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Pendulum Diplomacy in Latin America

In this article from The Diplomat, author Dawisson Belém Lopes opens up by giving historical examples of countries using a method called pendulum diplomacy. This form of diplomacy involves a third party country avoiding full investment in a single country when conflict arises between multiple governmental superpowers. The author first gives the example of Brazil reaping benefits from both the United States and Nazi Germany following World War II. Egypt is also mentioned in reference to the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s refusal to choose sides during the Cold War, allowing them to prevent losing territory or jurisdiction within certain regions of Egypt. The author proceeds with more examples of pendulum diplomacy in Latin America following World War II, noting Brazilian President Kubitschek’s Operation Plan America, which forced JFK to pour funds into an impoverished Latin America, protecting the vulnerable South American countries from communist influence.

Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazilian president responsible for Operation Plan America

Link to picture: https://archive1.jfklibrary.org/JFKWHP/1962/Month%2004/Day%2003/JFKWHP-1962-04-03-C/JFKWHP-AR7144-G.jpg

In the final section of the article, Lopes discusses the modern day application of pendulum diplomacy. In recent years, a need has arisen for the now dormant use of pendulum diplomacy. But whether or not such tactics will work in today’s society, the author expresses doubts. For one, the region does not contain any of the world’s dominant superpowers (at the moment), and Latin America is expressly non nuclear, increasing the threat of Chinese and Russian intervention. Furthermore, difficulties to pursue strengthened relationships with the US have increased as a result of the Trump administration and it’s unprofessional prejudice towards Latin America. For this reason, several counties in South America have shifted their dependance away from countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, and instead are focusing on leveling their relationships across Asia. This means emphasizing trade between countries in Southeast Asia, like Taiwan, as mentioned in the article. Resulting from the recent conditions and arising conflicts between governmental superpowers, Latin American countries may likely look for new tactics to ensure their prosperity in the 21st century.

Hub of business and Brazilian metropolitan culture in São Paulo where the growth of the city can be seen at an exponential rate. Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil.

Link to picture: https://www.instagram.com/will.kos/

Little perspective and opinion on Latin America is shown, until the end of the article where an image of poverty and corruption is illustrated about Latin America. The author holds a surprisingly aggressive and ignorant viewpoint on South America. Interesting enough, Lopes references an “ugly” speech by Donald Trump in which the president remarks Latin Americans (Mexicans) as “outlaws” and “rapists.” Two paragraphs later, Lopes describes all of Latin America as one region, saying that Latin America as a whole, “does not apparently have what it takes to becoming a strategic asset to either side of the Pacific Ocean – North America and Asia,” (Lopes). By grouping Latin America as a whole into one, this scrutinizes the ability and potential of countries like Brazil who are soon to join the world’s top economies. However, the author is correct that Brazil and other Latin American countries are unable to compete with the US and China in their current state.

The class theme expressed in this article outlines encounters in Latin America from outside forces. The primary concern of countries like China and the US is to exploit Latin American countries who rely on their aid. As Latin American economic influence begins to increase, both Latin America and its allies must adapt in order to declare their dominance over one another. In this instance, some Latin American countries such as Brazil have the power to rival the world’s largest economies, and reverse their economic reliance on them.

Picture of the Museum of Tomorrow, built before the Olympics, the museum focuses on the future of the earth, and how countries will be forced to adapt in order for the human race to prosper. Museo do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Link to picture: http://imgsapp2.correiobraziliense.com.br/app/noticia_127983242361/2017/07/22/610899/20170719143643158816a.jpg

Annotated Bib Rough Draft

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Topik, Steven. “Coffee Anyone? Recent Research on Latin American Coffee Societies.” Hispanic American Historical Review 80, no. 2 (May 2000): 225-266. Humanities International Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 27, 2017).

Steven C. Topik is a professor at University of California with a particular research interest in the History of Latin America and World history through the studies of commodities with a specific interest in coffee. Topik first explains why to study coffee as a backdrop to how and why Latin America has changed throughout the years. Topik also explains some older ideas and then recent ideas of how coffee affected Latin America. Throughout Topik’s article he has numerous citations and eventually has one-hundred and one different citations. Topik’s intended audience is other historians who focus on Latin America with a particular interest in how coffee shaped Latin America. The article was published in Hispanic American Historical Review so it is assumed that the reader already has a very good understanding on Latin American history and politics. Topik points out how coffee helped bring Latin America into the industrialized world instead of being a region that was imperialized.

Blog Comments

Fashion Trends in Latin America

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The article on Wikipedia called Latin American Clothing has very little information regarding fashion trends in Latin American culture. I would like to research how the usage of certain textiles, colors, and patterns culminate to create the unique, traditional clothing styles that are represented in Latin America. The clothing trends between different regions of the world are obviously different, mostly because the traditions behind those styles vary greatly. If I choose to research this topic, I would like to add sections about the importance of the textiles used to make the clothing, how the clothing is produced, and also the way specific trends are viewed in the society. I would love to see how fashion intertwines globally and the influence that European culture has had on Latin American culture and vice versa. The Wikipedia article provides links to articles of clothing from Chile, clothing from Mexico and Peru as well. All of these three additional articles do not provide a complete breakdown of the fashion trends in Latin America, only 2 or 3 specific articles of clothing that have some significant meaning in the culture. The only comment on the Talk page of this article is a comment about how “Latin America produce a kind of cotton that also makes clothes for a Venezuelan company”.

Baseball in the Dominican Republic

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I may be able to complete my Wikipedia assignment on this article about Sports in the Dominican Republic. In the baseball section there is a lot of good information about the history of baseball in the country. However, I noticed that closer to the end of the baseball section there is a little bit of information about the relations between the US and the Dominican Republic as a result of baseball. I think this information could be built upon or elaborated upon.

One good source might be the information that the MLB has on the history of baseball in the Dominican Republic, found here. Another article, found here, has more information about why the Dominican Republic produces so many great baseball players. However, the wikipedia article already has a lot of information about the history of baseball in the Dominican Republic. So I think an even better source can be found in this article about the way the MLB treats prospective players from the Dominican Republic.

It would appear as though nobody else has spoken about including the way the MLB treats prospective Dominican players in the article. Lots of parts of the talk page include stuff about other sports, like volleyball. So perhaps this is not the best article to think about working on but I think it could be improved a little bit.

Wikipedia Article Edits

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I would like to expand either the FARC page or the National Front (Colombia) because they’re related to violence in Colombia and had a large effect on each other, but it’s only briefly alluded to in both pages. Another thing that could be expanded on is the new role of the FARC as a disarmed guerrilla movement and how it’s a political party now, although that is current news and would be more difficult to write about. There are many websites from reputable sources sources. There’s also a series of interviews with former guerrillas about reintegration by Humans of New York, a blog whose author often travels to countries with humanitarian issues. There’s nothing on the Talk page of the National Front (Colombia) page. There’s a lot of argument about bias on the FARC page and how to remove it, as well as whether there is bias there to begin with.

Autodefensas wikipedia

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For my Wikipedia Article assignment I would like to build the Autodefensas page on Wikipedia into a real page or look at an existing (more specific) autodefensas page to revise. Currently the page is only a disambiguation page meaning it has no content beyond a definition of autodefensas and a list of links to pages on specific groups. I think it would be interesting to elaborate on what autodefensas groups are and to provide a short history of the formation of the groups in general as well as a brief overview of each of the groups listed on the disambiguation page. This page does not even have a true talk page because it is a disambiguation page however I believe it could be more than that. As far as reputable sources go, I would like to look at the book “Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia” which was published by the Ohio university press and seems reputable. I could also look at THE “SIXTH DIVISION” Military-paramilitary Ties and U.S. Policy in Colombia and this article on Historia del paramilitarismo en Colombia written by a Chilean history professor. If I also wanted to look at autodefensas groups in Mexico the page for that is lacking as well and more resources can be found through the Spanish news source El Pais and even in the movie “Cartel land”. I think that there is a lot of good information and that I could pick the page Autodefensas (general), or Grupos de Autodefensa Comunitaria which is actually an English page about autodefensas groups in Mexico that has several major problems.

Wikipedia post on African Immigration to Latin America

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In light of the media coverage and news around Latin American immigration to the United States, and the treatment these immigrants have and continue to receive upon arrival in the United States, I decided to flip the table, and examine immigration into Latin America and the form it has taken over the years.

The article I found on Wikipedia was titled:

African immigration to Latin America

It examines the origins of the black populations in Latin America and traces them back to the immigrations of refugees from Angola and Mozambique particularly, during the Angolan and Mozambican Civil Wars. This article mentions too, the origins of white African immigrants from these same countries during the Portuguese Colonial War. The article makes a distinction between these refugees and Africans who were forcibly removed from their native countries and communities on the continent during the Atlantic Slave Trade. This is an important distinction which begs the ethical question: were the slaves immigrants? The simple answer is No. In reality, the issue may be more complicated.

The article also makes note of the fact that integration of these immigrant populations was easier because of an already pre-existing diaspora black population that had been formed through the slave trade. The wikipedia article further states that it was this, and Latin America’s general open attitude towards immigrants that lent it as a prime destination, in the face of Europe and the rest of the world closing its borders.

The article cites a Reuters article that describes increasing African immigration to Latin America. Content gaps I immediately identify in parsing this article are that it does not offer reputable citations for its statistics of African immigrants to Argentina, Brazil, and Puerto Rico numbering in the 2000s.

Additionally, it does not make a distinct transition from the historical view, to the modern trends of the last century. In one breath, the author transitions from discussing post- slave trade immigration to discussing immigration in the 21st century. For both of these periods, statistics and citations are absent. A more detailed breakdown for immigration for the region and countries in it would benefit this article as well.

There has been only one modification made to the article and the Talkpage has had no discussions on it in the last year. This is indicative of the sparse contributions and revisions made to the article.

Wikipedia Article Topic

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The article that I am considering on expanding on and improving is called “Latin American cinema.” After viewing a number of articles on Wikipedia, this one appeared to be quite brief for such a broad topic. It mostly includes a short synopsis of the history of film in Latin America, as well as a small list of movies and filmmakers that were pivotal to a few Latin American countries. One positive aspect of the article, however, is that it provides a series of hyperlinks towards the bottom of the page which gives more information about cinema that pertains to each Latin American country.

Primarily, I would like to elaborate on the relation of the United States with Latin American film. The article itself includes solely a sentence of how a Latin American film movement has occurred within the United States and offers one example. However, I would like to add to this because the audience of a film is integral. For example, there have been several Latin American film festivals within the Untied States, including the New York Latino Film Festival which is “widely hailed as the the premier Latino event in the country.” (https://filmfreeway.com/festival/NewYorkLatinoFilmFestival). I think it would be interesting to include information about this event and the objectives for bringing Latino films to an American audience.

On the talk page, Wikipedians only discuss some edits of various citations, so the content of the articles is not greatly considered. This is where I find fault because I am certain that a lot of information can be added. Another example can be extracted from Yale News. The university holds a Latino and Iberian film festival annually and the 2016 event was very “important in unifying the Latin American immigrant community during a divisive political moment.” (http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/11/16/film-festival-highlights-latin-american-culture/). With film festivals like these, we see a sort of cross-cultural encounter, which can relate to our course themes. The identity of Latin America can be revealed through cinema, allowing audiences to gain a better understanding of a culture that differs than that of their own.

Wiki article