Hhh

dd

Ggg

x

ei

3

Food Security - Week 2

Food Security

kkk

Diego Rivera Exhibition at the MoMa

Last Friday I was able to go to the MoMa to see the famous murals made by Diego Rivera and it was absolutely amazing! I am a huge fan of arts and museums, and the opportunity to see the work of Rivera was very special.
I was somewhat familiar with his work and his style before the museum trip. A couple years ago I watched Frida, played by Salma Hayek and I remember thinking she and Rivera had such a fascinating life history. I did some light research on their lives and art, but nothing too profound. Before going to the MoMa I was not even so sure about Rivera's painting style. I had an idea in my mind of his murals and the Mexican themes on it, but again I was not too familiar.
When I walked into the room the first mural I saw was the Agrarian Leader Zapata and as soon as I looked at it I suddenly felt like I knew so much about that picture and the history behind it! It was an amazing feeling, I really was able to relate all the Latin America history discussed in class to that painting. Emiliano Zapata an agrarian leader and key protagonist in the Mexican Revolution, it is a magnificent painting and it says so much too. The men with the farming tools and the dead men right on his feet. It is the exact picture of the history we discussed in class, the popular agrarian leader, the revolution of the lower agrarian classes.
I was not only interested on the Zapata painting but mostly by the "cartoon" version of it. To me that was just beautiful, it had no colors, but Rivera's skills were brilliant.  
The Agrarian Leader Zapata was not the only painting that I could relate to what we discussed in class. Rivera had some peculiar experiences and opinions related to politics, and his work represented his ideas. The idea if the people rebelling, revolutions influenced by Russian politics and regime, his debate between the rural and the industrial workers, all these issues were brilliantly represented on his murals.
One of my favorite parts of the exhibition were the small series of paintings were I could clearly notice the Russian influences on it. The paintings of the people revolting with a lot of red elements on it were a clear allusion to Russian politics and Rivera's radical political beliefs.

The Liberation of The Peon was also related to what we discussed in class, in that mural Rivera painted revolutionary soldiers and the Peon, which were the natives who were forced to work for the Spanish colonizers. The mural can also be seem as portraying social injustice due to the economic conditions that the Peons lived.
Finally I can say that the visit to the MoMa was a great experience, I felt very familiar with the history behind those murals and was able to understand more in depth the meaning of those images.

Cfr article and last class!

The article on Venezuela and the rise of Hugo Chavez discussed some various interesting facts about Chavez and his life in politics. In fact, I did not know so much about his early life, but it sport of reminded me a little of Lula’s life, as they were both activists since a young age. Obviously this is not a comparison, but in a sense they were very active with their own community, Lula with the Union labors and Chavez in the army.

Anyway, the article was brilliant on describing Chavez with 3 major influences in his life, which really relate to his current politics a lot. The influences by the Cuban Revolution, Simon Bolivar and joining the army in such an early age and actually being able to be a part of the leftist policies aimed by this military left, like land reform and nationalism.  This combination of influences screams “Chavismo” and it shows clearly how his influences and his revolutionary heroes are such present figure during his political career.

I also thought it was very interesting that while Venezuela was having so many conflicts on the streets, due to the many social problems, Chavez and the military left were planning a coup. This coup eventually failed but the interesting part in my opinion is that he got to go to jail and educate himself on politics. He really got the chance to learn from the best on how to succeed as a politician; most important he actually got advice to be elected through legitimate elections and not a coup. On top of that, when he went to jail he became well known, especially by the lower classes so I feel like this was a really important passage to his future in politics.

When elected he was really no surprise, it seems to me that it was really expected from him to impose his power all over the public and private sectors which is exactly what he did.  The controversial constitutional reform and concentration of power especially in the Supreme Court, clear influences from his experiences.

I also thought that somehow his transactions related to oil were not that bad, the reason I say this is because he did do some investments to bring medical help to the population mostly made possible by the oil business with Cuba in exchange for health professionals, but still valid to help the population. Pretty much a lot of good things can be made available to the population due to this partnership with Cuba and trade of oil, oil is definitely the reason of why Venezuela is and probably will be in a good economic situation for the next few years.

The Pink Tide

The Pink tide is this great phenomena happening in Latin America governments, which has been causing some tension with the U.S.

Interesting enough pink tide really means a lighter shade of red, which is a lighter version of the old school communism and socialism. The new pink tide governments in Latin America are responsible for a huge change in the international relations in general, but also these pink tide leaders were able to put their countries in a whole new level, creating a strong alliance in the South.

My favorite idea related to the pink tide is that, the countries of the South can create a regional alliance to become a strong regional power and act almost as equal when negotiating with the U.S. and EU. This regional integration is able to create a more independent structure to Latin America, becoming less dependent on the American diplomacy and policies. This cooperation also creates an idea of countries that can now, compete as equals, in a sense. For instance, at a point Brazil had to accept American terms and rules in any type of negotiation, not having any chance to request anything that would be beneficial to Brazil during negotiations. Now, Brazil is developing a lot, and it has become the regional power in South America, being able to negotiate with the US and EU at the same level, not having to accept any imposition from these countries.

Another interesting thing is that in the past any leftist government was straight communist or socialist and considered bad. Today there is this analysis of the good pink tide governments and the bad ones.  Like Lula, being one of the good ones, especially because although he is from the left party with left roots he basically gave continuity to the earlier government, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Hugo Chavez for instance is obviously in the bad group of moderate socialists, he is not moderate; he is clearly Anti-America and completely pro Cuba.

In general a lot of the pink tide governments were able to provide their populations with a lot more access to the basic and resources, like in Bolivia for example Evo Moralez was able to improve the lives of the indigenous population, Lula created the Bolsa Familia, which also gave the lower classes the basics. But I believe this agreement between the South countries is creating a strong alliance and also stimulating their internal economies while engaging in partnerships like Cuba with its health care professionals for example.

Chapter 10 neoliberalism

Neoliberal governments started after all the failure provided by the nationalistic dictatorship previous government. The neo Liberals appeared to be the salvation of the moment; they emphasized free trade, export production and comparative advantage.  Neo Liberals were not nationalist at all, they embraced all the free market ideas, like privatize state corporations and social services, also reduced subsidies on basic foodstuff.

A lot of countries in Latin America were already in debt since the 1980’s, which created high oil prices and also countries were refinancing their debts. The external debt was rising, Brazil and Mexico external debts were the highest.  Obviously the IMF was a huge supporter of Neo Liberalism policies, since they were the provider of huge quantities of money to poor Latin American countries.

The neo liberal leaders were able to tame problems like inflation in Brazil and Argentina. , create some trade agreements and cuts in social spending. This was the real problem; consider the idea of hyperinflation and social cuts in the same government, the poor suffered the most with these policies.  Also the neoliberal policies really hurt the producers, there was no creation of employment within the local industries and the majority of the people from lower classes did not benefit from the neoliberal policies.

There were also the Maquiladora which, was almost like exploitation in my opinion, were women had to work assembling imported parts in Mexico. These workers which like I said were mostly women, had little rights and got paid very little. Obviously they chose to have the maquiladoras in Mexico because it was just cheap labor and little regulation.

Basically the neoliberal policies were not beneficial at all to the lower classes, since providing the basics like water and electricity to the people was not considered profitable many governments just did not care.

One of the most important movements created against the neo liberals policies was in Mexico; the Zapatistas rebelled and demanded land reform. The Zapatistas were also focused on helping the indigenous communities that also suffered with the lack of investments and opportunities.

The changes started in Latin America with the election of leaders like Chavez, Lula, Morales and etc. that had nationalist roots, turning into more socialist economic policies to help the people.

Chapter 8: Revolution

During the post war Latin America industrialization slowed down and there was this idea that a revolutionary change was necessary.  There was also a growing of nationalism and the idea of US imperialism, so populist leaders took advantage of this moment of political conflict to get elected and manipulate the people.

The populist leaders, took advantage of mass politics and attracted the working class votes by promising to improve the living conditions, they also avoided any type of class warfare to keep the support from the middle class which is very interesting. The main concern of the populist leaders was to be popular among the working class, so they use all types of political tactics like mass rallies and radio.

There were a lot of problems due to the post war, all the Latin America countries had deep social inequality, falling internal markets and also some resentment with the United States and its policies.

In Argentina there was Peronism, was a nationalist that gained strong support among the working class, he was elected by the majority and was very popular. He sought to nationalize most of the foreign companies and also turn a lot of the industrial workforce into union and he also expanded social services. He was married to Evita Peron that also became very popular as a beloved icon for Argentine workers. In Brazil Vargas ousted the military in 1945 and in 1950 he won the presidency.

Like I said there was some resentment between Latin America and the US, especially because the US started the Marshall Plan to help European countries, and Latin America had hopes to receive some type of aid from the US.

The Cuban Revolution rose with a Marxist perspective, it was a great critique of the American imperialism and also the capitalism policies that were not appropriated to Latin America realities. These capitalist policies created injustice within the society and the only natural solution to it was a revolution.

The revolution was commanded mainly by Castro and Guevara. Che believed that the countries of Latin America needed to get together to fight imperialism. Castro was a Cuban nationalist revolutionary, he was from a wealthy family, but he was deeply inspired by the nationalist student movements from Cuba. Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Che Guevara led guerrilla actions to free Cuba from Batista. Cuba became the focal point of US resistance. Cuba is still a symbol of resistance to US power, and Cuba also achieved many social improvements like increased literacy, medical care for all the people and housing. The restrictions are still part of the Cuban people’s lives, like no freedom of speech or the impossibility to travel outside the country without the consent of the government.

Chapter 7: Nationalism

Latin America pushes to a new nationalist cultural and economic agenda, the defined idea of diversity, the racial mixing and nativism challenging the ideas of Europeans. The nationalists were the urban middle class of mixed race; they did not benefit so much from the export boom so they challenged the superiority of the European Culture. There was also a critique related to the constant foreign intervention and military intervention.

In Mexico the nationalists took power through the Mexican Revolution. The revolution, directed by Zapata, transformed Mexico lands were redistributed and there was public education initiative.

Also industrialization also became central to nationalism. There was economic activism, protective labor laws and manipulated exchange rates. Mostly the larger markets were benefitting from industrialization, the poor and rural population did not see much of this phenomena.

In Brazil for instance, industry was much more profitable than agriculture.  During the Vargas presidency there was also an overproduction of coffee that caused a crisis in the industry. Nationalism was in fact very good for Vargas, it really helped maintain his popularity since there was the creation of a lot of government agencies, the national steel company, national motor factory and etc. Vargas also organized labor works and protected the workers.

Nationalism was also great to promote Brazilian culture, from Gilberto Freyre, promoting Brazilian heritage to Carmen Miranda promoting Brazilian music in the US.