The Making of Latin America: Contemporary Thoughts

Brendan, I am so happy that you posted about this topic - it definitely needs more attention brought to it and needs to be discussed more. Finally, a time where I can bring my knowledge as a biology major into this class! I myself am very much anti-deforestation. I think that something that a lot of policy makers and people in general don't understand is the richness and diversity that the Amazon provides. It is a unique ecological habitat that is unlike others in the world. The Amazon is home to so many species of animals, plants, and insects, and not all have even been discovered. On top of that, the Amazon is considered to be the "Lungs of the Planet" due to the fact that it produces more than 20% of the worlds oxygen. That is a VERY significant amount of of oxygen, especially with the onset of anthropogenic climate change and the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I just find it so important to preserve the forest rather than cut them down. It is suc...

          I thought our discussion of President Carter was interesting. When, asked many of us described President Carter's presidency as being uneventful, or even bad. This is how a lot of people of the time also viewed his presidency, along with a lot of people now. We learned in class, however, that this is not necessarily the case. In fact, today, people are reassessing his presidency. They are looking more into his interest in human rights, rather than the shortcomings of his presidency. Since I was really interested in the conversation we had about President Carter in class today, I decided to research more on my own about President Carter and how people felt about his presidency. I even found one article comparing him to arguably one of our most controversial presidents - President Trump.           This was a really interesting article because I had never thought about comparing him to Donald Trump. I think that it is interesting...

Makaella, I think you offer good insight here when you say progress is arbitrary. I personally don't think that progress can be defined in the global perspective, because progress means different things for different countries. I also don't think that it should be defined, because that can lead to a superiority complex, one that I think the United States has always possessed. The United States defines progress in industrial and technological terms. Some countries aren't as advanced in these aspects, but are much more developed in culture. Since the United States defines progress in different terms that the other country lacks, they view themselves as superior, when really the other country is superior in other aspects. Who is to judge who is inferior or superior? This is something that I have always had a problem with throughout my life, and especially lately since I have entered this class. People talk about different cultures and how they are inferior to our own but real...

          As I have progressed throughout this class, there have been so many things that I have learned that I know I wouldn't have learned if I had never taken the class. My mind has been completely expanded from what it previously was. I can relate this to the meaning that I personally took from Neruda's poem. The message that I took is partly one of a journey of realization, one that takes a person away from their daily life, a life that is arguably full of a lot of ignorance. This can be related to how I feel about this class, because it has taken me out of my previous mindset and put me into one that is completely different - one that is more aware of the reality of things, rather than just the reality I am fed during my day to day life. This expansion of knowledge has also created a confusing clash of ideas and feelings within myself, and that has to do with my sense of nationalism.           I didn't grow up in a particularly pa...

AJ, I think this is a very interesting topic to write your blog about. I think although we may see more of Latin American corruption or even the corruption of other countries throughout our education, I don't think corruption is "more" prevalent in other places than it is in the United States. Like Professor Serrata said in class - corruption is just legal in the United States while it isn't in other places. The United States has a system put in place where the corruption is more well hidden and tolerated by the masses. A lot of corruption was still pretty well hidden until people started to care to call corrupt people of power out for it. I believe that's why we have so many scandals or “big stories” that come out in the news. The corruption is well hidden until it is exposed. The United States tries to put on such a heroic image of itself and an image of superiority that of course they want to hide any corruption that they have. They frown upon countries who a...

          Since we have been talking about creolization in class a lot recently, we have generally been talking about it in reference to music and the mixing of African and European music to create something new. This term can also apply to different aspects of culture beyond solely music, including food and religion, and also can include indigenous culture. Although it is a term typically used to describe culture in the Caribbean and Latin America, we can also see some creolization in the United States. My question is - why don't we see it more?            In the United States, the only traces of creolization that are really prominent are Louisiana Creole cuisine, and jazz music. Besides those, there are not any more examples of creolization that I can think of in the United States. This blog is one where I pose a lot of questions, because I'm really curious to hear other people's input on the topic. Do you think there are other e...