What we should do

For my paper I will be discussing the neocolonial relationship that the US has with Latin America. In the book I mentioned in my last entry, Grandin argues that Latin America was the beginnings of the US empire. He presents evidence that some of the initial action on Latin America was perhaps truly noble, a civilizing mission, an example of good-hearted Americans trying to better the world by spreading the thing they hold dearest – democracy. But Grandin does not spend too much time talking about those ideas because they represent the minority of reasons behind US involvement in Latin America. Of course, the US was mostly there for economic gain, the same primary reason behind pure colonialism. For the past several decades many countries of Central and South America have been in political turmoil and social unrest. Now some of the largest exports to the US from these countries are coffee, bananas, and illegal drugs (not to mention migrant workers, which will also be discussed in the paper). Like Communism in the Cold War, US political leaders have tried to squelch the evil drug trade of Latin America, like in 1989 “when George H. W. Bush first militarized the ‘war on drugs,’ [and] U.S. troops have [since then] steadily expanded their presence.” US military efforts in the region, both public and covert, have gone under the guise of fighting for the spread Christianity, and then democracy, and now to stop drug trafficking, but the main result has instead been the rise of US-backed dictatorships and mass murder. Today “Washington promotes an economic model that produces not development and stability but desolation and crisis.” Perhaps it is time for the US to stop treating its Southern neighbors as its children, or its puppets. Perhaps it is time to recognize the sovereignty of these nations. As Presidents Lula of Brazil and Kirchner of Argentina stated in their Buenos Aires Consensus, “democracy is meaningless without a commitment to end ‘poverty, unemployment, hunger, illiteracy and disease, which effectively constitute a loss of autonomy and dignity for those afflicted, obstructing them from fully exercising their rights and freedoms as citizens.’” Grandin states that “hardly any U.S. aid goes to alleviating the poverty that even the Pentagon admits fuels war and the drug trade. Needless to say, land reform, planned industrialization, and sustainable rural development are off the table.” Perhaps that’s what we should rethink. At least those sound like good ideas to me. I will end with a paraphrase of what a fellow honors student Gwendelynn Bills posited at a TTU panel discussion about the Middle East on the subject of American involvement in that region. She said she sees the U.S. as Marie Antoinette, trying to give democracy, an advanced political and social system, to these countries when there are so many Middle Eastern people who go without food from day to day. “Let them eat cake”? How about start with the basics – food, water, and shelter. Then we can talk advanced government styles (and religion for that matter). I say we start focusing the money we put into Latin America on developing its ability to support its peoples, not on terrorist regimes whose work will benefit us in the short run. Let’s detach ourselves from our immediate desires for a moment, and think about how to make the world a better place, by helping all of humanity, not just those born on US soil.

Further development of my topic (hooray!)

Yay I’ve decided on a topic! So when rereading the directions for the blog and this paper (always a great idea, by the way), I realized how large the emphasis was on a “current” situation. That helped, because after talking to Dr. Jonakin in the business department I realized that my grand topic could be broken up into three categories, essentially: Spanish colonialism of Guatemala (and when I say “Guatemala” I probably mean Latin America, with special emphasis on Guatemala), post-colonialism in Guatemala (meaning what happened after liberation from Spain in the 19th century), and neocolonialism in Guatemala(/Latin America) with regard to the U.S. The latter would also hopefully go into the influx of immigrant workers to the US that started booming in the 90s (which was kind of the starting point in this train of thought because two of my good friends are workers from Guatemala). But to discuss each of these three distinct periods could have filled a while textbook. Alas, I do not wish to write a textbook at this point in my life, so I realized I’d have to choose one or two periods. And after rereading the rubric I found the decision clear! For this paper I will study Guatemala and Latin America from the time of liberation from Spain to present day; which means my two terms will be post-colonialism and neocolonialism. Dr. Jonakin lent me a book that looks very promising from the introduction. It’s called Empire’s Workshop, by Dr. Greg Grandin, and it looks at how the US used Latin America as essentially a “dress rehearsal” or practice for our take-over of other lands, or put another way, as the beginnings of the American empire. Grandin calls Latin America “the place where the United States elaborated tactics of extraterritorial administration and acquired its conception of itself as an empire like no other before it. The Western Hemisphere was the be the staging ground for a new ‘empire for liberty’”. In the latter part Grandin in quoting Thomas Jefferson. The book discusses the entire history of this plot, from FDR’s “good neighbor” proposal to imperial violence by proxy (funding and training native groups to wreak havoc upon their nation whether in the form of a governmental coup or acts of mass murder to subdue citizen protests). He also discusses some economic factors, the US using “soft power” – that is a non-military form of control, via ‘commerce, cultural exchange, and multilateral cooperation.” Yes, this book promises to give me a wealth of juicy postcolonial and neocolonial history and information. Though, I suspect I will have to find another brilliant source to enlighten me on the immigration story. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Historical Background of my Topic

Ok, I’ve searched my inner being (hah) and I think I want to research Guatemala. I will briefly talk about the colonial history of Guatemala (and perhaps make references and comparisons to the colonization of Northern Africa? – would that be too much?), but I want the main focus of the paper to be “postcolonial”, as in what has happened since their independence from Spain (the last official colonizer) in 1821. What has happened since then? Well, not surprisingly it’s the same as what always (or at least most of the time) happens after a country is “liberated” from a colonizer – dictatorships, powerful and violent ones.

Before invasions from across the sea, the people of Guatemala were part of the powerful Mayan empire, which existed from about 250 to 900 CE (referred to as the Classic period). In 900, the empire collapsed, and the possible reasons are currently debated among historians and archeologists (drought is one of the most accepted theories). Then until 1500 the empire was divided into regional kingdoms, which is now known as the Calistic Period. The 1500s was when the Spanish Conquistadors came to Central and South America starting with the infamous Hernán Cortés. One of his top lieutenants Pedro de Alvarado was the leader of the conquest of Guatemala in 1519. As in Assia Djebar’s Fantasía, there were numerous local tribes and not all fought against the invaders. Some of them (for example, the Kaqchiquel) actually sided with the Spanish and fought to bring down other tribes. But of course in due time the Spanish would take advantage of them, they would rebel, the Spanish would crush the rebellions, and in the end the Spanish force was just strengthened. Then there was more colonization similar to that of Northern Africa, but of course there were some notable differences, like the emphasis in religion (the spread of Catholicism via the Inquisition).

So there’s a tiny bit of history for you! I’ll do some more along this vain, then talk about liberation, then (as I mentioned before) I’ll spend most of my time talking about postcolonial issues (and the postcolonial relationship between Guatemala and the US). Does this sound good? Do you think I should spend more (or less) time talking about the early colonization vs. postcolonialism? I think I could actually write a whole 12-page paper on either. Should I pick just one? Or maybe include both but focus on one, as was the original plan? Your brilliant thoughts are always appreciated!

Call for Help!

Ok guys, I need your help on this one.  I've been thinking a lot about what I want to write my paper on, and I'm still not really sold on anything.  I've been trying to figure out what in this class most interests me, what I think about the most outside of class.  And I think it's got to boil down to the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer.  I love how twisted and complicated it is.  I mean it's really like watching a movie about a really complicated relationship where one person is not really any more bad than the other; they both make mistakes and hurt the other, and they both try to do the right thing.  It's kind of fun to go back and forth as you try to pick a side.  Obviously, coming from my earlier post, there is one clearly evil character:  the colonizer.  And the colonized is completely the victim.  But nothing in life is so black and white.  I have a fascination with human behavior, I suppose.  And I really like the idea of scaling down a national situation to a more personal (and perhaps more easily accessible), two person-situation.  I love metaphors, and creating a story-line with two characters and how they interact would make for a killer metaphor (of allegorical proportions!).

So I want to closely examine that relationship.  If not so much the characters themselves (like Memmi's Portraits of the Colonized and the Colonizer), but how they interact.  And catch the whole relationship too, like before the colonizer invades and starts colonizing, then during, then the whole time the colonizer is there (and then also looking at the reaction of the metropole, the common people still living in the homeland of the colonizer), then finally liberation and it's after-effects.

I feel like I've learned so much about the colonization of Northern Africa (I guess the class would have been a failure if I didn't feel that way), and I'm tempted to just delve further into that situation, with this specific "relationship" lens.  But then there's always South America.  I have a growing fascination with the place, and I fully intend to live there for a while, very soon.  So that would be cool, to do a bunch of historical research on Peru, then go there myself.  Or Guatemala, where two of my best friends are from. Those best friends too, are indigenous, living in a small town in the mountains and learning Spanish as their second language, after their first native tongue (Mam, a type of Mayan).  Or!  It would be kind of cool to just follow their story, first looking at the colonization of Guatemala (in particular the Spanish colonization) and then follow them to the States where they currently live and work.  Then I could look at the somewhat neo-colonialistic relationship between the US and Guatemala and their lives here, which often parallel aspects of the colonized's lives, but in a reversed situation in that they are living in the land of the colonizer and not the other way around.

See, at this point I'm just swimming in ideas, and I'm really needing a more focused direction.  I've pretty much named all the things I'm interested in...now any specific paper ideas?  I'd love those.

One other thing, I'm a little worried about finding my research.  Especially the research regarding the colonial history of say Peru or Guatemala.  In class, most of the actual historical facts I've learned about the colonization of North Africa have come from fabulously knowledgable professors like Dr. Barnard and Dr. Propes.  In the minimal amount of research I've done, however, on the topics of South American colonization, I've mostly come across articles that are either far too elementary or far too complicated.  Any suggestions for this matter?

Obi-Wan, I need your help.

(Other general aspects that interest me)

I'm interested in the whole debate about "is colonialism good or bad?" or "what are the good things about colonialism and what are the bad things?".  I want to especially look at how the colonized are effected when making these decisions, but I will also try to examine the effect on the colonizer.  I basically just want to get the fullest picture of colonialism that I can, then be able to make my own educated opinions and conclusions.  

Aspects of Colonialism

When people of one nation decide that they need to invade another nation, this is colonialism.  When you are sitting on the beach you grew up on, and you see foreign ships coming your way, and foreign-looking men get off these ships and begin killing your people and stealing your things – this is colonialism.  When a stranger yells at you with words you cannot understand and then slaughters your family in front of you, this is colonialism.  When you are stripped naked and one of these foreign men rapes you, this is colonialism. 

It takes many forms, spreads across many lands, and touches people of all races and religions.  It spans across centuries, millennia.  It involves explorers, soldiers, diplomats, criminals, kings, presidents, clergymen, politicians, day laborers, missionaries, businessmen, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters.  Its battles are fought over land, resources, religion, money, and power.  It makes some people very rich, and leaves others with nothing.

There are few spots on this Earth that haven’t been touched by this scourge of human action, and though every case is different, there are certain universal ways in which people react in a colonial situation.  Although the colonizer has taken many forms, colors, tongues, and apparel, he has qualities that tie him to every other colonizer in history.  Similarly, the colonized represent a rainbow of cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds, yet they go through some of the same steps in their reaction.

Albert Memi, a Tunisian, wrote about his observations regarding these matters in his The Colonizer and the Colonized (or Portrait du colonisé, précédé par portrait du colonisateur).  He described the colonizer as someone who was mediocre in his home and perhaps went to a new land seeking a sense of importance.  He painted the colonized as a person who goes through stages, first seeking assimilation, that is to say striving to be like the colonizer.  But this will inevitably fail, says Memi, and when it does the colonized decides that he does not need to be like the colonized, but rather he is intensely self-affirming and latches on to his cultural customs.  At this point he turns to revolt.  He tries, in whatever ways he can, to throw off the fetters of colonialism.