Announcements:

• First exam on Wednesday, 10/4/17
  • A good place to start studying is looking at the HAP homework assignments and class notes posts.
• Continue thinking about and working on Wikipedia projects.

LA History and Culture Post by Jacob

Cuban Doctors Against Brazil’s “Programa Mais Médicos”

Jacob’s news article was about Cuban doctors who are unhappy with Brazil’s “More Doctors Program.” It is a program where foreign doctors are brought into Brazil to provide healthcare services to remote and impoverished areas of Brazil. Many of these doctors come from Cuba. However, these Cuban doctors are paid less than doctors from other countries, while the Cuban government receives far more money per doctor sent to Brazil than the doctors get. Cuban doctors who have tried to fight for more money have been threatened by the Cuban government. They are told to either immediately return to Cuba or face exile. However, the program does provide much needed medical care to poor and remote regions of Brazil that would not otherwise receive it. For this reason, the UN has supported this program.

Class Discussion- Go Betweens

We talked about the role of go betweens, people who could interact with both European and indigenous societies, helping bridge the gap between the two. A key historical question that was discussed was, “What roles do cultural intermediaries play in Iberian colonization of Latin America?” We talked specifically about the cases of La Malinche, the indigenous woman who served as a translator for the Spanish conquistadors under Hernan Cortes and as Cortes’ mistress, Don Melchior Caruarayco, an Andean kuraka, and Domingos Fernandes Nobre, a mameluco slave trader in colonial Brazil. For La Malinche we discussed both her importance as a facilitator of communication between the Spanish and the Mexica, and her role as Cortes’ mistress. More generally, we talked about the sexual relations, both consensual and non-consensual, between European men and indigenous women in colonial Latin America. The children of these relationships were the mestizos or mamelucos, people of both European and indigenous heritage. These people were often intermediaries between the European and indigenous societies, belonging to both at the same time. Domingos Fernandes Nobre and Don Melchior Caruarayco were both talked about in small groups. Both of these men served as go betweens in different ways. Don Melchior Caruarayco was the leader of an Andean group and had to both lead them, while also making sure his people provided tribute and labor to the Spanish. Domingos Fernandes Nobre was a mameluco slave trader who had two identities, one Portuguese and one indigenous. He used this to build relations with both groups to capture and sell indigenous people as slaves to work on Portuguese sugar plantations. Finally, we also talked about the ways inheritance was carried out in Iberia and colonial Latin America, and how marriage was influenced by this.

Important Terms

• Mestizo or Mameluco: a person of both European and indigenous heritage.
• Encomienda: a system where Europeans, often conquistadors, would be given lands in the Americas and the labor of native peoples in the area to work it as a reward for their service to the king or the colonial government.
• Kurakas: traditional Andean leaders who held political, social, and religious significance. They were in charge of assigning work to the people of their communities and were supposed to protect them. They were used by the Spanish as intermediaries to control the native Andeans.

Links:

Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society

Impact of the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) Program in reducing physician shortage in Brazilian Primary Healthcare.

Article about the role of mestizos in colonial Latin America

Potential Exam Questions:

How did the role of kurakas in Andean society change after the Spanish conquest?

Who were go betweens in colonial Latin America and what was their importance?

How do historians use historical biography to explain the past?

Announcements

• Midterm is next Wednesday, October 4^th
• Remember to include the “So what?” and “Why is this term important?” in answers
• Context and interpretation are important
• Be able to identify primary sources

Professor Holt showed the class a Digital History of the people and city of Teotihuacan. It was created by the de Young Museum. Teotihuacan was an ancient Mesoamerican indigenous city located in present-day New Mexico. The digital history shows us how a museum created an interactive exhibit online to share their latest exhibit. It is a way to share history and expand it to more people who cannot visit the exhibit in person. This provides us with more exposure as we think about our final project for this class and how history is shared in alternative formats.

Latin America in the news

Tristan did his news about Brazil backtracking mining in the Amazon. The class discussed the various powers of authority involved such as the President, his cabinet, Congress, private corporations, and even the Catholic Church. There are several arguments for the mining in the Amazon. One side is that it will help industry and has economic advantages. The other argument is that it is deforestation and disturbs indigenous groups. Our class also discussed international law versus national sovereignty. While organizations such as the United Nations can enact international laws, it can often come in conflict with the country’s sovereignty and their right to rule their own country.

Key term:

Columbian Exchange– the interaction between New and Old-World plants, animals, and disease. Defined in “The Columbian Exchange” by Alfred Crosby as the “Artificial re-establishment of connections through the commingling of Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria.”[1]

Discussion

The first half of class was a discussion looking over The Conquest of Mexico Paintings, asking ourselves how painters use the past to present an argument in their works. In the conquest paintings, they portray the Spaniards as brave, gallant and sophisticated during war. Instead of painting the harsh realities of war, these paintings serve as a historical fantasy that glamourizes war. The color dominant color red can be interpreted as meaning power and pride. The mobility, large size, and mobility of the Spanish accomplishment are presented in the paintings. These paintings serve as propaganda for the Spanish.

Mural by Diego Rivera

The class then looked at a mural by Diego Rivera. It was painted after the Mexican Revolution and is considered a piece of monumental artwork. It shows the diversity of the indigenous. The style is modern and the vibrant color represents a lively and active society. There is a lot going on in the painting. The bottom shows carvings of agriculture scenes. It shows a harmonious society with certain degrees of hierarchy. The painting depicts how sophisticated the society was before the Spanish arrived at the height of civilization. It can be seen as a celebration of the indigenous people and their contributions to Mexico. The mural was created years after the conquest. Diego plays with how the past should be interpreted. He uses the past to make an argument about the indigenous people’s contribution. His mural shows how artists use the past to tell a story in their artwork.

The class then discussed the Alfred Crosby reading, “The Columbian Exchange”. While we have looked at many political and cultural factors, this article helps to examine the environmental factors and effects of the Spanish coming over to the New World. We talked about how food and crops traveled among the New and Old Worlds and how one staple crop can stimulate a population. For example, the potato in Ireland. However, there are also problems with a monoculture system such as when famine occurs.

Finally, the Historia Naturae by Johann Nieremberg was discussed. We went over several articles people chose from a variety of animals and plants. We can look at this source as a production of knowledge. It is a study of the history of science. He makes many comparisons to European plants or animals to better understand the new. He uses knowledge from the Old World to make sense of the New World. For example, when looking at animals he solely looks for utility. For Europeans, animals were only viewed as either bringing in wealth or making life easier. Some believed that God created animals for people to use. Another aspect to think about when examining a source like this is to think about how it was created. How would an outside European scientist collect this information? To some degree, he used information from the indigenous people. For example, for the Mournful tree, he says that the native used the flowers from the tree to dye their food. Further, some of the names are indigenous while others are names he made up. Like other primary resources, we must look at the point of view it was created and why it was created. This is a European scientist. Did he really want to understand the ecology and environment of the New World or not? Was this information used only to help facilitate European knowledge and to see what they could gain? These are just several questions that can be analyzed to better understand not only the primary source but also about the what is going on at the time in general. This source is a production of knowledge of the interaction with indigenous informants. It is constructed from aspects of both the Old and New World.

Up next…

These sources can serve as a transition from encounter and conquest to colonial rule. First, we must understand societies and how they come into contact. Then, we can look at how they set up colonial rule. The colonies were to be of service to the empire. This drives many of the sources written and actions of people during the time.

Think about …

• How to use historical biographies of everyday people to better understand the process of colonialization?
• How key are these people in the colonialization of the New World?
• Looking at the biographies, did these people have a choice between submitting to Spanish rule or remaining loyal to their indigenous communities?

Links to:

Diego Rivera murals

Teotihuacan Digital History

Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies

[1] Alfred Crosby, “The Columbian Exchange,” History Now, (June 2007), https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-indians/essays/columbian-exchange.