Bolívar: American Liberator by Marie Arana is about Simón Bolívar’s life and his struggle against the Spanish Empire. Bolivar, also known as the “George Washington of South Americ,,” was born in Venezuela into one of the wealthiest families, but was orphaned at a young age. He was inspired by the idea of a free America and he dedicated his life to fighting for independence of South America from Spanish control. He helped lead and organize the independence movement of Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. The novel follows his journey and his endeavors while fighting for freedom for the Spanish countries. I enjoyed the book and it made me feel empowered realizing how much drive was behind those fighting for their freedom from …show more content…
When Bolívar reached Huánuco, he needed to climb the summit of Cerro de Pasco to reunite with the other Spaniards on the other side of the summit. It was a very difficult path to take; it was fourteen thousand feet above sea level and the thin air was difficult to breathe. For over six months, Bolívar’s troops made their way through the rough land, creating paths and trying to find the easiest routes to take in order to make it through. As Bolívar’s army made continued traveling across the difficult land, it became impossible to avoid the discomforts of the land. “At times, the pathways along precipices were so narrow that they admitted only one person at a time; often, soldiers were overcome by debilitating bouts of altitude sickness, sun poisoning, radiation. A march through a stinging snowstorm could cause temporary blindness; a slipper path could send a soldier into a chasm” (Arana, p. 622). Throughout the harsh conditions of the road to independence, Bolívar along with his troops persevered the entire time. They endured and persisted until the job was done and they were able to reach their destination. The entire reason they all thought the dangerous conditions were worth enduring was because they knew the importance of independence. The demand for independence occurs when a large group of people feel discriminated by their governing body. Bolívar’s goal for the revolution was to take “…total control of the army and government, the freedom to grow and sell tobacco, elimination of the sales tax, free trade with foreign powers, the end of gold and silver exports, the freedom to establish an army, absolute equality between people of all colors, eradication of the Indian tribute, and the abolition of slavery” (Arana, p. 87). Bolívar wanted independence and freedom from the Spanish; he wanted freedom from the colonial power. With
In Todd Shepard’s work Voices of Decolonization, the featured documents provide keen insight into the geopolitical environment of the era of decolonization (1945-1965) and the external and internal pressures on the relationships between colonial nations and the territories that they held dominion over (Shepard 10). Decolonization is the result of a combination of national self-determination and the establishment of functional international institutions composed of independent sovereign nations united towards common goals. As decolonization progressed, it intersected with points of significant sociopolitical tension between colonies and the nations that colonized them. Some of these moments of tension came in the form of progressive ideals held by international agencies which colonial nations were allied with, the revolt of colonized populations against their standing government in favor of independence, and in moral and political conflicts that arose when decolonization takes a form unexpected or undesired by the primary agents of progressive international institutions.
Mark Danner, an editor for the New York Times magazine, recounts in The Massacre at El Mozote a horrific crime against humanity committed by a branch of the Salvadorian army. He gives multiple points of views and cites numerous eye witnesses to try and piece together something that has been tucked away by the government at the time. In December, of 1981, news reports were leaked to major newspapers in the united states about an atrocity committed and a total massacre of a hamlet in El Salvador, known as El Mozote, or the Thicket. At first, the account was of over a thousand civilians, women men and children with no guerrilla affiliation were massacred. Danner pieces together the testimonies of the survivors, and interviews with officers in the Salvadorian army.
The poem, “My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves” by Wendell Berry, illustrates the guilt felt for the sins of a man’s ancestors. The poem details the horror for the speaker’s ancestors involvement in slavery and transitions from sympathy for the slaves to feeling enslaved by his guilt. Berry uses anaphora, motif, and irony, to express the speaker’s guilt and provide a powerful atmosphere to the poem.
In John Demos’s The Unredeemed Captive, he must have “lurched heavily through the drifts”1 of information, and sometimes lack there of, to explain the view points of the British colonials, the French colonials, and the Mohawk tribe members. The story begins in the Puritan town of Deerfield within the British colony of Massachusetts. during the late 1600s. With the start of another war between Britain and France, fighting breaks out in their colonies as well, including the Americas. The town of Deerfield if led by the minister John Williams whom the French Indians take for a prisoner exchange at a later date. The Indians ransack Deerfield and take many prisoners on the long, treacherous journey to Canada for the French colonists. Most families
Chavez was greatly supported the idea of equality the he “gained national stature as a labor union spokesman” with all the action he would take not only in his community but others as well. He was such an influential person that the people of the US Senate offered him to” have a testimony during an US Senate subcommittee hearing” . While he is there he lets the people know how these migrant farm workers are being treated and what people are able to do to help. His actions that he took changed US History by letting the people know what and how the migrant workers are treated.
Miguel Melendez’s book, “We Took the Streets” provides the reader with an insightful account into the activities of the Young Lords movement established in the latter years of the 1960s and remained active up until the early seventies. The book’s, which is essentially Melendez’s memoir, a recollection of the events, activities, and achievements of the Young Lords. The author effectively presents to the reader a fascinating account of the formation of the Young Lords which was a group of college students from Puerto Rico who came together in a bid to fight for some of the basic rights. As Melendez sums it up, “You either claim your history or lose authority over your future” (Melendez 23). The quote is in itself indicative of the book’s overall
The Andes had a legacy of resistance that was unseen in other Spanish occupied place during the colonial period. There were rebellions of various kinds as a continued resistance to conquest. In the “Letters of Insurrection”, an anthology of letters written amongst the indigenous Andean people, between January and March 1781 in what is now known as Bolivia, a statement is made about the power of community-based rebellion. The Letters of Insurrection displays effects of colonization and how the “lesser-known” revolutionaries that lived in reducción towns played a role in weakening colonial powers and creating a place of identification for indigenous people.
Labor and the American Revolution is but one of dozens by one the most well known and controversial marxist historians of the last century, Philip S. Foner. To say he was a prolific writer is somewhat of an understatement. His obituary credited him with writing more then a hundred volumes, but Worldcat.org shows more then double that number authored or co-authored by him. In 1941, his political views brought the scrutiny of a communist witch hunt conducted by the state legislature's Rapp-Coudert Committee, which led to his subsequent dismissal from the faculty of New York's City College, along with dozens of others including his three brothers. In 1967 he finally returned to academia, joining the faculty of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. One has to wonder though if this was a step taken out of necessity, or rather a desire to teach again, and perhaps to show a kind of symbolic solidarity with the down-trodden of our society, which he dedicated so much of his life to writing about. Foner retired in 1979 and in 1981 City College finally apologized to all of those who were fired forty years earlier, for what it called regretful violations of academic freedom.
All human beings are born with genes that are unique to them and make us the individuals we become. The right to exist as an individual in society achieving the best possible potential of one’s existence irrespective of any bias is expected by most humans. In the essay, ‘The new Civil Rights’ Kenji Yoshino discusses how the experience of discovering and revealing his sexual preference as a gay individual has led to him proposing a new civil rights by exploring various paradigms of the rights of a human being to exist in today’s diverse society. In exploring the vast demands of rights ranging from political or basic human rights we have differentiated ourselves into various groups with a common thread weaving through all the demands which
His effective descriptions of his struggles in life contribute to the emotional tone of compassion, “I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own” (Vargas) and excite in the reader his kind nature and convince the reader to accept and understand him well, as he says, “I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship. I felt I could earn it” (Vargas). All of his words are very strong that can win the reader’s,
"You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
After reading over the writing of George Fitzhugh and his argument that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality, I was shocked at his personal standings. He believed that slavery was not such a bad thing. He saw the slaves were treated fair, their jobs were benifitual for them because slavery would be an easier way of life than rather than having a typical labor paying job, and that they enjoyed the jobs they worked so hard on due to the fact that it was allowing them freedom. A statement that he made that was the most shocking to me was "slaves of the South are the happiest, and in some sense, the freest people in the world" this is such a crazy view on the lives of these people.
In South America, Native Americans had rebelled against Spanish rule as early as the 1700s. These rebellions had limited results, however it was not until 1800s that discontent among the Creoles sparked a widespread drive for independence. Educated Creoles like Simo¢n Bolivar applauded the French and American Revolutions. He dreamed of winning independence for his country. When Napoleon occupied Spain, Simo¢n returned to his South America and led an uprising that established a republic in his native Venezuela. But his newly found republic quickly toppled by conservative forces. Bolivar then got a daring idea; he would march his forces across the Andes and attack the Spanish at Bogotá. He managed to free Caracas then moved into Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru to do the same.
To begin with the chosen poem is the street written by Octavio Paz in 1963. The poem style is written in free verse consisting of 14 stanzas, the poem does not consist of rhyme patterns or many literary devises. The meaning behind The Street by Octavio is about how Octavio is not sure what he wants exactly sure out of life, After Octavio resigned from being Mexico’s’ ambassador he was not sure if he made the right choice or if what he is going to do now. Although By the end of the poem he is trying to come to terms with his decision so he finally confronts "nobody." The street, by Octavio Paz uses an extended metaphor and imagery to convey the struggle which he has inside of himself. In his poem, “The Street”, Octavio Paz uses the literary devise of an extended metaphor, and imagery, and a mysterious, foreshadowing almost tone to capture the reader’s attention.