Latin America’s Problems: Result of Violent History?

Latin Americas ProblemsResult of Violent History?History plays a role in the problems of any nation, and for that matter in the livesof individual quite a little. Does this mean that a country or person is fated to an inevitablefuture that is colored mostly by its past? To some degree the answer is yes, but to takeany particular feature of a societys past, namely violence in this instance, and thrust thewhole burden of responsibility upon it may be irresponsible, in and of itself, in a sincerequest to ameliorate and ultimately eradicate the bad issues that need to beresolved. If we do want to attribute the current state of affairs in Latin America to itsviolent report, we also need to extrapo fresh the nature and genesis of that violence. Manycountries, including the USA, achieved independence through wars and violence, but wedo non cite our current problems on the American Revolution or the well-mannered War which wasviolence amongst our take people. The source of violence ca n be a key to understandinghow the countries of Latin America and their people have not recovered from the nature of theviolence they endured.When wars are fought to expunge a common enemy there is a feeling ofcamaraderie and nationalism to have fought and won not only against a common enemy,but against the very evil represented by that enemy. This mindset unites people andsolidifies belief systems, ethics, and morals so unavoidable to the success and continuedsuccess of civilizations and their govern handsts. What happens, how eer, when theviolence is perpetrated by the very institution 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 protection?Chasteen says that At the most basic level, conquest is always aboutexploitation. (p.58). Although we do not always think of the process of sacred passage as conquest, perhaps we should give this careful consideration. Chasteenseems to agr ee with this as he goes on to say that Most Spanish and Portugeuse peoplethat came to the Americas in the early 1500s believed that bedcover the true religion,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 utilization of nonchurch/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 destruction of so many souls at Christian custodywas simple greed (p. 60).To further substantiate the demonstration of evil by the Catholic Church take alook at an excerpt from sketch account of the devastation of the Indies by Las Casas referred toby Chasteen as A brief account of the destruction of the Indies, (p. 61) a translational titlediffe rence of the same cause After the wars and the killings had ended, when usu wholey 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 andimportance of the Christian to whom the Indians were allocated, oneness of them being given thirty,another forty, still another, one or two hundred, and besides the rank of the Christian there wasalso to be considered in what opt he stood with the tyrant they called Governor.Thepretext was that these allocated Indians were to be instructed in the articles of theChristian Faith. As if those Christians who were as a rule foolish and cruel andgreedy and vicious could be caretakers of souls And the care they took was to send themen to the mines to dig for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to send the women into thefields of the big ranches to hoe and till the land, work suitable for strong men. Nor to either t hemen or the women did they give any food except herbs and legumes, things of little substance.The milk in the breasts of the women with infants dried up and thus in a short date 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, exhaustion andhunger. And thus was depopulated that island which had been densely populated.(http//www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html).Although these are crying examples of destruction, Chasteen also cites a more insidiousexample the Church exercised, such as hegemony defined as the basic principle of socialcontrol in which a ruling class dominates others ideologically, with a minimum of physical force,by making its dominance seem natural and inevitable. (p. 325). Religion offers one of theclearest examples of cultural hegemony. (p.69). withal 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 accept the principle of their owninferioritythey participate in their own subjugation. (p.69). The subjugation continued through history as Caudillos, rich landowners, were thepartys national leaders (p. 124) in post colonial days. In the neo colonial period from 1880-1930, (p. 180), Latin America was still subjugated, but instead 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 term dago for Latins. (p. 201). Right up untilthe present day it appears that Latins have never risen above the station that was thrust uponthem by the Church from the beginning.The book has opened my eyes to many injustices in Latin American history that I wasunaware existed and has provided foo d 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 present 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 interesting to note that Latin America hasalways been Catholic, but now the majority of the worlds Catholics are Latin American.(p. 320). At the end of the book Chasteen asks what the future will bring. (p.321). He does notprovide an answer but it makes one wonder if the subjugation can ever really end. Like a childabused by a parent over years and years of time, the Church s abuse in the growing andformative years of Latin America have left 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 devast ation of the Indies. (1542). Retrieved fromhttp//www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html on November 26, 2006.