Latin America’s Problems: Result of Violent History?

Latin Americas ProblemsResult of Violent taradiddle?History plays a role in the problems of to a greater extent or less(prenominal) nation, and for that matter in the livesof individual good deal. Does this misbegotten that a country or soulfulness is fated to an inevitablefuture that is color in mostly by its past? To slightly degree the settle is yes, but to way outany particular feature of a societys past, namely emphasis in this instance, and thrust thewhole lading of responsibility upon it may be irresponsible, in and of itself, in a sincere interest to ameliorate and ultimately eradicate the convoluted issues that need to beresolved. If we do desire to attribute the current state of affairs in Latin America to its barbarian history, we also need to understand the tempera manpowert and genesis of that force-out. Manycountries, including the USA, achieved independence by means of wars and violence, but wedo non acknowledgment our current problems on the Amer i urinate the sack whirling or the Civil War which wasviolence amongst our own people. The source of violence can be a key to savvyhow the countries of Latin America and their people arouse non recovered from the nature of theviolence they endured.When wars be fought to expunge a reciprocal enemy thither is a touch perception ofcamaraderie and nationalism to ache fought and win not only against a prevalent enemy,but against the very evil correspond by that enemy. This mindset unites people andsolidifies depression systems, ethics, and morals so necessary to the mastery and go alongsuccess of civilizations and their governments. What happens, however, when theviolence is perpetrated by the very debut that is supposed to be the bulwark of good,and when the violence is perpetrated by this institution against the very people that lookto it for their certificate?Chasteen says that At the most grassroots level, advantage is of all time about(predicate)exploitation. ( p.58). Although we do not always think of the process of ghostlikeconversion as conquest, perhaps we should give this careful consideration. Chasteen chancems to agree with this as he goes on to say that Most Spanish and Portugeuse peoplethat came to the Americas in the premature 1500s believed that dispersion the true pietism,even by force, was a good thing. (p. 58). The kind of religion that the Catholic Churchbrought to the Americas in the early 1500s was a perfect example of non perform/government separation. To sin against Catholic teachings was, in many cases, a criminaloffense. (p.70). The Catholic Church did not merely have a religious presence in Latin America.They controlled it. Chasteen summarizes some of what Las Casas had to say about the control ofCatholicism. The reason for the death and remnant of so many souls at Christianhandswas simple greed (p. 60).To set ahead substantiate the demonstration of evil by the Catholic Church take alook at an excerpt from appr ize floor of the loneliness of the Indies by Las Casas referred toby Chasteen as A brief account of the destruction of the Indies, (p. 61) a translational prenomendifference of the same work subsequently the wars and the killings had ended, when usu tout ensembley theresurvived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among theChristians to be slaves. The repartimiento or distribution was made according to the rank and greatness of the Christian to whom the Indians were allocated, one of them being abandoned thirty,another forty, still another, one or two hundred, and besides the rank of the Christian there wasalso to be considered in what favor he stood with the tyrant they called Governor.The stalking-horse was that these allocated Indians were to be instructed in the articles of theChristian Faith. As if those Christians who were as a rule unadvised and cruel andgreedy and vicious could be caretakers of souls And the care they took was to send themen to the mines to excavation for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to send the women into thefields of the spoilt ranches to hoe and till the land, work worthy for strong men. Nor to either themen or the women did they give any fodder overleap herbs and legumes, things of little substance.The milk in the breasts of the women with infants alter up and thus in a short while the infantsperished. And since men and women were separated, there could be no marital relations. And themen died in the mines and the women died on the ranches from the same causes, debilitation andhunger. And thus was depopu tardilyd that island which had been densely populated.(http//www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html).Although these are blatant examples of destruction, Chasteen also cites a more insidiousexample the Church exercised, such(prenominal) as hegemony defined as the basic principle of socialcontrol in which a ruling class dominates others ideologically, with a minimum of physical force,by reservation its dominance look natural and inevitable. (p. 325). righteousness offers one of theclearest examples of cultural hegemony. (p.69). Even more dangerous than outrightexploitation, this creeps into the very fabric of the psyche of a people and carries over throughoutgenerations. As Chasteen points out, When they feature the principle of their owninferioritythey get in in their own subjection. (p.69). The subjugation continued through history as Caudillos, replete landowners, were thepartys national leadership (p. 124) in post colonial days. In the neo colonial period from 1880-1930, (p. 180), Latin America was still subjugated, but preferably by cultures that had broughtProgress from other countries. The late 1800s saw dicatorships or oligartchies. (p.192).During the time of the US overtake of Cuba in the early 1900s we see the incendiary racistattitudes prevail, as Teddy Roosevelt coins the boundary dago for Latins. (p. 201). Righ t up untilthe enclose day it appears that Latins have never locomote above the station that was thrust uponthem by the Church from the beginning.The book has opened my look to many injustices in Latin American history that I wasunaware existed and has provided food for thought as to the reasons Latin Americans seem to bea problematic people. It is indeed, not the injustices in and of themselves, but the so calledChristian perpetrators of such injustices that give the history and the gravel fate of LatinAmerica such a fatalistic outlook and prognosis.Despite all of this and probably because of thehegemony, it has happened without notice but it is kindle to note that Latin America hasalways been Catholic, but now the majority of the realnesss Catholics are Latin American.(p. 320). At the end of the book Chasteen asks what the future willing bring. (p.321). He does notprovide an answer but it makes one wonder if the subjugation can ever really end. same(p) a child insultd by a parent over days and eld of time, the Church s abuse in the growing andformative years of Latin America have left(a) scars that will last an eternity.ReferencesChasteen, J.C. Born in blood and fire. A concise history of Latin AmericaDe Las Casas, B. Brief account of the devastation of the Indies. (1542). Retrieved fromhttp//www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html on November 26, 2006.