Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Latin american gender and sexuality
Chile cultural analysis
“transitions to democracy and democratic consolidation
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Latin american gender and sexuality
Argentina and Chile on paper appear to be very similar countries. Both were colonized by the Spanish. They score very high on the Human Development Index. Yet one has made great strides forward in LGBT rights and seen as progressive and one has lagged behind through history. This is interesting because past independence there history diverged very early that changed them as they evolved to there modern states.
To begin with Argentina and Chile both gained independence from Spain around the same time in 1810. Both had a long history of instability and government changes. Argentina’s path began during the Peronist years(1946-1955). During the time President Juan Domingo Peron had an ideology of three flags of social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty.(Encyclopedia Britannica) In 1946 Eva Peron allowed her personal protection to Miguel de Molina a gay artist of the time.(Gay City News) It is also rumored that during the time Juan Peron todl the military to stop the gay bashing.
…show more content…
This is contrasted to Chilean president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo who came back into power around 1952.
This around the same time of the Peronist years where the head of governments wife gave protection to a homosexual. He passed the Antisocial States and Security Measures (1954). This law gave various fines and jail time against dangerous social groups like homosexuals and drug dealers. While the law never went into effect because it required regulation, it still shows the political climate of the time.(Partiagay)
In the late 60’s and early 70’s Argentinas first LGBT organizations were founded called Nuestro Mundo(1969) and Safo(1972). These were crushed by the coup of 1976 where the status came to a standstill until the return of democracy in 1983. This appeared to be a renaissance of LGBT because during this time the first gay bar opened along with pride parades and political activism. (Salon) This could also be echos from the Stonewall riot reaching the South
America. While Argentina was having a renaissance Chile was in the middle of a military dictatorship, During this time the first homosexual group was formed called the “Intergracion” where they met in private homes and had educational talks about homosexuality.(Hollow Flag) During this time there was violent repression of these topics so it had to stay underground and out of slight. This is like black and white compared to Argentina of the time that was having pride parades. So while we begin to see diverges early on this is where a lot of the divergence comes between the two countries in this area. During the 70’s and 80’s there appears to be a growing acceptance of LGBT that was just to tightly under wraps by the Chilean government. It is only 10-20 years ago that Chile began to catch up with the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1999. Then it took a long time but they achieved civil unions in 2015. This allowed same sex couples to co-own property and make medical decisions. While Chile does allow same sex couples do adopt they only allow one to be the legal guardian of the parent. Since 2012 Chile has protected employment on the bases of sexual orientation, classified hate crimes against LGBT(ILGA). This could be described as pretty modern. Especially compared to most countries in the world not compared to Argentina you can see that Argentina is light years ahead. In modern day Argentina they have employment protection in its largest city Buenos Aires and Rosario (ILGA). So in this aspect Chile is actually ahead of Argentina which is an anomaly. Argentina has also classified hate crimes in 2012 same with Chile. Where it starts to differ is that Argentina has had full marriage equality, and joint same sex adoption since 2010.(ILGA). Argentina has also allowed LGBT to openly serve since 2009(ILGA). They have also been known to “have one of the world's most comprehensive transgender rights laws”.(blade) While at the same time having one of the most societal attitudes toward homosexuality in Latin America in 2013 with 74% acceptance. Now while Chile took a lot longer to reach here it is second place in Latin America with 68% approved.(Pew Center poll). From that same poll you can really see the age divide in Chile with 78% of 18-29 year olds supporting while only 57% of 50+ year olds supporting. This similar to Argentina with a 20% difference only higher with 18-29 have 81% supporting and 50+ having 62% supporting.(Pew Center poll). It is well known that religious views can have a an impact on a touchy subject like LGBT so perhaps religion could be a factor in the big divide in opinion between the two countries. In a study asking people of the importance of religion in there lives Chile had 27% and Argentina had 35%.(Pew research) This surprised me because I would of though it should be the reverse which means that there might be something more. Overall Argentina and Chile while both having rough past seemed to diverged in a way that I can not find. While Chile snuffed out its early LGBT scene it still grew eventually. Meanwhile Argentina allowed it to flourish to allow it to become to beacon in the world it is today. This is interesting because even though Argentina values religion more it still has made more strides in rights than its neighbors.
In Mañana Es San Perón: A Cultural History of Perón’s Argentina, Mariano Ben Plotkin - an emeritus professor and doctor in history and writer of Peronist Argentinean history at the university of California, Berkeley, addresses one of the first populist movement in the region of South America: el peronismo. After offering an important contextualizing “Introduction,” Plotkin organized his book into four main parts composing the book, each containing two chapters, resulting in a total of eight. Consequently, the author also offers, after the main four parts, Notes, a selected bibliography, and an index. The author concludes this book with an interesting and polemic conclusion where he discusses if Peronism was totalitarian. Plotkin, in Manana es San Perón, attempts to give a historical account about Perón’s Argentina through a cultural perspective.
Chileans declared independence from Spain on September 18th, 1810. This led to decades of violence that finally ended in 1826 when the last royalist stronghold fell. The Chileans had many reasons for wanting freedom from Spain. One was the corrupt Chilean governor, Fransico Antonio Garcia Corrasco, who was involved in a conspiracy to steal smuggled clothes from a British frigate. During the robbery, the captain and some of the crew of the British ship were murdered, forever ruining the governor’s reputation. Fighting in Spain’s Western colonies also encouraged Chile
From 1806 to 1826 most of the Latin countries under Spanish rule fought for their independence. The reason that caused these countries to have courage to fight for independence was because in 1808 Napoleon was able to invade and conquer Spain. Examples of those countries are Venezuela and Chile. There are similarities in the ways in which these two countries fought for their independence but there are also some differences in how they fought. Some of the leaders who were involved in the Venezuela’s fight for independence were Simon Bolivar, Francisco de Miranda and Antonio José de Sucre. The Venezuelan fight for independence against the Spanish empire began in 1811 and finally ended in 1823. The Venezuelan war was done in different phases, which began with Francisco de Miranda.
The Aztec’s and the Inca’s have many similarities such as religious beliefs, and views about gods. Inca’s views about training for war are different, and the Aztec’s artifacts are somewhat different to. The farm land compared to the Inca’s is differs also, because where the Aztec’s lived the land was elevated about ten thousand feet.
In the 1960s America, the pope of democratic faith, preached to the world about the evils of communism. When Marxist Salvador Allende lost by three percent in the Chilean election of 1958, the United States decided that the next election of 1964, could not be left in the hands of democracy. The United States began to work to stop Allende from becoming president. They went so far as to create projects to help train and organize so-called anti-communists among the peasants, laborers, students, and the media. Despite their efforts, in 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president through plurality. He became the first Marxist in the world to gain power in a free democratic election. Now you might ask, why would the United States be so interested in the politics of a third world country, furthermore the beliefs of one man. After all a person can only do so much, right?
After gaining independence, Latin American countries had difficulty in how to govern the newly instated states. In the chaos, people took advantage of this and instated themselves as dictators. They had simply took the position from the Spanish that they tried to vanquish (class notes). The power structure remained and the people who fought for independence were largely ignored and continuously oppressed. These dictatorships had remained in power until very recently. Paraguay was finally freed from the dictatorship in 1989 (Chapter
After the revolution of 1943 Juan Perón shared control of the Argentinean government. Under Pedro Ramirez, Perón held three cabinet positions. With that he saw an opportunity. He did many reform programs and won a lot of the support of labor unio...
The report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, also known as the Wolfenden Report, was published in Britain on 4 September 1957. It was established as a response to the number of previously reputable men who had been convicted of homosexual offences, as well as the growing number of men being sent to prison for acts of homosexuality. By the end of 1954 alone, more than one thousand men in England and Wales had been sent to prison for specifically that reason. It was the intention of the committee, therefore, to decriminalize private homosexual acts, as it was beginning to come into light that “homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects” (The Wolfenden Report, 1957). Homosexuality aside, there was also much focus on “cleaning up the streets” of Britain by enforcing the privatization of prostitution by increasing fines and incarceration periods for those caught in the public display of such acts. Based on these and other recommendations made by the committee however, it is evident that, although a need to decrease the number of men being criminalized for homosexual acts was necessary, the committee, as well as the public, was not yet ready to fully decriminalize homosexuality or prostitution themselves. However, in bringing such subjects to light, they themselves also manage to break the barriers dividing their own specified definitions.
Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
Argentina and Chile experienced similar periods of extreme human rights violations. The response of the international human rights regime to the crimes against humanity, and the pressure placed on these count...
Prior to the 1950’s, society had already formed the foundation of its bias towards gay men. Scientific and social studies executed by famous scholars, such as Freud and Kinsey, suggested not only that homosexuality is abnormal, but it is prevalent among society (Johnson). Correspondingly, Washington began to grow, which gave way to new government positions, ranging from the lowest corporate level to the highest corporate level; thus, paranoia, regarding homosexual men in the White House, dispersed
The background of homosexuality in the 1940’s and 50’s was harsh, but people started to be opened toward the rights. There were criticisms toward homosexuality in the early days of Milk. Gay men carried the labels of mentally ill or psychopathic. Often times, gay men committed suicide from harsh judgement and criticism that always followed them. Even though population of homosexuality grew and had jobs, they were harassed and beaten by the police. There were a lot of disapproval and hostility of homosexuality. Anita Bryant, a singer, made a campaign to oppose the rights of homosexuals. Christian forces and activists withdrew gay-right legislation which lead to Proposition 6. The harshness from background of homosexuality back in the 1940’s and 50’s took the freedom away from the homosexuals. After the harshness, there came a little bit of hope for the homosexuals in San Francisco. Castro, a city in San Francisco, became the center of gay neighborhood. In 1964, gay men formed Society of Individual Right (SIR), and 1,200 members joined. Homosexuals started having good views when Sipple who was gay saved the president from a gunshot. Finally in 1972, Board of Supervisor banned the discrimination law for homosexuals. Even though in 1940...
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
David Thelen, “History After the Enola Gay Controversy,” JAH 82, no. 3 (December 1995): 1029-1035 https://troy.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_17_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_369657_1%26url%3D (accessed February 15, 2014).