Latin America

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Pages: 4

My perception of Latin America has expanded throughout this course. Most of my experiences have been about my own family and the community that I grew up with here in the United States. Most of these individuals I spent time with were also of Mexican descent, so I tended to believe that most of the traditions and customs in Latin America were just like Mexico’s. I appreciated learning about different countries and their highlights. Comparing them with each other and the US helped me frame and distinguish these countries main values and assets. I think it was very helpful for me to learn about the Latin American context throughout this class. I haven’t attended school in Latin America since I was a child and here in Colorado, and I’m assuming …show more content…
Throughout my life I simply thought of people as “Mexican” or “Puerto Rican,” but didn’t know about the complexity of the ethnicity of individuals in other countries. Since the census in these countries does not recognize ethnicity, I think this maybe a common misconception. I acknowledged mestizos and indigenous, but I didn’t know the classification of the other races in Latin America. Knowing that Latin America received the most slaves was shocking to me. I thought it was interesting to learn how Mexico does not count ethnicity in the census, yet it is an important part of an individual’s identity. I also did not know that the United States has been a large influence on Latin America. The amount of effort and investment that this country took to ensure that Latin American countries were in their control is shocking. Through military control and the School of the Americas it was evident that they intended to perpetuate violations of human rights and oppress their citizens of these countries. The united states can also impose travel bans to certain countries or imply sanctions for not aligning to their values, which could have a tremendous affect on the wellbeing of a country. Lastly, though my country capsule and many other presentations, I realized how important economic factors and geography influenced countries. For example, Venezuela relies almost entirely on petroleum and Honduras on the banana industry. This puts the power to those who purchase these products. In my previous reflection, I mentioned the importance of agriculture. I was not fully aware of the environmental impacts that for example deforestation or lack of precipitation could have on the crops which eventually affect families and countries as a