor, as well as her indifference towards the suffering the men were going through carrying her in the heat. The image also represents average Creole indifference to indigenous and African peoples’ suffering in the Americas since slaves were imported and the natives subjugated.
The woman depicted in the image is actively participating in a system of exploitation implemented by the French and Spanish in the Americas, in which the Spanish placed themselves above natives and Africans politically, economically, and socially. Scenes like “Creole portee en hamak” were common and accepted in Latin America, due to the casta system put in place by the Spaniards that discouraged all forms of social quality in all ways of life.
