Spanish 44 Final UCLA

Abya Yala

"land in its full maturity" or "land of vital blood", is the name used by the ancient Native American nation Kuna people, that used to inhabit near the Darien Gap (today North West Colombia and South East Panama) to refer to the American continent since before the Columbus arrival The Bolivian Aymara leader Takir Mamani argues for the use of the term "Abya Yala" in the official declarations of indigenous peoples' governing bodies, saying that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents is equivalent to subjecting our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs." [2] Thus, use of the term "Abya Yala" rather than a term such as New World or America may have ideological implications indicating support for indigenous rights. A publishing house in Ecuador, Editorial Abya Yala, chose its name according to Takir Mamani's suggestion.[3] The name has also been used by an independent theater in Costa Rica, Teatro Abya Yala, [4] and by a San Francisco video production and web design firm, Abya-Yala Productions.[5] A similar term referring to the continent of North America is Turtle Island, which is used by several Northeastern Woodland Native American tribes, especially the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy, for the continent of North America.[6] An anthology titled "Turtle Island to Abya Yala," featuring 60 Native American and Latina women artists and poets, had raised startup funding on Kickstarter as of 2011.

Farabundo Martí

, popularly known as Farabundo Martí, was a Marxist-Leninist activist and a revolutionary leader in El Salvador during the 1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre. Martí was born in Teotepeque, a farming community located in Departamento de La Libertad, El Salvador. After graduating from the "Salesian Secondary School" of Saint Cecilia of Santa Tecla, he entered the University of El Salvador in San Salvador. Early on, Martí believed the exploitation of the country's poor was for the profit of the rich, and he became known as a Salvadoran revolutionary and a martyr for the Salvadoran Left. Categorized by Miguel Mármol in his testimonio an intellectual, but proletarian-like young man,[1] Farabundo Martí decided to drop out of his Political Science and Jurisprudence program at the University of El Salvador to fight for his community and nation. In 1920, he was arrested for taking part along with other students in a protest against the Meléndez-Quiñonez dynasty, which was then ruling the country. His arrest subsequently led to his exile from the country, and he took up residence in Guatemala and Mexico until his return to El Salvador in 1925. Returning from exile, Martí was appointed as a representative to go to the conference of the Anti-Imperialist League of the Americas in New York City, New York. Upon arriving in New York, he was once again arrested, but later released.[citation needed] In the meantime, he also worked with Nicaraguan revolutionary leader Augusto César Sandino.[2] Martí became involved in the founding of the Communist Party of Central America, and led a communist alternative to the Red Cross called International Red Aid, serving as one of its representatives. Their goal was to help poor and underprivileged Salvadorans through the use of the Marxist-Leninist ideology. In December 1930, at the height of the country's economic and social depression, Farabundo Martí was once again exiled due to his popularity among the nation's poor and rumors of his upcoming nomination for President the following year.

Dolores Huerta

American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta has received numerous awards for her community service and advocacy for workers', immigrants', and women's rights, including the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights[1] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a role model to many in the Latino community, Huerta is the subject of many corridos (ballads) and murals.

Anastasio Somoza & Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza DeBayle (Spanish pronunciation: [anasˈtasjo soˈmosa ðeˈβaile]; 5 December 1925 - 17 September 1980) was a Nicaraguan politician and officially the 73rd and 76th President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979. He was the last member of the Somoza family to be President, ending a dynasty that had been in power since 1936. After being overthrown in an insurrection led by the FSLN, he fled Nicaragua and power was ceded to the Junta of National Reconstruction. He was eventually assassinated while in exile in Paraguay. Anastasio Somoza DeBayle, nicknamed "Tachito" (Spanish: Little Tacho) by his father, was the third child of Anastasio Somoza García and Salvadora DeBayle. At the age of seven, he was enrolled at the Instituto Pedagógico La Salle, run by the Christian Brothers. One of his classmates was Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal,[1] who would grow up to become one of the most prominent opponents of the Somoza dynasty. From the age of ten, Tachito was educated in the United States. He and older brother Luis Somoza Debayle, both attended St. Leo College Prep (Florida) and La Salle Military Academy (Long Island). He passed the examination for West Point, entered the United States Military Academy on July 3, 1943, and graduated on June 6, 1946.[2] Two years after his return from West Point, he fathered a daughter, Patricia, who was later sent to a series of schools abroad.[3] Also after his return, he was appointed chief of staff of the National Guard, (Nicaragua's national army), by his father, who had previously given many important posts to family members and close personal friends. As commander of the Guard, Somoza was head of the nation's armed forces, effectively the second most powerful man in Nicaragua. On 10 December 1950, he and Hope Portocarrero, an American citizen and his first cousin, were married at the Cathedral in Managua by Archbishop Jose Antonio Lezcano. Over 4,000 guests attended the ceremony. The reception was given by President Anastasio Somoza García in the luxurious and modern Palacio de Comunicaciones. They had five children: Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero Julio Somoza Portocarrero Carolina Somoza Portocarrero Carla Somoza Portocarrero Roberto Somoza Portocarrero Following his father's assassination on 21 September 1956, Somoza's elder brother, Luis, took over the presidency. Anastasio had a large hand in the government during this time and saw to it that the presidency was held by politicians loyal to his family from 1963 to 1967. On 1 May 1967, shortly before the death of his brother, Anastasio Somoza was himself elected president for the first time. While Luis had ruled more gently than his father had, Anastasio was intolerant of opposition of any sort, and his regime soon resembled his father's in all significant respects. When someone suggested educating the workforce, Somoza famously replied, "I don't want an educated population; I want oxen."[4] His term in office was due to end in May 1972, due to a law which disallowed immediate re-election. However, prior to that, Somoza worked out an agreement allowing him to stand for re-election in 1974; he would be replaced as president by a three-man junta consisting of two Liberals and one Conservative while he retained control of the National Guard. Somoza and his triumvirate drew up a new constitution that was ratified by the triumvirate and the cabinet on April 3, 1971. He then stepped down as president on May 1, 1972. However, as head of the National Guard, he remained the de facto ruler of the country. On 23 December 1972, an earthquake struck the nation's capital, Managua, killing about 5,000 people and virtually destroying the city. Martial law was declared, making Somoza the country's ruler in name as well as in fact once again. He then took over effective control as head of the National Emergency Committee. He reportedly embezzled many of the funds sent from across the world to help rebuild Managua.[5] Indeed, some parts of Managua have never been rebuilt or restored, including the National Cathedral. Roberto Clemente, whose ill-fated trip to Managua was intended to safeguard earthquake supplies, died in a plane crash while traveling to Nicaragua. Somoza also allegedly was selling Nicaraguan blood plasma abroad, at the time of the earthquake, when medical supplies, including blood products, were desperately in short supply.[6] Somoza was re-elected president in the 1974 election. By this time, the Catholic Church had begun to speak against his government. (Indeed, one of his fiercest critics was Ernesto Cardenal, a leftist Nicaraguan priest who preached liberation theology and would become the Sandinista government's Minister of Culture.) By the late 1970s, human rights groups were condemning the record of the Somoza government, while support for the Sandinistas was growing inside and outside the country. In July 1977, Somoza had a heart attack, and went to the US to recuperate

Arrabal

Arrabal is often considered as anti-franquist and anti-communist, instead expressing an anarchist trend in cultural production.[1] Actually, he appeared to be in good relationship with the Communist Party of Spain during his exile. A breaking off seems to have occurred in 1977 for reasons close to his professional activity.[2] In particular, a conflict concerning the performance of his play The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria in Barcelona, involving artists reputed to be close to the Communist Party, seems to have been at the origin of the rupture.

Theodore Roosevelt

As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. Following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt, at age 42, succeeded to the office, becoming the youngest United States President in history. Leading his party and country into the Progressive Era, he championed his "Square Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. Making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal. He greatly expanded the United States Navy, and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States' naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout his presidency, he sought colonies and ports all over the world to exert American influence. The end of the Spanish-American War brought new problems to the United States-namely what to do with the colonies that had been liberated from Spanish rule. On the one hand, imperialists within the government argued that America's interests would be best served in keeping the former Spanish colonies as American colonies. The Philippines, they argued, would serve as both a trading port for American interests in Asia and a military base from which to project power. They also argued that if the United States failed to claim the Philippines as its own, another European country would simply conquer the island after the American troops left. On the other hand, the anti- imperialists-those who felt the United States should promote independence and self-determination for all peoples throughout the world-argued that retaining the Philippines countered the entire reasoning behind fighting the Spanish in the first place. In the end, the Senate chose to annex the Philippines. Feeling betrayed by the United States, Filipino guerillas led by Emilio Aguinaldo, who had originally fought alongside the American forces against the Spanish, turned and waged a bloody insurrection against American occupation that lasted several years. Ironically, more Americans died fighting the guerillas in the Philippines than fighting in the Spanish-American War. The Philippines issue was never fully resolved until the nation was granted independence in 1946.

Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros

At the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City visitors enter the rectory (the main administration building), beneath an imposing three-dimensional arm emerging from a mural. Several hands, one with a pencil, charge towards a book, which lists critical dates in Mexico's history: 1520 (the Conquest by Spain); 1810 (Independence from Spain); 1857 (the Liberal Constitution which established individual rights); and 1910 (the start of the Revolution against the regime of Porfirio Díaz). David Alfaro Siqueiros left the final date blank in Dates in Mexican Histor y or the Right for Culture (1952-56), inspiring viewers to create Mexico's next great historic moment. From 1910 to 1920 civil war ravaged the nation as citizens revolted against dictator Porfirio Díaz. At the heart of the Revolution was the belief—itself revolutionary—that the land should be in the hands of laborers, the very people who worked it. This demand for agrarian reform signaled a new age in Mexican society: issues concerning the popular masses—universal public education and health care, expanded civil liberties—were at the forefront of government policy. At the end of the Revolution the government commissioned artists to create art that could educate the mostly illiterate masses about Mexican history. Celebrating the Mexican people's potential to craft the nation's history was a key theme in Mexican muralism, a movement led by Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco—known as Los tres grandes. Between the 1920s and 1950s, they cultivated a style that defined Mexican identity following the Revolution. The muralists developed an iconography featuring atypical, non-European heroes from the nation's illustrious past, present, and future—Aztec warriors battling the Spanish, humble peasants fighting in the Revolution, common laborers of Mexico City, and the mixed-race people who will forge the next great epoch, like in Siqueiros' UNAM mural. Los tres grandes crafted epic murals on the walls of highly visible, public buildings using techniques like fresco, encaustic, mosaic, and sculpture-painting. One of the earliest government commissions for a post-Revolution mural was for the National Preparatory School, a high school in Mexico City affiliated with UNAM. During the 1920s Los tres grandes and other artists completed works throughout the school's expansive exteriors and interiors.

Augusto César Sandino

Augusto Nicolás Sandino (May 18, 1895 - February 21, 1934), also known as Augusto César Sandino, (Spanish pronunciation: [auˈgusto ˈsesar sanˈdino]), was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the U.S. military occupation of Nicaragua. He was referred to as a "bandit" by the United States government; his exploits made him a hero throughout much of Latin America, where he became a symbol of resistance to United States' domination. He drew units of the United States Marine Corps into an undeclared guerrilla war. The United States troops withdrew from the country in 1933 after overseeing the election and inauguration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa, who had returned from exile. The re-call of the Marines was largely due to the Great Depression. Sandino was assassinated in 1934 by National Guard forces of Gen. Anastasio Somoza García, who went on to seize power in a coup d'état two years later. After being elected by an overwhelming vote as president in 1936, Somoza Garcia resumed control of the National Guard and established a dictatorship and family dynasty that would rule Nicaragua for more than 40 years. Sandino's political legacy was claimed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which finally overthrew the Somoza government in 1979. Sandino is revered in Nicaragua, and in 2010 was unanimously named a "national hero" by the nation's congress.[2] Sandino's political descendants, along with the icons of his wide-brimmed hat and boots, and influence of his writings from the years of warfare against the U.S. Marines, continue to help shape the national identity of Nicaragua.

Aztlán

Aztlán (from Nahuatl: Aztlān, [ˈast͡ɬaːn]) is the legendary ancestral home of the Aztec peoples. Aztecah is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan". The place Aztlan is mentioned in several ethnohistorical sources dating from the colonial period, and each of them give different lists of the different tribal groups who participated in the migration from Aztlan to central Mexico, but the Mexica who went on to found Mexico-Tenochtitlan are mentioned in all of the accounts. Historians have speculated about the possible location of Aztlan and tend to place it either in northwestern Mexico or the southwest US, although there are doubts about whether the place is purely mythical or represents a historical reality.

"Big Stick" Policy

Big stick ideology, Big stick diplomacy, or Big stick policy refers to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy: "speak softly, and carry a big stick." Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis".[1] The idea of negotiating peacefully, simultaneously threatening with the "big stick", or the military, ties in heavily with the idea of Realpolitik, which implies a pursuit of political power that resembles Machiavellian ideals.[2] Compare to the term Gunboat diplomacy, as used in international politics by imperial powers.

Evo Morales

Bolivian politician and cocalero activist who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from the indigenous population,[a] his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and multinational corporations in Bolivia. A democratic socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party. Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Morales undertook a basic education before mandatory military service, in 1978 moving to Chapare Province. Growing coca and becoming a trade unionist, he rose to prominence in the campesino ("rural laborers") union, campaigning against U.S. and Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca as a part of the War on Drugs, which he denounced as an imperialist violation of indigenous Andean culture. He repeatedly engaged in anti-government direct action protests, resulting in multiple arrests. Morales entered electoral politics in 1995, became the leader of the MAS and was elected to Congress. His campaign focused on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities. He advocates land reform and redistribution of gas wealth and gained increased visibility through the Cochabamba protests and gas conflict. In 2002 he was expelled from Congress for encouraging protesters, although he came second in that year's presidential election. Once elected in 2005, Morales increased taxation on the hydrocarbon industry to bolster social spending, emphasising projects to combat illiteracy, poverty, racism, and sexism. Vocally criticizing neoliberalism and reducing dependence on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, his administration oversaw strong economic growth while following a policy termed "Evonomics" which sought to move from a liberal economic approach to a mixed economy. Scaling back U.S. influence in the country, he built relationships with leftist governments in the Latin American pink tide and signed Bolivia into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. Attempting to moderate the left-indigenous activist community, his administration also opposed the right-wing autonomist demands of Bolivia's eastern provinces. Winning a recall referendum in 2008, he instituted a new constitution that established Bolivia as a plurinational state and was re-elected in 2009. His second term witnessed the continuation of leftist policies and Bolivia's joining of the Bank of the South and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. After becoming the world's oldest professional footballer by signing to a Bolivian team, he was again reelected in the 2014 general election. Morales is a controversial world figure, lauded by his supporters as a champion of indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and environmentalism. Praised for seriously reducing poverty and illiteracy in Bolivia, he has been internationally decorated with various awards. He has been criticised from many perspectives on the political spectrum: right-wing opponents have labelled his administration as authoritarian and radical, while leftist, indigenous, and environmentalist critics have accused him of failing to live up to many of his espoused values.

Christian Base Community

Christian Base communities are autonomous religious groups often associated with Liberation Theology. The 1968 Medellín, Colombia meeting of Latin American Council of Bishops played a major role in popularizing them.

Conventillo

Conventillo (del diminutivo de convento) es como se denomina a un tipo de vivienda urbana colectiva, también conocida como inquilinato, en Argentina, Uruguay, Chile y Bolivia, y casa de vecindad1 en España. Se trata de una vivienda en la que cada cuarto es alquilado por una familia o por un grupo de hombres solos. Los servicios (como comedor y baños) solían ser comunes para todos los inquilinos.2 Muchas veces el conventillo representaba el uso tardío de casas residenciales o petits hotels en vecindarios que habían descendido de categoría social. Solían presentar malas condiciones sanitarias, por el hacinamiento. En general, estaban estructurados en galerías alrededor de uno o varios patios centrales, las paredes y el techo eran de chapas metálicas y la estructura de vigas de madera afirmadas con piedras o ladrillos.

Dependency Theory

Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system". The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy.[

Ernesto Che Guevara

El Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become an ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.[5] As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger, and disease he witnessed.[6] His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara's political ideology.[6] Later, in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.[7] Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.[8] Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals,[9] instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion[10] and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[11] Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism-Leninism led him to posit that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism, and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution.[12][13] Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.[14] Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives,[15] he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,[16] while an Alberto Korda photograph of him, titled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was cited by the Maryland Institute College of Art as "the most famous photograph in the world".

Emiliano Zapata

FROM THE SOUTH Emiliano Zapata Salazar (Spanish pronunciation: [emiˈljano saˈpata]; 8 August 1879 - 10 April 1919) was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, the main leader of the peasant revolution in the state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo. Zapata was born in the rural village of Anenecuilco in Morelos State, where peasant communities were under increasing pressure from the small landowning class who monopolized land and water resources for sugar cane production with the support of dictator Porfirio Díaz. Zapata early on participated in political movements against Diaz and the landowning hacendados, and when the Revolution broke out in 1910 he was positioned as a central leader of the peasant revolt in Morelos. Cooperating with a number of other peasant leaders he formed the Liberation Army of the South of which he soon became the undisputed leader. Zapata's forces contributed to the fall of Díaz, defeating the Federal Army in the Battle of Cuautla, but when the revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero became president he disavowed the role of the Zapatistas, denouncing them as simple bandits. In November 1911, Zapata promulgated the Plan de Ayala which called for substantial land reforms, redistributing lands to the peasants. Madero sent the Federal Army to root out the Zapatistas in Morelos. Madero's generals employed a scorched earth policy, burning villages and forcibly removing their inhabitants, and drafting many men into the Army or sending them to forced labor camps in Southern Mexico. This strengthened Zapata's standing among the peasants and Zapata was able to drive the forces of Madero led by Victoriano Huerta out of Morelos. In a coup against Madero in February 1913, Huerta took power in Mexico, but a coalition of Constitutionalist forces in Northern Mexico led by Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón and Francisco Villa ousted him in July 1914 with the support of Zapata's troops. Zapata did not recognize the authority that Carranza asserted as leader of the revolutionary movement, continuing his adherence to the Plan of Ayala. In the aftermath of the revolutionaries' victory over Huerta, they attempted to sort out power relations in the Convention of Aguascalientes. Zapata and Villa broke with Carranza; and Mexico descended into civil war among the winners. Dismayed with the alliance with Villa, Zapata focused his energies on rebuilding society in Morelos which he now controlled, instituting the land reforms of the Plan de Ayala. As Carranza consolidated his power and defeated Villa in 1915, Zapata initiated guerrilla warfare against the Carrancistas, who in turn invaded Morelos, employing once again scorched earth tactics to oust the Zapatista rebels. Zapata once again retook Morelos in 1917 and held most of the state against Carranza's troops until he was killed in an ambush in April 1919. After his death Zapatista generals aligned with Obregón against Carranza and helped drive Carranza from power. In 1920, Zapatistas managed to obtain powerful posts in the governance of Morelos after Carranza's fall. They instituted many of the land reforms envisioned by Zapata in Morelos.

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (American Spanish: [fiˈðel aleˈhandɾo ˈkastɾo ˈrus] About this sound audio (help·info); August 13, 1926 - November 25, 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Politically a Marxist-Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. Born in Birán, Oriente as the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons on Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis—a defining incident of the Cold War—in 1962. Adopting a Marxist-Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, and sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its "Special Period" and embraced environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s he forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide"—namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela—and signed Cuba to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who formally assumed the presidency in 2008. Castro is a polarizing world figure. He was decorated with various international awards, and his supporters laud him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary regime secured Cuba's independence from American imperialism. Conversely, critics view him as a dictator whose administration oversaw human-rights abuses, the exodus of a large number of Cubans, and the impoverishment of the country's economy. Through his actions and his writings he significantly influenced the politics of various individuals and groups across the world.

Pancho Villa

Francisco "Pancho" Villa (born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 - 20 July 1923) was a Mexican Revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution. As commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North) in the Constitutionalist Army, he was a military-landowner (caudillo) of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Given the area's size and mineral wealth, it provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Villa can be credited with decisive military victories leading to the ousting of Victoriano Huerta from the presidency in July 1914. Villa then fought his erstwhile leader in the coalition against Huerta, "First Chief" of the Constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza. Villa was in alliance with southern revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who remained fighting in his own region of Morelos. The two revolutionary generals briefly came together to take Mexico City after Carranza's forces retreated from it. Later, Villa's heretofore undefeated División del Norte engaged the military forces of Carranza under Carrancista general Álvaro Obregón and was defeated in the 1915 Battle of Celaya. Villa was again defeated by Carranza, 1 November 1915, at the Second Battle of Agua Prieta 1 November 1915, after which Villa's army collapsed as a significant military force. Villa subsequently led a raid against the U.S.-Mexican border town in the Battle of Columbus 9 March 1916. The U.S. government sent U.S. Army General John J. Pershing to capture Villa in an unsuccessful nine-month incursion into Mexican sovereign territory (Pancho Villa Expedition) that ended when the United States entered World War I and Pershing was recalled. In 1920, Villa made an agreement with the Mexican government, following the ousting and death of Carranza, to retire from hostilities and was given an hacienda near Parral, Chihuahua, which he turned into a "military colony" for his former soldiers. In 1923, as presidential elections approached, he re-involved himself in Mexican politics. Shortly thereafter he was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregón. FROM THE NORTH OF MEXICO

Border Identity

From border studies theory arises the term "border crossings," coined by Anzaldua ( 77 ), which refers to moving across diverse borders such as race, gender, or geography. NI DE AQUI NI DE ALLA

Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.

Hijas de Cuauhtémoc

Hijas de Cuauhtémoc was a student Chicana feminist newspaper founded in 1971 by Anna Nieto-Gómez and Adelaida Castillo while both were students at California State University, Long Beach.[1] Named after "a Mexican feminist organization that worked against the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship in Mexico", Hijas de Cuauhtémoc focused on issues specific to Chicanas, such as gender and sexuality.[2] Despite running for only a few issues, the magazine's "coverage of the social and economic marginalization of Chicanas in American society, and of the perpetuation of historical and contemporary stereotypes of Chicanas, provide critical documents of [the early 1970s]".[1] In the spring of 1973, Hijas de Cuauhtémoc became the scholarly feminist journal, Encuentro Femenil, but publication ended within two years.[1] Other activists and contributors to Hijas de Cuauhtémoc include Sylvia Castillo, Leticia Hernandez, and Corinne Sanchez.

Imperialism

Imperialism is "a policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means".[3][4] It has also allowed for the rapid spread of technologies and ideas. The term imperialism has been applied to Western (and Japanese) political and economic dominance, especially in Asia and Africa, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Imperialism is defined as "A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force."[6] Imperialism is particularly focused on the control that one group, often a state power, has on another group of people.[7] This is often through various forms of "othering" (see other) based on racial, religious, or cultural stereotypes. There are "formal" or "informal" imperialisms. "Formal imperialism" is defined as "physical control or full-fledged colonial rule".[7] "Informal imperialism" is less direct; however, it is still a powerful form of dominance.

Gaucho

In its historical sense a gaucho was one "who, in the 18th and 19th centuries, inhabited Argentina, Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul.[1] Today, in Argentina and Uruguay, a gaucho is simply "A country person, experienced in traditional cattle ranching work".[2] Because historical gauchos were reputed to be brave, if unruly, the word is also applied metaphorically to mean "Noble, brave and generous",[3] but also "One who is skilful in subtle tricks, crafty".[4] In Portuguese the word gaúcho (note the accent) means "An inhabitant of the plains of Rio Grande do Sul or the pampas of Argentina descended from European man and [Amer]Indian woman who devotes himself to lassoing and raising cattle and horses";[5] and in Brazil gaúcho has also acquired a metonymic signification, meaning anyone, even an urban dweller, who is a citizen of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.[6] In its purest sense, gaucho referred to the nomadic, often outlaw inhabitants of the great plains of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. In current usage, gaucho usually designates the rural working class in general."[7] The gaucho in some respects resembled members of other nineteenth century rural, horse-based cultures such as the North American cowboy (vaquero, in Spanish), the Chilean huaso, the Venezuelan or Colombian llanero, the Hawaiian paniolo,[8] and the Mexican charro. The gaucho is a national symbol in both Argentina and Uruguay. Gauchos became greatly admired and renowned in legends, folklore and literature and became an important part of their regional cultural tradition. Beginning late in the 19th century, after the heyday of the gauchos, they were celebrated by South American writers.

Jose Marti

José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853 - May 19, 1895) was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life, he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, a Freemason, a political theorist, and supporter of Henry George's economic reforms known as Georgism.[1][2] Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol for Cuba's bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence."[3] He also wrote about the threat of Spanish and US expansionism into Cuba. From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works consist of a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, a novel, and even a children's magazine. He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers himself. His newspaper Patria was a key instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, "Versos Sencillos" (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera", which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Martí demonstrated an anti-American attitude from an early age, and was conscious of the perceived danger the United States posed for Latin America. At the same time he recognized the advantages of the European or North American civilizations, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of North American politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. In that time Cuba was dangerously situated, which determined its definitive analysis on the two realities in conflict. In his essays on "Discurso de la Sociedad Literaria Hispanoamercana" and "Madre America" (1891), he had referred to the "magnanimous warrior of the North" and to the "volcanic hero of the South", and he had pointed out major differences that distance them starting from their origins.

"Tierra y Libertad" / "Land and Freedom"

Land and Freedom (or Tierra y Libertad[1]) is a 1995 film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen. The film narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War, an anti-fascist coalition of Socialists, Communists and Anarchists. The film won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

Lunfardo

Lunfardo (from the Italian lumbardo or inhabitant of Lombardy in the local dialect) is a slang originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the surrounding area Greater Buenos Aires,[1][2] and from there spread to other cities nearby, such as Rosario, places with similar socio-cultural situations. Originally, Lunfardo was a slang used by criminals and soon by other people of the lower and lower-middle classes. Later, many of its words and phrases were introduced in the vernacular and disseminated the Spanish of Argentina, and Uruguay. Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo has spread among all social strata and classes by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics of tango.

Francisco Madero

Mexican statesman, writer, and revolutionary who served as the 33rd president of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913. He was an advocate for social justice and democracy. Madero was notable for having challenged Mexican President Porfirio Díaz for the presidency in 1910 and being instrumental in sparking the Mexican Revolution. Madero called on voters to prevent the sixth reelection of Porfirio Díaz, which Madero considered anti-democratic. His vision would lay the foundation for a democratic, 20th-century Mexico, but without polarizing the social classes. To that effect, he bankrolled the Anti-Reelectionist Party (later the Progressive Constitutional Party) and urged Mexicans to rise up against Díaz, which ignited the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Madero's candidacy against Díaz garnered widespread support in Mexico, since he was someone of independent financial means, ideological determination, and bravery to oppose Díaz when it was dangerous to do so.[6] Arrested by the dictatorship shortly after being declared Presidential candidate by his party, the opposition leader escaped from prison and launched the Plan of San Luis Potosí from the United States, in this manner beginning the Mexican Revolution. Following the resignation of Díaz from the presidency on 25 May 1911 after the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, Madero became the highest political leader of the country. Known as "Maderistas", Madero's followers referred to him as the "caudillo de la Revolución" (leader of the Revolution). He was elected president on 15 October 1911 by almost 90% of the vote. Sworn into office on 6 November 1911, he became one of Mexico's youngest elected presidents having just turned 38. Despite considerable popularity amongst the people, Madero's administration soon encountered opposition both from more radical revolutionaries and from remnants of the former regime. In February 1913, a military coup took place in the Mexican capital led by General Victoriano Huerta, the military commander of the city. Madero was arrested and a short time later assassinated along with his Vice-President, José María Pino Suárez on 22 February 1913, following the series of events known as the Ten Tragic Days (la Decena Trágica). The death of Madero and Pino Suárez led to a national and international outcry which eventually paved the way for the fall of the Huerta Dictatorship, the triumph of the Mexican Revolution and the establishment of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico under maderista President Venustiano Carranza.

UMAP (Military Units for Production Support)

Military Units to Aid Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción) were agricultural labor camps operated by the Cuban government from November 1965 to July 1968 in the province of Camagüey.[1] The UMAP camps served as a form of alternative civilian service for Cubans who could not serve in the military due to being, conscientious objectors, homosexuals, or political enemies of the revolution. The majority of UMAP servicemen were conscientious objectors. A small portion or about 8% to 9% of the immates were homosexual men, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Catholic and Protestant priests, intellectuals, farmers who resisted collectivization, as well as anyone else considered "anti-social" or "counter-revolutionary."[1] Former Intelligence Directorate agent Norberto Fuentes estimated that of approximately 35,000 internees, 507 ended up in psychiatric wards, 72 died from torture, and 180 committed suicide.[2] A 1967 human rights report from the Organization of American States found that over 30,000 internees are "forced to work for free in state farms from 10 to 12 hours a day, from sunrise to sunset, seven days per week, poor alimentation with rice and spoiled food, unhealthy water, unclean plates, congested barracks, no electricity, latrines, no showers, immates are given the same treatment as political prisoners."[3] The report concludes that the UMAP camps' two objectives are "facilitating free labor for the state" and "punishing young people who refuse to join communist organizations."[3] The Cuban government maintained that the UMAPs are not labor camps, but part of military service.[3] In a 2010 interview with La Jornada, Fidel Castro admitted in response to a question about the UMAP camps that "Yes, there were moments of great injustice, great injustice!"

Nelly Campobello

Nellie (or Nelly) Francisca Ernestina Campobello Luna (November 7, 1900 - July 9, 1986) was a Mexican writer. She is notable for having written one of the few chronicles of the Mexican Revolution from a woman's perspective: Cartucho, a book that chronicles her experience as a young girl in Northern Mexico at the height of the struggle between forces loyal to Pancho Villa and those who followed Venustiano Carranza. She moved to Mexico City in 1923, where she spent the rest of her life and associated with many of the most famous Mexican intellectuals and artists of the epoch. Like her half-sister Gloria, a well-known ballet dancer, she was also known as an enthusiastic dancer and choreographer; she was the director the Mexican National School of Dance. Cartucho a semi-autobiographical short novel or novella set in the Mexican Revolution and originally published in 1931. It consists of a series of vignettes that draw on Campobello's memories of her childhood and adolescence (and the stories her mother told her) in Northern Mexico during the war. Though long overlooked, it is now celebrated, among other reasons because it is, as Mexican critic Elena Poniatowska points out, "the only real vision of the Mexican revolution written by a woman." included corridos in her book, Cartucho is a book about memory and identity, about memory and survival—individual and collective survival

Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism, neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization and cultural imperialism to influence a developing country in lieu of direct military control (imperialism) or indirect political control

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism (neo-liberalism)[1] refers primarily to the 20th century resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism.[2]:7 These include extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of financialization, with the financial crisis of 2007-08 as one of the ultimate results.[10][11][12][13][14] The term has been used since 1938[15] but became more prevalent in its current meaning in the 1970s and '80s by scholars in a wide variety of social sciences[16] and critics.[17] Advocates of free market policies avoid the term "neoliberal".[18] The definition and usage of the term has changed over time.[3] It was originally an economic philosophy that emerged among European liberal scholars in the 1930s in an attempt to trace a so-called 'Third' or 'Middle Way' between the conflicting philosophies of classical liberalism and socialist planning.[19]:14-5 The impetus for this development arose from a desire to avoid repeating the economic failures of the early 1930s, which were mostly blamed by neoliberals on the economic policy of classical liberalism. In the decades that followed, the use of the term neoliberal tended to refer to theories at variance with the more laissez-faire doctrine of classical liberalism, and promoted instead a market economy under the guidance and rules of a strong state, a model which came to be known as the social market economy. In the 1960s, usage of the term "neoliberal" heavily declined. When the term was reintroduced in the 1980s in connection with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, the usage of the term had shifted. It had not only become a term with negative connotations employed principally by critics of market reform, but it also had shifted in meaning from a moderate form of liberalism to a more radical and laissez-faire capitalist set of ideas. Scholars now tended to associate it with the theories of economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.[3] Once the new meaning of neoliberalism was established as a common usage among Spanish-speaking scholars, it diffused into the English-language study of political economy.[3] Scholarship on the phenomenon of neoliberalism has been growing.[20] The impact of the global 2008-09 crisis has also given rise to new scholarship that critiques neoliberalism and seeks developmental alternatives.

Nicolás Guillén

Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista (10 July 1902 - 16 July 1989) was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.[2] Born in Camagüey, he studied law at the University of Havana, but abandoned a legal career and worked as both a typographer and journalist. His poetry was published in various magazines from the early 1920s; his first collection, Motivos de son (1930) was strongly influenced by his meeting that year with the African-American poet, Langston Hughes. He drew from son music in his poetry. West Indies, Ltd., published in 1934, was Guillén's first collection with political implications.[3] Cuba's dictatorial Gerardo Machado regime was overthrown in 1933, but political repression intensified. After being jailed in 1936, Guillén joined the Communist Party the next year,[3] traveling to Spain for a Congress of Writers and Artists, and covering the Spanish Civil War as a magazine reporter.[2] After returning to Cuba, he stood as a Communist in the local elections of 1940. This caused him to be refused a visa to enter the United States the following year, but he traveled widely during the next decades in South America, China and Europe. In 1953, after being in Chile, he was refused re-entry to Cuba and spent five years in exile. He returned after the successful Cuban revolution of 1959. From 1961 he served more than 25 years as president of the Unión Nacional de Escritores de Cuba, the National Cuban Writers' Union.[2] His awards included the Stalin Peace Prize in 1954, the 1976 International Botev Prize, and in 1983 he was the inaugural winner of Cuba's National Prize for Literature.

Platt Amendment

On March 2, 1901, the Platt Amendment was passed as part of the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill.[1] It stipulated seven conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War, and an eighth condition that Cuba sign a treaty accepting these seven conditions. It defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations to essentially be an unequal one of U.S. dominance over Cuba. On December 25, 1901, Cuba amended its constitution to contain the text of the Platt Amendment.[2] On May 22, 1903, Cuba entered into a treaty with the United States to make the same required seven pledges: the Cuban-American Treaty of Relations of 1903.[1] Two of the seven pledges were to allow the United States to intervene unilaterally in Cuban affairs, and a pledge to lease land to the United States for naval bases on the island. (The Cuban-American Treaty of Relations of 1934 replaced the 1903 Treaty of Relations, and dropped three of the seven pledges.) The 1903 Treaty of Relations was used as justification for the Second Occupation of Cuba from 1906 to 1909. On September 29, 1906, Secretary of War (and future U.S. president) William Howard Taft initiated the Second Occupation of Cuba when he established the Provisional Government of Cuba under the terms of the treaty (Article three), declaring himself Provisional Governor of Cuba.[3][4] On October 23, 1906, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 518, ratifying the order.[3] On May 29, 1934, the United States and Cuba signed a new treaty that in its first article abrogates the Platt Amendment known also as the Permanent Treaty.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Peruvian philosopher, theologian, and Dominican priest regarded as one of the founders of liberation theology.[1] He currently holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and has previously been a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.[2] Gutiérrez is a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language, and a founder of the Bartolomé de las Casas Institute. In 1993 he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for his tireless work. In 2002 Gutiérrez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2003 he received the Príncipe de Asturias award. In 2016, he received the Pacem in Terris Award from St. Ambrose University. Gutiérrez calls for understanding the reality of the poor. Being poor is not simply lacking the economic resources for development. On the contrary, Gutiérrez understands poverty as "a way of living, of thinking, of loving, of praying, of believing and waiting, of spending free time, of fighting for life." That is why he says: "Poverty is not a fatality, it is a condition."[11] On the other hand, the Dominican emphasizes that poverty is the result of society. However, for many other theologians it seems that reducing the problem of poverty to something totally social is quite simple. To Gutiérrez, the origin of poverty is much more complex. In Latin America, it originates from the times of the conquest and to that is added several political, geographical, and personal factors. The proclamation of the gospel in the midst of the unjust situation in Latin America lead to a praxis based on principles derived from the word of God. In the article Theology and Poverty, Gutiérrez recalls that this option should lead to three well-defined actions. The preferential option for the poor unfolds as a fundamental axis of the Christian life three levels:

Porfirio Diaz

Porfirio Díaz, (born Sept. 15, 1830, Oaxaca, Mex.—died July 2, 1915, Paris, France) soldier and president of Mexico (1877-80, 1884-1911), who established a strong centralized state that he held under firm control for more than three decades. He led an unsuccessful protest against the 1871 reelection of Juárez, who died the following year. Díaz continued his protests in an unsuccessful revolt against Pres. Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada in 1876, after which he fled to the United States. Six months later, however, he returned and defeated the government forces at the Battle of Tecoac (November 1876), and in May 1877 he was formally elected president. Porfirio Diaz PRESIDENT OF MEXICO BORN September 15, 1830 Oaxaca, Mexico DIED July 2, 1915 Paris, France RELATED BIOGRAPHIES Antonio López de Santa Anna Nicolás Bravo Andrés Manuel López Obrador Venustiano Carranza Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Francisco Madero Vicente Fox Miguel Miramón Manuel González Valentín Gómez Farías Porfirio Díaz, (born Sept. 15, 1830, Oaxaca, Mex.—died July 2, 1915, Paris, France) soldier and president of Mexico (1877-80, 1884-1911), who established a strong centralized state that he held under firm control for more than three decades. Mexican Pres. Porfirio Díaz in uniform, 1911. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-100275) A mestizo (part Indian), Díaz was of humble origin. He began training for the priesthood at age 15, but upon the outbreak of war with the United States (1846-48) he joined the army. An illustrious military career followed, including service in the War of the Reform (1857-60) and the struggle against the French in 1861-67, when Maximilian became emperor. Earlier (1849) Díaz had studied law with the encouragement of the Liberal Benito Juárez, who first became president in 1858. Porfirio Díaz. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Díaz resigned his command and went back to Oaxaca when peace was restored but soon became dissatisfied with the Juárez administration. He led an unsuccessful protest against the 1871 reelection of Juárez, who died the following year. Díaz continued his protests in an unsuccessful revolt against Pres. Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada in 1876, after which he fled to the United States. Six months later, however, he returned and defeated the government forces at the Battle of Tecoac (November 1876), and in May 1877 he was formally elected president. Mexican Pres. Porfirio Díaz on horseback, 1911. Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-05876) During his first four years in office, Díaz began a slow process of consolidation of power and built up a strong political machine. His administration achieved a few public improvements but was more noted for its suppression of revolts. Over the course of the next 26 years Díaz produced an orderly and systematic government with a military spirit. He succeeded in destroying local and regional leadership until the majority of public employees answered directly to him. Even the legislature was composed of his friends, and the press was muffled. He also maintained tight control over the courts.

Augusto Pinochet

President of Chile between 1973 and 1990 and Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army from 1973 to 1998. He was also president of the Government Junta of Chile between 1973 and 1981.[2] His rule of Chile was a dictatorship.[3][4] Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d'état on 11 September 1973 that overthrew the democratically elected socialist Unidad Popular government of President Salvador Allende and ended civilian rule. Several academics have stated that the support of the United States was crucial to the coup and the consolidation of power afterward.[5][6][7] Pinochet had been promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army by Allende on 23 August 1973, having been its General Chief of Staff since early 1972.[8] In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh.[9] From the start of the new military government harsh measures were implemented.[10] During the period of Pinochet's rule, various investigations have identified the murder of 1,200 to 3,200 people with up to 80,000 people forcibly interned and as many as 30,000 tortured.[11][12][13] According to the Chilean government, the official number of deaths and forced disappearances stands at 3,095.[14] Under the influence of the free market-oriented neoliberal "Chicago Boys", the military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. These policies produced what has been referred to as the "Miracle of Chile," but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies.[15][16] Chile was, for most of the 1990s, the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute.[17] Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new Constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the Presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle he was released on grounds of ill-health, and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest.[8] By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, and tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule;[18] he was accused of having corruptly amassed at least 28 million USD.[19] Despite the indictment and 300 charges, he only served time in house arrest.

Rigoberta Menchú

Rigoberta Menchú was born on January 9, 1959 to a poor Indian peasant family and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture. In her early years she helped with the family farm work, either in the northern highlands where her family lived, or on the Pacific coast, where both adults and children went to pick coffee on the big plantations. Rigoberta Menchú soon became involved in social reform activities through the Catholic Church, and became prominent in the women's rights movement when still only a teenager. Such reform work aroused considerable opposition in influential circles, especially after a guerilla organization established itself in the area. The Menchú family was accused of taking part in guerrilla activities and Rigoberta's father, Vicente, was imprisoned and tortured for allegedly having participated in the execution of a local plantation owner. After his release, he joined the recently founded Committee of the Peasant Union (CUC). In 1979, Rigoberta, too, joined the CUC. That year her brother was arrested, tortured and killed by the army. The following year, her father was killed when security forces in the capital stormed the Spanish Embassy where he and some other peasants were staying. Shortly afterwards, her mother also died after having been arrested, tortured and raped. Rigoberta became increasingly active in the CUC, and taught herself Spanish as well as other Mayan languages than her native Quiche. In 1980, she figured prominently in a strike the CUC organized for better conditions for farm workers on the Pacific coast, and on May 1, 1981, she was active in large demonstrations in the capital. She joined the radical 31st of January Popular Front, in which her contribution chiefly consisted of educating the Indian peasant population in resistance to massive military oppression. In 1981, Rigoberta Menchú had to go into hiding in Guatemala, and then flee to Mexico. That marked the beginning of a new phase in her life: as the organizer abroad of resistance to oppression in Guatemala and the struggle for Indian peasant peoples' rights. In 1982, she took part in the founding of the joint opposition body, The United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG). In 1983, she told her life story to Elisabeth Burgos Debray. The resulting book, called in English, I, Rigoberta Menchú, is a gripping human document which attracted considerable international attention. In 1986, Rigoberta Menchú became a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the CUC, and the following year she performed as the narrator in a powerful film called When the Mountains Tremble, about the struggles and sufferings of the Maya people. On at least three occasions, Rigoberta Menchú has returned to Guatemala to plead the cause of the Indian peasants, but death threats have forced her to return into exile. Over the years, Rigoberta Menchú has become widely known as a leading advocate of Indian rights and ethno-cultural reconciliation, not only in Guatemala but in the Western Hemisphere generally, and her work has earned her several international awards.

Salvador Allende

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (Spanish: [salβaˈðoɾ aˈʝende ˈɣosens]; 26 June 1908 - 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.[1] Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close three-way race. He was elected in a run-off by Congress as no candidate had gained a majority. As president, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries and collectivisation; due to these and other factors, increasingly strained relations between him and the legislative and judicial branches of the Chilean government culminated in a declaration by Congress of a "constitutional breakdown". A centre-right majority including the Christian Democrats, whose support had enabled Allende's election, denounced his rule as unconstitutional and called for his overthrow by force.[citation needed] On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d'état sponsored by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[2][3][4] As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, he gave his last speech vowing not to resign.[5] Later that day, Allende shot himself with an assault rifle,[6] according to an investigation conducted by a Chilean court with the assistance of international experts in 2011.[7] Following Allende's death, General Augusto Pinochet refused to return authority to a civilian government, and Chile was ruled by a military junta that was in power up until 1990, ending almost four decades of uninterrupted democratic rule. The military junta that took over dissolved the Congress of Chile, suspended the Constitution, and began a persecution of alleged dissidents, in which thousands of Allende's supporters were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street (1984) and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms and investigates emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell.[1] She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature.[2]

Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos was the nom de guerre used by Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born June 19, 1957)[1] who was the leader and primary spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) during the Chiapas conflict.[2] Marcos has used several other pseudonyms; he referred to himself as Delegate Zero during the 2006 Mexican Presidential Campaign, and in May 2014 announced that Subcommandante Marcos "no longer exists," adopting the name Subcomandante Galeano instead. Once Subcomandante Marcos was identified as Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, on 9 February 1995, President Ernesto Zedillo decided to launch a military offensive to capture or annihilate Marcos and the Zapatistas. »[21] Arrest warrants were issued for Marcos, "[22] Javier Elorriaga Berdegue, Silvia Fernández Hernández, Jorge Santiago, Fernando Yanez, German Vicente, Jorge Santiago and other Zapatistas. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation were besieged by the Mexican Army in the Lacandon Jungle. Marcos resolve was put to the test, in his camp in the Lacandon Jungle when the Zapatistas were under the Mexican Army military siege. Marcos response was immediate, sending Esteban Moctezuma the following message: "See you in hell". Conflicting signals got strengthened in favor of a fast military solution. The facts seemed to confirm Manuel Camacho Solis 16 June 1994 accusations that the reason for his resignation as the Chiapas Peace Commissioner, was due to sabotage done by the presidential candidate Ernesto Zedillo. Under the big political pressure of a highly radicalized situation Mexico Secretary of the Interior Lic. Esteban Moctezuma believed a peaceful solution was possible, he championed to reach a peacefully negotiated solution to the 1995 Zapatista Crisis betting it all on a creative strategy to reestablish the Mexican Government Zapatista Army of National Liberation dialog to search for peace by demonstrating Marcos natural peace vocation and the terrible consequences of a military solution. Making a strong position against the 9 February actions against Peace, Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma defender of a political solution, to the 1995 Zapatista Crisis submit his resignation to the President Ernesto Zedillo which he does not accept it and asks the Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma to try the improbable task of restoring the Conditions for dialog to reach a negotiation. For these foregoing reasons the Mexican army, ease actions, giving an opportunity that Marcos capitalized to escape the military site em placed in the Lacandon Jungle. Faced with this situation, Max Appedole, Rafael Guillén, childhood friend and colleague, at the Jesuits College Instituto Cultural Tampico asked for help from Edén Pastora the legendary Nicaraguan "Commander Zero" to prepare a report for under-Secretary of the Interior Luis Maldonado; the Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma and the President Ernesto Zedillo about Marcos natural pacifist vocation and the terrible consequences of a tragic outcome. »[23] The document concluded that the marginalized groups and the radical left that exist in México, have been vented with the Zapatistas movement, while Marcos maintains an open negotiating track. Eliminate Marcos and his social containment work will not only would cease, but will give opportunity to the radical groups to take control of the movement. They will response to violence with violence. They would begin the terrorist bombings, kidnappings and belligerent activities. The country would be in a very dangerous spiral, which could lead to very serious situations because not only there is discomfort in Chiapas, but in many places in Mexico. "

Tango

Tango is a partner dance that originated in the 1880s along the River Plate, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay, and soon spread to the rest of the world.[2] Early tango was known as tango criollo (Creole tango). Today, there are many forms of tango extant. Popularly and among tango dancing circles, the authentic tango is considered to be the one closest to the form originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay. On August 31, 2009, UNESCO approved a joint proposal by Argentina and Uruguay to include the tango in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

Chilean Road to Socialism

The 1973 coup that toppled Salvador Allende's Popular Unity (UP) government, unleashing a wave of repression that wiped out a generation of revolutionaries and working class activists, is receiving long-due attention in Chile's official circles. Forty years after this watershed episode, right-wing president Sebastian Piñera felt compelled to commemorate the coup, acknowledging unjustifiable human rights violations and the complicity of many who remained silent in the face of raids, torture, and disappearances. Motivated by the symbolic 40 year mark, the backgrounds of the presidential candidates, and re-emerging mass movements, debate of the Popular Unity experience and the coup is certainly welcome. Fortunately, much of the dictatorship's account will be dismissed, allowing the discussion to focus on the strategic merit of competing revolutionary approaches that came to a head in 1973. An appraisal of the successes and failures of the Chilean road to socialism will be invaluable for the new layers of popular activists cutting their teeth in the student, indigenous, environmental and shanty movements. On one hand, the center-left political class that from 1990 to 2010 faithfully managed the neoliberal order imposed by the military regime will promote the view that the coup was provoked by radicalized groups and rank-and-file movements who pushed too fast and too far beyond the limits permitted by current circumstances. Contra this view, many revolutionaries will maintain that the coup was successful precisely because UP officials, Socialist Allende, most prominently among them, failed to prepare the masses for the inevitable showdown. Unfortunately, a third, more sober perspective that holds that by 1973 reactionary elite unity had closed the window on revolution will not make it into the debate among radicals. The new official account reflects the position of Allende, the Communist party, and the right-wing of the Socialists during the UP years.* Though today's Concertación alliance forsakes all roads to socialism, a key distinction between the UP moderates and their present descendants, it claims to uphold key principles behind the tactics of Allende and his 'gradualist' supporters.

Invasion of Bay of Pigs

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (Spanish: Invasión de Playa Girón or Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos or Batalla de Girón) was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military (made up of Cuban exiles who traveled to the United States after Castro's take over), trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. The Presidential coup of 1952 led by General Fulgencio Batista, against President Carlos Prio, an ally of the United States, forced President Carlos Prio into exile to Miami, Florida. President Prio's exile was the reason for the 26th July Movement led by Fidel Castro. The movement, which did not succeed until after the Cuban Revolution of December 31, 1959, severed the country's formerly strong links with the US after nationalizing American economic assets (banks, oil refineries, sugar and coffee plantations, along with other American owned businesses). It was after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, that Fidel Castro forged strong economic links with the Soviet Union, with whom, at the time, the United States was engaged in the Cold War. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was very concerned at the direction Castro's government was taking, and in March 1960, he allocated $13.1 million to the CIA to plan Castro's overthrow (though the plan to overthrow Castro was put off for Kennedy to decide). The CIA proceeded to organize the operation with the aid of various Cuban counter-revolutionary forces, training Brigade 2506 in Guatemala. Eisenhower's successor John F. Kennedy approved the final invasion plan on 4 April 1961.

Bracero Program

The Bracero Program (named for the Spanish term bracero, meaning "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. The agreement guaranteed basic human rights (sanitation, adequate shelter and food) and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour; it also enabled the importation of temporary contract laborers from Guam to the United States as a momentary war-related clause to supply workers during the early phases of World War II.[1] The agreement was extended with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951, which with the PL 78, set the official parameters for the Bracero Program until its termination in 1964.

The "Chicago Boys"

The Chicago Boys were a group of Chilean economists prominent around the 1970s and 80s, the majority of whom trained at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Conquest of the Desert

The Conquest of the Desert (Spanish: Conquista del desierto) was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intent to establish Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples. Under General Roca, the Conquest of the Desert extended Argentine power into Patagonia and ended the possibility of Chilean expansion there. Argentine troops killed more than a thousand Indians and displaced over 15,000 more from their traditional lands. Ethnic European settlers developed the lands for agriculture, turning it into a breadbasket that made Argentina an agricultural superpower in the early 20th century.[1][2] The Conquest is commemorated on the 100 peso bill in Argentina. The Conquest is highly controversial. Apologists have described the Conquest as bringing civilization, while revisionists have labeled it a genocide.

ICAIC (Institute of Cuban Cinematography)

The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) was established by the Cuban government in March 1959, after the Cuban Revolution. Its major founders are Julio García Espinosa, Alfredo Guevara and Santiago Álvarez[1] The ICAIC is an organization of a film industry to produce, distribute and exhibit films and related work following the Cuban Revolution. The aim of the ICAIC is to use film as a powerful mass communication medium to mobilize and educate people, improve the quality level of Cuba films with appreciation among the masses and reach a wide public. Through educating the new generation of young directors, one of the responsibilities of the ICAIC is to transform Cuba from a country of cinematic consumption to a production.

DINA

The Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (English: National Intelligence Directorate) or DINA was the Chilean secret police in the government of Augusto Pinochet, and has been called Pinochet's Gestapo.[1] The DINA was established in November 1973, as a Chilean Army intelligence unit headed by Colonel Manuel Contreras and vice-director Raúl Iturriaga. It was separated from the army and made an independent administrative unit in June 1974, under the aegis of Decree 521. The DINA existed until 1977, after which it was renamed the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) (National Information Center). In 2008 the Chilean Army presented a list of 1,097 DINA agents to Judge Alejandro Solís.[

Monroe Doctorine

The Monroe Doctrine is the best known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Buried in a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs. The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for almost two centuries. Its primary objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention, ensuring that the New World would not become a battleground for the Old World.

NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA; Spanish: Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; French: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994.[5] It superseded the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Canada.[6] NAFTA has two supplements: the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC).

Plan de Ayala

The Plan of Ayala (Spanish: Plan de Ayala) was a document drafted by revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata during the Mexican Revolution.[1] In it, Zapata denounced President Francisco I. Madero for his perceived betrayal of the revolutionary ideals, embodied in Madero's Plan de San Luis Potosí, and set out his vision of land reform.[2] The Plan was first proclaimed on November 25, 1911 in the town of Ayala, Morelos, and was later amended on June 19, 1914.[2][3] John Womack calls the Plan the Zapatistas' "Sacred Scripture".

Plan San Luis de Potosí

The Plan of San Luis de Potosí (Plan de San Luis, in Spanish) was a political document written by Francisco Madero which was published in the year of 1910. This document was triggered when Diaz stole the presidential election from Madero by getting him arrested and imprisoned. Madero escaped his imprisonment and stay in San Antonio, Texas. The plan was published in San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 1910.

Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish), officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic,[1] is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City) between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican-American War (1846-48). With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital, Mexico entered into negotiations to end the war. The treaty called for the U.S. to pay $15 million to Mexico and to pay off the claims of American citizens against Mexico up to $3.25 million. It gave the United States the Rio Grande as a boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California and a large area comprising roughly half of New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating to within Mexico's new boundaries or receiving American citizenship with full civil rights. Over 90% chose to become U.S. citizens. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of 38-14. The opponents of this treaty were led by the Whigs, who had opposed the war and rejected Manifest Destiny in general, and rejected this expansion in particular.

EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional)

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a revolutionary leftist political and militant group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. Since 1994 the group has been in a declared war "against the Mexican state", and against military, paramilitary and corporate incursions into Chiapas.[1] This war has been primarily defensive. In recent years, it has focused on a strategy of civil resistance. The Zapatistas' main body is made up of mostly rural indigenous people, but includes some supporters in urban areas and internationally. Their main spokesperson is Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, previously known as Subcomandante Marcos (a.k.a. Compañero Galeano and Delegate Zero in relation to "the Other Campaign"). Unlike other Zapatista spokespeople, Marcos is not an indigenous Maya.[2] The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reformer and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and sees itself as his ideological heir. Nearly all EZLN villages contain murals with images of Zapata, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Subcomandante Marcos.[3] Although the ideology of the EZLN reflects libertarian socialism, paralleling both anarchist and libertarian Marxist thought in many respects, the EZLN has rejected[4] and defied[5] political classification, retaining its distinctiveness due in part to the importance of indigenous Mayan beliefs in the Zapatistas. The EZLN aligns itself with the wider alter-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement, seeking indigenous control over their local resources, especially land. Since their 1994 uprising was countered by the Mexican army, the EZLN has abstained from military offensives and adopted a new strategy that attempts to garner Mexican and international support.

Corrido

The corrido (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈriðo]) is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially relevant topics.[1] It is still a popular form today in Mexico and was widely popular during the Nicaraguan Revolutions of the 20th century. The corrido derives largely from the romance, and in its most known form consists of a salutation from the singer and prologue to the story, the story itself, and a moral and farewell from the singer.

Focalism or "Foco" Theory

The foco theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare, also known as focalism (foquismo [foˈkizmo]), was formulated by French intellectual and government official Régis Debray, whose main source of inspiration was Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara's experiences surrounding his rebel army's victory in the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Its central principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus (in Spanish, foco) for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s.

Preferential Option for the Poor

The option for the poor or the preferential option for the poor is one of the basic principles of the Catholic social teaching as articulated in the 20th century.

Fulgencio Batista

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Batista and the second or maternal family name is Zaldívar. Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista, 1938.jpg 9th and 12th President of Cuba In office 10 March 1952 - 1 January 1959 Prime Minister Andrés Domingo Jorge García Montes Andrés Rivero Agüero Emilio Núñez Portuondo Gonzalo Güell Preceded by Carlos Prío Socarrás Succeeded by Anselmo Alliegro In office 10 October 1940 - 10 October 1944 Prime Minister Carlos Saladrigas Zayas Ramón Zaydín Anselmo Alliegro Preceded by Federico Laredo Brú Succeeded by Ramón Grau Cuban Senator In office 2 June 1948 - 10 March 1952 Constituency Las Villas Personal details Born Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar January 16, 1901 Banes, Cuba Died August 6, 1973 (aged 72) Marbella, Andalusia, Spain Political party Liberal Party of Cuba (1948-1949) United Action Party (1949-1952) Progressive Action Party (1952-1959) Spouse(s) Elisa Godínez Gómez (m. 1926; div. 1946) Marta Fernandez Miranda (m. 1946; d. 2006) Children 8 Military service Allegiance Cuba Cuba Service/branch Army Years of service 1921-1940 Rank Colonel Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar (Spanish: [fulˈxensjo βaˈtista i salˈdiβar]; January 16, 1901 - August 6, 1973) was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and U.S.-backed dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution.[1] Fulgencio Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants that overthrew the authoritarian rule of Gerardo Machado. He then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member Presidency. He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform.[2][3] He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba, considered progressive for its time,[4] and served until 1944. After finishing his term he lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election. Back in power, and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government,[5] Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.[6] Eventually it reached the point where most of the sugar industry was in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land.[7] As such, Batista's increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with both the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts.[6][8] To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions; ultimately killing anywhere from hundreds to 20,000 people.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics, for two years (December 1956 - December 1958) Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batista's government, which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year's Day 1959. Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power. Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazar's Portugal, where he lived until his death on August 6, 1973, near Marbella, Spain

Ernesto Cardenal

Was born into an upper-class family in Granada, Nicaragua, Cardenal is a first cousin of the poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra. Cardenal studied literature first in Managua and from 1942 to 1946 in Mexico. Later, from 1947 to 1949, he continued his studies in New York City and traveled through Italy, Spain and Switzerland between 1949 and 1950. In July 1950, he returned to Nicaragua, where he participated in the 1954 April Revolution against Anastasio Somoza García's regime. The coup d'état failed and ended with the deaths of many of his associates. Cardenal subsequently entered the Trappist Monastery of Gethsemani (Kentucky, United States), under the other poet-priest Thomas Merton, but in 1959 he left to study theology in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Cardenal was ordained a Catholic priest in 1965 in Granada.[1] He went to the Solentiname Islands where he founded a Christian, almost monastic, mainly peasant community, which eventually led to the founding of the artists' colony. It was there that the famous book El Evangelio en Solentiname ("The Gospel of Solentiname") was written. Cardenal collaborated closely with the leftist Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN), in working to overthrow Anastasio Somoza Debayle's régimen. Many members of the community of Solentiname engaged with the process of the Revolution in the guerrilla warfare that the FSLN had developed to strike at the regime. The year 1977 was crucial to Cardenal's community since Somoza's National Guard, as a result from an attack to the headquarters stationed in the city of San Carlos, a few miles from the community, raided Solentiname and burned it to the ground, with Cardenal fleeing to Costa Rica. On 19 July 1979, immediately after the Liberation of Managua, he was named Minister of Culture by the new Sandinista regime. He campaigned for a "revolution without vengeance"[2] His brother, Fernando Cardenal, also a Catholic priest (in the Jesuit order), was appointed Minister of Education. When Pope John Paul II visited Nicaragua in 1983, he openly scolded Ernesto Cardenal, who knelt before him, on the Managua airport runway, for resisting his order to resign from the government and admonished him: "Usted tiene que arreglar sus asuntos con la Iglesia" ("You must fix your affairs with the Church"). On February 4, 1984[3] Pope John Paul II defrocked Cardenal because of his participation in liberation theology, a decision overturned 30 years later, August 4, 2014 by Pope Francis.[4] Cardenal remained Minister of Culture until 1987, when his ministry was closed for economic reasons. Cardenal left the FSLN in 1994, protesting the authoritarian direction of the party under Daniel Ortega but insists that he has retained his leftist opinions. "Calling it a robbery of the people and dictatorship not a revolutionary movement" when he left the government.[5] He is a member of the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista (Sandinista Renovation Movement, MRS) that participated in the 2006 Nicaraguan general election. Days before the election, Cardenal stated, in a clear reference to his dispute with Ortega, "I think it would be more desirable an authentic capitalism, as Montealegre's (Eduardo Montealegre, the presidential candidate for Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance) would be, than a false Revolution."[6] Ernesto Cardenal at San Diego State University, 2001 He is also a member of the board of advisers of the pan-Latin American TV station teleSUR. Cardenal has been for a long time a polemical figure of Nicaragua's literature and cultural history. He has been described as "the most important poet right now in Latin America"[7] politically and poetically. He has been a very vocal figure of Nicaragua and a valid key to analyze and understand the contemporaneous literary and cultural life of Nicaragua. He participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.

Cherrie Moraga

a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at Stanford University in the Department of Drama and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Her works explore the ways in which gender, sexuality and race intersect in the lives of women of color.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña

a Chicano performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. Gómez-Peña has created work in multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, photography and installation art. His ten books include essays, experimental poetry, performance scripts and chronicles in both English, Spanish and Spanglish. He is a founding member of the art collective Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo and director of the performance art troupe La Pocha Nostra.[1][2] Gómez-Peña has contributed to cultural debates for nearly 30 years staging seminal performance art pieces including "The Couple in the Cage" (with Coco Fusco, 1992-93), "The Crucifiction Project" (with Roberto Sifuentes, 1994), "Temple of Confessions" (1995), "The Mexterminator Project" (1997-99),The Living Museum of Fetishized Identities, (1999-2002), the "Mapa/Corpo" series (2004-2009), Corpo Ilicito (2010-2011) and most recently Corpo Insurrecto (2012-2013). His performance work mixes experimental aesthetics, activist politics, Spanglish humor and audience participation to create a "total experience" for the audience member/reader/viewer.

Carlos Gardel

a French Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and the most prominent figure in the history of tango. Gardel's baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three-minute tango recordings. Together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos. Gardel died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style. He is commonly referred to as "Carlitos", "El Zorzal" (The [Song] Thrush), "The King of Tango", "El Mago" (The Wizard), "El Morocho del Abasto" (The Brunette boy from Abasto), and ironically "El Mudo" (The Mute). Gardel began his singing career in bars and at private parties. He also sang with Francisco Martino and later in a trio with Martino and José Razzano. Gardel created the tango-canción in 1917 with his rendition of Pascual Contursi and Samuel Castriota's Mi noche triste. The recording sold 10,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America.[4] Gardel went on tour through Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Colombia, as well as making appearances in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Madrid. He sold 70,000 records in the first three months of a 1928 visit to Paris. As his popularity grew, he made a number of films for Paramount in France and the U.S. While sentimental films such as Cuesta abajo (1934) and El día que me quieras (1935) lack lasting dramatic value, they were outstanding showcases of his tremendous singing talents and movie star looks.

Chicanismo (el movimiento)

a civil rights movement extending the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment. It encompassed a broad cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm workers' rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights, as well as emerging awareness of collective history. Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed negative ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. Edward J. Escobar sleeder [1] from The Journal of American History describes some of the negativity of the time in stating, "The conflict between Chicanos and the LAPD thus helped Mexican Americans develop a new political consciousness that included a greater sense of ethnic solidarity, an acknowledgment of their subordinated status in American society, and a greater determination to act politically, and perhaps even violently, to end that subordination. While most people of Mexican descent still refused to call themselves Chicanos, many had come to adopt many of the principles intrinsic in the concept of chicanismo. Chicanos did this through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated the Mexican American ethnicity and culture practices. The term Chicanos was originally used as a derogatory label for the sons and daughters of Mexican migrants. Some prefer to spell the word "Chicano" as "Xicano". This new generation of Mexican Americans were singled out by people on both sides of the border in whose view these Mexican Americans were not "American", yet they were not "Mexican", either. In the 1960s "Chicano" was accepted as a symbol of self-determination and ethnic pride. The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.[1] The Chicano Movement had been fermenting since the end of the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848, when the current U.S-Mexican border took form. Since that time, many Chicanos and Chicanas have campaigned against discrimination, racism and exploitation. The Chicano Movement that culminated in the early 1970s took inspiration from heroes and heroines from their indigenous, Mexican and American past.

Liberation Theology

a movement in Christian theology, developed mainly by Latin American Roman Catholics, that emphasizes liberation from social, political, and economic oppression as an anticipation of ultimate salvation.

Gloria Anzaldúa

an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, on her life growing up on the Mexican-Texas border and incorporated her lifelong feelings of social and cultural marginalization into her work.

Jorge Luis Borges

an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language literature. His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion. he was against communism, fascism, and juan peron During the 1970s, Borges at first expressed support for Argentina's military junta, but was scandalized by the junta's actions during the Dirty War. In protest against their support of the regime, Borges ceased publishing in the newspaper La Nación.[68] In 1985 he wrote a short poem about the Falklands War called Juan López y John Ward, about two fictional soldiers (one from each side), who died in the Falklands, in which he refers to "islands that were too famous". He also said about the war: "The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb."

Juan Dahlman

author of el sur Juan Dahlmann is a man of two heritages, his parents heralding from Argentina and Germany, and that he is a bookkeeper. But this really isn't that important. What is important, though, is that Dahlmann has a farm in the South of Argentina that he wants to settle in. One day in February 1939, something hit Dahlmann on the head while he was walking with the book One Thousand and One Nights. He walks back to his room, where a fever and some nightmares overtake him. He is taken to the hospital, un sanatorio, where he has surgery and endures great pain, both physically and psychologically. All he wants to do is go to his farm. After noticing symmetries between his time before and after his hospital stay, Dahlmann takes a trip to the South of Buenos Aires. He sees a cat, and realizes that he doesn't know where he is: aquel contacto era ilusorio (147). He goes to the train station where he boards the train, happy to be alive after his ordeal. He observes nature, eats, lives, and feels. He takes a nap, and dreams, before again realizing that perhaps he is not going to his farm: la soledad era perfecta y tal vez hostil, y Dahlmann pudo sospechar que viajaba al pasado y o sólo al Sur (149). Dahlmann then gets kicked off the train. A series of parallels between the two worlds then emerge: the loud cafeteria, the customer who looks like a hopsital employee, a light brush on his face. He then decides to read his book, but others laugh at him. Then a compadrito from the rowdy crowd approaches him with a large dagger, and they are about to fight. Perhaps this is a way for Dahlmann to come to terms with his pain: Era como si el Sur hubiera resuelto que Dahlmann aceptara el duelo (153). He wants to fight, but is unable. Fortunately, the compadrito leaves, and Dahlmann leaves towards his farm, towards El Sur. The story is somewhat autobiographical, and is a good example of desdoblamiento. The reader is left with a large degree of ambiguity in what is real and what is fake.

Jose Vasconcelos

cultural caudillo" of the Mexican Revolution[6] He was an important Mexican writer, philosopher and politician.[7] He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of the "cosmic race" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic policies. Vasconcelos is often referred to as the father of the "indigenismo" philosophy. In recent times, this philosophy has come under criticism from Native Americans because of its negative implications concerning indigenous peoples. To an extent, his philosophy argued for a new, "modern" mestizo people, but at the cost of cultural assimilation of all ethnic groups. His research on the nature of Mexican modern identity had a direct influence on the young writers, poets, anthropologists and philosophers who wrote on this subject. He also influenced the point of view of Carlos Pellicer with respect to several aesthetic assumptions reflected in his books. Together, Pellicer and Vasconcelos made a trip through the Middle East (1928-29), looking for the "spiritual basis" of Byzantine architecture. Other works, particularly La raza cósmica and Metafísica, had a decisive influence in Octavio Paz's El laberinto de la soledad, with anthropological and aesthetic implications. Paz wrote that Vasconcelos was "the teacher" who had educated hundreds of young Latin American intellectuals during his many trips to Central and South America. Vasconcelos was guest lecturer at Columbia University and Princeton University, but his influence on new generations in the U.S. became gradually less significant. Nevertheless, his work La raza cósmica has been used by Chicano and Mexican-American movements since the 1970s, asserting the reconquista of the American Southwest based on their Mexican ancestry.

First, Second, and Third Cinema

first cinema, hollywood second cinema, intellectual films third cinema, continental movement to speak to the general public, talk about real issues and to inspire a revolution

Globalization

he process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.[1] Advances in transportation (such as the steam locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ships) and in telecommunications infrastructure (including the rise of the telegraph and its modern offspring, the Internet, and mobile phones) have been major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities.[2][3][4] Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history long before the European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World. Some even trace the origins to the third millennium BC.[5][6] Large-scale globalization began in the 19th century.[7] In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the connectivity of the world's economies and cultures grew very quickly. The term globalization is very recent, only establishing its current meaning in the 1970s.[8] In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge.[9] Further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and overfishing of the ocean are linked with globalization.[10] Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, and the natural environment. Academic literature commonly subdivides globalization into three major areas: economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization.

División del Norte (Northern Division)

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

Macho / machismo

is the sense of being 'manly' and self-reliant, the concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride ... [with] the supreme valuation of characteristics culturally associated with the masculine and a denigration of characteristics associated with the feminine."[2] It is associated with "a man's responsibility to provide for, protect, and defend his family."[3] In American political usage, William Safire says it refers to the "condescension of the swaggering male; the trappings of manliness used to dominate women and keep them 'in their place.' macho has a long history in both Spain and Portugal as well as in Spanish and Portuguese languages. It was originally associated with the ideal societal role men were expected to play in their communities, most particularly, Iberian language-speaking societies and countries. Macho in Portuguese and Spanish is a strictly masculine term, derived from the Latin mascŭlus meaning male (today hombre or varón, c.f. Portuguese homem and now-obsolete for humans varão; macho and varão, in their most common sense, are used for males of non-human animal species). Machos in Iberian-descended cultures are expected to possess and display bravery, courage and strength as well as wisdom and leadership, and ser macho (literally, "to be a macho") was an aspiration for all boys.

Manifest Destiny

the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Conciencia de la Mestiza

the struggle to find where you belong too brown to be white too white to be brown she is a culture made up of many cultures strangers in a stolen land. she is a mixture of joining cultures, a creature of light and dark

Juan Rulfo

was a Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, El Llano en llamas (1953), a collection of short stories, and the 1955 novel Pedro Páramo. Fifteen of the seventeen short stories in El Llano en llamas have been translated into English and published as The Burning Plain and Other Stories. This collection includes the popular tale "¡Diles que no me maten!"

Lazaro Cardenas

was a general in the Mexican Revolution and a statesman who served as President of Mexico between 1934 and 1940. He is best known for nationalization of the oil industry in 1938 and the creation of Pemex, the government oil company. Originally Cárdenas was the hand-picked candidate of former president Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-28), who founded the Partido Nacional Revolucionario in 1929 and who remained the power behind the president. Cárdenas out-maneuvered Calles politically and forced the former president into exile, establishing Cárdenas' legitimacy and power in his own right. His administration overhauled agrarian reform, initiated by the Mexican Revolution, and created ejidos in the Mexican agricultural sector, which gave peasants access to land, but did not give individual titles to it. He granted asylum to exiles from the Spanish Civil War, and strengthened the educational system. Porfirio Díaz of Oaxaca was the last president before Cárdenas not to come from the north.[1] Cárdenas reorganized the party founded by Calles, creating the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana, with sectoral representation of workers via their unions, peasants via their peasant leagues, and the Mexican army. The incorporation of the army into the party structure was a deliberate move to diminish the power of the military and avert their traditional intervention in politics through coups d'état. Another important political achievement of Cárdenas was his complete surrender of power to his successor when his presidential term was completed in 1940. At the end of the term of his successor, Manuel Ávila Camacho, the party structure that Cárdenas had created was changed again, renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The major revision of the party structure was to eliminate the army as a sector of the party. The party continued to dominate Mexican politics to the end of the twentieth century.

Oliverio Girondo

was an Argentine poet. He was born in Buenos Aires to a relatively wealthy family, enabling him from a young age to travel to Europe, where he studied in both Paris and England. He is perhaps most famous for his participation in the magazines (Proa, Prisma and Martín Fierro), which ushered in the arrival of ultraism, the first of the vanguardist movements to settle in Argentina. His first poems, full of color and irony, surpass the simple admiration of beauty in nature which was then a common theme, opting instead for a fuller and more interesting topic: a sort of celebration of living cosmopolitan and urbane, both praising such a lifestyle and criticizing some of the customs of its society. Girondo was contemporary to Jorge Luis Borges, Raúl González Tuñón and Macedonio Fernández and Norah Lange (whom he married in 1943) whom he met at a lunch banquet in 1926 held in honor of Ricardo Güiraldes. Of these authors, all also involved in the vanguardia (avant gardism) of Argentina, most identified with the Florida group in the somewhat farcical literary hostility between that group and another called Grupo Boedo. Girondo was one of the most enthusiastic animators of the ultraist movement, exerting influence over many poets of the next generation, among them Enrique Molina with whom he translated the work of Arthur Rimbaud "Una temporada en el infierno."

Monseñor Oscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 - 24 March 1980)[3] was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador, who served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.[4] In 1980, Romero was assassinated while offering Mass in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence.[5] Pope Francis stated during Romero's beatification that "His ministry was distinguished by a particular attention to the most poor and marginalized."[6] Hailed as a hero by supporters of liberation theology inspired by his work,[7] Romero, according to his biographer, "was not interested in liberation theology", but faithfully adhered to Catholic teachings on liberation,[8] desiring a social revolution based on supernatural interior reform.[9] His spiritual life drew much from the spirituality of Opus Dei.[7][10] In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 March as the "International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims" in recognition of the role of Archbishop Romero in defence of human rights. Romero actively denounced violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable people and defended the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and opposition to all forms of violence.[11] In 1997, Pope John Paul II bestowed upon Romero the title of Servant of God, and a cause for beatification and canonization was opened for him. The cause stalled, but was reopened by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. He was declared a martyr by Pope Francis on 3 February 2015, paving the way for his beatification, which took place on 23 May 2015. Latin American church groups often proclaim Romero an unofficial patron saint of the Americas and/or El Salvador; Catholics in El Salvador often refer to him as "San Romero". Even outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by other Christian denominations, including Church of England and Anglican Communion through the Calendar in Common Worship, as well as in at least one Lutheran liturgical calendar. Archbishop Romero is also one of the ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.[12] In 2008, Europe-based magazine A Different View included Romero among its 15 Champions of World Democracy.