John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, "Neocolonialism"
| KEYWORDS |
| neocolonialism |
Porfirio Díaz, Porfiriato |
Manifest Destiny |
| the great export boom |
Canudos |
Roosevelt Corollary to the |
| United Fruit Company |
Berta Lutz |
Monroe Doctrine |
Study Questions:
- How did the great export boom transform Latin America, and how did it not transform it?
- What sorts of commodities did Latin America export, and how were they produced? How did new immigration from Europe alter the demographic picture?
- How did nineteenth-century scientific racism function, basically, to update the caste system?
- How did Britain, France, and the United States help define the region's neocolonial experience?
Gilbert Joseph and Allen Wells, "The Rough-and-Tumble Career of Pedro Crespo," in The Human Tradition in Latin America: The Twentieth Century, ed. William Beezley and Judith Ewell (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1987): 27-40.
Questions to guide your reading:
On Pedro Crespo
- Who was Pedro Crespo, and when and where did he live?
- How were patronage connections (networks of influential people) a key part of Pedro Crespo's rough-and-tumble career even before the Revolution?
- Why did he switch from a conservative, man of the establishment to a revolutionary?
- Why did people follow Crespo?
- How did Pedro Crespo become a patron in his own right? And how did he exercise his patronage?
- Why did béisbol become such a popular sport in Yucatán? How was the popularity of baseball connected to politics?
- How was the Yucatán that Crespo lived in similar or different from the political environment that Torre Gonzalez experienced?
Response Paper
Craft an analytical paper based on the reading. Focus on what you found to be the strongest elements that help you answer the questions below.
On page 36, Wells and Joseph argue that "local political culture" produced Pedro Crespo and other powerful men like him. What do you think they mean by this? How did local political traditions as well as the abrupt changes caused by the Revolution produce Pedro Crespo?
Papers should be 1 ½ to 2 pages in length, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, and typed in 11pt. or 12pt. font. Papers may not exceed 2 pages. The strongest essays will begin with a specific argument related to the topic and develop themes and specific, concrete examples that support and illustrate that thesis. Papers with quoted material and lacking footnotes will receive a ZERO. Footnotes should be 2 formatted according to Chicago Style. If you are unfamiliar with Chicago-style citation, we have full access to the digital Chicago Manual of Style through the library's website. Search for "Chicago Manual of Style online" in the library catalog.