Reform and Revolution in Latin America

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Reform and Revolution in Latin America

• Human Rights in Latin America
• Prof. Angelina Godoy
• Fall 2009

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Movements for social reform

• Throughout 19th 20th century, Latin Americans
  grappled with problems of foreign domination,
  poverty, and inequality
• Beginning in the early 20th century, movements
  for social reform were often inflected by, or
  directly inspired by, Marxist thought
• Cold War lens defined all reformers as
  Communists, justified intervention in the name
  of democracy
• In reality, there was an enormous variation among
  reformers along both ideological and tactical
  lines

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Los Guaraguao, Casas de Cartón

• How sad the rain sounds
• On the cardboard roofs
• How sad my people live
• In the cardboard houses.
• The worker is coming down
• Almost dragging his feet
• From the weight of his suffering
• Look how much he suffers
• Look how much suffering weighs.
• Up the hill he leaves his pregnant wife
• Down the hill is the city below
• He loses himself in its tangles
• Today is the same as yesterday
• In a world without tomorrow.

• Qué triste se oye la lluvia
• en los techos de cartón
• Qué triste vive mi gente
• en las casas de cartón.
• Viene bajando el obrero
• casi arrastrando sus pasos por el peso del sufrir
  
• Mira que es mucho el sufrir mira que pesa el
  sufrir.
• Arriba deja la mujer preñada
• abajo esta la ciudad
• y se pierde en su maraña
• hoy es lo mismo que ayer
• es un mundo sin mañana.

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• Qué triste se oye la lluvia
• en los techos de cartón
• que triste vive mi gente
• en las casas de cartón.
• Niños color de mi tierra
• con sus mismas cicatrices
• millonarios de lombrices
• y por eso que triste viven los niños
• en las casas de cartón.
• Qué triste se oye la lluvia
• en los techos de cartón
• que triste vive mi gente
• en las casas de cartón.

• How sad the rain sounds
• On the cardboard roofs
• How sad my people live
• In the cardboard houses.
• Children the color of earth
• With the same scars
• Millions of tapeworms
• Thats why the children live sadly
• In the cardboard houses.
• How sad the rain sounds
• On the cardboard roofs
• How sad my people live
• In the cardboard houses.

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• Qué alegre viven los perros
• en la casa del explotador
• Usted no lo va a creer
• pero hay escuelas de perros
• que les dan educación
• pa' que no muerdan los diarios.
• Pero el patrón,
• hace años, muchos años
• que esta mordiendo al obrero.
• Qué triste se oye la lluvia
• en los techos de cartón
• qué lejos pasa la esperanza
• en las casas de cartón.

• How happily the dogs live
• In the house of the exploiter
• Youre not going to believe it
• But there are schools for dogs
• Where they train them
• Not to bite the newspaper.
• But the boss, for years, many years
• Hes biting the worker.
• How sad the rain sounds
• On the cardboard roofs
• How far away is hope
• From the cardboard houses.

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Social and intellectual movements for reform

• Many movements converged to support leftist
  platforms for change these did not necessarily
  support armed struggle
• These theories were developed in, and centered
  on, Latin American reality, did not rely on
  theories developed in North
• 1. Dependency theory
• Underdevelopment in global South not a
  consequence of backwardness but of unequal power
  relations between North/South
• global economic structures privilege North at
  expense of South wealth of North dependent on
  poverty of South

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Social and intellectual movements for reform

• 2. Liberation theology
• Christianity demands church involvement in
  liberating people from oppression both spiritual,
  economic, and political
• Faith compels action, and action should be based
  on preferential option for the poor
• Critique of church focusing on spiritual
  practices as if divorced from urgent human needs

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Carlos Mejia Godoy, Cristo de Palacaguina

• Por el cerro de la Iguana, montaña adentro de la
  cegovia,
• se oyó un resplandor extraño
• como una aurora de media noche.
• Los maizales se prendieron,
• los quiebraplatas se estremecieron,
• llovió luz por Muyugalpa, por Telpaneca,
• por Chichigalpa.

• Near the Iguana Hill, beyond the cegovia (tree),
• there was a sudden flash of lightning,
• that lit up the midnight sky as if it were dawn.
• The cornfields were alight,
• The quiebraplatas (plant) trembled,
• Light rained down at Muyugalpa, at Telpaneca, at
  Chichigalpa (names of places)

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• Cristo ya nació en Palacaguina,
• de Chepe Pavón (Pavón) y una tal María,
• ella va a planchar muy humildemente,
• la ropa que goza la mujer hermosa del
  terrateniente.
• La gente para mirarlo se rejuntaron en un molote,
• y el indio Joaquin le trajo quesillo en trenza de
  nagarote,
• en vez de oro, incienso y mirra,
• le regalaron según yo supe,
• cajetita de diriomo y hasta buñuelos de
  Guadalupe.

• Christ was born in Palacaguina,
• To Joey Pavón and some girl named Mary.
• She works humbly, ironing the clothes that the
  beautiful wife of the landowner enjoys.
• In order to see him, the people gathered together
  in a crowd,
• And Joaquin the Indian brought him quesillo
  (traditional sweet) wrapped in a cornhusk braid.
• Instead of gold, incense and myrrh,
• I heard they brought him diriomo (indigenous
  perfume) and Guadalupe buns (traditional sweets).

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• Cristo ya nació en Palacaguina,
• de Chepe Pavón (Pavon) y una tal María,
• ella va a planchar muy humildemente,
• la ropa que goza la mujer hermosa del
  terrateniente.
• José pobre jornalero se mecateya todito el dia,
• lo tiene con reumatismo el tequio de la
  carpintería,
• Maria sueña que el hijo, igual que el tata sea
  carpintero,
• pero el cipotío piensa, mañana quiero ser
  guerrillero.

• Christ was born in Palacaguina,
• To Joey Pavón and some girl named Mary.
• She works humbly, ironing the clothes that the
  landowners beautiful wife enjoys.
• Joseph, the poor worker, he slaves away all day
  long.
• The banging work of carpentry has given him
  rheumatism.
• Mary dreams that her son might grow up to be a
  carpenter, just like his dad,
• But the kid thinks, When I grow up I want to be
  a guerrilla.

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Guerrilla movements in Latin America

• Some on the left supported armed struggle
• The denial of political freedoms led many to join
  to guerrilla movements in Latin America in the
  1970s/80s
• (why?)
• Cold War logic conflated most social justice
  movements with communism/socialism
• failed to perceive difference between moderate
  social reformers and radical revolutionaries,
  prohibiting both
• this left violent revolution as the only means to
  promote change
• Countries where those in power allowed some
  reform avoided violent guerrilla movements (Costa
  Rica, Mexico to a lesser extent)

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Che Guevara

• Foquismo
• -Marxist ideas applied to Latin America
• -Idea that a small group of revolutionaries
  could ally themselves with rural peasantry and
  overthrow wealthy elites
• -Guerrilla leaders often well-educated, from
  cities, recruited from universities
• Ernesto Che Guevara, 1964 speech at UN
• -Why do you think his message resonated with so
  many Latin Americans?

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Successful Socialist Revolutionsin Latin America

• Cuba 1959-
• Social, economic rights at expense of political
  rights
• Nicaragua 1979-1990
• Sandinistas defeated at the ballot box
• Almost-successful FMLN in El Salvador, 1980-1992
• Questions about did the people support
  revolution
• Attempts to achieve socialism without armed
  struggle
• Chile under Allende
• Venezuela under Chávez
• El Salvador under Funes(?)

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State terrorism

• Are we romanticizing the revolution?
• Armed guerrillas responsible for violence,
  destruction, death should the state have sat by
  and let them have their way?
• No, states required to protect populations,
  provide stability. But the way guerrilla
  movements were combated is considered state
  terrorism for 2 reasons
• States cast the net too wide, targeted people who
  were not involved in armed insurrection
• States used terror tactics against own
  population, including torture, disappearances,
  executions, and harassment to spread fear
• In most cases, state and paramilitary forces
  killed more people than guerrillas did
• Peru is an important exception

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The human rights movement

• Human rights campaigns spoke out on behalf of
  victims of state terror, regardless of who they
  were
• AI prisoner of conscience
• Routinely accused of defending terrorists
• (similar charges are made today)

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Authoritarianism in perspective

• Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre (2004)
• In Latin America, many countries experienced
  democratizing reforms in the mid-20th century
• Extension of vote (to women, those without land)
• Legalization of labor unions
• Legalization of opposition parties, including
  socialists
• Constitutions with guarantees of labor rights,
  social security
• In many countries, populist or socialist parties
  elected to office
• Reactions to such reforms varied by country
  often violent
• The authoritarian period in Latin America should
  be understood as a counterrevolution that
  reversed the democratic gains of mid-century
• Why did dictatorships happen? To reverse the
  gains made by popular masses in first wave of
  democracy
• Latin American democracies of mid-century
  included extensive provisions for social rights
  todays Latin American democracies are modeled on
  individual rights

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Los Guaraguao, Perdóneme Tío Juan/ Forgive me
Uncle Juan

• Perdóneme Tío Juan
• pero se ve que no sabe nada
• las cosas que yo le digo
• se sienten en carne propia
• que en tierra venezolana
• el imperialismo yankee
• hace lo que le da la gana
• es que usted no se ha paseado
• por un campo petrolero?
• usted no ve que se llevan
• lo que es de nuestra tierra?
• y solo nos van dejando
• miseria y sudor de obrero
• y solo nos van dejando
• miseria y sudor de obrero

• Forgive me Uncle Juan
• But its clear you dont know anything
• The things that Im telling you about
• Can be felt in our own experience
• In Venezuela, Yankee imperialism
• Does whatever it pleases
• Havent you passed by
• The petroleum fields?
• Havent you seen how they take
• What is ours?
• They only leave behind
• Misery and workers sweat
• They only leave behind
• Misery and workers sweat

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• Los niñitos macilentos
• que habitan allá en los cerros
• mas que vivir agonizan
• entreteniendo sus sueños
• mas que vivir agonizan
• entreteniendo sus sueños.
• Contésteme Tío Juan
• no se me quede callado.
• Conteste si no hay razón
• en que sigamos luchando
• por echar de nuestra Patria al yankee que nos la
  quita
• y al lacayo que lo tapa
• es que usted no se ha fijado
• lo que pasa con el hierro?
• nos pagan la tonelada
• por menos de tres centavos
• vamos a luchar, caramba!
• o nos quedamos sin cerro
• vamos a luchar, caramba!

• The malnourished children
• That live there in the hills
• More than living, theyre agonizing
• As they entertain their dreams
• More than living, theyre agonizing
• As they entertain their dreams
• Answer me Uncle Juan
• Dont just stay silent
• Answer me, isnt there a reason
• For us to keep struggling
• To throw out of our country
• the yankee that takes it from us
• And the lackey that covers it up
• Havent you noticed
• What happens with the iron?
• They pay less than three cents
• For the ton
• Lets fight, damn it!
• Or well be left without our land

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• No te dejes engañar
• cuando te hablen de progreso
• por que tú te quedas flaco
• y ellos aumentan de peso
• por que tú te quedas flaco
• y ellos aumentan de peso.
• Contésteme Tío Juan
• no se me quede callado
• conteste si no hay razón
• en que sigamos luchando
• por echar de nuestra Patria
• al yankee que nos la quita
• y al lacayo que lo tapa

• Dont be fooled
• When they talk about progress
• Because youll stay skinny
• While they gain weight
• Because youll stay skinny
• While they gain weight.
• Answer me, Uncle Juan,
• Dont just stay silent
• Answer me, isnt there a reason
• For us to keep struggling
• To throw out of our country
• the yankee that takes it from us
• And the lackey that covers it up

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• Havent you passed by
• The petroleum fields?
• Havent you seen how they take
• What is ours?
• They only leave behind
• Misery and workers sweat
• They only leave behind Misery and workers sweat.
• The malnourished children
• That live there in the hills
• More than living, theyre agonizing
• As they entertain their dreams
• More than living, theyre agonizing
• As they entertain their dreams.

• Es que usted no se ha paseado
• por un campo petrolero?
• Usted no ve que se llevan
• lo que es de nuestra tierra?
• y solo nos van dejando
• miseria y sudor de obrero
• y solo nos van dejando
• miseria y sudor de obrero.
• Los niñitos macilentos
• que habitan allá en los cerros
• mas que vivir agonizan
• entreteniendo sus sueños
• mas que vivir agonizan
• entreteniendo sus sueños

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Communism vs. Capitalism Different ways of
dividing the pie

• Capitalism
• -individuals pursuing self-interest is key to
  productivity Adam Smith
• -individual freedom is paramount the law of
  supply and demand is the best way to distribute
  resources
• -perfectly compatible with socioeconomic
  inequality
• Communism
• -idea that capitalism is built on exploitation
  of working class (proletariat) by capitalist
  class (bourgeoisie) who own the means of
  production, and that capitalist society is
  inevitably exploitative
• -Communists seek to overthrow capitalist state
  through revolution and impose new communist order
  based on equality
• -In a communist society, social justice and
  equality more important than individual liberties
• Socialism
• -usually does not aim to overthrow state but to
  elect reformers through democratic channels and
  then impose reforms to more equally distribute
  resources among population
• -usually aims at balance between social justice
  and liberties