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.

Comment on Jovi’s Wikipedia project.

In my opinion, this Makoko floating school in the article serves as a model for combating the issues of education in Latin American. In some areas that are greatly affected by the climate change and natural catastrophe, the model of the floating school is extremely helpful in adjusting to the extreme weather. The students wouldn’t have to move around when, for example, the flood or the heavy rains come and they will have more opportunities to study. As we all know, the human development is a serious issue in some Latin American countries. In order to address the problems and better the society, the wholeness of the education is the key. Therefore, attention needs to be drawn to those kids who don’t have the chance for a good study environment. Because they’re the future of their countries and they are the ones that could save the country. Adding more information to this section may give people an idea of the Floating School.

Comment on Cesar’s Wikipedia project

The culture of the indigenous people, not only just in the Latin America, but also across the globe, is being threatened. As well know, some cultures still play an influential and important role in the national level. Countries like Mexico are giving attention to the preservation of the indigenous groups’ identities. But, as Cesar puts it, countries like the Guatemala is not giving full attention towards the protection of the indigenous group. I am seriously concerned about some sub-culture in China being threatened due to the urbanization. Therefore, I believe that if we could add more information and spare more energy in the protection of the indigenous group, people would have more opportunity to know these indigenous groups more, which could help increase the public awareness.

Comment on Keira’s Wikipedia project

I think the understanding of the La Violencia and the National Front a great step toward addressing the serious violence problems in Columbia. The result of the La Violencia is intimidating. The liberal civil war claimed more than 200.000 people’s lives. And the ending of the civil war also gave birth to a bipartisanship in Columbia. In order to address the serious issues that are now entangling Columbia, we first have to understand its history. The key to the future is the past. The history could tell us a great deal and help us to make predictions of the future. In addition, the disarming of the FARC group could also give us the hint of its future roles in the Columbian politics. We would know that how the coming of the new player would benefit the political system in Columbia or actually will deteriorate the current situation. (it’s not related to the blog)

     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”.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1795

This article does not detail why the act was created in the first place. There are multiple scholarly articles on the topic such as http://www.indiana.edu/~kdhist/H105-documents-web/week08/naturalization1790.html

There is a discussion talking about the relevancy of the act on the talk page as it was replaced by a later act.