The other day I spent five hours on one paragraph.
I am not sure it is any good.
A mentor of mine recently said "Sometimes it takes you all day to write a sentence."
I now believe it.
If I could cut off an appendage and turn the blood-soaked pages into a few paragraphs of coherent writing, I might have to consider it. Are we talking just one digit? First knuckle? Tempting...
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Monday, August 29, 2016
Documentary: Food, Inc.
An empowering look at an industrial food industry that only in recent history seems to have gone awry. One of the most depressing realizations was that getting sick from the distribution of food is now becoming more common. The upside? Each act of purchasing and consuming food is a political act that large producers, distributors, and retailers look at closely.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Documentary: Discover Latino History & The Latino Influence On the United States (2005). TMW Media
A 17-minute history of Latino influence on the U.S.
This is the sort of video that I might have seen in middle school or early high school in the 1980s with a bubble test afterward. It bullet points historical points on Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba. It brings up the Monroe Doctrine, but does not explain it. In the Cuba portion, it describes the Bay of Pigs but doesn't mention it by name.
The Latino perspective and influences on the U.S. are limited to a mention of some cultural and political players such as Desi Arnaz and César Chavez. In essence, it is what you might expect from a 17-minute documentary.
This is the sort of video that I might have seen in middle school or early high school in the 1980s with a bubble test afterward. It bullet points historical points on Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba. It brings up the Monroe Doctrine, but does not explain it. In the Cuba portion, it describes the Bay of Pigs but doesn't mention it by name.
The Latino perspective and influences on the U.S. are limited to a mention of some cultural and political players such as Desi Arnaz and César Chavez. In essence, it is what you might expect from a 17-minute documentary.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Documentary: Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask
Frants Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, Isaac Julien. California Newsreel, 1996. Kanopy Streaming. Web. Accessed May 15, 2016.
This is an excellent look into Frantz Fanon's work as a clinician in France, then Algeria, where he ran a ward in a hospital for mental rehabilitation. One of his first acts was to begin removing the restraints from his clients and engaging with them. Through the help of the nurses on the ward, they created a life within the walls of the hospital that was more normalized for the clients. According to the documentary, the absence of an ethnocentric viewpoint was part of his strategy and success.
Interviewees, including his brother and some of his mentees, dot the amazingly concise but densely-packed documentary. It also features an actor who plays Fanon in some of the recreated monologues, as well as a partial retelling of his turn toward armed struggle and the end of his life.
For those who have struggled through some of his material, this documentary is a superb complement. It not only offers insight into his work, but also a background for understanding it.
This is an excellent look into Frantz Fanon's work as a clinician in France, then Algeria, where he ran a ward in a hospital for mental rehabilitation. One of his first acts was to begin removing the restraints from his clients and engaging with them. Through the help of the nurses on the ward, they created a life within the walls of the hospital that was more normalized for the clients. According to the documentary, the absence of an ethnocentric viewpoint was part of his strategy and success.
Interviewees, including his brother and some of his mentees, dot the amazingly concise but densely-packed documentary. It also features an actor who plays Fanon in some of the recreated monologues, as well as a partial retelling of his turn toward armed struggle and the end of his life.
For those who have struggled through some of his material, this documentary is a superb complement. It not only offers insight into his work, but also a background for understanding it.
Article: " “Networks and Entrepreneurship: The Modernization of the Textile Business in Porfirian Mexico.” Aurora Gómez Galvarriato
Gómez-Galvarriato, Aurora. “Networks and Entrepreneurship: The Modernization of the Textile Business in Porfirian Mexico.” Business History Review 1885, no. Autumn (2008): 475–502.
This article forms part of a study on the time period between 1876-1910 as part of my MA thesis research.
Aurora Gómez Galvarriato is the former head of the Mexican National Archives and at the time of this writing a professor in the Department of Economics at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C. in Mexico City.
This paper looks at how transportation networks, particularly the railroads during the Porfiriato (1876-1910) helped to modernize the textile industry. Specifically, it looks at how French immigrants from Barcelonnette were able to successfully use family and social networks in the textile industry. Family networks involved extended families, many times involving back and forth transit between Mexico and France. These groups shared attitudes and goals, which functioned well in a legal framework whose property rights were relatively weak.
Large quantities of foreign capital were necessary in order to fund the railroads, modernize textile mills, and to move from hydroelectric to steam power. The combination of these developments, in concert with vertically integrated businesses with strong networks that were able to utilize banks and investor capital to their advantage, contributed to the success of the textile business in Mexico. Social networks allowed for training of apprentices, who worked their way through the familial system and gave them access to better opportunities.
This is an insightful piece recommended for anyone working on social and economic history during the Porfiriato.
Aurora Gómez Galvarriato is the former head of the Mexican National Archives and at the time of this writing a professor in the Department of Economics at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C. in Mexico City.
This paper looks at how transportation networks, particularly the railroads during the Porfiriato (1876-1910) helped to modernize the textile industry. Specifically, it looks at how French immigrants from Barcelonnette were able to successfully use family and social networks in the textile industry. Family networks involved extended families, many times involving back and forth transit between Mexico and France. These groups shared attitudes and goals, which functioned well in a legal framework whose property rights were relatively weak.
Large quantities of foreign capital were necessary in order to fund the railroads, modernize textile mills, and to move from hydroelectric to steam power. The combination of these developments, in concert with vertically integrated businesses with strong networks that were able to utilize banks and investor capital to their advantage, contributed to the success of the textile business in Mexico. Social networks allowed for training of apprentices, who worked their way through the familial system and gave them access to better opportunities.
This is an insightful piece recommended for anyone working on social and economic history during the Porfiriato.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Chapter: O Mito da Democracia Racial no Brasil
By Emília Viotti Costa.
This essay is repeated elsewhere; I got it from Chapter 9 of
Costa, Emília. Da Monarquia à República: Momentos Decisivos. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2007.
In English, this essay is entitled "The Myth of Racial Democracy." I found it referenced in Júnia Ferreira Furtado's book called Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century. In her essay, Costa discusses how "social scientists and historians operate on the level of social mythology and they themselves, whether they like it or not, help destroy and create myths. In the process, the "truth" of one generation very often becomes the myth of the next. Studious North Americans, for example, today can talk about the myth of the self-made man. Nevertheless, for many of those who lived in the United States in the 19th century (and perhaps for many today) it corresponded to their experience of life, and it wasn't simply a dream that helped the common man confront his daily frustrations. The myth helped reduce social conflict, that is clear. But it also impelled men to great enterprises, some successes and others failures. It was a part of the American reality, just as real in traditional experience as money, work, and hunger" (368).
While Costa argues that the "self-made man" wasn't a part of the reality in Brazil, but that the myth of racial democracy has been equal in creating possibilities while denying actual reality. Showing data on education that anyone could look up, the disparity in access to wealth based on skin color is striking. To repeat the quote above more succinctly, she notes how "a powerful myth, the idea of a racial democracy - that to a certain point regulated the perceptions of the lives of Brazilians of Freyre's generation - turned into, for a new generation of social scientists, a ruined and discredited myth" (368).
The concept is interesting; in today's world there seems to be a battle for dominance over truths. Do we save time and call them tomorrow's myths? The implication here is that the moment we write something down it becomes myth, even the social scientists, like it or not. So, this would make Júnia Ferreira Furtado's book on Chica da Silva simply another in a long line of myths about her. The previous works on her have been debunked for inaccuracies; are we simply waiting for another set of criticisms to take Furtado's place? I am still struggling to make sense of this, but it seems to me that where one is located in ability to make myths is key; just because something is "truth" doesn't mean it will gain any traction. Take the question of vaccinations in the U.S., for example. The study that was debunked about a link between autism and vaccinations has been so thoroughly shown to be a fraud, but it continues to live on through public discourse and affect the way all of us make decisions about whether or not to vaccinate and how.
Costa proposes a way of looking at racial democracy, that it was a response to the theories of racial hierarchy in Europe, so "confronting the theories that highlighted the superiority of the white population and the inferiority of mestizos and blacks, the Brazilian elite - a minority of whites, some of hwome were not sure of the "purity" of their blood, surrounded by a majority of mestizos - didn't discover a better solution than to located their hopes in the process of "whitening" (branqueamento)" (371). Prejudice then became based on color and not origin, as in the U.S. (Ibid.)
This is an excellent read, and the rest of the book looks appears to be very interesting as well. If you don't read Portuguese but are looking to know more about Brazil's racial landscape, this is a good place to begin.
This essay is repeated elsewhere; I got it from Chapter 9 of
Costa, Emília. Da Monarquia à República: Momentos Decisivos. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2007.
In English, this essay is entitled "The Myth of Racial Democracy." I found it referenced in Júnia Ferreira Furtado's book called Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century. In her essay, Costa discusses how "social scientists and historians operate on the level of social mythology and they themselves, whether they like it or not, help destroy and create myths. In the process, the "truth" of one generation very often becomes the myth of the next. Studious North Americans, for example, today can talk about the myth of the self-made man. Nevertheless, for many of those who lived in the United States in the 19th century (and perhaps for many today) it corresponded to their experience of life, and it wasn't simply a dream that helped the common man confront his daily frustrations. The myth helped reduce social conflict, that is clear. But it also impelled men to great enterprises, some successes and others failures. It was a part of the American reality, just as real in traditional experience as money, work, and hunger" (368).
While Costa argues that the "self-made man" wasn't a part of the reality in Brazil, but that the myth of racial democracy has been equal in creating possibilities while denying actual reality. Showing data on education that anyone could look up, the disparity in access to wealth based on skin color is striking. To repeat the quote above more succinctly, she notes how "a powerful myth, the idea of a racial democracy - that to a certain point regulated the perceptions of the lives of Brazilians of Freyre's generation - turned into, for a new generation of social scientists, a ruined and discredited myth" (368).
The concept is interesting; in today's world there seems to be a battle for dominance over truths. Do we save time and call them tomorrow's myths? The implication here is that the moment we write something down it becomes myth, even the social scientists, like it or not. So, this would make Júnia Ferreira Furtado's book on Chica da Silva simply another in a long line of myths about her. The previous works on her have been debunked for inaccuracies; are we simply waiting for another set of criticisms to take Furtado's place? I am still struggling to make sense of this, but it seems to me that where one is located in ability to make myths is key; just because something is "truth" doesn't mean it will gain any traction. Take the question of vaccinations in the U.S., for example. The study that was debunked about a link between autism and vaccinations has been so thoroughly shown to be a fraud, but it continues to live on through public discourse and affect the way all of us make decisions about whether or not to vaccinate and how.
Costa proposes a way of looking at racial democracy, that it was a response to the theories of racial hierarchy in Europe, so "confronting the theories that highlighted the superiority of the white population and the inferiority of mestizos and blacks, the Brazilian elite - a minority of whites, some of hwome were not sure of the "purity" of their blood, surrounded by a majority of mestizos - didn't discover a better solution than to located their hopes in the process of "whitening" (branqueamento)" (371). Prejudice then became based on color and not origin, as in the U.S. (Ibid.)
This is an excellent read, and the rest of the book looks appears to be very interesting as well. If you don't read Portuguese but are looking to know more about Brazil's racial landscape, this is a good place to begin.
Book: Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century
Furtado, Júnia F. Chica da Silva: A Brazilian slave of the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
There are multiple accounts of Chica da Silva in print, film, and television, many of which are sensationalistic and mythologize the "lascivious mulatta." Using a combination of resources, but heavily reliant on estate records and court documents, her history is released from a sensationalistic narrative. What it loses in narrative, it gains in substance, and the book is rich with information that includes chapters on Tejuco, the village she lived in, her own story, the diamond market and the mining community surrounding it, what daily life looked like, and finally it traces her estate and family as far as possible.
Furtado states, "This book aims to get to know her, not as a curiosity nor as an exception, but to use her as a medium through which to shed new light on the women of her period and therefore bring them into history. Only thus can they be freed from the stereotypes that have been imposed upon them over time" (xix). One of the misconceptions about slavery the book confronts head on is the relative power that freed women had in the 18th century in the town of Tejuco. First, manumission was much easier for women than men; men and women were both likely to be able to earn money outside of their regular requirements, but because concubinage was so common, women were able to take advantage of their sexual bodies and either buy or earn their freedom. Often they were manumitted in wills, ergo the use of estate records to identify women who were freed. The wills that manumitted most often had stipulations about years of service or other caveats prior to freedom, making sure that the enslaved person had to work for the deceased person's family for some time.
Another interesting point is the complicated social hierarchy that made ownership of other people so appealing; one measure of a person's wealth was the by number of enslaved people he or she owned. Those enslaved would be used as concubines or be sent to work in mines or trades, and the product of their labor would represent income for their owners and their bodies, human capital. This is outlined very well in Zephyr Frank's Dutra's World, another book worth reading and one I will eventually get to posting here. Furtado emphasizes how "to work and live off one's own graft in a slave society was amounted to serious social dishonor" (18). In my mind, this would mean that working became tantamount to being a slave. Later on she discusses how unhealthy many slaveowners became because of their inactivity.
Furtado refers to Emília Viotti da Costa, who in her essay "The Myth of Racial Democracy" demonstrates how manumission was not a "point of departure for the construction of a black identity," but often the "beginning of a process whereby former slave women embraced the values of the white elite with a view to finding a place in that society for themselves and their descendants" (xxiii). Even though securing a position for their children was difficult because people were legally prohibited from marrying outside their class, allowing white fathers to deny their offspring, Furtado notes how the lack of documentation through regular marriage channels limited the number of stigmatizing evidence of color in official records (xxiv). I am not sure to what extent that helped the general public; in the case of Xica's grandchildren, for example, some were able to use this fact to erase (or at least blur) the color in their family line, but they also lived in a society where one had to arduously fight for one's status. She has a good chapter on brotherhoods that show the importance of social organizations bound together by religion; they form piece of the social capital of the society, as well.
The book is set within the context of a mining community, where the diamond market produced its own volatility because... because diamonds are quite common, it turns out. This created high taxes on production (people were charged a "head" tax for enslaved people, as well as all to prevent too many smaller businesses from attacking larger interests) as well as periodic government halting of the trade until prices were able to drop again. Gold was also a commodity mentioned in the book, although little of Brazil's other exports were discussed.
The chapter on Chica da Silva is engaging; the other chapters give context surrounding it. It highlights infant mortality, the absence of what we would call "childhood" for most slave children, the importance of "honor" in society and the struggle for identity; her ability to adopt her last name is a sign of a battle won; many slaves only had first names and only began to be widespread in ht e late 18th century (51).
From the discussion of how blanqueamento (whitening) through sexual relations and legal means, to note how even within dusty archives, one can see the change from passive to active voice in Chica's will, which symbolically notes a change in her status from slave to wealthy slave owner, this book is a fascinating look into a life that, like so many others, was first ignored, then mythologized and used as a tool of subjugation of the Afro-Brazilian female body. More studies such as this one will add depth to archival research.
There are multiple accounts of Chica da Silva in print, film, and television, many of which are sensationalistic and mythologize the "lascivious mulatta." Using a combination of resources, but heavily reliant on estate records and court documents, her history is released from a sensationalistic narrative. What it loses in narrative, it gains in substance, and the book is rich with information that includes chapters on Tejuco, the village she lived in, her own story, the diamond market and the mining community surrounding it, what daily life looked like, and finally it traces her estate and family as far as possible.
Furtado states, "This book aims to get to know her, not as a curiosity nor as an exception, but to use her as a medium through which to shed new light on the women of her period and therefore bring them into history. Only thus can they be freed from the stereotypes that have been imposed upon them over time" (xix). One of the misconceptions about slavery the book confronts head on is the relative power that freed women had in the 18th century in the town of Tejuco. First, manumission was much easier for women than men; men and women were both likely to be able to earn money outside of their regular requirements, but because concubinage was so common, women were able to take advantage of their sexual bodies and either buy or earn their freedom. Often they were manumitted in wills, ergo the use of estate records to identify women who were freed. The wills that manumitted most often had stipulations about years of service or other caveats prior to freedom, making sure that the enslaved person had to work for the deceased person's family for some time.
Another interesting point is the complicated social hierarchy that made ownership of other people so appealing; one measure of a person's wealth was the by number of enslaved people he or she owned. Those enslaved would be used as concubines or be sent to work in mines or trades, and the product of their labor would represent income for their owners and their bodies, human capital. This is outlined very well in Zephyr Frank's Dutra's World, another book worth reading and one I will eventually get to posting here. Furtado emphasizes how "to work and live off one's own graft in a slave society was amounted to serious social dishonor" (18). In my mind, this would mean that working became tantamount to being a slave. Later on she discusses how unhealthy many slaveowners became because of their inactivity.
Furtado refers to Emília Viotti da Costa, who in her essay "The Myth of Racial Democracy" demonstrates how manumission was not a "point of departure for the construction of a black identity," but often the "beginning of a process whereby former slave women embraced the values of the white elite with a view to finding a place in that society for themselves and their descendants" (xxiii). Even though securing a position for their children was difficult because people were legally prohibited from marrying outside their class, allowing white fathers to deny their offspring, Furtado notes how the lack of documentation through regular marriage channels limited the number of stigmatizing evidence of color in official records (xxiv). I am not sure to what extent that helped the general public; in the case of Xica's grandchildren, for example, some were able to use this fact to erase (or at least blur) the color in their family line, but they also lived in a society where one had to arduously fight for one's status. She has a good chapter on brotherhoods that show the importance of social organizations bound together by religion; they form piece of the social capital of the society, as well.
The book is set within the context of a mining community, where the diamond market produced its own volatility because... because diamonds are quite common, it turns out. This created high taxes on production (people were charged a "head" tax for enslaved people, as well as all to prevent too many smaller businesses from attacking larger interests) as well as periodic government halting of the trade until prices were able to drop again. Gold was also a commodity mentioned in the book, although little of Brazil's other exports were discussed.
The chapter on Chica da Silva is engaging; the other chapters give context surrounding it. It highlights infant mortality, the absence of what we would call "childhood" for most slave children, the importance of "honor" in society and the struggle for identity; her ability to adopt her last name is a sign of a battle won; many slaves only had first names and only began to be widespread in ht e late 18th century (51).
From the discussion of how blanqueamento (whitening) through sexual relations and legal means, to note how even within dusty archives, one can see the change from passive to active voice in Chica's will, which symbolically notes a change in her status from slave to wealthy slave owner, this book is a fascinating look into a life that, like so many others, was first ignored, then mythologized and used as a tool of subjugation of the Afro-Brazilian female body. More studies such as this one will add depth to archival research.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Documentary: A Son of Africa
When your high school history class is assigned Olaudah Equiano's autobiography, and it's due on a day your are gone, this is a good 30min documentary to toss in. It dramatizes the context, so it may help students get an image and a few ideas, namely a visualization of African agency in the 18th century.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion
John K. Thornton, “African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion," American Historical Review 96:4 (1991): 1101-13.
This is an excellent article on the Stono Rebellion, especially if you are already familiar with it. I wasn't, so that involved some brief looking around to get more context. Here's some I quickly pulled from Wikipedia (that should introduce some controversy between me and the occasional visitor):
VERY brief Wikipedia download: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stono_Rebellion)
Where: South Carolina
When: 9 September, 1739
What: An enslaved man named Jemmy pulled together some other people, and using flags and drums, marched their way toward Spanish Florida, where it was known that former enslaved people might have refuge. Exact numbers are as of yet unclear, but 20-100 or so fought, and they picked up recruits along the way. The rebellion was put down and most were executed, not before they killed dozens of people. I believe they call it Stono because of the name of the bridge they crossed.
Why: People didn't like being enslaved. This should be unremarkable; however, there is often an implicit surprise in the texts I read about slavery as if they were saying, "Yes, but what's the real reason you revolted?"
PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p284.html)
has some of the primary documents and a brief summary that adds a great deal to the above. Letters show how one enslaved man named Thomas Elliot was given a suit of clothes for his bravery in fighting off the rebels. This is an example of how people had to and did make calculations about their wellbeing in the long term vs. short term (much of the newer literature about enslaved people seems to work very hard to show that enslaved people were as rational as any other human being; this seems to be a reaction to the previous literature that seemed to imply the opposite).
In any case, the Thornton article is rich, so I suggest you read it, but what follows is my brief interpretation. The title of the article gives away what Dr. Thornton would like us to think about, and that is that the Rebellion's roots go back to the Kingdom of Kongo from 1680-1740 (1102). He cites several factors that may have supported the rebellion; the fact that many of the enslaved people would have likely come from the same area, spoken Portuguese, that they would have had a strong Christian tradition in Kongo, and that because their kingdom was strong, they were less likely to have been previously enslaved by others nearby. Some of them may have also been warriors already and possibly had access to firearms, so their ability to organize and fight may have been enhanced. Their tactics (brief attacks, relocate, attack again) are said to be consistent with fighting tactics in the kingdom of Kongo (1113).
The message in this article is clear; while historians of slavery look for transatlantic aspects in other areas of enslavement, there is a good deal of value in looking at the transatlantic aspects of rebellion. A study like this appears to me a general trend away from considering the plantation in a vacuum, which returns explanatory power to people from the Kingdom of Kongo as opposed to imagining their reality as solely a reaction to local events. The plantation "complex" is imagining slavery as an Atlantic and worldwide set of connections, but this article goes a step beyond that, showing how one might look at these accounts with a framework where the plantation is the periphery as opposed to the center.
Something I have been asked to think about in my coursework for this week is to analyze how slavery, race, and gender are tied together. In looking at this article, it would be interesting to know what women's roles in the Rebellion were. I have noticed so far that if a woman does something during this time period, it's treated as anomaly, as improbable as that seems. That anomaly, however, usually turns up as a sensation, so the fact that I have not yet read about women with respect to this Rebellion yet doesn't mean it isn't there, but it makes a good case for looking with more vigor.
This is an excellent article on the Stono Rebellion, especially if you are already familiar with it. I wasn't, so that involved some brief looking around to get more context. Here's some I quickly pulled from Wikipedia (that should introduce some controversy between me and the occasional visitor):
VERY brief Wikipedia download: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stono_Rebellion)
Where: South Carolina
When: 9 September, 1739
What: An enslaved man named Jemmy pulled together some other people, and using flags and drums, marched their way toward Spanish Florida, where it was known that former enslaved people might have refuge. Exact numbers are as of yet unclear, but 20-100 or so fought, and they picked up recruits along the way. The rebellion was put down and most were executed, not before they killed dozens of people. I believe they call it Stono because of the name of the bridge they crossed.
Why: People didn't like being enslaved. This should be unremarkable; however, there is often an implicit surprise in the texts I read about slavery as if they were saying, "Yes, but what's the real reason you revolted?"
PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p284.html)
has some of the primary documents and a brief summary that adds a great deal to the above. Letters show how one enslaved man named Thomas Elliot was given a suit of clothes for his bravery in fighting off the rebels. This is an example of how people had to and did make calculations about their wellbeing in the long term vs. short term (much of the newer literature about enslaved people seems to work very hard to show that enslaved people were as rational as any other human being; this seems to be a reaction to the previous literature that seemed to imply the opposite).
In any case, the Thornton article is rich, so I suggest you read it, but what follows is my brief interpretation. The title of the article gives away what Dr. Thornton would like us to think about, and that is that the Rebellion's roots go back to the Kingdom of Kongo from 1680-1740 (1102). He cites several factors that may have supported the rebellion; the fact that many of the enslaved people would have likely come from the same area, spoken Portuguese, that they would have had a strong Christian tradition in Kongo, and that because their kingdom was strong, they were less likely to have been previously enslaved by others nearby. Some of them may have also been warriors already and possibly had access to firearms, so their ability to organize and fight may have been enhanced. Their tactics (brief attacks, relocate, attack again) are said to be consistent with fighting tactics in the kingdom of Kongo (1113).
The message in this article is clear; while historians of slavery look for transatlantic aspects in other areas of enslavement, there is a good deal of value in looking at the transatlantic aspects of rebellion. A study like this appears to me a general trend away from considering the plantation in a vacuum, which returns explanatory power to people from the Kingdom of Kongo as opposed to imagining their reality as solely a reaction to local events. The plantation "complex" is imagining slavery as an Atlantic and worldwide set of connections, but this article goes a step beyond that, showing how one might look at these accounts with a framework where the plantation is the periphery as opposed to the center.
Something I have been asked to think about in my coursework for this week is to analyze how slavery, race, and gender are tied together. In looking at this article, it would be interesting to know what women's roles in the Rebellion were. I have noticed so far that if a woman does something during this time period, it's treated as anomaly, as improbable as that seems. That anomaly, however, usually turns up as a sensation, so the fact that I have not yet read about women with respect to this Rebellion yet doesn't mean it isn't there, but it makes a good case for looking with more vigor.
Monday, April 4, 2016
A Look at a Book: Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910
Ochoa, Enrique. Feeding Mexico : the political uses of food since 1910. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources, 2000.
There is little wonder why this book received the Michael C. Meyer Manuscript award. It is impeccably organized and very well presented. The book offers a look back at food policy in Mexico from right after the Porfiriato to contemporary times, showing how the State Food Agency in Mexico expanded both in size and in scope as it responded to crises in various presidential administrations and shrunk as those crises reverted. Its main purpose, according to Ochoa, was to achieve political stability as opposed to make lasting changes. The reader will follow retail food subsidies as they begin in urban areas and as they eventually travel to rural areas; this is also concurrent with the formulation of a more centralized state. The conclusion ends with the drastic contraction of the State Food Agency in the 80s and 90s, which the author shows was connected to social and political turmoil.
One of the somewhat unrelated questions I am left with at the end is, does war increase dependency? As exports surge during wars because their price surges as well, doesn't the exporting country have a vested interest in keeping that war machine afloat? When war doesn't pull in exports, economies that depended on those exports are left in a weak bargaining position. Though I have no idea what the U.S. military supply chain looks like, I wonder what that dynamic looks like - how many countries are exporting goods that are military related? How dependent are they on those exports? This is probably simplifying a complex set of variables, but it's interesting to think about.
There is little wonder why this book received the Michael C. Meyer Manuscript award. It is impeccably organized and very well presented. The book offers a look back at food policy in Mexico from right after the Porfiriato to contemporary times, showing how the State Food Agency in Mexico expanded both in size and in scope as it responded to crises in various presidential administrations and shrunk as those crises reverted. Its main purpose, according to Ochoa, was to achieve political stability as opposed to make lasting changes. The reader will follow retail food subsidies as they begin in urban areas and as they eventually travel to rural areas; this is also concurrent with the formulation of a more centralized state. The conclusion ends with the drastic contraction of the State Food Agency in the 80s and 90s, which the author shows was connected to social and political turmoil.
One of the somewhat unrelated questions I am left with at the end is, does war increase dependency? As exports surge during wars because their price surges as well, doesn't the exporting country have a vested interest in keeping that war machine afloat? When war doesn't pull in exports, economies that depended on those exports are left in a weak bargaining position. Though I have no idea what the U.S. military supply chain looks like, I wonder what that dynamic looks like - how many countries are exporting goods that are military related? How dependent are they on those exports? This is probably simplifying a complex set of variables, but it's interesting to think about.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Article: Anotaciones sobre la produccIón de alimentos durante el porfiriato
Coatsworth, John Henry. "ANOTACIONES SOBRE LA PRODUCCIÓN DE ALIMENTOS DURANTE EL PORFIRIATO." Historia Mexicana 26, no. 2 (October 1976): 167-187. Historical Abstracts.
This article was published in Spanish, so it might be difficult to follow unless you speak Spanish or find tables and charts compelling beyond words. I took from it two things: first, that many historical sources play fast and loose with the truth. In this case, the irony shouldn't go missing, the article reviews a book called Statistics, and revises upwards food production levels to show that despite the dramatic decreases shown in the book, the numbers are much more stable than previously thought. So, if anyone tells you that during the Porfiriato there was a drastic decrease in food production due to farmers producing other non-food crops for export, you can look up this article and profess a slightly more nuanced view.
Blog: The Job of Academia
Recently in one of those impromptu conversations that yields a great deal of wisdom for everyone present or, at least, something to ponder, I heard two things. Lack of confidence is a career killer. At heart, we all know this somehow; the appearance of confidence (in the right doses of course) is attractive; it's opposite inspires pity. That's not what the professor was talking about - it was about how it will frustrate your efforts to finish work to publish and, at the end of the day, this is a job, and our success is measured by how much we publish. The goal is to get over the bar of the editor, and once you get there, you either get published, or you get a reader's report. Either way, you win. So, just bang the words out and there you have it.
This led to some interesting discussion and reflection.
This led to some interesting discussion and reflection.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Documentary: The Fidel Castro Tapes
Excellent documentary with tons of footage that discusses in broad terms U.S. and Cuban relations within a global context. You will see an overthrow of the Batista regime, Castro's initial popularity with the U.S. public, escalating tit-for-tat tensions (Cuba looks for foreign investment, gets it from Russia; Russia sends aid and arms, buying sugar; U.S. initiates a naval blockade, Russia trades Turkey for Cuba without talking to Castro; Castro nationalizes American businesses, and the real trouble begins). It takes us all the way to the Bush II era. Well worth the 55 minutes for an information-packed overview.
Documentary: Havana Curveball
The curveball in the title is the metaphorically thrown to the documentary's protagonist, Mica, as this 16-year-old reflects on a three-year project to send baseball gear to Cuba. In the beginning, Mica's innocence is touching, and the hook to the story, sadly understated, of his grandfather's two-year asylum in Cuba while fleeing Nazi Germany in 1941 is compelling. Mica's parents, both journalists, film the documentary, and one begins to wonder at the level of preparation one would have to go through in order to take Mica's journey. Shot from Mica's perspective, we learn quickly that there is an embargo on Cuban trade, so the baseball gear he tries to send is impossible through the U.S. Postal Service. Finally having sent some on his own through Canada and later through an organization equipped to take equipment with it, he ventures to Cuba himself. Two key points of his understanding of how complicated it is to give away things to the "less fortunate" are worth mentioning. During his journey, he meets a group of players and realizes that after he makes a human connection, he doesn't want the condescending role of the "American Savior." The fact that something doesn't sit right with him is revealed later when he tries to give away, in true U.S. style, some of his gear to a group of kids playing in a field. The disillusion that happens next reminds me of the time I held out a bowl of candy to a group of kids at Halloween. When asked, "How many can we take?" I responded, "Whatever you think is reasonable." After a brief loss of faith in "humanity," my wife explained to me I got exactly the reaction I asked for. Mica got more than he asked for, and his documentary gives the viewer more than expected.
Documentary: Odd People Out
Even if you haven't read Reinaldo Arenas' Before Night Falls, (Antes que anochezca) this is an excellent documentary in its own right. The documentary is a series of interviews with people close to him (and not so close - they found and interviewed his biological father). If you have read the book, you will find this a good companion that puts a face, in some cases, to the characters he describes in the book. It is also gives insight into the complications and dangers of being homosexual during a good part of Castro's regime, though you don't get a sense of what the political landscape looks like now. The footage is all shot in Cuba. I need to go back and watch the film adaptation of Arenas' autobiography, but given the choice, I would recommend watching this if you are looking for a way to add depth to your reading.
Available at kanopystreaming.com
Available at kanopystreaming.com
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Article: Masculinity, the Embodied Male Worker, and the Historian's Gaze
Find it in Baron, Ava International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 69, Working-Class Subjectivities and Sexualities (Spring, 2006), pp. 143-160
Much has been written about women's work culture, but this article takes a look at masculinity in the white man's work place. The masculinity crisis, brought on by "virtually everything" (146) provokes a hyper-masculine response in the working-class white male that creates a sexist culture that involves acts of bravery, hazing, and other homosocial behaviors. Technology, for example, could be considered a threat to masculinity, so males engage in acts of bravery to prove themselves superior to technology. (Ibid.)
The article doesn't get much into race; for example, humor is a large part of the masculine group, so sexist jokes are common. Any discussion of how racist jokes enter that same field is very light. She mentions Daniel Bender's work on Jewish garment workers; how they did not exhibit these masculine traits, so there is a question as to how ubiquitous these masculine performativity was, and if it the term "white" is separate from Jewish or other groups (Chinese mentioned on p.149) that might not fit the Baron's model. Class, however, gets plenty of attention. The white-collar worker hides his body behind a suit; almost a denial of the qualities that the blue-collar worker possesses. (148)
The discussion of who has the power of masculinity is interesting; Baron says it is variable, depending "upon the angle of the gaze and upon who was 'being' and who was 'being looked at.'" I am curious to see more examples of this.
Much has been written about women's work culture, but this article takes a look at masculinity in the white man's work place. The masculinity crisis, brought on by "virtually everything" (146) provokes a hyper-masculine response in the working-class white male that creates a sexist culture that involves acts of bravery, hazing, and other homosocial behaviors. Technology, for example, could be considered a threat to masculinity, so males engage in acts of bravery to prove themselves superior to technology. (Ibid.)
The article doesn't get much into race; for example, humor is a large part of the masculine group, so sexist jokes are common. Any discussion of how racist jokes enter that same field is very light. She mentions Daniel Bender's work on Jewish garment workers; how they did not exhibit these masculine traits, so there is a question as to how ubiquitous these masculine performativity was, and if it the term "white" is separate from Jewish or other groups (Chinese mentioned on p.149) that might not fit the Baron's model. Class, however, gets plenty of attention. The white-collar worker hides his body behind a suit; almost a denial of the qualities that the blue-collar worker possesses. (148)
The discussion of who has the power of masculinity is interesting; Baron says it is variable, depending "upon the angle of the gaze and upon who was 'being' and who was 'being looked at.'" I am curious to see more examples of this.
Monday, March 28, 2016
A Look at a Book: Bakers & Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico
Weis, Robert. Bakers and Basques a social history of bread in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012.
With the historical emphasis on corn as the staple food in Mexico, this book is an important conversation on how bread was one of the main markers of difference between the urban and rural population in Mexico. While poorer consumers might have eaten lower quality bread, figures in this book show that a substantial amount of bread was eaten across class lines.
Bread was important in the urban Mexico City, while corn ruled in the rural areas. But when bread shortages increased, there were ripple effects all through the market, causing the price of the tortilla to skyrocket. The title, Bakers & Basques, highlights the Basque role as owner of bread making facilities (and sometimes much further down the supply chain) while Mexican bakers tended to be struggling to eek out a living on a meager wage based on completion of loaves versus an hourly wage that wasn't negotiated until well into the 20th century with articles from the 1917 Constitution.
The fight for reasonable wages was complicated because of bread's preeminence in the urban diet, so while the bread making facilities were considered private, the government felt it needed to intervene to appease owners while preventing strikes that caused bread shortages. This meant that other industries with unionized employees gained ground at a much faster clip than Mexican bakers because of the complex policies and negotiations around bread. While the more politically powerful and well-capitalized bread-making facilities tended to be owned by Basques, many Mexican-owned bread makers also existed, but tended to employ family members.
It is incredible to think that Mexican bread makers would align themselves with Basque owners as well as government officials in order to crush businesses owned by Mexican families, but this is precisely the case. The bread makers, who had it badly enough, unionized in order to increase the effectiveness of their political power exerted through strikes, the most disruptive of their tactics. Because the smaller, Mexican-owned shops were able to use some of the savings on wages and various fees that the larger operations had to pay, they were able to offer heavier bread for less. This attracted the ire of the Basque shop owners, and the unionized Mexican bakers working for the Basques couldn't use the family outfits to add to their union power.
The book also highlights a problem of exceptionalism common to studies of capitalism that seek a superior cultural trait that somehow lends itself to more entrepreneurialism than other cultures. More likely, the Basques were able to leverage built in advantages through familial and cultural links with a combination of networks developed with people in government positions that tilted policy to their interests. It was pressure from workers that forced the need to modernize. The author shows how "bread had been a symbol of urban civility and social modernization; afterward, it became a sign of the revolutionary government's commitment to the well-being of the proletariat." (7)
The first chapter discusses the complications that strong regulation of bread from the Spanish Crown brought to the market. For example, bread had to be sold in certain areas with an official brand, and every aspect of the production to consumption was regulated. The Crown and officials beneath themselves felt themselves the only ones who could protect consumers from the greed of bread vendors. Some officials saw the bread monopolies as useful because they could be used as an extension of state power. (15) The bread families were in a position to be involved in government, as well, so this contributed to a further concentration of power at the top. The gremio (trade union or guild) was a club that could be bought into only by owners. It is interesting that deregulating the bread market, an idea promulgated by Revillagigedo, was an attempt to reduce the power of the bread oligarchs by allowing anyone to enter the bread trade freely.
The second chapter enters after independence, when Mexico underwent a crisis because of the massive flight of Spanish capital. The difficulties in making bread encouraged new bread makers to get involved, but they were no longer part of the state apparatus of control, and therefore were less controllable when prices rose. The lack of food supply was tied to the government, so food shortages would inevitably be blamed on it. Some government fiscal policies were to blame, however, such as Santa Anna's flooding the market with copper coinage and demanding part of taxes to be paid in silver. When copper was found to be counterfeit, the government took the copper with the promise that it would be exchanged, meanwhile holding up workers salaries, who rose up in response. As bakeries closed their doors, the populace rose up, as well. (27) One of the most significant changes for workers was the fall of the empeño system, where workers were indebted to bread-making businesses. The author notes a lack of ability to regulate the food market along with a lack of the kind of embedded relationship the gremios had previously that contributed to a good deal of scarcity and chaos. (31)
Perhaps the most important take away from this book is that regulation, not competition, was the tool bread makers made use of to edge out competition and ensure their monopoly over the trade. An uneasy balance between government's obligation to protect consumers by ensuring affordable bread at the cost of workers is another theme that deserves attention. The author cites the triumph of Basque bread makers as emblematic of the Porfiriato, in that foreign capital and labor flooded Mexican markets.
With the historical emphasis on corn as the staple food in Mexico, this book is an important conversation on how bread was one of the main markers of difference between the urban and rural population in Mexico. While poorer consumers might have eaten lower quality bread, figures in this book show that a substantial amount of bread was eaten across class lines.
Bread was important in the urban Mexico City, while corn ruled in the rural areas. But when bread shortages increased, there were ripple effects all through the market, causing the price of the tortilla to skyrocket. The title, Bakers & Basques, highlights the Basque role as owner of bread making facilities (and sometimes much further down the supply chain) while Mexican bakers tended to be struggling to eek out a living on a meager wage based on completion of loaves versus an hourly wage that wasn't negotiated until well into the 20th century with articles from the 1917 Constitution.
The fight for reasonable wages was complicated because of bread's preeminence in the urban diet, so while the bread making facilities were considered private, the government felt it needed to intervene to appease owners while preventing strikes that caused bread shortages. This meant that other industries with unionized employees gained ground at a much faster clip than Mexican bakers because of the complex policies and negotiations around bread. While the more politically powerful and well-capitalized bread-making facilities tended to be owned by Basques, many Mexican-owned bread makers also existed, but tended to employ family members.
It is incredible to think that Mexican bread makers would align themselves with Basque owners as well as government officials in order to crush businesses owned by Mexican families, but this is precisely the case. The bread makers, who had it badly enough, unionized in order to increase the effectiveness of their political power exerted through strikes, the most disruptive of their tactics. Because the smaller, Mexican-owned shops were able to use some of the savings on wages and various fees that the larger operations had to pay, they were able to offer heavier bread for less. This attracted the ire of the Basque shop owners, and the unionized Mexican bakers working for the Basques couldn't use the family outfits to add to their union power.
The book also highlights a problem of exceptionalism common to studies of capitalism that seek a superior cultural trait that somehow lends itself to more entrepreneurialism than other cultures. More likely, the Basques were able to leverage built in advantages through familial and cultural links with a combination of networks developed with people in government positions that tilted policy to their interests. It was pressure from workers that forced the need to modernize. The author shows how "bread had been a symbol of urban civility and social modernization; afterward, it became a sign of the revolutionary government's commitment to the well-being of the proletariat." (7)
The first chapter discusses the complications that strong regulation of bread from the Spanish Crown brought to the market. For example, bread had to be sold in certain areas with an official brand, and every aspect of the production to consumption was regulated. The Crown and officials beneath themselves felt themselves the only ones who could protect consumers from the greed of bread vendors. Some officials saw the bread monopolies as useful because they could be used as an extension of state power. (15) The bread families were in a position to be involved in government, as well, so this contributed to a further concentration of power at the top. The gremio (trade union or guild) was a club that could be bought into only by owners. It is interesting that deregulating the bread market, an idea promulgated by Revillagigedo, was an attempt to reduce the power of the bread oligarchs by allowing anyone to enter the bread trade freely.
The second chapter enters after independence, when Mexico underwent a crisis because of the massive flight of Spanish capital. The difficulties in making bread encouraged new bread makers to get involved, but they were no longer part of the state apparatus of control, and therefore were less controllable when prices rose. The lack of food supply was tied to the government, so food shortages would inevitably be blamed on it. Some government fiscal policies were to blame, however, such as Santa Anna's flooding the market with copper coinage and demanding part of taxes to be paid in silver. When copper was found to be counterfeit, the government took the copper with the promise that it would be exchanged, meanwhile holding up workers salaries, who rose up in response. As bakeries closed their doors, the populace rose up, as well. (27) One of the most significant changes for workers was the fall of the empeño system, where workers were indebted to bread-making businesses. The author notes a lack of ability to regulate the food market along with a lack of the kind of embedded relationship the gremios had previously that contributed to a good deal of scarcity and chaos. (31)
Perhaps the most important take away from this book is that regulation, not competition, was the tool bread makers made use of to edge out competition and ensure their monopoly over the trade. An uneasy balance between government's obligation to protect consumers by ensuring affordable bread at the cost of workers is another theme that deserves attention. The author cites the triumph of Basque bread makers as emblematic of the Porfiriato, in that foreign capital and labor flooded Mexican markets.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Documentary Review: Black and Cuba
We are introduced to a group of Yale students who go to Cuba with an idealized notion of what socialist Cuba looks like, and it telegraphs what might be an incredibly dull film that is led with a sort of blindness to reality as they are led by tour guides and given history lessons. Idealism quickly gives way to a balanced view of Cuba - a country that has been able to withstand decades of painful U.S. embargoes, numerous attempts at government overthrow, all the while building up tremendous literacy and other social benefits, such as subsidized housing, health care, and high rates of employment. Cuba offered political asylum to several high profile black dissenters, such as Assata Shakur. Additionally, class differences are apparent by the type of employment people can do and where they live. While one of the Yale students discusses the two rappers she met who idealize living in the U.S., she lays the blame on the media, though obvious link back to the Yale students' similar idealization of Cuba prior to their visit is ignored. Much comparison is given in terms of statistics for the well being of black people in both countries, leaving the impression that Cuba is winning in terms of health, education, and overall wellbeing. This film is particularly worth viewing because it gives insight into a non-white U.S. perspective on Cuba.
It's available at http://www.kanopystreaming.com/ The caption offers the line, "Black and Cuba follows street-smart Ivy League student who are outcasts at their elite University..." The terms "Street-smart" and "outcasts" seem like subtle code and exaggeration.
A Book Look: The Mangy Parrot, Abridged, English version
Lizardi, José, and David L. Frye. The Mangy Parrot, Abridged: The Life and Times of Periquillo Sarniento, Written by Himself for his Children. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub. Co, 2005.
This is the abridged and translated version of what is known as Mexico's first novel, written by Fernández de Lizardi.
Much is lost in translation and abridgment; it's been said to use the various speech patterns of different classes, which forces one to use his or her imagination with the creative interpretations. It is a novel written in the picaresque form, and as such it has long-titled chapters that give away the plot like an overbearing movie trailer. They do help the graduate student quickly get a sense of what is going on.
The protagonist goes from relative comfort to complete ruin trying to explore all the ways in which he can make money without working hard, alienating himself from his parents, who both die, arguably while grieving their son's flagrant debauchery and the financial ruin he has provoked. He goes through several rounds of different schools to find himself in all sorts of trouble as a gambler, a thief, and so on. The story is narrated from the protagonist's deathbed, who finally achieves the understanding he was 'robbed' of by his parents overly permissive upbringing of him.
Because lately I have been studying food in Mexico and am interested in how people looked at food, I will return to this book in the Spanish at a later time. I did note several areas where he describes food, and I put a few here to jog my memory later when I come back to this.
Themes - Food:
Chocolate stands, p.7
The importance of fiestas, weddings, baptisms and ceremonies and the role of food in those, p.17
Rubbing one's cheeks with chili, p.20
Making punch (liquor, sugar, and lemon), p.50
Food and class (quail & pheasant vs. tortilla "dampened perhaps with the sweat of your brow"), p.56
Hunger and tavern food, p.65
Pulque and chiringuito, p.68
Rum vs. chocolate, p.69
Coffee, p. 70
Steamed water for chocolate, p.73
This is the abridged and translated version of what is known as Mexico's first novel, written by Fernández de Lizardi.
Much is lost in translation and abridgment; it's been said to use the various speech patterns of different classes, which forces one to use his or her imagination with the creative interpretations. It is a novel written in the picaresque form, and as such it has long-titled chapters that give away the plot like an overbearing movie trailer. They do help the graduate student quickly get a sense of what is going on.
The protagonist goes from relative comfort to complete ruin trying to explore all the ways in which he can make money without working hard, alienating himself from his parents, who both die, arguably while grieving their son's flagrant debauchery and the financial ruin he has provoked. He goes through several rounds of different schools to find himself in all sorts of trouble as a gambler, a thief, and so on. The story is narrated from the protagonist's deathbed, who finally achieves the understanding he was 'robbed' of by his parents overly permissive upbringing of him.
Because lately I have been studying food in Mexico and am interested in how people looked at food, I will return to this book in the Spanish at a later time. I did note several areas where he describes food, and I put a few here to jog my memory later when I come back to this.
Themes - Food:
Chocolate stands, p.7
The importance of fiestas, weddings, baptisms and ceremonies and the role of food in those, p.17
Rubbing one's cheeks with chili, p.20
Making punch (liquor, sugar, and lemon), p.50
Food and class (quail & pheasant vs. tortilla "dampened perhaps with the sweat of your brow"), p.56
Hunger and tavern food, p.65
Pulque and chiringuito, p.68
Rum vs. chocolate, p.69
Coffee, p. 70
Steamed water for chocolate, p.73
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Documentary Review: Los Nietos de la Revolución
For the time being, this subtitled film is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxRVj3HWQog
Well-connected vignettes of the lives of young people, such as anarchists, lawyers, bloggers, and music artists. Pinned against a backdrop of the '59 Revolution, the reality of people who are struggling for better conditions and for free speech stands in great relief. An emphasis is placed on how the line from the government consistently blames the U.S. blockade for its economic woes, inclusive of policies that the government is responsible for. State oversight over the smallest aspects of life is shown to be intrusive and stifling. Several government officials are shown to be very old (which they are) and disconnected from the reality of the 21st century. One such youth, Yoani Sánchez, is a blogger who runs Generation Y, which is available here: https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/
Well-connected vignettes of the lives of young people, such as anarchists, lawyers, bloggers, and music artists. Pinned against a backdrop of the '59 Revolution, the reality of people who are struggling for better conditions and for free speech stands in great relief. An emphasis is placed on how the line from the government consistently blames the U.S. blockade for its economic woes, inclusive of policies that the government is responsible for. State oversight over the smallest aspects of life is shown to be intrusive and stifling. Several government officials are shown to be very old (which they are) and disconnected from the reality of the 21st century. One such youth, Yoani Sánchez, is a blogger who runs Generation Y, which is available here: https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/
Documentary Review: Fond Memories of Cuba
This documentary is by an Australian funded by a man named "Jim," who contributed half a million dollars toward a children's hospital. The narrator's mission is a cultural tour as well as to check up on the hospital, and to bury the ashes of a friend. Music and dancing, people ravaged by poverty waiting for their government rations, and jalopies rattling around, stories of torture, and a sense that the "I'm doing fine" coming from the older revolutionaries is only skin deep, forms the bulk of the film. The narration, along with the images, highlight both the intention of the film. In one case, he visits a sugar plantation and provokes a great deal of mistrust because of his foreign status. The viewer immediately begins to look at issues such as how much truth is going to be told to an outsider.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Dcumentary Review: The Last Colony
http://thelastcolony.com/
This is a documentary that presents opposing views for various forms of Puerto Rican status with respect to the U.S. and the rest of the world. It is a modern political history, offering some insight into previous plebiscites with a good deal of attention to the 2012 vote. The 2012 ballot results showed a clear majority of voters not interested in continuing its current status with the United States, but the results on what to do after that point gave way to controversy. The options were for statehood, complete independence, and for an enhanced form of commonwealth (similar to its currents status but with more autonomy).
The issues discussed by the interviewees centered mainly around prosperity, autonomy, and identity. The documentary is engaging and encourages viewers to learn more.
If you are at an institution that has access to Kanopy Streaming, you are in luck - you can sign up and watch it for free!
This is a documentary that presents opposing views for various forms of Puerto Rican status with respect to the U.S. and the rest of the world. It is a modern political history, offering some insight into previous plebiscites with a good deal of attention to the 2012 vote. The 2012 ballot results showed a clear majority of voters not interested in continuing its current status with the United States, but the results on what to do after that point gave way to controversy. The options were for statehood, complete independence, and for an enhanced form of commonwealth (similar to its currents status but with more autonomy).
The issues discussed by the interviewees centered mainly around prosperity, autonomy, and identity. The documentary is engaging and encourages viewers to learn more.
If you are at an institution that has access to Kanopy Streaming, you are in luck - you can sign up and watch it for free!
Welcome to Round Table History.org
This is a forum for emerging historians who want to collaborate with other emerging historians. I'm a 40-year-old guy earning an MA in Spanish and History at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH.
This is an evolving project. I plan to post what I'm doing, as I'm doing it. Much of what you might find here is me trying to make sense of the materials I am reading in a demanding program, so it lacks the refinement of a true blog, but it has all the trappings of an authentic conversation. Feel free to comment or send your own stuff in.
Thanks!
Nanosh
This is an evolving project. I plan to post what I'm doing, as I'm doing it. Much of what you might find here is me trying to make sense of the materials I am reading in a demanding program, so it lacks the refinement of a true blog, but it has all the trappings of an authentic conversation. Feel free to comment or send your own stuff in.
Thanks!
Nanosh
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