The Poverty of Progress

Indeed, everywhere throughout Latin America, the elites proclaimed their mission to introduce civilization. They felt embattled. They feared the barbaric masses might engulf them and drown their cherished civilization (Burns, 1983, p. 23).

Whether by Christianization, or socioeconomic oppression and control, or force, or slavery, the European elites and their Latin American supporters saw the conflict as a sort of war between good and evil, so it is not surprising to find terrible results from that confrontation. As Burns makes clear, the "folk" of Latin America were not barbarians but had their own well-developed "societies and cultures" to which they were loyal (Burns, 1983, p. 154). However, the European elites had the power, the wealth, and the guile to win that war and to keep the folk in weakness and poverty.

The authors in Women through Women's Eyes give some examples of the kind of injustice visited upon the folk of Latin America by European elites, but we must keep in mind that the women authors, especially with an eye on publishing, were not about to be comple

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)

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