Independence in Latin American Countries or Just Another

Is Latin America actually as the esteemed historian, Fernand Braudel, has contested Europe's "second skin"? Or is it to be characterized as Frantz Fanon has observed in Wretched of the Earth "the brothel of Europe", a land where neo-colonialism rules and its independence serves merely as a comforting illusion? Recent historiography suggests that the issues surrounding a country's independence must be viewed not only from a political angle, but from a cultural one as well. In order for a newly emerged nation to attain true liberation, it must sever itself not only bureaucratically and administratively from its former oppressor but also psychologically. Scrutiny of the intricacies of life in post-revolutionary Mexico, Castro's Cuba, Peron's Argentina, and Guatemala in the 20th century highlight the contradictions and inconsistencies of postcolonial existence in nations newly liberated from their former colonial ties.

In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean Peter Winn sets as his goal a desire "to offer North Americans views from the south" (5). To underscore his approach he quotes Manuel Moreno, Cuba's leading cultural historian, that "the truly [Latin] American is the mestizo" (57). Mixing European, African, and Indian races and culture is the true achievement of the Americas (57). What is best is to improve upon what is indigenous to a culture rather than, what has so often been the fate of Latin American countries, attempting to er

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one of the major shapers of the cultural policies, subversively asking in quite tones for the suppression of native unruly traditions even as it encouraged an unquestioned mimicry of European custom. For example, Argentina's ruling class disdained the tango, considering this dance form as representa- tive of the lower class and its disreputable ways, mocking it as that "reptile from the brothel" until it took Paris by storm just before World War I (Winn 117). Emerging Latin American countries were deeply effected by the US stock market crash of 1929. The liberal economic models which they had been asked to embrace had turned against them. The economic policies stressing exports, free trade, and comparative advantage were now to be held in great suspicion as were the elites who had insisted upon an allegiance to them (Winn 123). Argentina's attempts to regulate itself after the Great Depression emphasized government economic intervention and the strong promotion of an internalized manufacturing system (Winn 125). Yet the decline in real wages and the steady rise of unemployment incited a growing social unrest. During this era Juan Per=n emerged as a prime example of Latin American populism, fusing a contradictory coaliti

Category: Foreign - I