I thought the article on Fiestas in Andean Transnational Migration was a very interesting read, especially in the context of the themes in our class. Cabanaconde is a special village in southern Peru that takes pride in its culture and distinct characteristics that make it different from the rest of Peru. I found it very interesting that even though the village is located in Peru, the villagers go through an extensive measure to ensure that the indigenous peoples of the village stay separated from other Peruvian peoples and culture. At first, I thought it was strange that the CCA in Washington created a soccer league for Cabaneños only even though the other members were still from Peru. But after I continued reading the article and thinking about the issue, it made sense that these Cabaneños would want to preserve their cultural traditions and practices. As usual, the traditions and practices help to define cultural identities and I think that’s what makes the example of Cabanaconde a crucial example for this class’ themes.

     The Virgin of Carmen festival plays a huge part in the community’s identity because the Virgin of Carmen is a faith-based, religious figure. The Cabaneños celebrate the Virgin of Carmen around the time of crop harvesting in hopes that the Virgin would ensure them plentiful crops that year. To believe in a tradition custom to the village displays a lot of loyalty to Cabanaconde. For the Cabaneños to take pride in organizing the Fiestas even from the different countries they immigrated to. I think the rise of transnational migration changed the celebration of the fiestas both positively and negatively. A positive change in the sense that even when the Cabaneños migrated from Cabanaconde they didn’t have to feel like they abandoned their traditions back home; instead, they could still be involved with the festival from their new home as Cristina did. The negative impact that Transnational migration has on the celebration of this festival is that many Cabaneños that migrate to these new countries illegally find it hard to make it back to Cabanaconde to celebrate the tradition. This is the divide that Paerregaard mentioned in the thesis of her article. This divide comes across almost as a tinge of jealousy from those immigrants that are undocumented and can’t travel home to celebrate while they watch their documented family members and others take part in celebration.

The Paerregaard article talks about how the transnational citizens use the Virgin of Carmen as a mediation and media to express their ties to the original community in Cabanaconde. When people moved from one place to another, it is difficult for them to not feeling any cultural shock as well as the conscious difference. Therefore, they tend to use objects that could represent their culture in order to keep their original identity when being in a foreign land. Because I think when people moved to a new place, they may encounter the difficulty of distinguishing themselves. Their identities as Cabanacondes would be blurred and may be override and they will find themselves lost to both of them. Thus, the practice of the traditional habits or original customs are the ways they could potentially use to stay in their true identities and not being fully washed. Virgin of Carmen is a great example of showing this. People practicing this fiesta, traveling back to their homeland and spending thousands of hard earned money only means to preserve their ties to their culture and identity and connect to the tradition. However, when people are practicing the Virgin of Carmen, difference and divisions are shown. The preparations for the fiesta will emphasize some people’s success and exclusiveness over others who don’t have the chance and it’s often a signal to distinguish those who have achieved the social status as both transnational migrants and global cosmopolitans and those who do not.

But the old tradition changes with times and there are several big changes. The used to be villager’s agro-religious calendar and big event that emphasize protecting the good will of the local religious force has changed to serve as a tool for the migration to show their loyalty and their success in the cities. Also, it has switched from a rural religious life into a metropolitical lifestyle. It creates new relation of inequality and social tensions that thorough the change of the meaning of participation into the religious activity.

The Virgen Carmen is very important to the culture of Cabanaconde. The Virgen is very important because she offers a type of connection to the culture of Cabanaconde for the many migrants who leave the area. All people from Cabanaconde, weather or not they live in the area, can look to the Virgen and be connected to their native culture. The festival of the Virgen Carmen is very important to the people of Cabanaconde because many migrants return to their home in Cabanaconde which allows them to reconnect with their native culture. This prevents them from loosing touch with their home but it also helps to build social networks that draw new migrants which causes the growth of the international community. The incredible festival for the Virgen Carmen is also important because it draws tourism to the area. Transnational migration has reinforced the importance of the festival as a means to develop social networks because these social networks are critical for migration, especially for poorer families. The festival for the Virgen Carmen has also changed because of transnational migration because the migration has shifted the festival from a festival that was primarily agro-religious to a festival that emphasizes citizens and migrants devotion to the local town and area.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/veterans-policy-experts-call-more-immigrants-dreamers-u-s-military-n819341

In this article the topic of immigrants in the military is discussed. It deals with Erick Ruiz who wanted to join the military but couldn’t due to his family being illegal immigrants. To speed up this process he joined theMilitary Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI). A program which helps speed up the naturalization process. This program has since been suspended leaving many people who lack citizenship with no way to serve the country.

Latin Americans are portrayed as strong as they are trying to find a way to bring back the program. This shows a great amount of strength and unity.

This fits our class themes because it shows people can fight for what they believe in and identify with.

This was a long article with lots of information, so I will try to sum it up as best I can. Dr. Esperanza Cerón, head of the organization Educar Consumidores, was working to promote a tax on sugary drinks that many experts believe to be a cause of obesity in Colombia and globally. She and her organization raised money and awareness of the issue, all the while supporting the installation of a 20% tax on sugary drinks. They even created a television ad that alerted the citizens of Colombia of the connection between sugary drinks and obesity and diabetes. As a result of Dr. Cerón’s actions in support of the tax, she and her colleagues were harassed, and the sugar drink industry, led by a company called Postobón, worked to shut her work down. Cerón and her colleagues found that their computers and phones began operating in a strange manner, and men were seen taking pictures of the organization’s office. Cerón was even followed while driving and approached in public, being told to be silent and to stop what she was doing. She no longer drives alone.

Postobón sent a complaint to the government, and soon after Dr. Cerón’s ad was taken off the air. What’s more, she and her organization were no longer allowed to publicly discuss the health risks of sugar, effectively silencing her and Educar Consumidores. Though Cerón reported the harassment she and her colleagues faced to authorities, federal prosecutors declined to investigate. However, after being silenced, Cerón wrote a blog post about the issue. RCN Televisión, the biggest media company in Colombia, claimed intellectual property theft due to the content of her blog post, so she took it down, but RCN sent a complaint to federal prosecutors, who ironically did not decline to investigate this time. She faces a possible fine of $300,000.

Eventually, the Constitutional Court of Colombia overturned the decision from the government agency that silenced Educar Consumidores. However, this happened after the Colombian Congress had voted against the tax that Cerón was working to promote.

This article portrays Latin Americans in an interesting way. The majority of Colombians supported the tax, yet when people tried to speak out and support it, the government and the soda industry shut them down. Thus I think this article is a good representation of the perpetual struggle against corruption in Latin America. I think it reflects positively on Latin American citizens, but negatively on the governments they live under. To what extent Latin Americans are to blame for their corrupt governments is a topic of much debate, and the US often receives a large portion of the blame. However, I think ultimately the article shows that Latin Americans are an intelligent and advanced group of people who could truly prosper if political corruption, weak economies, and political instability weren’t such large issues. This article did a good job of revealing how much power and control the large companies have over the Colombian government, which negatively effects Colombian citizens in the long run, particularly in this case with regards to their health.

I would recommend that anyone interested in what I’ve written about here go check out the article I wrote about, as it goes a lot more in depths than I could in this blog post.

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 10 More Venezuelan Officials

Venezuela, in recent years, has experienced some serious economic downturns as well as political chaos. The country’s vulnerable economy, which mainly relies on the exports of the oil, has been greatly influenced by the decrease in the oil price. Despite the fact that the country is troubled by the economic issues, the irresponsible government is not taking their responsibility to protect their citizens’s well-bings, which even further deteriorates the situation in Venezuela. In addition, the policies that the president Maduro and his bureaucracy have made are not helping the situation, but generating more problems. The U.S has blamed the government for their inactions and call the president Maduro a dictator. In this article, U.S shows their stance towards the Venezuelan government by imposing the economic sanctions on more than ten Venezuelan officials.

In fact, the U.S has long been having issues with Venezuela. In 2002, the bilateral relation has hit the worst when the then Venezuelan president accused the U.S of supporting a failed coup attack against his presidency. In reaction to the U.S inlegitemate conduct, the country starts to form alliance with countries that are amity to the U.S and rejected the aid from the U.S-led help group when there are millions of people inside the country who cannot access to the basic life necessities.

Several days ago, the U,S president Trump has ordered the economic sanctions against serval Maduro’s bereau. The reason for the sanction upon those officials, from the U.S perspective, is because those people have violated the human rights, engagement in corruption, illegal interference in election and inhibition of freedom of speech. Five of them were charged of participating the regional election using clandestine methods, several of them were accused of aggressively controlling the news media and the vice president was designated as a narcotics trafficker who controlled the planes and drug routes and protected and facilitated other narcotics traffickers operating in the South American country.

In my opinion, this news is connected to the course theme because economic issues are negatively affecting Latin American countries. South America used to be the most vibrant economy in the world with its high-speed annual growth rate. However, countries like brazil, which was considered to be the strongest economy in South America diminished. Also, often times, the economic issues are often correlated with the corrupt governmental agencies. The president is not taking a spear role in reforming the economy and the bureau itself, but to stir the election, trying to seize its power. Therefore, establishing the responsible and competent government agencies are the most indispensable steps to address the issues like economic instability.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lesbian-congresswoman-opens-path-toward-representation-guatemala-n816006

This link talks about how Guatemalan lesbian congresswoman Sandra Moran is making great progress in the representation of the LGBTQ community. Ms.Moran says she doubts she is the first member of congress to be apart of the LGBTQ community but she is definitely the first to be open about it, she decided to come out publicly while running for congress to give more representation for the community she represents. This was a big step. forward for Guatemala which is historically a very conservative Catholic country.

Some of the ways Ms.Moran is fighting to advocate, protect and represent the LGBTQ community is by fighting to strengthen Guatemalan Anti-discrimination laws so that they will include gender identity, and sexual orientation. Sandra argues that “The violence against the LGBT community because of homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia is overwhelming.”

She has a long history of activism and fighting for equal rights for the people of Guatemala, she joined her first activist group at age 14 it was a “leftist student movement” at the time the country was in the mist of a civil war where leftist students disappeared methodically due in entirely to the Guatemalan government. So her long history of activism has not and will not end anytime soon she is making great headway in the fight for human rights and is a very brave individual unarguably.

Mexico drug cartel’s grip on politicians and police revealed in Texas court files

Agren, David. “Mexico drug cartel’s grip on politicians and police revealed in Texas court files” The Guardian, 10 November, 2017.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/Los_Zeta_logo.jpg/200px-Los_Zeta_logo.jpg

Organized crime in the form of cartels has been found to have deep rooted influence on local politics in the border sate of Coahuila. A recent report released by the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas school of law has released testimony from many Texan courts showing the extent to which cartels like Los Zetas (logo pictured above) have infiltrated border state politics. In addition to bribing local politicians, cartels have paid off local policemen who turn a blind eye to mass murders and disappearances in the state.  Experts were not surprised at the lack of government response to this new study however some said they were disheartened by the apathy of Mexican citizens. It seems like Mexican citizens are becoming accustomed to this type of violence and are ignoring it more and more.

The article went on to describe recent violence by the Zetas cartel. It mentioned that the cartel has carried out hundreds of killings between 2014 and 2016 and that there are probably many more killings that went unreported. The Zetas cartel has also bribed or “purchased” many government leaders, even at the executive level. There are strong allegations that the Zetas have bribed two governors to work for them.

This article portrays the Coahuila region in a negative light. This negative portrayal may be appropriate because of the high levels of cartel violence in this region. As a whole, this article portrays Mexico as violent and cartel ridden however it also covers an under covered area of Mexico and an issue that many people are afraid to write about because of potential retaliation. Also this article portrays the citizens of Mexico as apathetic toward cartel violence. This portrayal is negative and harmful. When the article talks about how Mexican citizens are apathetic toward cartel violence it is also dangerously close to the stereotype of the “lazy Mexican”. Overall, this article does a good job of covering an under covered area of Mexican society however it also could be harmful to the identity of Mexican citizens, especially Mexican activists.

The article I picked for this week is especially fitting as it touches on something Cesar mentioned in his presentation today; corruption in the Guatemalan government. While the author argues something a little different than Cesar does, in that he says that Guatemala has made successful strides in cleaning up government corruption, especially comparatively to the rest of Latin America. Currently there’s a UN sponsored commission that is attempting to end corruption in Guatemala called CICIG, and they’ve allegedly done a very good job at holding corrupt officials accountable for their actions. The article puts a lot of the blame on the judicial system in Latin America, claiming it protects local and federal political elites. However, there is fear that if CICIG gets disbanded that things will just return to the same they’ve always been, or that Guatemala is being controlled by outsiders, primarily by the US, which has a reputation of messing around in Latin America, much to the detriment of the citizens of these countries.

YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images

While the title of the article is Outsiders Can’t Clean Up Latin America’s Corruption, I personally feel like the author makes the opposite argument in saying that the UN sponsored commission has done an excellent job. The author himself says “the UN crime busters have won ample accolades and street cred. On their watch, convictions for homicides soared and the homicide rate plunged. A dozen tainted judges and some 2,500 crooked bad police have been sacked.” While the author does express concern that if the UN backed out, there would be nothing holding corrupt officials and indicted officials responsible for their actions, I think that the amount of attention that has been cast on the issue globally through the UN and the power of visibility via modern technology that Will brought up in his pecha kucha on Brazil, could be enough to hold people responsible for their wrongdoings.