1. Read Liliana Colanzi’s “Story with Bird” (Blackboard)
2. Pick ONE of the following options and respond in the comment section down below. The deadline is 2/6 before the class. 200-words minimum.
OPTION ONE
Analyze the use of debt in Colanzy’s story as an ongoing colonial practice of enslavement. Expand on the plantation as a space that reproduces colonial hierarchies and oppression.
OPTION TWO
Elaborate on two of the narrators in “Story with Bird,” what aspects of the narrative do they illuminate? What aspects do they silence? Do you trust them? How do they complement each other, and how do they differentiate?
OPTION THREE
Discuss how Colanzi explores the possibilities (or lack) of accountability in the story regarding the crimes of the protagonists.
In the story with birds by Liliana Colanzy has tackle number of important themes of tradition and modernity, exploitation, and mental illness. Her stories have historical connections in Bolivian cultural histories and include references to local myths, tales, and superstitions, but they are also set in the socio-political agenda of modern global society. By constructing a power dynamic in which individuals who are in debt are obliged to their creditors and therefore susceptible to their control, the use of debt in Colanzy’s novel acts as a continuation of the colonial practice of enslavement. This debt is utilized to maintain oppressive regimes on the plantations in Colanzy’s society, keeping people who are in debt caught in a cycle of servitude. Due to the power dynamics created by debt, which allow those in positions of power to keep control over those who are in debt, the plantation itself becomes a place where colonial hierarchies are replicated and strengthened. By maintaining the cycle of exploitation and subordination, this ensures the survival of colonial power structures and keeps people who are in debt confined to submissive roles. The plantation serves to uphold and continue colonial oppression as a setting created to increase profit through the misuse of slave labor.
Colanzi explores the possibilities of accountability regarding the crimes of the protagonists by not only revealing the sense of fear and guilt that exists among them but also by both indirectly and overtly bringing up the idea that while they can run from their crimes, they won’t be able to hide from them forever. This can be seen as early as the start of the narrative when the protagonist describes the startled and surprised expressions of the head of the animal in the living room of the house that they are hiding in, a juxtaposition that highlights how the protagonists are also being hunted down for their crimes and where they might end up.
These same feelings can also be seen among the doctor such as when it is shown that he had red eyes as if he had been crying all night and how he did not even touch his food, implying that some kind of guilt kept him awake, and later when his hands tremble so hard that they forget the meaning of heat. Perhaps most blatantly though is when the protagonist has a dream about riding a motorcycle that eventually accelerates on its own and then asks “Was the dream a sign my true destiny was waiting elsewhere? Who knows.”
At the same time, however, Colanzi seems to provide some indication that there is at least a possibility of a way out for these protagonists, particularly when they are mentioning how they can find a way to escape to Brazil on a small plane with a fake passport or the fact that they could arrange something with the judge and prosecutor if the situation wasn’t as dire, indicating that they are well-off enough to do even consider such an option.
Option III
In Hacienda Las Delicias, August 2001, told from the point of view of the doctor is about a doctor (perhaps a surgeon of some kind) who botches a surgical operation of a woman named Cristina, wife of an Argentine consul. He then goes into hiding to live with his cousin Jauncito in his uncle’s country house. Throughout the doctor’s point of view he mentions “the intubated woman”, on page 88 the doctor says, “The intubated woman’s face was burning in my mind the whole trip, and now it seems to hover in the room, threatening.” To me this shows some accountability for his actions. He knows what he did was wrong, and his wrong actions now haunt him, almost criticizing his decision to go into hiding. But on the contrary he later goes on to say, “ It was your fault, I say to the intubated woman…” To me this shows the doctor blames Cristina for what happened with the operation, the doctor does not put the blame on himself for messing up the operation. The doctor rather puts his anger towards Cristina for allowing him to conduct the operation in the first place. In the end, it seems the doctor is another place of hiding, Playa Diamante Housing Estate, ultimately never facing the legal consequences of his actions.
Two narrators that clash and complement each other are that of the Hortensia, and that of Damien. Damien appears to have been a worker at the behest of Don Goran. Damien is framed in a manner that is similar to the one described for the natives and the plantations. The indigenous tribe is manipulated by Don Goran under false pretenses to accept gifts in exchange for their labor. This is framed as a practical angle of generosity due to the nature of the items being exchanged; utensils, pans, and lanterns. While I think colonizers like Don Goran aren’t too caught up in the details of their horror, perhaps this serves as a way for people like himself to view themselves in a kinder light: or in simpler terms a means of escaping accountability. The irony lies in the fact that Damien’s perception of the Indians is one colored by bigotry and vitriol. He views them as less than, just as Don Goran views Damien as less than: “ I saw Hardy get tipsy and lose himself in the bushes with one of the dirty ones.” The only difference between Damien and the indigenous tribe is that the tribe actually got the utensils, Damien is forever under the spell that is his dream of the red kawasaki. A dream Don Goran is aware of, and all too happy to never deliver on.
Option II
Hortensia compliments Damien, because she’s essentially the same social class as Damien. A poor worker who’s toiled forever catering to everyone Juancito brought to the home. She’s aware of her plight but not the severity of it all. She represents the kind of worker who gets exploited forever. She accepts the requests placed on her because she has no other choice. All the more infuriating is the fact that she works under Juancito. The same conditions that apply to Damien working for the white man apply to Hortensia. I believe this functions as a note to the reader that Juancito and his family are an extension of Don Goran and not much better. Their function is that of the comprador class. People of color who gatekeep positions of power from their native population to only serve their own interests.
Colanzi explores the possibility of accountability for the protagonists crimes throughout the text several times. One of the times she describes the feeling of accountability is when doctor almost seems as if he is fearful of something. He shows several physical signs of how he is feeling or what he may be thinking about. Colanzi discusses this by the doctor’s lack of eating, red eyes, and the trembling of hands. The red eyes could indicate crying and also restlessness from thinking about the possibility of his accountability. Another example that stood out to me was when Colanzi discusses a dream that a protagonist had about riding their motorcycle. This could discuss one of two things. It can either be that the protagonist would encounter the accountability that they are due, or it could mean a way of escape. Colanzi does discuss escape at the end of the writing. One of the protagonists also says, “I want to run, but force myself to stay calm” which could indicate their longing to run away, but trying to accept that they must face accountability.
Two narrators in “Story with Bird” that stood out to me was definitely the doctor and Hortensia. Throughout the story, the doctor was hiding out in a home located in the countryside of Santa Cruz. The doctor was experiencing a trauma that he had with a former client and would easily get triggered by his surroundings, as everything reminded him of this woman. Hortensia was a housekeeper as well as the caretaker of the doctor during his time there, and while reading her narrations of the story I learned that she had a very enthusiastic personality. I thought it was fun to read their parts of the story because at first, you read about all of this mysterious anxiety that the doctor has and then following that, there is Hortensia’s enthusiasm and funny jokes that she keeps in her head. In a way these two characters balance each other out where it makes it an enjoyable read for the audience.
Some aspects that I noticed Hortensia silenced throughout the story, was her lack of communication when it came to how she felt physically. For example, there were times where she had mentioned that she had bad knees and that she struggled fetching breakfast for the doctor. But Hortensia put her pain aside and compromised how she felt to cater to the doctor who was obviously ill as well. For the doctor I noticed that he kept his trauma silent, he didn’t express what he was going through and also had this additional anxiety of being found and convicted while he hid out, I felt like in a way the doctor sabotaged himself. When it comes down to trusting these narrators, the doctor I feel is kind of questionable and Hortensia I would trust with my life. Hortensia’s personality was something I felt a familiarity with, as she reminds me of a family member that I have or that I ought to be.
Option 1
“Story with bird” elaborates on how debt was used to capture enslaved people. The tale, which is told from a variety of angles, is a condemnation of the enslaved people’s exploitation. According to Damian’s narration, who accompanied Don Goran and Hardy on their expeditions, the Indians were captured by merely receiving gifts from Don Hardy on an expedition. On the second expedition, the Indians had no way to evade the agreement due to the “scribbles” by their chief, as evidenced by the agreement drawn by Don Carlos. The narrator, Damian, posits the Indians lacked knowledge of their captivity after they willingly accepted gifts from Don Goran (Colanzi, 2017). The Indians were to be collected and taken to the country house to pay their debt by working on the sugarcane during the second expedition, where four policemen accompanied Don Goran. During the confrontation with the Indian chief, Don Goran showed the signed papers, and police officers drew their guns when the Indian people resisted their capture. The indebted Indians had no alternative but to submit to captivity, all because of their obligation to Don Goran. On the concept of continued colonialism regarding debt, Don Hardy supposes that his superior Juancito allegedly sold food products to his workers at a higher price. The workers lived under oppression due to their supposed debt to their superiors, which later raised the alarm of people from the NGO who allegedly wanted to destroy the plantation’s business. The destruction of the plantation was also a colonization strategy since the people from the NGO wanted to take away the land owned by Juancito’s family.
The different voices in the narration discuss the brutality of the enslaved people’s experience as well as the awe-inspiring impact of their persecution. A final, tragic testimonial follows the writing’s fading into a flurry of great images. There is a fierce struggle to exist, recognize oneself, and express oneself. Regardless of age, the enslaved people were taken in to work on the sugarcane plantation. The Doctor talks about how the outside workers cutting the sugarcane stalks to create a path, with the younger one no older than ten (Colanzi, 2017). Additionally, the young enslaved person held a machete of the same caliber as that of the older workers. Hierarchical control of the plantation, with ongoing tyranny, was passed down from Don Goran to Juancito, who were father and son respectively. The enslaved persons in the plantation worked tirelessly in the sugarcane plantation, where they had to hide to get rest. One of the workers even got his hand mutilated after taking a nap under the track. The accident symbolizes no place or permission to rest, forcing the workers to hide while taking a break. As the anonymous narrator advances, the dirt and lack of food clearly show oppression within the sugarcane plantation.
In Story With Bird, Debt was used as a method to trick natives into enslavement, while making it so that legally they were not technically enslaving them. The way that the character Don Goran goes about this, is by presenting the natives with a ton of goods like pans, knives, and combs, and all of the natives happily took these goods, without understanding there was a price to pay. Then Don Goran had the chief sign for the goods to make the debt legally official, however the chief did not understand that either, but after prodding from Don Goran he signed with a “scribble”, as he “didn’t know how to sign.” What Don Goran is doing is guiding the natives through signing themselves into debt they cannot pay except with their labor, and because they are indebted to him, they are his slaves. This kind of thing has happened repeatedly throughout history to native americans, as they did not share the western perspective on things such as money, labor, or even land. What Don Goran did is just like what the dutch did to the Lenape, where the dutch “traded” the Lenape some cool little trinkets in exchange for Manhattan, without the Lenape knowing that, they were giving away their entire homeland. The plantation in the story serves as an example to show what was going on throughout america during the age of colonialism, as What Don Goran did, as well as what happened to the lenape were not isolated incidents, and happened all the time.
Option 1.
In the story we see debt as an ongoing colonial practice of enslavement. First off it is important to discuss how this debt is amassed. We read the Hardy, a white American missionary, take a long journey in the forest to where the Indians were. When they meet them they then speak to them and give them items without the need for payment but instead have the chief sign a document. It is even mentioned that the chief only makes lines because he doesn’t not know what a signature this. This is an example of colonial practice of enslavement because to get the people into debt it is done by underhanded and calculated tactics. Hardy specifically seeks out the Indians because he knows they do not understand what they are singing. This immediately puts them into a debt they do not even know about. Furthermore we later see what happens when they come to collect for the debt. The chief tells his people to give all the items back however this is not accepted as payment needs to be manual labor hours. This furthers the colonial practice of slavery because it does not allow them to get out of their debt by any other means aside from indentured servitude. It can be assumed that if they had someone come up with something else like money to gold even this wouldn’t have been accepted because the profit from their labor is much more valuable than direct payment. Furthermore this ties into the plantation system. As once those people are in that system for their outstanding debt they will never leave. It is described that even those as young as ten years old are cutting sugar cane in the fields. These systems are dangerous without any medical help as we see when the man’s arm is ran over. The system also does not allow anyone to be free of their debt because as mentioned the workers are changed 3 times the regular amount for supplies and are also charged for things not even bought. As stated by the NGO. Thus the system of plantations is an extension of colonial slavery that upholds systems of oppression.
Option one
Colanzi’s story addresses how simple it was for colonizers to trick the natives of the town into slavery. Goran and his team of people approached the natives with gifts to gain their trust and eventually take everything away from them. Because the natives had little knowledge about money and wealth, it was easy for Goran to take advantage of them and use debt as an excuse. The thing about this debt is that it can never be repaid. When the natives were taken as slaves, an explanation of their debt and its terms was never provided. So it is more than possible that the amount of “debt” acquired was more than covered by the stolen land alone, but the colonizer also needed workers to work the land. Furthermore, the colonizer trapped the natives into generational debt, meaning that they would be repaying it for generations to come. In the story, we see how many years after they were taken as slaves, the people native to this land are still working to repay this debt. Not only this, but they are dependent on those who stole the land for everything. So even if they have already “paid” for everything, they are still not earning enough money to move on, and they are being overcharged for everything. This system of dependency has not only made it impossible for these people to take back their land but to also prosper in life.
Option III
Colanzi explores the lack of accountability regarding the crimes of the protagonists by distinguishing the differences between guilt and shame. This can be seen as early as the first three words of the text, “I’m hiding out” (87). Right away we can sense a feeling of shame portrayed by the doctor who resorts to fleeing rather than coming to terms with his crime. This feeling of shame is also demonstrated further into the text when the doctor refuses to be acknowledged as a doctor by Hortensia and the sugarcane workers, “I’m not a doctor of anything anymore… I don’t heal, Hortensia, don’t look for me, don’t call me doctor” (100). When people feel shame about the self, they feel “small,” worthless. In the case of the doctor, he believes he doesn’t deserve to be recognized as a doctor after performing what seems to have been a botched surgical operation. Shamed people also feel exposed and there is often the imagery of how one’s defective self would appear to others, the doctor experiences anxiety as Hortensia begins to question his validity. On the other hand, guilt is depicted through the character of Don Goran. According to Damian’s narration, the Indians lacked knowledge of their captivity after they willingly accepted gifts from Don Goran. After the chief “signs” the inventory list, everyone except Don Goran starts to celebrate. Instead we see Don Goran tune out of the celebration, “looking intensely at the trembling gleams of the embers, paying no attention to the carousing of the Indians” (93). Guilt appears to be less disruptive and more adaptive. Although we don’t necessarily know what Don Goran was thinking at the very moment, Colanzi indicates that people are inclined to ruminate over their misdeed, wishing they had behaved differently.
OPTION THREE
To be quiten frank, I had to reread everything twice to see if I understood the context of what was occurring in the world of Colanzi. However, one thing is clear from the beginning and it is that the protagonist is definitely guilty of causing someone harm and running away. The crime of the Doctor could have been malpractice or at least the crime of not doing his job correctly. The fact that he is running away into the countryside with the help of his cousin Juancito demonstrates quite clearly that he is not taking accountability for his actions. With that said, it is quite obvious that the Doctor feels guilt and remorse for his actions. For example when he is arriving at the house he says, “I think of the intubated woman, her empty expression and rolled-back eyes” (p.87). Later on he even asks Juancito if he thinks the patient will get better because he feels her presence haunting him. Hortensia actually notices that the Doctor is feeling some sort of negative emotion she says, “The doctor had red eyes, like he’d been crying” (p.89). All of this shows that this Doctor is not proud of what he has done, but he is still not turning himself in and Juancito has helped him avoid the consequences of his actions. This makes Juancito an accomplice to the crimes of his cousin. Even with the existence of guilt, there is no action being taken.
Option Two
In “Story with Bird”, the narrative is told from the perspectives of three-four characters engaging in some type of black market trade involving items such as cooking oil, pasta, and using child laborers to gather sugarcane in Bolivia. Two characters’ narration that stood out to me the most were the anxious Doctor and the more laidback and playful Hortensia. For the Doctor, he is shown to be aware of the shadiness of his line of work when he mentioned that he was hiding out in a country house and how he abandoned loved ones to ensure their safety. During Hortensia’s narration, she mocks the Doctor for asking for a newspaper because in order to buy a newspaper in the area they were in, you would have to travel several miles in order to get one. The Doctor’s paranoid mindset contrasts Hortensia’s more playful and laidback demeanor. Hortensia even makes light of how she was born, and says that her mother didn’t want to have her but had her anyway because the river said so. The Doctor illuminates his feelings of the type of work that he got himself into, and Hortensia illuminates just how accustomed she is with the situation of engaging in shady trade.
In “Story with Bird”, there is a recurring theme of accountability for the protagonist’s crimes. In the first narrative, Doctor, the doctor appears to be on the verge of some kind of breakdown. He is described as having, red eyes and shaking hands, suggesting that he is afraid of being held responsible for his crimes: “The doctor had red eyes, like he’d been crying. He looked like those half-dead chickens you have to blow in their tiny asses to revive.” The themes of fear and guilt repeat in the rest of the passage. Another aspect touched upon is a dream about riding a motorcycle which ends up driving by itself. This dream is obviously a sign of the guilt that the character is feeling. In the passage, he can be observed wondering about his destiny and what awaits him in the future. At the end of the text, the author talks about thinking about running away: “I want to run but force myself to stay calm. Cristina. Mama. That’s it, here I am. I don’t know what to expect from what’s coming now, this buzzing presence emerging from the jungle like an aura.” They know what is coming to them and are afraid of what will happen once their crimes are punished.
Analyze the use of debt in Colanzy’s story as an ongoing colonial practice of enslavement. Expand on the plantation as a space that reproduces colonial hierarchies and oppression.
Colanzi uses Hardy’s character to explain how he was able to enslavement the “Indian” via the use of debt. He used their ignorance to the value of money and work to his advantage. By writing everything down and collecting the chief’s signature he secured his repayment via work. He gave them a hoot term happiness for something he knew later would be unfair and cruel.
The work that was owed by the Indian was being enforced by police with weapon that they wouldn’t defend themselves. We this evolve into plantation economy, where it is much more profitable to have workers in debt to you for long periods, than them actually paying you.
Colanzi explores the lack of accountability through Don Goran crimes toward the native people. Goran regularly goes on expeditions to native land, he speaks the native people’s language and interacts with their tribe yet, he consistently stereotypes them. When he makes his first appearance, he offers plastic combs and brooches of colored glass rather than money which is valuable to the Spanish settlers. He then makes a comment to his companion about how they weren’t capable of understanding the value of money. He is always indifferent, he never expresses any remorse for his belittling of the native people. Additionally, Goran intentionally deceives the peaceful people and traps them into a cycle of debt. He tricked the chief into signing a document in a language he didn’t speak and then punished him. When the cops were present, the Spanish settler shouted at the chief stating “You owe me.” While Goran is emotionless throughout the excerpt he is also shown as an alcoholic. Although Spanish settlers did not see native people as highly as they saw themselves, they were still people. Possibly, Goran opts to drink heavily as a way to avoid accountability for his mistreatment of people.
Moreover, European settlers’ lack of accountability toward colonialism is present through the routine violence that indigenous women endured. In Hortensia’s letter she explains that her mother became pregnant by the river which refers to a rape. A man had followed her mother into the river when she was bathing. Additionally, hen the narrator of the letter, a native young girl, was just ten she explains that a white man “knocked me down.”
Option 1: As I read “Story with bird” I noticed that it elaborates on how debt was used to capture and a trick to enslave people. The tale which is told from various narratives and Damian’s Narratives is by far my favorite . Don Goran who is one of the Characters in Damian’s Narration And is a perfect example for how debt was used to enslave people. Don Gordon finds natives and goes on presenting the some natives with a ton of goods and all of the natives happily took these goods, without understanding there was a price to pay. Soon after Don Goran had tricked the native Chief to sign for the goods to make the debt legally official, however the chief did not understand that this was a debt that you can not pay back. And by the second day of the expedition the Natives gave back the goods because they started to notice the dried up river. It was too late as Don Gordon showed them the notebook with the signatures, the signatures which was the reason for their debt the natives were not aware about. The Plan to trick natives with the knowledge they do not yet possess is what brought them into debt and enslaved
Option 03: “Story with Bird” incorporates a lack of accountability into many aspects of the characters’ lives. Don Goran, the European colonizer. Goran speaks the Native tongue and takes advantage of their trust to trick the Chief into signing his people into debt. European settlers’ violence against Native people is shown in this story as well, with the young girl and Hortensia’s accounts of rape. Despite this, Goran turns to alcohol as an attempt to cleanse himself of guilt. The Doctor, more so a failed surgeon, fled to a plantation where enslaved Native people are forced to work. This was following his botched surgery on a woman, his source of immense guilt. The Doctor is going through an emotional breakdown at the plantation, while being tended to by Hortensia. He is fearful that he cannot outrun his fate. Juancito, the Doctor’s cousin, also serves as an accomplice. It was his idea to house the Doctor in the country home in order to protect him from any consequence. Juancito even presents the idea to send his cousin on a plane to Brazil with a fake passport. This dedication to protecting the Doctor, despite his negligence towards his client, is the most clear embodiment of a lack of accountability in this story.
Analyze the use of debt in Colanzy’s story as an ongoing colonial practice of enslavement. Expand on the plantation as a space that reproduces colonial hierarchies and oppression.
The use of debt in Colanzy’s story is a great example of a paradox of colonization; where the enslaved are both human and beasts in the eyes of the enslaver. While reading Colanzy’s work, I kept thinking about the white man’s burden, the idea that it was the job of the white man to bring civilization to parts of the world that were living like “savages”. They painted it as an act of mercy and compassion to beings that were too inhuman to do for themselves, when they were really using this “responsibility” to extract resources from the people they claimed to be helping. However, once they would start this process, they would then begin to call for payment in the “work” they had done, like with the natives in this story. After trading with them and giving them many gifts, Don Goran then demanded that they are owed more than they were given, and thus they would take payment through labour. Superior arms gives the enslaver the upper hand, and they use the good will and kindness of the natives against them once they gain their trust. Once built, the plantation then becomes a generational issue, as children that are born there are forced to work there as well, and with little to no exposure to what life used to be like, generations of the enslaved are convinced that this is all that has and will ever exist. After just one generation, lifestyles, fables, stories, and so many more aspects of their practices and culture are erased, so imagine the impact of a multi-generational family that has only ever known the plantation. Just as the plantation recreates the same goods over and over again, it does something similar to the enslaved, making each generation more and more complicit with the hand they have been dealt.
From Ethan Del Rosario De Regino:
Colanzi explores the possibilities of accountability regarding the crimes of the protagonists by giving us an inside look using these personal diary entries to reveal the tension, guilt, regret and even confusion they are feeling.
The entries that stuck with me were Hortensia’s in December 2012 and Damian’s in February (or March) 1977. In Hortensia’s entry the guilt and regret is expressed throughout the Doctor character. The bread and tea Hortensia brought to him was uneaten. Guilt often leads us to be sick to our stomach and prevents us from enjoying the consumption of a normal meal. His eyes were red as if he’s been crying, this could be the regret. Having thought about the crimes committed made him unable to sleep.
In Damian’s entry the quote, “was the dream a sign my true destiny was waiting elsewhere? Who knows,” made me think about the confusion Damian must’ve felt as if he were doing the right thing. Although this was a dream, dreams are often connected to our daily lives. The fears and worries we have throughout our day seeps into them. At the end of the entry we can see the tension Damian had as if he wanted to speak out, “…and at the last minute I was afraid of him and held my tongue.”
In “Story with Bird” by Liliana Colanzi, the use of debt in Colanzy’s story was used to capture enslaved people and as well to trick them into enslavement by trying to earn their trust that way it will lead up to them taking everything from the enslaved people. Don Goran gave them goods as one of way to gain their trust. The kind of goods that were given to the enslavement people were pans, combs, etc. However, they didn’t really think it was anything or that it was leading them into having to eventually pay for it. In other words, Don Goran knew what he was doing by taking advantage, especially since a lot of them did not understand what they were signing so they didn’t think much of it. Being in debt was never easy to pay back or it could take your whole life to “repay” it back. Eventually the Indians had to pay their debt by working on the sugarcane. Throughout the story, Colanzy’s story show us how easy it was back then to trick the natives into slavery and how much power a signature hold because Don Goran kept using it against them as a way to remind them that they have to do what they sign up for and that there is no way out.
The communication between the settlers and the natives depicted in Colanzi’s story is a direct representation of the actual enslavement.
Taking advantage of the differences in values and perceptions between settlers and natives, they promote enslavement as if it were a matter of course that it is good for the natives as well. To the natives, it’s like a game of Monopoly played with restrictions. They don’t know why, they are forced to participate in the game, roll the dice, shoulder the debt, and the land is stolen in exchange for the debt. Aboriginals who have no place to work are given jobs on plantations, and incorporated into a system in which they cannot repay their debts no matter how hard they work. In this system, when humans reproduce naturally, there is a simple, permanent supply of labor. The social status of slavery is passed from parents to children, from children to grandchildren, and the community is filled with people who do not know the rest of the world (the alternative to living as a slave). As a result, the hierarchies in the colonies became clearer over time, and the social structure became stronger.
Option 3-
Colonzi explores the lack of accountability in the protagonist through telling stories of the past and how they connect to the present stories. The story connects the enslavement of the indigenous Bolivians and how it plays into the Doctors hideaway in this country house in Bolivia. Damian’s point of view in 1977 tells us about the first expedition he and Don Gohan had in the jungle looking for natives. The lack of accountability in his point of view is through the enslavement of the natives by the second expedition. The lack of accountability is shown in the Doctor’s hideaway in the country house his Uncle Gohan built on the stolen land. The doctor had to hide after he performed a botched surgery. He is followed around by her ghost feeling guilty of the actions but ultimately blaming her in the end. He feels that since she approached him for the surgery it was her own fault for her death. He holds no responsibility for her death. Just like Damian holds no accountability for the enslavement of the indigenous people due to Don Gohan and how he was fully aware of the plan they created to trick them into giving the land up.