Che Guavera: Institutions and Inequality
Throughout the mid twentieth century, Latin America consistently faced political and economic reforms due to the demand for change among citizens. Cuban Marxist revolutionary, Ernesto Guevara, affectionately known as Che, was a primary leader in that demand for change. His memoir, The Motorcycle Diaries, documents his initial observance of the inhumane social that eventually inspires him become one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of all time.
Ernesto Che Guevara was born Argentina in 1928. During this post World War I era, Argentina lacked industrialization and economic stability grew up in a time where non industrialized Argentina lacked economic stability due to the deficiency of foreign trade (Minister). Although Guevara was born into a middle class family, it was during these times that he developed an empathy with the destitute and became exposed to various political positions. Eventually, his desire to help people led him to the University of Buenos Aires where he studied medicine until his passion for travel led him on the expedition that would take him across Latin America, show him the heinous social injustices, restriction of political freedom, and segregations of classes and ethnicities that would spur him into revolutionary action (Minster).
In 1951 Guevara and his companion Alberto Grenado decided to experience Latin America by traveling across the continent on a motorbike. It was in the early stages of their trip where these two doctors witnessed and experienced both the benefits and the pitfalls of the ethnic and class differentiation in Latin America.
At the time of the journey, Guevara was close to finishing his medical degree while Granado had established...
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...ues as being primarily dominate in a time period later that the 1950s, Guevara’s experiences proves their existence was extremely prevalent then. Insufficient medical institutions for leper and non-leper colonies, atrocious working conditions, and Guavera’s observance of a dysfunctional government exemplify how a lack of strong institutions can lead to extreme social injustices.
The accounts of Ernesto Che Guevara on his nine month long motorcycle journey through Latin America exhibited the necessity for change and prompted him to become involved in the Cuban revolution. At the height of his passion he showed this by stating, “The future belongs to the people, and gradually, or in one strike, they will take power, here and in every country. The terrible thing is the people need to be educated, and this they cannot do before taking power, only after” (Guevara).
On July 26, 1953, the war for Cuba’s independence began, and for 6 years many Cubans fought for their freedom. The most famous of these revolutionary icons being Fidel Castro, who led the main resistance against the Cuban government. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and the rest of the Cuban's succeeded. This revolutionary war went on to affect the entire world and Eric Selbin believes it is still affecting it. Throughout Eric Selbin's article, Conjugating the Cuban Revolution, he firmly states that the Cuban revolution is important in the past, present, and future. Selbin, however, is wrong.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, near Birάn in Cuba’s Eastern Oriente Province to a wealthy sugar plantation owner and a mother who was a domestic servant to his father’s first wife (Source A). Castro was the third of six children and was raised in prominently wealthy circumstances that allowed him to attend well known and well revered schools like Belen Jesuit Prep. (Source A). He was a man that could not be just labeled solely by one phrase or one convenient definition, he was loved by supporters of communist rule and he was also a face feared by many Cubans. He held multitudes of titles to countless different people, ranging from honorable military leader to a protruding symbol of the communist revolution in Latin America that was feared by the Cuban people and Americans alike.
Che Guevara attempted to have a revolution in Bolivia and Guatemala. In Mexico, he trained for his return to Cuba in 1956. The textbook also mentions how Fidel Castro formed local camps as a new revolutionary power (510). They continued to fight in urban areas. It was not until 1959 where they defeated Batista and his government. Many people were happy because Fidel Castro became the president of Cuba. The Cuban people had faith in Fidel Castro to improve the state of Cuba and benefit the people unlike Batista. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its People state that, “In 1958 almost all Cubans agreed that a renewed Cuban nationalism would approve their future,”
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
...l. “Ge-or-ge,’ she called in an exaggerated Gringo accent. He looked back. Tears were running down her rigid, expressionless face. ‘Cabron!’ she said. ‘Vendido sanavabiche!’” (Paredes 294) In this way, George – no longer Guánlito – has politically and culturally betrayed his people, and “is not is not the tragic hero who has died in defense of his people” (Mendoza 148).
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Carlos Fuentes was born on November the eleventh, nineteen twenty-eight; he was the son of a Mexican diplomat. Carlos was very well educated; he attended schools in Washington D.C., later went on to get a law degree from the University of Mexico in Mexico City, and even studied abroad at the Institute of Advanced International Studies in Geneva. He was always inspired by writing; his law degree was merely a way to satisfy his parents. His parents did not see a future in being a writer. Fuentes was also a very well rounded traveler, because of his fathers career Fuentes was able to get a look at other cultures and governments. His travels took him throughout Mexico, the United States, Cuba, into Europe, and most importantly throughout Latin America. He was able to come to understand how governments worked, the way big business used people for their own wealth and power. Fuentes was rather disgusted by corrupt governments and big businesses and actively stood up for what he believed was right. He was very liberal and at one point even joined the communist party. He used his writings to display to people from around the world the way that business and government used and betrayed the average citizen. He was revolutionary in the way he was able to use characters in his writings to disclose the big picture and history of his own home land, the country of Mexico.
Adams, Jerome R. Liberators and Patriots of Latin America. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers, 1991. Print.
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, known by many as Evo, was born on October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro. His father Dionisio Morales Choque and mother Maria Mamani had in total seven children, two of whom didn’t survive past childhood. His upbringing will later become clear foreshadowing of the way in which he would rule. The house he grew up in was an adobe house, no more than ten by thirteen feet, which had a straw roof. He began working with his father harvesting sugar cane in Argentina at age six and by age twelve he helped his father herd llamas from Oruro to Independencia, a province of Cochabamba. While continuing to herd llamas as a means of making a living, he organized a soccer team and was elected technical director of selection for the canton’s team only two years later at age sixteen. Evo then moved to Oruro in order to attend high school and paid the bills by laying bricks, baking and playing trumpet in the Royal Imperial Band. Although he attended Beltran Avila High School, he was not able to finish his schooling and completed mandatory military service in La Paz.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
The exodus of the majority of skilled workers brought about a rapid change in the methods employed in educating Cuba’s population. If the revolution was to be successful, Cuba needed to replace the skilled workers that left with other skilled workers in the shortest amount of time possible. In 1961, the revolutionary government developed a nationwide campaign to rid Cuba of illiteracy. The program was given slogans like “ The people should teach the people and If you don’t know learn; if you know teach”. This program consisted of volunteer teachers who would help illiterate Cubans increase their education by teaching them the fundamentals. According to Fitzgerald, “(The literacy campaign) helped to integrate town and county and to galvanize support for revolutionary goals by bringing urban and rural populations into direct contact. ( p. 41)” Also, according to Fitzgerald, “ Enrollment in adult education rose dramatically from 66,577 students in the 1960-1961 school year to a peak of 842,024 students in the 1964-1965 school year, but plummeted to 309,717 students in 1969-1970. (P. 42)” This program benefited the poorer citizens of Cuba who remained in Cuba. They w...
Filmmaker Oliver Stone embarked on a journey across the Latin American continent pursuant to the filling of gaps left by mainstream media about the social and political movements in the southern continent. Through a series of interviews he conducted with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Cristina Kirchner and former president Nėstor Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raúl Castro of Cuba, Stone was able to compare firsthand information from the leaders themselves with that reported and published by the media (“Synopsis,” n.d.). It gives light to the measures these leaders had to take in order to initiate change in their respective countries, even if their public identities were at stake. Several instances in the film showed the mismatch between these two sources, pointing at the US government’s interests for greatly influencing the media for presenting biased, groundless views.
...er the revolution, the mentality of the people of San Domingo was foreover changed. Slavery would never be accepted again by the inhabitants. "Any regime which tolerated such practices was doomed, for the revolution had created a new race of men" (242). This new race of men were aware of their self-importance. "There was no need to be ashamed of being a black. The revolution had awakened them, had given them the possibility of achievement, confidence and pride. That psychological weakness, that feeling of inferiority with which the imperialists poison colonial peoples everywhere, these were gone" (244).
In the 1970s things began to change as the politics of the time, however, negatively affected this theory and put an end to the mass amount of guerrilla-style fighting that Latin America was seeing in the 1960s. A main cause for this end was the divide between the Soviet parties and these guerilla fighters (Wickham-Crowley 223). The other problem that Che’s theory faced was that the Cuban Revolution was not the only influential revolution that took place in those times. The Chinese Communist Revolution took place in 1949, but Mao Zedong’s writings and influence was still predominant throughout much of the world. More relevant to the time period that Che and Fidel were writing in, there was the ongoing situation in Vietnam. For example the Viet Cong were an influential group much like the Cuban Revolution because they were a guerrilla group who fought against North Vietnamese Army, and more importantly the United States (”Viet Cong (VC)”). The late 1950s and 1960s as a whole was a time for social upheaval around the world as there were many social movements taking place. Popular movements such as these led to other approaches to revolutions being exchanged instead of solely following the foco theory
Scholars have debated not only the nature of Iberian colonialism, but also the impact that independence had on the people of Latin America. Historian Jaime E. Rodriguez said that, “The emancipation of [Latin America] did not merely consist of separation from the mother country, as in the case of the United States. It also destroyed a vast and responsive social, political, and economic system that functioned well despite many imperfections.” I believe that when independence emerged in Latin America, it was a positive force. However, as time progressed, it indeed does cause conflict.