11/19/2017 Blog Post

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Yeeun Min

How did the abolitionist movement in late 18th century affect the slave revolt in Latin American plantations?

It was the late 18th century when the ideals of the abolition of slavery started to gain traction as a legitimate source of societal discourse and heated political debate. This phenomenon was mostly centered around the countries with large colonial territories where slave labors where commonly used. As abolitionist ideas started to be subjects of mainstream political debates in European mainlands, the question on whether to keep slavery as the rule of the land or abolish it also increasingly became subjects of widespread discourse both among educated white populace and some slaves or freed ex-slaves who were educated in various degrees. While slave revolt precedes such discourse on abolition of slavery, many plantation owners started to suspect such political and ideological climate where abolitionist ideas gained significant supports to be one of the main reason for growing unrest among slaves. One of the good example for this is Letter to the Marquis de Gallifet, a letter written by a plantation manager called Pierre Mossut. In this letter Mossut blames popularization of abolitionist writings to be one of the main causes of the slave revolts which had been plaguing the local plantations in 1790s’ Haiti. “The varied writings produced in your capital [Paris] in favor of the Negroes, the unbelievable discussions that led to the May 15 decree, writing that have long circulated in the colony and that the negroes knew about […] “. This shows that abolitionist political trends did have significant influence over growing awareness among slaves about the questions of their status and unfairness of their treatment.

Class notes – 9/25

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Yeeun Min

Tenochititlan & Its Fall

Readings for today’s class:

Victors & Vanquished by Schwartz : “Things Fall Apart” to “The Siege” 156-213
Library of Congress, The Conquest of Mexico
Tenochtitlan and Its Fall (Historical Analysis Prep)

Announcements

Midterm Exam guide

Required skill: making argument with evidence and analysis of primary sources, with profound historical knowledge and historian’s thinking.
Divided into three parts.
First part: five responses out of eight questions. 20 minutes. Definition and analysis of historical significance of the key concepts of what we covered in Latin American history sessions so far.
Second part: three responses out of four questions. 20 minutes. Provide short answer. Make an argument about the given topic, using your historical thinking and knowledge.
Third part: One essay. 20 minutes. Choice of two quotes from certain documents. Identify the source of the quote, and contextualize it.
Pay close attentions to the terms listed on the Midterm Guide paper.

Culture Blog Presentation

“Mexico City Earthquake” by Sofia

Based on a New York Times article the recent earthquake, the presentation mostly covered the step-by-step analysis of the article in lights of the recent development of the disaster. Photos from the heavily damaged urban buildings and small houses of Mexico City were shown, with presenter’s explanation about the extent of damage that affected the residents of the city. The Professor helped us to find the article linked on the bottom of the blog post, which shown digital graphic describing where exactly the earthquake started and how its impact reached the city. Apparently the epicenter of the earthquake was not located under the city itself – it was under the mountain ranges which spread eastwards to the city. There was an interesting discussion of how the areas where the ancient city used to be were relatively less affected than the urban center of the Mexico City. Professor reminded us to call back on the Inca stone bricks, which is said to have sustained earthquake damages far much better than the modern building structures. I asked the geographical question, about how the geography of the region affected the damage that was inflicted onto the city, which was answered with the digital graphic mentioned above.

Key questions for today’s class

What factors account Spanish military victory at Tenochititlan?
How do the victors looking back commemorate this event? What narrative do they create, and why?

Key Skills

Primary source analysis – conflicting accounts of the events
Visual analysis
Historical commemoration & public art

Group Discussion

Professor Holt divided us into six groups, asking us to engage in discussions on the questions featured in Historical Analysis Prep paper handed to us in the last class. My teammates and I talked about how different the very details the accounts of King Moctezuma’s death depending on which party wrote such accounts. We also discussed what factors might have influenced the Spanish victory over the Mexica, and how the paintings describing the historical accounts of the Spanish conquest of the Mexica, which were painted by a Mexican painter who lived hundreds of years after the conquest, were implying about such events.

The differences between the Spanish accounts vs. the indigenous accounts – both sides trying to push blame on the other side. Spanish claimed that Moctezuma, who tried to warn his people not to attack the Spaniards, was killed by a stone thrown at him, while the Mexica claimed that the Spaniards killed their king who was kidnapped and subjugated by the Spanish. The very tone of the accounts differed, with Spaniards more detached and calculating, and the indigenous much more personal and emotional.
Possible factors that might have helped Spanish victory: Professor and the class engaged in prolonged discussion on the impact of Old World diseases, namely smallpox on the indigenous population of Mexico at the time Hernan Cortes and his soldiers stepped in. The factors such as advanced weaponry on the Spanish side and the shaky relationships between the Mexica and other indigenous groups were mentioned in group discussion.

Painting Analysis – The Conquest of Mexico

This session was very brief, and most of the discussions about these paintings were done in group discussion sessions. Professor asked whether these paintings seem like a propaganda material in favor of the Spaniards, glorifying and endorsing the Spanish accounts of the fall of Tenochititlan.

We covered only the first four paintings so far, both in general class discussion and the group discussion session where we talked about the fourth painting, The Death of Moctezuma by the Hands of His Own People. The very framing of the paintings was discussed, in which the Spanish were depicted in much more dominant position, while the indigenous less significant and more subdued and demoralized compared to the mighty-looking Spaniards. The paintings in general indeed seemed to be created in a purpose of commemorating the Spanish conquest, especially endorsing the Spanish part of the account. The very wording of the title of the fourth painting explicitly shows which part of the historical records these paintings drew their inspirations from.

Extra Questions

How much did the Spanish try to convert the local population into Christianity at the time of Cortes’ endeavor? Did such efforts play part in the Fall of Tenochititlan?
Which local indigenous tribes decided to help Cortes against the Mexica? What was their relationship with the Mexica like?
If the The Conquest of Mexico paintings were indeed intended to be a propaganda, then what was the context behind the creation of these paintings? Were there any needs for such propaganda material at the time these paintings emerged?

Extra scholarly sources for this class

Fitch, Nancy. “The Conquest of Mexico”. American Historical Association. Accessed on September 26th, 2017. https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico

Palfrey, Dale Hoft. “The Spanish Conquest (1519-1527)”. Mexconnect. Accessed on September 26th, 2017. https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico

The Tarahumara Runners and Mexican Drug Cartels

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Yeeun Min

Tarahumara people of Copper Canyon region, which is often called “Sierra Tarahumara” because of its reputation as the home of significant Tarahumara population, have been living in the treacherous terrains of northwestern mountains of Mexico for nearly five hundred years. Ever since the Spaniard came to their original homeland, the region which is now referred as “Free and Sovereign State of Chihuaha”, Tarahumara people moved deep into the Sierra Madre Occidental, thus avoiding direct clash with Spanish conquistadors. Since they have migrated to one of the deepest regions of the Sierra Madre, Tarahumaras became one of the not so many indigenous groups in Mexico who managed to fully preserve their pure ancestral cultures and customs barely touched by Spanish influences. The Jesuits could not manage to fully convert them to Christianity, with quite a lot of Tarahumaras still practicing their indigenous religions barely changed. Even their very existence was largely unknown until 1993, when a group of American photographers convinced a few local people to participate in 100-mile ultramarathon held in America. One of their most renowned and well-known feat that is closely related to their tradition, is long-distance running, with every single member of the tribe being able to run hundreds of miles and hundreds of kilometers for days without stopping. Even their name come from the Spanish corruption of their name in their native tongue The Raramuri, which means “light runners”, or “the ones with light feet”.

The male runners of Tarahumara tribe, photo courtesy to http://imgarcade.com/tarahumara-runners.html

But as of the dawning of the twenty-first century, when the entire country of Mexico has been plunged into nationwide drug warfare between US-Mexican law enforcement forces and drug cartels, Tarahumara tribe started to face one of the biggest challenges to their identity and safety – the drug cartels and illegal narcotics industries. Most of the accounts and testimonies from Tarahumara victims of the illegal drug industry point out that the drug cartels have been extorting and threatening the locals to work for them since the mid 2000s’, which coincides with the beginning of the Mexican Drug war which started in December 2006. Since then, quite a lot of Tarahumara people have been the victims of labour exploitation and violent attacks from the drug cartels. One of the biggest reasons they became easy target for drug cartels is that they live in close proximity with the Sierra Madre regions, one of the largest drug producing regions in the entire Mexico. They also found great usefulness in Tarahumara tribesmen’s long-distance running abilities, high stamina and great endurance forged from centuries of living experience in harsh mountain regions. And compared to other means of transportation and delivery, Tarahumara people are much cheaper and less likely to be detected by the law enforcement officials. They are cheap because they usually do not demand wage increases and higher standards of employment, due to fears of receiving personal vendettas from murderous drug cartel leaders and their assassins. Tarahumara people were considered to be highly resilient cheap laborers who can smuggle the products into faraway regions not only in Mexico but also in Southern parts of United States such as New Mexico Desert.

Female members of Tarahumara tribe, courtesy to http://www.landscapes.org/glf-2014/?contestants=sierra-tarahumara-mexico

It is impossible to figure out the exact number of the Tarahumara people who are being forced to work for drug cartels and narcotics producers, since there have been no official consensus report of neither the total population nor the victimized population of Tarahumara tribe. Their traditionally reclusive nature, extremely rough and dangerous terrains of the local environment and complex power dynamics between local authorities and drug cartels are hindering many efforts to create reliable statistics of the exact number of Tarahumara populace and the extent of the victimization of Tarahumara tribe by the drug cartels. Most of the articles and documents which write about the exploitation of Tarahumara people by illegal drug industries are relying on eyewitness accounts by the locals and actual interviews of the former Tarahumara narcotics workers who were either convicted in United States and Mexico for drug smuggling, or luckily escaped into outside world to tell the stories. Private investigators, journalists and indigenous peoples rights activists are also finding it extremely hard to figure out the way to help certain Tarahumara people who have been essentially enslaved by the cartels, for their homeland is located in Sierra Madre, one of the most prominent drug producing region in the Mexico. Although the drug industries are not the only problem which threatens the existence of Tarahumara people, their plight remains to be one of the tragically unexplored territory of the tragedy of Mexican Drug War.

http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2015/04/09/1017872

*The video link above, which is allegedly filmed by one of the cartel convoys, in November 2014 in Copper Canyon (Sierra Tarahumara) when there were several confrontations between groups of organized crime, features cartel militants operating in the region Tarahumara people live.

Goldberg, Ryan. “The Drug Runners.” Texas Monthly, July 2017. Accessed September 24, 2017. https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/the-drug-runners/?src=longreads

Roston, Aram. “MEXICAN DRUG WAR’S NEXT VICTIMS: TARAHUMARA INDIAN RUNNERS.” Newsweek, June 25, 2012. Accessed September 24, 2017. http://www.newsweek.com/mexican-drug-wars-next-victims-tarahumara-indian-runners-65101.

Inca Kola and Peruvian Nationalism

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Yeeun Min

A bottle of Inca Kola with a glass.

Es nuestra, La bebida del Perú (It’s ours, the drink of Peru)

– The slogan of Inca Kola in 1990-1995

In 1910, an English immigrant couple who went by the name “Lindleys” settled in Rimac, one of the oldest and most traditional district in Lima, Peru. Living closely with local beverage makers who had inherited ancestral drink formulas for generations, Lindleys learned to create beverages of their own, mixing local concoctions with new flavors, ingredients and different levels of carbonation. Lindleys’ experiments went on, until twenty-five years later, in 1935, when they finally created what would be known as Peru’s national drink, Inca Kola. While It came out forty-nine years later than the world-renowned soft drink giant, Coca Cola – officially invented by an American pharmacist and ex-Confederate Civil War veteran John Pemberton – was first officially produced, Inca Kola managed to be one of the few local brands that defeated Coca-Cola in its domestic market. Even to this day Inca Kola still tops the soft drink sale rankings in Peru, and its brand exported throughout the entire South America. One of the key factors behind such great success of Inca Kola was aggressive marketing campaign targeting Peruvian nationalist sentiment.

One of the labels of Inca Kola featuring an Incan man. Photo courtesy of http://imgarcade.com/inca-kola-label.html

Inca Kola label depicting an Incan woman. Photo courtesy of http://imgarcade.com/inca-kola-label.html

Pablo Nano Cortez, the chief economist at Scotiabank Peru, says that ever since Lindleys – who officially chartered their company as Corporación José R. Lindley S.A in 1928 – started to market Inca Kola as a brand, they constructed a nationalist image of Peru around it: something only Peruvians can offer. Even the name itself invokes the proud heritage of Inca Empire, which is still considered by Peruvians as one of the most significant root of their culture and national identity. The labels of Inca Kola are adorned with Inca symbols, or faces of man and woman from Inca Era. The color of the drink was also designed to be the allusion to well-known stereotype of Inca Civilization – the Inca gold. Even the first delivery trucks exclusively for Inca Kola were said to be painted with national colors of Peru – red and white. Advertisement posters for Inca Cola often featured indigenous Andean women, or non-indigenous women with traditional Peruvian/Andean attire.

Inca Kola advertisement featuring a woman with Andean attire, sitting in front of Inca mural background. Photo courtesy of https://www.pinterest.com/pin/95208979592204617/

The nationalist sentiment behind Inca Kola marketing grew more aggressive when Coca-Cola started to engage total soft drink market warfare in Peru against Inca Kola during the 1970s’. While entering the Peruvian market since 1935, it was not until the 1970s’, when this American soft-drink giant started to prove itself to be a tough challenger to decades-long domination of Inca Kola in Peruvian market. While Inca Kola controlled 38% of the soft drink markets of Peru, it was threatened by Coca-Cola’s well-adjusted localization strategy, which even involved changing its secret formula to be more suitable to Peruvian taste. Lindley Corporation reacted to such strategies by doubling down on its already aggressive nationalist marketing. Peruvian names, ingredients and flavors started to be the central parts of promotion and advertisement of the Inca Kola. Slogans which emphasized Peruvian national identity appeared much more frequent ever before. This trend went on for decades, until 2006. Explicitly nationalist-driven marketing ploy supported by Inca Kola’s own distribution system and sales force which extended throughout the entire country ultimately resulted in long-time domination of Inca Kola within Peruvian market. Until the end of 1990s’ when Coca Cola and Lindley Corporation stroke the deal that established joint-venture business partnership, Inca Kola owned lions’s share of 35% market share, whereas Coca Cola got only 21%.

La bebida del sabor nacional (“The drink with the national flavor”)

Es nuestra, La bebida del Perú (“It’s ours, The drink of Peru”)

De sabor nacional! (“Of the national flavor!”)

As of 2012, it was reported that Inca Cola controlled the total market share of 26% which is narrowly followed by 25.6%, exceptionally out-shining other local brands throughout Latin America where they have not fared well against the total domination of Coca-Cola. Johnny Lindley, the second CEO of Lindley Corporation, stated that Inca Kola remains to be the drink that found a permanent place in Peruvians’ heart.

“Because we knew how to communicate that we felt part of this country. In the days of terrorism we would day that Inca Kola was the flavor that united us, it gave us strength, when the times of pain passed, it became the flavor of joy, the flavor of the party. When confronted with copies [Isaac Kola] we said that Inca Kola was the national flavor. We always made that distinction, we have always felt proud of Peru”.

–Johnny Lindley

Continue reading →

Sept 8 Wikipedia Article Blog

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Yeeun Min

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moctezuma_I

The Wikipedia article I would like to critique is about Moctezuma I, the second Aztec emperor and fifth king of Tenochititlan. The article is easy to read because of its short length but is not sufficient to give the reader more complete picture of Moctezuma’s rule and his impact on Aztec Empire. While containing largely relevant information regarding the topic, the content of the article is mostly comprised of snippets of factoids about Moctezuma I, lacking deep and profound details of his life and legacy. It should also be noted that despite its mostly neutral stance towards the topic and a few references that works well and easy to track down, this article does not seem to be a product of expert academic research, judging by its notable lack of footnotes. The citation seems to be quite a significant problem in this article, for nowhere I could found the evidence that the references are sufficiently supporting the contents of the article. It would have been a lot better if the writers of this article tried to put more details and information into the article and properly cited the referenced works.

It also seemed like there have been very few attention to this article, for in the “talks” page there were only four very short conversations went on about its contents. These were about the Triple Alliance, Codex Mendoza reference, orthograpy of the article title – Moctezuma – and some unencyclopedic phrases contained in previous versions of the article. What is more troubling about the article, however, is that it is a part of several WikiProjects: Mesoamerica, Aztec, Middle Ages, etc. Not so surprisingly, it is rated level 4 vital article, for its lack of substance in spite of the fact that the topic is so important in understanding the foundation of Aztec Empire.

Class Intro

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Yeeun Min

Hi, my name is Yeeun, an English-majoring, History-minoring Junior international student from South Korea. We don’t really cover much of Latin American history on history classes in Korean high schools, so this course seems like a pretty good opportunity for me to explore the personal uncharted territory of history studies as a history minor student. As the professor said we wouldn’t really have to know much about Latin America to begin with this class, which is a GOOD news to me, so yeah, I guess I can be a little bit less worried about not being well prepared before entering this course.

I am very eager to know you guys better as the fellow participant of this course. Forgive me if my language sound a bit awkward to you because, well, English is not my first language. But I still hope that by the end of this semester, I would have learned much things about how the “Latin America” as we know of formed and evolved in colonial and post-colonial eras.

Well then, see you later in class, guys!

Colonial Latin America

Fall 2017

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