LA In the News: Mothers Forced to Sleep in the Hallways of the South Hospital Due to a Lack of Space.

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In Honduras, large numbers of postpartum mothers have been forced to sleep on the floors in the General South Hospital.  According to the article, “la falta de espacio en el albergue materno que tiene el Hospital General del Sur obliga a puérperas a tener que dormir en el suelo.”(El Heraldo)

The area for postpartum mothers to stay with their babies only has seven beds, however the weekly influx of mothers is around 20. KH Note: Small clarification, not to take away from the difficult conditions these Honduran mothers face: the article says that while there about 20 newborns admitted to the neonatal center at the hospital each week, the hospital only has seven beds available for mothers who want to sleep at the hospital to care for and breast feed their infants.   Now it is obvious that there is an issue.  In the article, two mothers share their experience with the hospital one named “Maria” and the other “Carmen.”  Both mothers got the all clear to leave the hospital, however were shocked to hear that their children had to be moved to a separate location due to complications.  They had to sleep on the floor because they were worried about their babies and needed to be there for them, “Carmen” even had a C-Section and was forced to sleep on the ground.  This event wasn’t only limited to these two women, this kind of thing happens all the time all over Honduras.

Ante el cansancio, las madres encuentran en el suelo un refugio. Foto: EL HERALDO

El Heraldo asked the directors of the hospital what they would do about the lack of space, and the hospital assures the public that they are doing things to increase the space in the maternity ward.

This article is by a Latin American newspaper for a Latin American audience, however, if more people were to see this then the portrayal would not be very good.  It shows a lot of the issues that Honduras has and why it has one of the largest wealth inequalities in the world.

Honduras experienced its own “revolution” in 2009 when there was a coup d’etat against the president Manuel Zelaya.  The after effects of the revolution are still felt today as partly evidenced by this occurrence.  Mel, during his administration, lost large sums of money that were meant for the educational fund.  Teachers went on strike for a large period of time (I actually remember this.)

 

Hcarrasco. “Madres Duermen En Los Pasillos Del Hospital Del Sur Por Falta De Espacio.” Diario El Heraldo. El Heraldo, September 9, 2019. https://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/1317489-466/madres-duermen-en-los-pasillos-del-hospital-del-sur-por-falta-de.

 

Class Notes 09/06/2019

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On Friday, September 6th, Class began with another quick overview of the Primary Source Essay,  due on Moodle at the beginning of class next Friday, where Professor Holt reiterated the usefulness of Zotero (For The College of Wooster’s guide to Zotero, Click Here: http://libguides.wooster.edu/zotero). Primary source was also a key term to define in preparation for class today, defined as a source written or collected by someone who experienced it first hand.

Next, we heard from Mia who presented her piece of Latin American News, an article centered around a culturally-rooted mezcal distilling and distributing operation, Yola Mezcal, headed by three diverse women. She explained the family roots of the company, beginning with the grandfather of the article’s featured partner, Yola Jimenez, who had a passion for growing agave and distilling mezcal in the region of Mexico known as Oaxaca. Mia drew a connection between that region being the area that Díaz was from. The familial culture of the region, centered around mezcal offered context to the kind of people that Diaz originated from, as well as how their unique culture shaped his experience and his views. Particularly on a day in which we spoke about the importance of soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution, it was refreshing to hear an article about a successful company run by women. Mia noted that there was more of a discussion around cultural significance on the Yola Mezcal website, which you can visit at: http://www.yolamezcal.com.

Following the presentation, we were shown clips from a film called “The Storm that Swept Mexico” You can watch it again through a blog post of Professor Holts that contains the video (https://larev2019.voices.wooster.edu/2019/09/05/the-storm-that-swept-mexico/). Professor Holt explained that she liked the documentary as it included not just European or American historians, but included several Latin American historians, and left it as a bilingual documentary, only providing subtitles and not dubbing over the speakers. The first clip, around the 20-minute mark, discussed Villa and Zapata, the similarities between them despite their rivalries, largely rooted in the cultural differences from the regions where they lived. Both desired land and agrarian reform, but the context for which they desired that to happen was very different. Zapata who was from the south, pushed for communal land reforms, believing in the power of the community, whereas Villa, who came from the north had very individualistic ideas, and desired a weak central government. This highlights the role that regionalism had in the Mexican Revolution as well as the way that definitions of “justice” in the context of revolutionizing a country can vary from town to town.

Many of the soldiers who were fighting were young, and those with ranching backgrounds transitioned into cavalry quite easily, Villa was touted as something of a military mastermind, but at the root of it, he was a charismatic risk-taker. He made good use of the railroad system and with this ability to travel quickly, meant that it was easier to transport more people, and from this logistical success, the concept of the soldadera was born. Now the men fighting could bring along their wives and families and thus had someone too cook for and care for them, not to mention many of the women who took up arms and helped during the actual battles. Soldaderas was one of the key terms discussed in class and are described as, women who took up arms and participated in the Mexican Revolution. Many followed their men into battle as their ‘caretakers’.

During group discussion, we talked about the soldaderas at length, questioning whether they were defined as the caretakers or the women who actually fought in the war. The question of an anti-feminist narrative was also brought up, if we neglect the women who aided in caring for the soldiers in turn for favoring the women who actually fought, is placing more value on the women fighting in an of itself an anti-feminist claim as it devalues the roles women played in other aspects of the war? How can we define their roles without incidentally devaluing the other? We found it interesting that despite the many articles we read about soldiers in our reading before class, there was next to no accounts of the women who took up arms and only seemed to present soldaderas from the caretaker perspective. Which brought up other primary sources, as while there may not be many written sources about it, there are certainly photographs. To wrap up our discussion on soldaderas, we emphasized the adaptability of these women, who left their homes to care for or fight alongside the men, and their self-preservationist attitude in making sure they succeeded in keeping themselves alive.

Questions:

How can we define soldadera to encompass the roles that all women played, while still giving each aspect the respect and recognition they require?

Define regionalism and the role that it played in the reforms demanded by revolutionaries.

How does the treatment of the soldaderas depict the culture and gender roles of the time?

LA In The News: Mexico Says It Has Cut the Number of Migrants Heading to the U.S

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Trump threatened to place tariffs on all Mexican imports if Mexico did not stop the flow of migrants from coming into the U.S. The threat from the Trump administration enticed the Mexican government to take action on the migrants crossing the U.S-Mexico border, such as employing the National Guard and police officers to help combat migrants crossing. That action, in turn, has significantly dropped the number of migrants captured at the border, “63,989 in August, from 146,266 at the end of May” (Ahmed 2019). Rights groups have begun to quickly criticize President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s decision to one, comply with the Trump administration and two, “allow the United States to send migrants seeking asylum back to Mexico to await their hearings” (Ahmed 2019). Critics have also pointed out the Mexican administration’s failure to invest in programs to keep Mexican and Central Americans to stay in their homeland rather than emigrating. 

This article portrays Latin America, specifically Mexico as economic puppets to the U.S, doing everything as told. Even though Mexico clearly promised to keep migrant rights at the forefront of policies, the Mexican government clearly allows the U.S to hold power over their immigration policies.

Although the issue of immigration is not a revolution, Mexico making policies due to economic threats/pressure from the U.S reminds me of world context from the five critical factors of a revolutionary movement. It is quite clear that Mexico’s advances to stop migrants from crossing the border have to do with the U.S. This article also highlighted the dangers of asylum seekers awaiting their hearings in Mexico, “migrants are sent back to ultraviolet states like Tamaulipas and Chihuahua to fend for themselves while they await their hearing dates” (Ahmed 2019). I could not help but relate this account to our discussion of the differences between northern and southern Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. During our readings and discussions about the revolutionary leaders, their goals varied, much because of where they were from. North and southern Mexico have different traditions, landscapes, demographics, all which made up what each revolutionary leader envisioned Mexico to be. To tie this in, many migrants are coming from the south to the north. I wonder if the treatment of migrants varies when they cross southern and northern Mexico? Or how migrants from Central America get treated in southern versus northern Mexico? Is there even a difference due to the differences between northern and southern Mexico?

Ahmed, Azam. “Mexico Says It Has Cut the Number of Migrants Heading to U.S.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/world/americas/mexico-migrants-trump.html.

 

 

Lecture on Women & War by Distinguished Historian Tuesday 9/10 @4pm

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Please join us for the inaugural Hayden Schilling Lecture, a talk by the distinguished historian, Susan Grayzel, on women’s experience in the First World War. The event, open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, September 10 at 4:00 pm in the Lean Lecture Room.

Grayzel is Professor of History at Utah State University, having previously served as Director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of several award-winning works, including War: Gender, Motherhood, and Politics in Britain and France during the First World War (1999) and At Home and Under Fire: Air Raids & Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz (2012). She will also be leading a faculty workshop and meeting with students.

This talk is the first of what will be an annual event, The Hayden Schilling Lecture, supported by the Hayden Schilling Fund for History.

More details below. We hope to see you there!  Greg Shaya, History

Public Lecture 

Susan R. Grayzel, Utah State University

The Hayden Schilling Lecture: “Did Women Have a Great War? Reflections on Women’s Experiences 100 Years On”

Tuesday, September 10, 4:00 pm, Lean Lecture Room

This talk explores some of the ways in which women experienced the First World War in order to ask if women’s “had a great war.”  It examines not only what women across a range of backgrounds and circumstances did during the war—where, how, and why they participated and what they thought about this—but as important, what a focus on women might add to our understanding of the First World War itself.

Meeting with Prof. Grayzel

Prof. Grayzel will be available to meet with students during the day on Tuesday, September 10. If you are interested in meeting with Prof. Grayzel – perhaps if you are working on topics of British history, gender history, war and gender – please contact Greg Shaya in the Department of History (gshaya@wooster.edu).
 
Short Biography

Susan R. Grayzel joined the faculty at Utah State University in 2017, teaching classes in modern European history, gender and women’s history, and the history of total war, having previously been Professor of History at the University of Mississippi, where she was also Director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. Her most recent publications include Gender and the Great War (Oxford University Press, 2017), co-edited with Tammy M. Proctor. Her previous books include Women’s Identities at War: Gender, Motherhood and Politics in Britain and France during the First World War (1999) and At Home and Under Fire: Air Raids & Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz (2012). She is engaged in two current research projects; one tracing how the civilian gas mask came to embody efforts to address the consequences of chemical warfare in the British empire, c. 1915-45, and the second with Prof. Lucy Noakes (University of Essex) on gender, citizenship, and civil defense in twentieth-century Britain. She is spending the academic year 2019-20, first as a visiting fellow at All Souls College (Oxford) for Michaelmas term 2019 and then as UK Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Leeds from mid-January to mid-July 2020.

LA in the News: Mezcal by Women

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The article I read was about a woman run mezcal business called Yola Mezcal. The main focus of the article is Yola Jimenez, who started the company. She was born in Mexico City but her grandfather started distilling mezcal for fun but it grew into a business. All the agave is still grown in Oaxaca and from growing to distributing the mezcal is mainly made by women. The article quotes Jimenez saying “some of [workers] are the granddaughters of the distillery’s original workers.” This shows how much the mezcal business is a part of the culture, that it is more than a business but a part of society.

Yola Jimenez

The business spans the US-Mexican border with all the agave being grown in Mexico but the company being run from Silver Lake, LA. Jimenez runs the business with two other partners Lykke Li and Gina Corrnell Aglietti. Each partner running a different section of the business but Aglietti is the CEO of the company. The article also quotes Aglietti discussing the sales plan saying “we brought it up in an informal way, we brought it up as a family.” This choice of quote by the author shows how much of a family this company is and these three women who run this company. The article mentions a music festival organized by the company called Yola Día which had an all-female line up (including Megan Thee Stallion), was organized by women, and women lead security teams.

A bottle of Yola Mezcal ($69.99)

This article does not really focus on Mexico, more on the company itself. It was interesting how they are highlighting the business success in the US and less on the women in Mexico and the cultural significance. The article discusses how this was Jimenez’s grandfather started the discusses but not what it means to the culture.

In class we have been discussing Díaz who is from Oaxaca which is where Yola Mezcal has its farms. I know this is a bit of a stretch but I think it is a funny coincidence. The company’s website explains more about the importance of distilling Mezcal to the culture which informs us of the cultural background of Díaz. In class we also have mentioned the importance of women in the revolution so it is interesting the parallels between the strong women in the revolution and the women who run this company.

Thompson-Hernández, W. (2019, September 2). Mezcal by Women, and for Women’s Wallets. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/style/mezcal-by-women-and-for-womens-wallets.html
YOLA MEZCAL. Retrieved September 5, 2019, from YOLA  MEZCAL website: http://www.yolamezcal.com

Class Notes 9/4/2019

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We began class with a few questions about the primary source essay, some notes about that:

  1. When quoting Spanish sources, it is not necessary to translate anything from the quote itself.
  2. You’re welcome (and encouraged) to use more than one supplementary source in addition to the chosen primary source.

We then received Kate’s presentation on an archaeological sacrificial site in Peru with children’s and llamas’ remains thought to have come about to avert the impending El Niño storm. This brought to mind perceptions of indigenous sacrifice (especially that of children) by the dominant Western European culture in the world.

We then reviewed something that was left out of the previous class due to time, which was the application of DeFronzo’s revolutionary framework onto the Mexican Revolution. However, we noted that it isn’t ethical to cherry pick evidence and force a certain framework onto a given subject, and were also trying to find ways that DeFronzo couldn’t sufficiently explain the Mexican Revolution. We supplied the following:

Mass frustration – economic depression, land ownership (and lack thereof), elites also dissatisfied & angered when Díaz goes back on promises

Permissive world context – Madero’s promises to foreign governments and corporations in the Plan of San Luis Potosí (p. 36 Wasserman), (mention of) the Zimmermann Telegram, and port blockades performed by the US in Veracruz and other cities

Unifying motivations – Madero as a figure, though this was very short lived (only weeks before insurrection)

Elite divisions – argument over Díaz’ succession between científicos and generals

Political crisis – the election to be held by Díaz (surely to be rigged)

We then spent time elaborating the concept of an ejido: a communally owned and operated piece of land in the context of Mexico, as mentioned by Zapata in the Plan of Ayala (p. 39). This is important because the concept had existed in indigenous communities and, being owned by families, was easier to buy out. Especially after the Marxist Revolution in Russia and the onset of global communist sentiments, it took on a convenient use in Latin American communist circles. Professor Holt mentioned an article by the New York Times in which the same idea of family-owned lands and homes are targeted and bought out by those who hold power; in this context, Black. She’s posted it on the home page.

We broke out into groups to go over the HAP, but ran out of time before we could return to discussion as a class. My group spent time discussing the Plan of San Luis Potosí from Madero as a primary source and the concept of democracy in Latin America in general, as well as how it’s historically been received as a proposed system. Professor Holt brought up a point about a popular argument used by white Europeans and those of European decent in Latin America being that democracy should be reserved for white spheres and that the indigenous mixing in Latin America makes it unachievable.

Further links:

  1. Brief summaries of a work, “Indigenous People and Democracy in Latin America” by Donna Lee Van Cott.
  2. A little more on the Chimú people, who would’ve performed the sacrifices mentioned in Kate’s article. They inhabited the western coast of Peru before they were conquered by the Inca.
  3. This is a pretty unique piece written about the experience of the authors in trying to establish a joint venture between a US company and an ejido in southern Mexico. It speaks on the background of ejidos in the country and some statistics on the status of them at the time of being written (1998). Consider why this interaction is being cast in a positive light, and whose voices are being showcased (politically, socioeconomically, concerning gender, etc.) and whose are not.

Questions:

  1. Can you think of ways that DeFronzo’s framework falters when applying it to the Mexican Revolution?
  2. The Mexican Revolution is often framed as being pushed by a single underlying cause or sentiment, when in reality it was a tumultuous and complex event with many different players and motivations. How could different political groups frame the revolution to their benefit in the years after (even today)?
  3. As shown by Wasserman, Díaz announced a plan to hold an election even though he held practically total power within the country. Parallels can be drawn between this and Pinochet’s decision to hold a plebiscite the 1980’s Chile. What motivations would Díaz have for doing this?

Class Notes 9/2/19

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SUMMARY/QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION: After completing the Map Quiz at the beginning of class we were given a brief presentation about the widespread death of bees (500 million in three months) in Brazil due to less strict pesticide laws within the country. We then broke into groups to discuss the following questions that are likely to be on an exam. The answers that follow the questions are some talking points that my group discussed.

What were the main causes of the Mexican Revolution?

Landowners and peasants alike were upset with the structure of Government. Demands like more voting/democratic rights or resource reallocation were brought front and center and the election of 1910 cascaded into war.

How did the leaders’ goals reflect regional differences in Mexico?

Although typically discussed as north vs south it was more urban vs rural as auto/technocratic elite of urban areas had different needs than those of landowners. The rural group wanted more extreme change while the urban group wanted lawful changes.

How does Wasserman’s interpretation of the Mexican revolution fit with Defronzo’s criteria for revolutions?

  1. Mass Frustration: Diaz is hated universally due to corrupt political system.
  2. Divisions among the elite: cientificos vs landowners
  3. Unifying Motive: All sides agree reform must occur for resource/wealth distribution
  4. Severe Political Crisis: Diaz ousted from power/Madero assassination.
  5. Tolerant World Context: The world had no response due to tensions in Europe and the eventual outbreak of WWI

Our time in groups was shorter than usual as we moved on to discuss the people behind the revolution in great detail in order to understand (people discussed are found in key terms).

KEY TERMS/PEOPLE

Porfirio Diaz: Long time ruler of Mexico who was forced out of office in 1910 due to revolution. Surrounded himself with cientificos, the technocratic elite who Diaz used to modernize and control Mexico.

Francisco Madero: Educated elite from the north who sought to reform Mexico by restoring democracy. Was a revolutionary who believed change could only come through a lawful process.

Emiliano Zapata: Leader of a small village in southern Mexico where plantation agriculture was practiced and the people were mainly indigenous and poor. Fought for a more radical change in the redistribution of land.

Francisco “Pancho” Villa: Revolutionary raider from the north who was a member of the Conventionalist movement who called for radical change. Best known revolutionary in the US due to the US military chasing him in the desert.

HELPFUL LINKS

  1. For better understanding of the people involved and the timeline of the revolution https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2824-the-mexican-revolution-1910
  2. Better understanding of the causes of the Revolution https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~kennyk/Project/New/Revolution
  3. Video Link for visual and audio aid https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-mexican-revolution-causes-effects.html

EXAM QUESTIONS

  1. What was the difference between the goals of the Constitutionalist and Conventionalist revolutionaries and how were those goals considered when drafting the 1917 constitution?
  2. What role did Madero’s assassination have in the revolution?
  3. If this revolution occurred after the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 would the outside world considered the revolution a marxist revolution due to land/resource redistribution?

LA in the News: Child Sacrifice in Peru

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Just north of Lima, Peru, around 140 bodies of children between the ages of five and 14 were discovered. Next to many of the children were around 200 llamas. The site of this archeological discovery is called “Huanchaquito-Las Llamas.” Stretching around 7,500 square feet, this site dates to about 1450 A.D., where the Chimú people lived, before the Inca nation invaded. 

Above: One of the bodies found in Peru.

According to John Verano, an anthropologist at Tulane University, the site was a sacrifice in order to stop the rains, flooding, and mudflows that were being caused by the El Niño storm. In 2011, the leader of the study, Dr. Gabriel Prieto was approached by a man who told him that his children and the dogs in the area had been digging up bones. Prieto went to look at the site and assumed it to be a forgotten group cemetary, however he placed a call to Katya Valladares, who investigated the wounds on the bodies of the children. All of the children had the same cut on their sternum, which showed that the deaths of the children were not an accident. The bodies varied in appearance, and according to the article, “some bodies had been buried in cloth, some wore cotton headdresses, and others had red-cinnabar paint preserved on their skulls.” (St Fleur 2019).The sacrifice was not gender specific, as some of the bodies were identified as females, and others as males. Because of the storm, there was a thick layer of mud surrounding the sand in which the bodies were encased.  It is believed that the weather “would have devastated the Chimú state, flooding crops, killing fish and sweeping people away.” (St Fleur 2019).

The information presented in these articles were strictly fact. The articles took the information, and provided a small historical background so that the readers were able to understand the situation better. The headlines of the articles directly tied into the stories and did not paint the Chimú people, or anybody who was involved in this archaeological discovery in a negative light. The portrayal of Peru, and of the indigenous people who live there, was very respectful.

“Mass Child Sacrifice Discovery May Be Largest in Peru.” BBC, August 28, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49495167.

St Fleur, Nicholas. “Massacre of Children in Peru Might Have Been a Sacrifice to Stop Bad Weather Be.” The New York Times, March 6, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/science/peru-child-sacrifice.html.