The Making of Latin America Blog

  Hi Victoria! I definitely agree that we didn't get the full story about revolutions in grade school. In fact, at my school the Mexican Revolution was only mentioned and described in passing, and little to no emphasis was placed on it. I think grade schools tend to focus on the more "famous" revolutions like the French Revolution, and even then they definitely gloss over the gory details.

  This week, I found our discussion of the Mexican Revolution to be interesting. Reading The Underdogs, though, reminded me of the violence and chaos of the French Revolution. Although The Underdogs is  fictional account, it seems to show how quickly a revolutionary movement can turn into chaos, similar to the French Revolution. This got me wondering how a revolution goes from an organized military effort against the government to a mess of violent factions all fighting and killing each other, including civilians. I think it goes back to the discussion we had on a revolution losing sight of what its goals were. This was seen in Viva Zapata when Zapata becomes president and almost turns the figure he had originally been fighting. It can also be seen by Demetrio in The Underdogs, although one could argue Demetrio never really new what he was fighting for in the first place. I think that when a revolution lacks or loses track of definite goals, it has a tendency to degenerate int...

  Hi Seth! I liked your point that it's very easy to think a movie does a good job of representing reality. I think seeing the images of a film helps bring home or make a reality the narratives we learn in a history class. Seeing the things we learned about happen in a video seems to somehow trigger our brain to take it as fact, even if it's very obviously inaccurate. As you said, I think we need to be careful how we view movies because it's very easy to form incorrect notions based on a fictional movie.

 This week, I really enjoyed the film Viva Zapata.  Hearing about the events surrounding the Mexican Revolution in Professor Starks part of the class is very interesting, but sometimes a visual representation like a film helps cement the information in my brain. In this case, the film made me consider a thought I had during our discussion of Diaz. I found it interesting that Diaz initially ran on the idea of no reelection for president, but then later in his life changed the laws so that he himself could be reelected. It made me think about how quickly a new leader who the people viewed as a savior can revert back to the ways of those he replaced. Many times a new leader coming to power can seem like turning a new leaf. However, they might simply go back to what the previous leaders had been doing. The scene of the movie that epitomized this to me was when Zapata began to circle the name of the indigenous man that had confronted him. It was like a perfect rerun of initial scen...

  Hi Annika! I found our discussion of soccer in Brazil to be interesting as well. I love seeing how a game can evolve throughout history and how often rules change or are added. It's interesting to compare the original form of a game like soccer to the form we play today. I also can see how employers would want their employees to gain fitness from soccer, but also to gain that "team mentality" that you mentioned.

 I really enjoyed the book The Gaucho Juan Moreira . I found it to be a fascinating, engaging read, but also somewhat sad at the life Moreira lived not necessarily by choice. An important thing it did for me, however, was illustrate why someone like Sarmiento, who viewed himself as "civilized", might look down on the Gaucho lifestyle with disdain. Realistically, Moreira's life was full of violence and alcohol. But it was people like Moreira that become legendary to the point where even city-dwellers knew their name. Thus, it's very easy to see how those city-dwellers, like Sarmiento, could look down on gauchos. If the only stories they heard about the gauchos were violent and chaotic like Moreira's, it's understandable that they would form a negative view of these people. It seems like it could have been some form of stereotyping, though. After hearing a few stories like Moreira's, it makes sense that the "civilized" people of the cities could re...