Author: ELEN GONZALEZ

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Research project 4: Latin America in the media

Queer in Cuba

In Luis Andres Henao’s article for the Associated Press titled “LGBTQ-inclusive church in Cuba welcomes all in a country that once sent gay people to labor camps”, he discusses changes in Cuba’s social, political and religious spheres concerning anti-queerness. As the title states, Cuba’s relationship with its queer community is historically violent. Labeled “anti-sociales”  in the journal article “Gender policing, homosexuality and the new patriarchy of the Cuban Revolution” by Lillian Guerra. Qqueer people, under Fidel Castro’s regime during the 1960s and onward, were not just degenerates but fundamental to the undermining of the principles of the Cuban revolution itself (Guerra, 268). Many reasons fueled the sentiment that queer people were the antithesis to the Cuban state, reasons include them being perceived as a harbingers of sin, associated with illicit activities such as prostitution and a burden on the country’s overall need for manual labor. The Cuban state during this time relied on fear of the government paired with the watchful eye of the fellow citizen to identify and imprison people suspected of being “anti-sociales”. Men were not only expected to be straight but proof of their masculinity was required of them to protect themselves. According to Guerra, “young men strove to ‘immunize’ themselves from suspicion by complying with volunteer labour demands and cutting cane” (Guerra, 286). Women were expected to provide the manual labor at home as well as that of the fields all while simultaneously actively trying to be attractive for men. Social and civic expectations made for hostile behaviors and environments in which Cuban men and women had to comply with the crushing responsibilities as well as fear their neighbor for any accusations of undermining the system.

In the article by Luis Andres Henao, he discusses how Cuba has made attempts to remove barriers for queer people to live their lives. Anti-gay discrimination protections and updates to the “family law”, passed with 67% approval, now allows same-sex couples to marry and adopt children (Henao). The island nation’s history with queerness as mentioned above, paired with the presence and opinions of large religious groups such as Catholics and Evangelicals shows how much has changed in 75 years since Fidel Castro rose to power. Regardless of religious opinion, the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, has tried to be more inclusive of queer relationships and their place in society by allowing priests to bless their unions. Furthermore, queer spaces such as the Metropolitan Community Church make space for their queer patrons and have their own queer Reverend. Once imprisoned and ousted from society, queer people in Cuba are increasingly visible and accepted.

Works Cited

  1. Guerra, Lillian. “Gender Policing, Homosexuality and the New Patriarchy of the Cuban Revolution, 1965–70.” Social History, vol. 35, no. 3, 2010, pp. 268–89. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27866661. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.
  2. Henao, L. A. (2024b, April 1). LGBTQ-inclusive church in Cuba welcomes all in a country that once sent gay people to labor camps. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/cuba-lgbtq-gay-rights-catholic-evangelical-29e45106d382890865870ff3534236ce
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Research project 3: Latin America in the Cold War

Kissinger in the 70’s

kissinger-1-1Download

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/30302-document-16-white-house-kissinger-memorandum-president-subject-nsc-meeting-november

The documents above titled, White House, Kissinger, Memorandum for the President, “Subject: NSC Meeting, November 6-Chile,” SECRET, November 5, 1970, details the rise to power of Chiles leftist President Salvador Allende in 1970 and his goals. Salvador Allende is coming into power at a time when the US is heavily involved in the Vietnam War and Cuba’s crackdown on political dissidents and ideology is at an all time high. Issued on November 5, 1970 to the President, Henry Kissinger stresses that “what happens in Chile over the next six to twelve months will have ramifications that will go far beyond just US-Chilean relations” (1970, p.1). The following 7 pages details what is happening, how the US could respond and what those actions might produce. The United States is attempting to maintain its control and influence over the hemisphere, however, Latin American nations are attempting to nationalize industries working against capitalist means of economic development. According to the memorandum from the National Security Archive, Allende is said to “purposely seek: to establish a socialist, Marxist state in Chile; to eliminate US influence from Chile and the hemisphere; to establish close relations and linkages with the USSR, Cuba and other Socialist countries”(1970, p.1). 

Three years after the memorandum is issued, Salvador Allende is overthrown by a coup led by Augusto Pinochet. This coup would destabilize the Southern portion of the hemisphere. Six years after the first memorandum announcing Allendes victory is issued and three tears after the coup, “Memorandum of Conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Cesar Guzzetti, Secret, 10 June 1976” takes place. This conversation between Henry Kissinger and Cesar Guzzeti of Argentina highlights the issues created at the fall of the Allende term. A new government focused on privatizing industries and services for the open market prosecuted members and sympathizers of the previous administration. Ultimately this causes a immigration crisis for Argentina who has also experienced a coup of their own. Overthrowing the Peron administration just months prior, the nation was riddled with insurgency, terrorism was their highest concern. Leftist fleeing the fall of the Chilean government under Allende found refuge in Argentina under Peron, the coup in Argentina changed that. Leftist asylum seekers from Chile but also from other countries became entangled with terrorist organizations and guerillas groups. According to the Argentine Foreign minister, “internal subversion is linked up to other countries […] the problem is soluble so long as domestic conditions hold” (1976, p.248). In the memorandum of November 5,1970, Kissinger emphasized that “the dangers of doing nothing are greater than the risks we run in trying to do something” (1970, p.7). However, the option to do something worked against their own interest. Argentina and surrounding countries felt the ripples of the US intervention, and state of affairs of other nations is at risk without further intervention.  

Works Cited

  1. Memorandum of Conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Cesar Guzzetti, Secret, 10 June 1976,” in Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources, 3rd ed.,ed. Alexander Dawson, (Routledge, 2022), p. #245-447
  2. “White House, Kissinger, Memorandum for the President, ‘Subject: NSC Meeting, November 6-Chile,’ Secret, November 5, 1970.” National Security Archive, nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/30302-document-16-white-house-kissinger-memorandum-president-subject-nsc-meeting-november. 
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Research project 2: Images of Latin America in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Transporting Bananas

Tulane University Library, Library Catalog, Box 10, Album 12, Costa Rica_07, Transporting bananas

The photo above showcases the work done on United Fruit Company plantations in Costa Rica circa 1890. The United Fruit Company operated banana plantations throughout Central America and the Caribbean, transporting bananas from the southern American hemisphere to the U.S. and Canadian cities in the north. Formerly the Boston Fruit Company, it grew its empire through the creation of “Banana-Republics”. By incentivizing small Central American nations with infrastructure such as railroads and ports, they also “employed tens of thousands of people; and operated stores, hospitals, schools, radio stations, breweries, and banks” (Soluri, 395). However, this wouldn’t have been possible without the consumption and demand for bananas in the northern hemisphere. Eaten at higher rates than domestically grown fruits like apples, bananas became a staple for American households for important reasons including, nutritional value, germ-resistant properties, economic accessibility and readiness at the time of eating. 

The United Fruit Company depicted itself as a pioneer in technology and business practice, it brought “modernity to ‘pestilential’ tropical regions via industrial capitalism” (Soluri, 393). The cultivation of bananas in nations like Costa Rica called for the destruction of thousands upon thousands of acres of forest. In the photograph above, the trees have a uniform appearance except perhaps for what can be seen far off in the distance. The zipline structure transporting bananas across the plantation can be seen extending beyond a body of water and coming from outside the frame of the image. How far the zipline extends is unknown, however, it is clear that by the small size of the man in the distance compared to the four men in the center he is quite far. The man being carried in the banana baskets might suggest he is coming from an equally long distance, so much so he feels compelled to take the zipline as a means of transportation to get from one section to another. 

Despite the critiques of biologists such as Paul Standley, James Peters and Claude Wardlaw, who highlighted the destruction of entire ecosystems and exploitation of the land. The United Fruit Company’s abuse of the land would eventually lead to the spread of the Panama disease which destroyed entire plantations and farms as it spread throughout the Americas. The company along with its competitors continued to destroy more land and abandon land it deemed unfit or contaminated to meet demands. The “Banana-Republics” which enabled and allowed these practices for infrastructure and financial gain shows the dependency of Latin America on export oriented economies that ultimately gave them the butt-end of the stick. The destruction of not only their lands and forced dependency on a foreign entity but the eventual toll it took on their working population, affected by agrochemicals and exploitation was severe. 

Works Cited

Soluri, John. “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” Environmental History 7, no. 3 (2002): 386–410. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985915. 

    Categories
    Research project 1: Visualizing Latin American independence

    Burning of Le Cap

    JCB Archive of Early American Images, Accession number: 69-213, Incendie du Cap. Révolte générale des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca. 

    JCB Archive of Early American Images, Accession number: 69-213, Incendie du Cap. Révolte générale des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca. 

    Formerly the agricultural French colony of San Domingue, Haiti was the first of all colonies of the American continent to achieve its independence. Starting in 1791 and ending in 1804, the war for independence lasted a total of 12 years. Home to nearly half a million enslaved Black people at the time of its revolution. At its inception “roughly from 1690 to 1720, the number of slaves rose from just 3,000 to well over 47,000” (Fick, 55). From there on out their numbers only continued to rise until the enslaved population had become the island colony’s majority. Young and predominantly male, the enslaved population worked on sugar cane and coffee plantations, which required arduous backbreaking labor. Overworked, underfed, abused and subjugated to abhorrent living conditions, the mortality rate on the island was high leading to a high turnover rate for the enslaved people. 

    With a century of control of the colony under France’s belt, only 28,000 of the Black and mixed-race population was free at the time of the revolution. Revisions to the Code-Noir in the 1720’s and 80’s and small insurgencies formed by the free people of color in 1790; along with the eventual disenfranchisement of French slavers and colonists with the French government, would lead to war. Efforts to create order would prove futile, Commissioners “Leger Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel, who had been sent to the colony in September 1792 along with 6,000 troops to restore order” failed (Frick, 63). Black rebels and White seditionists, each allied with either the Spanish or British caused the colony to buckle. The arrival of a new Governor-General, who cared not for the Commissioners only brought the colony to its knees. 

    In the drawing above a scene of chaos ensues, engulfed in flames, a city by the sea burns. Titled “Incendie du Cap, Revolte generale des Nègres, Massacre des Blancas”, it translates to “Cape Town fire, General revolt of the Blacks, Massacre of the Whites”. The drawing depicts the burning of the colonial capital Cap-Francais in the year 1973. According to the Frick reading “During the fighting a fire broke out and spread rapidly, in the end destroying two-thirds of the city” (Frick, 65). To the left of the drawing rows of buildings exhale smoke from their windows and roofs indicating the fire is coming from within. From these rows of buildings groups of White people flee in terror. White women holding infants in their arms as small children and the elderly run alongside them towards ships in the sea. Their faces turn to stare at the body of a White male on the ground behind them as they run, as he lies there a woman grips to his lifeless corpse. A Black man, presumably enslaved due to his ripped pants and short sleeve shirt, runs with a sword in hand only looking forward. The other sword-wielding Black men feature similar clothing, their White counterparts are covered head-to-tie in full length pants and long-sleeve shirts. In the distance Black bodies lie on the ground but no one stops to look at them, the Black men only look forward. They can be seen slaying people to the ground and battling against White soldiers with firearms who appear to be the only barrier between them and the ships. More people can be seen attempting to reach the ship’s ladder, aboard the ship a mix of civilians and armed men pointing their guns at those on shoreline. 

    As we learned in class and from the readings Haiti, the drawing depicts one of many battles during the revolution. Here depicting the events of 1793 in Cap-Francais in which the Commissioners forces, “the mulattoes and the cities black slave population, some ten thousand strong” fought against the Governor-General’s forces (Frick, 65). Not only does it depict the battle itself but the scope of its impact. It bears remembering that the enslaved population and free population of color was significantly larger than that of the White slavers and colonists. It provides insight into the early years of the revolution and the never before terror experienced by Whites, to be slaughtered by the ones they slaughtered. The disbelief that Black people could rise against them and in fact cause real damage. 

    Works Cited 
    Fick, Carolyn. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” In A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, edited by David Barry Gaspar and David Partick Geuggs, 51-75. Indiana University Press, 1997.