Post 7: Cuban Independence

Throughout our last couple of classes, we have been talking about Cuba before Fidel Castro gets involved, Cuba's view on independence and the United States, and creolization. During Professor Stark's part of the class we have been focusing on events leading up to the involvement of  Fidel Castro and about Fidel Castro's life when he was growing up. I never really learned much about Fidel Castro and what he really did, instead we may have touched on him a few times in my high school history class. I am excited and interested to learn more about what he actually did for Cuba and his impact. We have also been touching on the United States' intervention in Cuba, and how United States made Cuba seem dependent rather than independent. We touched on how the United States influenced many leaders and leadership decisions, that it seemed that the ones in charge of Cuba was the United States and not the people of Cuba. This idea of dependency is also seen in the book we are reading and finishing up, A History of the Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky. Chomsky talks about how Cuba's dependency on the United States takes away from the true goal of the revolution, which I agree with. Being dependent on another country makes it hard for other countries, or even themselves, to realize if they can really be independent. It shows lack of independence if they are looking at the United States so much, and can take away supporters that notice that their really isn't much independence with intervention of the United States. While we talk about the Cuban revolution and Castro in Professor Stark's part of the class, we are focusing more on creolization in Professor Serrata's part of the class. This idea of creolization that we have been looking at is through poems/literature, music, and dance. It is really interesting that how different cultures can fuse aspects of their lives into something new and have it live on for so long and influence unity within the nation. I feel like a big part of the independence movement in Cuba relied on unification that was brought together by creolization. I'm really interested on learning more about creolization and Cuba's independence.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 23, 2018 at 5:22 AM

    Hi Israel, I absolutely agree that it seems like a big part of the independence movement in Cuba was brought about by the unifying effect of creolization. Thanks for making that connection! I also agree that the United States almost forcing Cuba to be dependent upon them almost the opposite what the revolution stood for. Cuba wanted independence from the US. The independence movement was helped by the unification of Cuba through creolization, which can be seen in the literature, music, and dance; this literature also reflected the independence movement and some of Latin America's best known authors such as Alejo Carpentier and Nicolás Guillén wrote during this time period and their work reflected the revolution. I like seeing how the literature reflects the time period, especially around events such as the Cuban revolution.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comment on Brianne's Post

Brianne, I really enjoyed your post this week. I totally agree with your idea that there is languages within the different ruins and historical places seen and visited. I enjoyed the poem by Gioconda Belli as well. Comparing it to Pablo Neruda's this last class made me realize how important these ruins are to people and how they mean and say so much. I too have felt a sense of memories through unspoken things, and it as powerful as, maybe even more powerful, things that we have heard and remember through spoken occurrences. Also, its often an unknown language to people who weren't there when the historical places were cities instead of ruins, but not knowing helps us question and try to understand the past which makes it that much more beautiful! Nice relation with Pablo Neruda! Nice post too! Good luck with the rest of the semester!
Read more

Comment on AJ's Post

Nice post and video AJ! I too enjoyed the trip to Chicago. I was also really fascinated with how many connections we were able to make with the artwork at the museums. Although, I am not one that usually is able to understand art, being able to relate things that we learned in this class with the artwork made it a whole lot easier to understand it. Understanding the history and story behind the artwork also made it much more beautiful! I also favored the Mexican art museum too! However, I liked a few artworks, so I cannot say I had a favorite. Some of my favorite art pieces were from the Cuban art museum too. I enjoyed reading your post this week and watching your video!
Read more