I.
1.Miguel Angel Asturias- A Nobel Prize wining novelist and poet from Guatemala. Wrote about his experience under a dictatorship. Established small-town life and a clash of cultures as themes
2.Frida Kahlo- Started painting in 1925 when she was hospitalized. Married Diego Rivera. Was inspired by retablos, religious paintings. Was a champion of Mexican culture.
3.John F. Kennedy – Kennedy encouraged Latin American countries to undertake reforms to raise the standard of living for their people with the Alliance for Progress in 1961.
4.Luis Munoz Marin – Became Puerto Rico’s first elected governor in the 1950s. He supported a program to encourage tourism and develop industry on the island.
5.Gabriel Garcia Marquez- Nobel Prize winning author in Columbia. Wrote in a Style called magical realism. Most popular novel was One Hundred years of Solitude.
6.James Munroe – Issued the Munroe Doctrine in 1823 which disallowed colonization in the Americas
7.Pablo Neruda - Chile’s Nobel Prize winning poet who criticized the United States for using its power and wealth to carve up Panama.
8.Manuel Noriega – Panama’s president who was charged by the United States with drug trafficking in 1988.
9.Franklin D. Roosevelt – Announced the Good Neighbor Policy in 1933, which declared that “no state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another state.”
10.Theodore Roosevelt – President that offered Columbia $10 million for a strip of land in Panama to build a canal. Roosevelt encouraged rebels in Panama to rebel when Columbia rejected the offer. In 1903 when the Panama people received their independence, they granted US the 10 mile wide “canal zone.”
II.
1. Under the Platt Amendment, the United States claimed the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
2. The United States gained Puerto Rico and Philippines from Spain.
3. Financial interests led the United States to intervene in Latin America. In the early 1900s, the Dominican Republic was unable to pay its debts to American banks. American forces also occupied Nicaragua and Haiti ,and intervened in the affairs of Honduras 6 times. In each case, they stepped in to protect American lives and property or to support a government that favored American interests.
4. The United States wanted to create a solid anti-communist bloc in the Americas. The United States’ primary concern was the communist country of ...
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...lopment and democracy. The OAS includes the United States, which has tended to dominated the organization.
11.retablos – religious paintings offered as thanks for escape from misfortune.
12.Sendero Luminoso – (Shining Path) Extreme left wing group that resorted to torture and murder in their on-going struggle to control the country of Peru.
13.Spanish-American War – As the United States industrialized, it extended its influence in the Caribbean and Central America. During the 1890s, Cuban patriots were battling for independence from Spain. In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain and joined the fighting. It promised that once peace was achieved it would “leave the government and control of Cuba to its people.” The Spanish American War ended in victory for the United States. Cuba did gain its independence, but the United States forced Cuba to include the Platt Amendment as part of its new constitution. Under the Platt Amendment the United States claimed the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. As a result the United States gained Puerto Rico and Philippines from Spain.
14.ultraismo – The belief that art should exist for its own sake, not for any social or political reasons.
The Spanish American war had a complex beginning. By the 1890’s, Cuba had unsuccessfully battled Spain for its independence for many years. Due to the US’s economic interests in Cuba, the US government sought to stabilize the situation. The United States and Cuba negotiated an agreement that Cuba would become self-governing on January 1, 1898. But
Long before our involvement, the Cubans had been leading revolts and revolutions against Spain. The Spanish empire considered Cuba to be its jewel, not only for its beauty but also for its economics. Cuba’s main source of income was from its expansive sugar plantations that greatly contributed to its wealth (more so to the Spanish Empires wealth). Ironically, even due to the high regard to Cuba, it was neglected and oppressed, as the Spanish Empire began its decline in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Empire was falling due to it slowly loosing its control over its territories, closer to the US then to Spain, because of a lack of industrializing. The Spanish would claim ownership, but never contribute back to their land. This opened the door for what is known as the 10-year war and the struggle for Cuban Independence. The United States never got directly involved, but it sympathized greatly with the Cuban’s cause, for ...
Americans think they used the Platt Amendment to mediate and resolve internal disputes in Cuba, whereas Cubans tend to think that the amendment was designed to permit the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs for its own selfish purposes; finally, Americans tend to think that their investments in Cuba contributed to the nations development, whereas the Cuban Government has tended to look at the economic relationship as exploitative (Blight 43).
America had begun to indulge in the unilateral environment afforded to it during the Cold War. As the Soviet Union began to collapse in the 1980s, the United States was on its way to becoming a solo super power. This acquisition of complete power would inevitably lead the country into new problems, including those foreign and domestic. One of the main issues that came around in the 1980s for the Unites States was the Iran-Contra Affair, which involved the Reagan Administration. With the United States readily inserting influence across the globe, the Iran-Contra Affair proved how foreign intervention can lead to scandal and disgrace in the modern world. Along with detrimental scandals, the Iran-Contra Affair showed how America’s imperialistic behavior in South America was beginning to catch up. In order to remain a dominant influence in South America, the United States had no choice but to topple governments that did not align with American ideology. Using guerillas like the Contras insinuates America’s cornerstone of doing what is necessary in order to satisfy foreign interest.
The Americans were losing patience over the whole Cuban affair because Spain cut shipping and economic interests from Cuba. Americans wanted the economic situation resolved so they could get back to the economic fortunes they were used to; therefore, the worsening economy was one of the main causes of the War of 1898. When the United States finally denounced the dominance of the Spanish government in Cuba, Spain cut its economic ties with the United States. Trade for the United States was impacted greatly. Due to the sharp drop of sugar prices that took place from early 1884, the old Cuban “sugar nobility,” unable to mechanize and cut costs, began to disintegrate and lose its dominant role in the island’s economy and society (Hernandez). This facilitated the United States’ penetration of the Cuban economy, and the United States took over sugar estates and mining interests. It was American machinery, technicians, and capital that helped save the Cuban sugar mills.
United States invaded Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines not to gain wealth, but for the purpose of getting trades. Americans wanted to project their power to the entire hemisphere and the only way to exercise it is by acquiring republics. Citizens of three countries did not fully acquire the independence they thought they were entitled. Cuba got nominal independence because of Platt Amendment, Puerto Rico became a territory but was not called as citizens of America, and instead they were called Puerto Ricans, while Philippines were denied in statehood. They only had fundamental rights, but United States could govern the country as long as they wanted to. Furthermore, holding the countries from self-government prevent these countries to get the chance to apply what they have learned and adopted from American rule and exercise it for their country’s prosperity.
The United States, honoring the Teller Amendment of 1898, withdrew from Cuba in 1902. The U.S. forced the Cubans to write their own constitution of 1901 (the Platt Amendment). The constitution decreed that the United States might intervene with troops in Cuba in order to restore order and to provide mutual protection. The Cubans also promised to sell or lease needed coaling or naval stations to the U.S.
While the findings suggested the challenges and limits relying on an authoritarian government, American dollars steadily increased their presence in El Salvador, increasing 18 million in investment in 1950 to 31 million in 1959, without much attention to the regime’s governmental style. (___) In El Salvador, the American task was easy, the United States, to encourage stability, defined as limiting insurrections, simply had to support those in power, the military, the landed oligarchy and hence dictators. Nixon, while serving as vice president during the 1955, himself claiming that the question in the Latin American region was, “how far is dictatorship necessary” declared, “we must deal with [Latin American] governments as they are and work over a period of time towards more democracy.” (Ambrose)
Cuban Dictator was overthrown by Fidel Castor. The main problem was that the United States
"The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 defined United States foreign policy in the Americas for the rest of the 19th century and beyond. It declared that the United States had an interest in the Western Hemisphere and the European powers must not meddle in the affairs of any developing nations there. The United States was a young nation in 1823 and did not really have to powers to back up the Monroe Doctrine. However, the policy was used to justify the sending of the U.S. troops into Mexico in 1866 (to intimidate the French) and the purchased of Alaska in 1867". Another case of Imperialism was the United States industrial economy was growing so fast that they were producing more goods than they could consume. The over abundance of industrial goods led the United States to look for new markets. Next came the Spanish-American War, which started with the Americans not liked the way that the Spaniards were treated the Cubans. After this an U.S. battleship (Maine) was docked outside of Havana (Cuba's Capital) and all of a sudden exploded from under the sea. At the time no one actually knew the real reason why the ship exploded but many Americans thought that it was the Spaniards. 266 officers and men were lost in the explosion. William McKinley (U.S. President 1897-1901) went to congress and asked for permission to send troops to help stop the fighting in Cuba. After a couple of days he was given permission which shortly led to war. Spain declared war on the United States on April 24th followed by an U.S. declaration of war on the 25th.
5. The United States and Latin America had a very turbulent history with each other. After
THESIS : “ The United States didn’t want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba.”
Immediately following the war with Spain, the United States had both the political will to pursue imperial policies and the geopolitical circumstances conducive to doing so. But the way in which these policies would manifest was an open question; was the impulse to actively remake the world in America’s Anglo-Saxon image justified? Hence, there were several models of American imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. In the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Samoa, the United States asserted unwavering political control. In Cuba, and later throughout most of the Caribbean basin, the economic and political domination of customarily sovereign governments became the policy. Ultimately, the United States was able to expand its territory
Salvador Dali (Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech) - spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, film director and writer. One of the most famous representatives of surrealism.
Global literatures in English have always played a key role in developing international understanding and appreciation for the social realities and cultural developments beyond Western lifestyles and familiarity. For anthropologists seeking to perceive the social realities of 20th century Latin America, the work of popular authors and novelists of this century is invaluable. Popular authors are the modern mouthpieces of the people and societies who read and love them, and thus, novelists can serve as reliable representatives of the social climate from which they draw material and compose their works.