Week 7: The Export Boom as Modernity

This week I would like to focus on the issue of modernity. As discussed in lecture this week, modernity is thought to bring about emancipation and enlightenment and quit injustice and discrimination. However, modernity, as defined in the West, almost always equals a transformation from the traditional into capitalism and mass consumption. Controversially, capitalism has mostly benefitted the wealthy northern nations by exploiting the Global South, which has increased injustice and underdevelopment. Through these readings, it seems evident to me that the frames Europe and the West put on Latin America never served them well. Liberalism, capitalism and democracy weren't things that Latin American societies considered natural or important at the time, but they were enforced anyway. Therefore, my question this week might seem quite absurd, but if it had been up to the Latin American societies, how would they have defined modernity? What kind of things would they have considered worthy to strive for? 

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Week 12: Speaking Truth to Power

Kuva
This weeks documents demonstrated the ways in which people attempted to appeal to their authoritarian regimes. I was surprised how imaginative and diverse they were: from a student flashmob to political movements. Furthermore, I was surprised about how cheerful and catchy the Chilean "No" campaign's song was, taking into account its context and that it was mocking the dictatorship.  However, as I did my research assignment on the Argentine dirty war, I thought the videoclip about the Abuelas was powerful in conveying the pain and anxiety they were experiencing. Those women served as a way of turning statistics into real people and real loss that could be faced by basically anyone. Their requests don't seem much when they're asking to know if their children are alive or dead. However, in my short research assignment (and I think this was also mentioned in the lecture videos), I found that people were kept "disappeared" and their fates undisclosed in order
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Week 13: Towards an Uncertain Future

Writing this weeks post feels a lot harder than writing the posts from earlier weeks. I find it extremely hard to think about where Latin America, let alone the whole world, is heading. We are faced with a pandemic, ecological disaster and global political instability. Jon asked us in the lecture, now after thirteen weeks, to think about three things that come to our minds when thinking about Latin America, and all I could think about was: inequality, struggle and neoliberalism. My idea about the region has definitely gotten much darker, and therefore, my idea of its future isn't much brighter. However, as the world is continuously more globalized, I don't think it is realistic to talk about the Latin American future excluded from the global context. While every place has its own histories, and therefore also their own futures, they develop in relation to one another. As we have seen, first the involvement of the Europeans, then that of the United States has played crucial role
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Introduction

Kuva
Hello everyone!  My name is Emilia and I'm a 2nd year sociology student at UBC. I was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland, where I'll be spending this winter term. When I started at UBC I had planned to major in cognitive systems, which then turned out to be the wrong program for me. Hence, I changed into sociology and now I'm considering taking Latin American Studies either as another major or as a minor. My interest in Latin America primarily comes from my high school exchange year to Argentina. I spent a year living in Córdoba Capital, went to school there and experienced their day-to-day life. I fell in love with the culture, language and their way of living. I was also able to visit Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and later on (last reading week, hahah) Mexico. I am not sure where a passion like this could lead in the future, but for now I am excited to gain insight of the region from an academic perspective. I look forward to gain a better understanding of the Latin Americ
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