In most cases, there is a strong disconnect between the oppressed and the oppressor. The barricade separating the two from communicating exists in all mediums, whether it be social, economic, or political. The nonexistence of this availability to communicate leads to events such as the student protests in Mexico, or the brutal misconduct of civilians in Guatemala. Furthermore, these uprisings and confrontations exist not only for the bettering of society during that time, but for generations to come. The actions within each event led to both successes and failures surrounding the troubling injustices. Although the suffering encountered by these people led to slow change in government authority, it set an example for future generations. As history …show more content…
In Rigoberta Menchu’s book, I, Rigoberta Menchu, she explains a firsthand experience and testimony to the brutal oppression and violent involvement of the government in her village. It is in her struggle to survive that she spreads awareness beyond her local villagers and out to the world. By writing her book in Spanish, rather than her native tongue, she enables her voice to be heard across all borders and especially throughout Latin America. This has a direct result within international affairs, allowing her text to exemplify the need for foreign assistance, and that is exactly what happened. After the publication of her book she drew much attention to the injustices taking place in Guatemala. From this text came great assistance, particularly from CICIG, an international UN-sponsored commission against impunity. The strength in her case brought immense awareness and triggered what became a large-scale public trial, resulting in the reduction of impunity in Guatemala. The solidity and knowledge behind Rigoberta’s fight for accountability can be felt throughout the book; however, her sister’s statement, “we have to fight without measuring our suffering, or what we experience,” bears great promise (Quoted in Menchu). This perseverance is key to the success of the oppressed in a situation similar to Guatemala during the civil war. The force behind a nation that can fight for the future, and not the past, is one that will succeed and prosper further than one replaying the
Throughout the beginning of her testimonial, Rigoberta Menchu defines her life and circumstances through suffering eyes. Tradition teaches her that life is about pain and hardships that must be endured. Generation after generation has accepted this lot in life, which is inevitable. She feels suffering is her peoples fate. Yet in Chapter XVI a profound movement occurs within her consciousness. She starts questioning the inevitability of suffering, wondering if it is somehow preventable. She also implements her communal outlook on life to encompass other Indian communities besides her own. Her knowledge of the injustice being rained on her people is realized to effect neighboring communities as well. Being suffocated by oppression, Rigoberta starts to move from suffering to struggle in an attempt to find a new way of life.
"A recounted in your autobiography, the story of Rigoberta Menchu is the stuff of classic Marxist myth. According to your book you came from a poor Mayan family, living on margins of a country from which had been dispossessed by Spanish conquistadors. Their descendents, known as Ladinos, try to drive the Menchus and other Indian peasants off claimed land that they had cultivated. As said in your book, you are illiterate and were kept from having an education by your peasant father, Vicente. He refuses to send you to school because he needs to work in the fields, and because he is afraid that the school will turn his daughter against him.
Around the time of the Massacre in Mexico, there were a number of books written based on the brutal killings. Three popular books that were written by Mexican writers and addressed the movement of Mexican students, during that era, were Massacre in Mexico (by Elena Poniatowska), ’68 (by Paco Ignacio Taibo II), and Palinuro of Mexico (by Fernando de Paso). Their literature presented a disturbing look into a student movement, which culminated in hundreds of student protestors being massacred on October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas/Tlatelolco of Mexico City. This event led Pablo Ignacio Taibo II to write in the preface of his book ’68, “There are no countries without fairy tales lurking in their shadows.” His book is a collection of fragments that records what took place during that infamous year. And when Taibo addresses countries having fairy tales, it has nothing to do with a happy ending. Instead, he points out how countries present a positive, false image to cover up the negativity that continues to exist.
Oppression is not always brought on in a violent and oppositional way, it can take on a peaceful and silent form; however regardless of the way oppression is introduced, it maintains the same characteristics of “imposing belief systems, values, laws and ways of ...
Gleijeses Piero. Shattered Hope The Guatemalan Revolution and The United States, 1944-1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
...he “oppressed” will act toward freedom and reintegration into society and will eventually succeed in gaining back their freedom, but it will not be easy. To make steps in the right direction and to determine the right choice, one must take into account the impact silence or non-silence makes on the system as a whole; the better choice does not add to the mass incarceration.
The Peruvian Communist Party (PCP-SL), better known as Sendero Luminoso (‘Shining Path’) was a maoist guerrilla organization in Peru. The parties roots can be drawn to the Andean department of Ayacucho, one of Peru’s pooerest and uneducated areas, where ill even the 1950s landowners continued their serflike manner of treatment toward the natives existence. The escape their dismal lives, Ayacuchans turned toward education, migrating by the thousands in their attempt to escape that existed for them back home.
In In the summer of 1968, Mexico was experiencing the beginning of a new student movement. The students sought liberal reform from the political system in Mexico. These students were determined to reveal the realities of poverty and misery and corruption in their country. (Guttmann) They were involved in different movements that would lead up to one event that would change the lives of everyone, “The Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968”. A day that ended the lives and shattered the dreams of many people. This event was the confirmation that the government could not be trusted and their lives would be determined by the actions they would take. This day would be brushed underneath the carpet and never spoken about for the sake
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “…After…” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans faced.
The author argues that in order for oppression to be vitally explored, the factors that create oppression must be realized. Oppression gives material advantage to the oppressor. "All social relations have material consequences". The author argues that all identities must be considered interconnected.
In this sense, the film tests the resiliency of good human nature. The modern world is becoming increasingly set in its extremes, as the lifestyle of the poor vastly contrasts that of the wealthy. The implementation of NAFTA reflects this movement toward separation, despite the fact that it was intended to boost trade between regions and create more prosperity on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. The Mexican elites saw it as their salvation. Others saw it as “ a death sentence.” The Chiapas region itself exemplifies this gap, as well. The region was split between the relatively prosperous west, which was fertile and characterized by commercial development, and the poor, subsistence-oriented east. It was not by accident that the Zapatista movement began in Chiapas as the struggle between ranchers, landowners, and subsistence farmers was intensified by NAFTA.
The current century has witnessed immense improvement and re-conceptualization of standards and sovereignty of human rights in Latin America. With the endemic repression and violations of human rights throughout Latin American in the mid to late 20th century, the International human rights regime, an amalgam of international and intergovernmental organizations and bodies, expanded exponentially. By conducting investigations within certain countries, or simply monitoring overt violations of human rights, the international human rights regime stimulated global awareness of violations of human rights in different countries; soon to follow was change in domestic policy in response to international policy. This also led to increased opposition by domestic NGOs against repressive governments or dictatorships largely responsible for human rights violations. Just as well, a number of organizations and groups aided domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their growing efforts to establish judicial practices that better protected human rights. Declarations, conventions, and charters, established a number of values that served as the credo for the organizations that constituted the international human rights regime. Over time, more and more countries were pressured and held accountable for these values, which developed into universal standards for human rights practices. Thus the International Human right regime and the pressure they imposed upon governments ultimately resulted in widespread positive changes in human rights.
Our struggle is not easy, and we must not think of nonviolence as a safe way to fight oppression, the strength of nonviolence comes from your willingness to take personal risks in Kohlberg’s moral stage 5 moral rights and social contract is explained in this political analysis on governmental power and the antiapartheid and central America work when they led protest on campuses with hundreds being arrested and 130 campus withdrawals.
“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.” In America, Americans are blessed to have the right to freedom. Unlike other unfortunate countries, their freedom is limited. In many Latin American countries, the government’s leader has all power of the Country. Citizens have no rights to freedom, they are trapped in a cruel country where innocent people are killed each day. Civilians fear to speak out to the regime of leader; However, there were a few courageous citizens enough to speak out against the government. For example, “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela and the historical fictionalized account, “In The Time Of The Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez reveal individual 's role in overcoming oppression.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.