Latino: a general term for a diverse group of people.

      The sun beat down, the temperature rising to a marvelous 98 degrees, almost visibly browning our skin. The soccer ball flew towards me, jolting me from my blissful basking. I kicked it back, and a few short minutes later we had a break for lunch and water. Over our food I picked up a few snatches of conversations about dark skin and tanning, and things like that. There were a few comments that could have been racist but I was not really paying attention to them. All of the sudden one of my friends, who was one of the few people who could pass for white, leaned over to me, thrust his forearm out, and gestured for me to do the same. So I did, thinking nothing of it, besides possibly a little friendly competition to see who was more tan, like my friends and I do all the time, at home. I was much darker than he, so I was confident that I would win, and I could poke fun at him for a few minutes. So with confidence I rolled up my sleeve and put my forearm on the slightly sticky picnic table next to my friend’s.  Immediately it was apparent I was darker, so I did some mental translation, and said, “I’m darker than you” in Spanish. Then to my astonishment, my friend said ‘gano’ or “I won,” I didn’t get it at first, I though I misunderstood at first. Then my friend said something to the effect of, I’m lighter, I won.

      At first I thought I misheard, or didn’t understand what he was saying, then my other friend, Sebastian who was my exchange, came up and wanted to compare arms, so I put mine out, and he put his out. He had a lot of indigenous blood in him, and was generally darker than I. When we compared arms, I was lighter, and therefore won. This was very strange to me, the idea that being the least tan was the most desirable.

      I was on a student exchange program to Colombia to learn Spanish. At the time, I had been in the country for about two or three weeks. I had heard a few racist comments, but had not really paid attention to them, just because everyone says certain things in a group of friends that they either don’t mean, or they wouldn’t say in any other context. However, I gradually started to realize how deeply rooted and also fundamentally different racism is in Colombia.

      In the United States we commonly see Latinos as one racial group, however that view could not be farther from the truth. I have been to Mexico several times, and am half-Mexican and part Native American myself. But the majority of time I spent in Latin America so far was on my student exchange to Colombia. There is very distinct and institutionalized racism throughout Latin America, and most of the racial hierarchies are the same in Colombia as in the rest of Latin America, but since I am most familiar with Colombia, I will speak only to Colombia. In Colombia there is a hierarchy that goes: White European, then light-skinned Latin with traceable roots to Europeans, then light-skinned Latin, then dark skinned Latin, then Native mixed with Latin, then Native, then people of African descent. This was the model that I learned in the specific part of Colombia I was in. Teun A. van Djik, a Professor of discourse studies, namely focusing on racism, in Pompeu Fabre University in Barcelona writes in his book; Racism and Discourse in Spain and Latin America: “These local, regional and social differences of participants, class, professional, education, political ideology, as well as the differences of interaction context, define an infinite variety of forms of racism [in Latin America](91).

      Here, in America, we have a one-drop rule where if one of your ancestors is not white, then you are of that other race. However in Latin America if you have any white blood, or any blood that is “above” your racial status then you can fit into that “better” status.  This comes from the system and history of dominance through racism that Europeans set up (Dijk 83). Also much of the racism is often excused with as well as adding to and mixing with classism because Indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent are usually the poorest in the country (Dijk 83). Racism is so widespread and so common that the ex-minister of education in the 1940’s gave a speech in which he said things like “crossing the indigenous race with superior races is the only way to pull them out of their cultural and physiological prostration” (Djik 150). Even though the speech was in the 40’s, this is the kind of sentiment that I was exposed to, and that was shared regularly.

      Suzanne Oboler is a professor of Latin American studies at John Jay University, She wrote a book specifically upon the race relations between Latinos and Afro-Latinos. Racism is much less accepted in mainstream culture than it was in the 40’s however that does not mean that it is in anyway less than it was. Because racism is now hidden and denied, it actually makes it much harder to address and find solutions for (Oboler 40). However, Colombia is one of the very few countries that have officially acknowledged that there is institutionalized racism against the Afro population, and has at least written some reports (Oboler 41). However, this still ignores the Indigenous population which is often treated the same as, or very similar to the Afro population.

      Marilyn G. Miller, a professor at Tulane University writes about one of the most important ideas in Latin American identity in her book, Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race. This idea is that of mestizaje. It comes from mestizo, basically mixed race. This is an extremely important concept for Latinos, because besides Indigenous peoples everyone in Latin America is a mestizo. In the twentieth century mestizo began to be described as the “truly representative class” and that “mestizaje and Latin Americanness are indissoluble terms” (Miller 3). The term mestizaje truly signifies race relations in Latin America, in all of its double meanings, double standards, and conundrums. Mestizaje was a term that was supposed to be anti-racist and anti-imperial, however when people started doing research into the word, it was found to be a tool of colonial domination. People argued that instead of helping get rid of racism it actually made the problem worse by having a stance of inclusion while practicing exclusion (Miller 4).

      Of course there were exceptions to this racial hierarchy, and many people were actively trying to end racism. I went to a college that was near where I was staying, and there were flyers and murals everywhere about equality, and respect for all regardless of race. These movements were mostly bound to collages and generally younger intellectuals. Many liberal collages came under attack by the government because of these liberal views. For example, a few weeks before I arrived there was a huge fight between college students and military, which I believe had to do with race relations, and resulted in many buildings being burned down.

      We were on a wooden palette covered in moss, a few days into a trip to the coast to live in a small, completely Black village. There were metal wheels attached to the bottom that rode on the train tracks. A dirt bike had been cobbled onto the back so the front wheel was attached to the palette, and the back wheel was on the rail. One of the villagers rode the bike at a breakneck speed, propelling the palette forward at what felt like 60 miles per hour. I was crammed onto the front of the palette with my friend. There were 12 other people on the palette with us and we all held onto each other to keep from falling off. We were going over a bridge that was several hundred feet above a chasm, which I could look between my feet and see the alarming sight of what looked like broken palettes, when my friend and exchange student yelled something inaudible in my ear. I leaned over to him, and wobbling, grabbed his shirt, I leaned in and asked him what he said. He yelled back that we both, but especially I needed to be careful because of the 'negros'. This was because of my lighter skin, which made me both respected and disliked.

      This trip really illustrated for me the complexities of race in Latin America, and how while a given group of people might be “Colombian”, they are also much more than that. I would urge people to really look into themselves and examine their preconceptions about race, where they got those ideas, and how they think about people because of their race. This is what being in Colombia made me do, and I realized how many ideas about race I carry around, as well as a heightened awareness of other people’s beliefs.
     

      Dijk, Teun A. van. Racism and Discourse in Spain and Latin America. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2005. Book.
      Miller, Marilyn Grace. Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race: The Cult of Mestizaje in Latin America. University of Texas Press. Book.
      Oboler, Suzanne and Dzidzienyo Anani. Neither Enemies nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos. Palgrave Macmillan. Book.

reflection 4.0

This essay was very fun to write, because it brought up memories of things I had not thought about in a long time. It was a quick essay to write because it was my story and I already knew what I was going to write and how I was going to incorporate evidence to support my story. The one thing that was harder than other papers was trying to make an argument out of the story, but in the end it worked.

Narrative Argument 4.0

Racism In Latin America

      The sun beat down, raising the temperature to a marvelous 98 degrees, almost visibly browning our skin. The soccer ball flew towards me, jolting me from my blissful basking. I kicked it back, and a few short minutes later we had a break for lunch, and water. Over our lunch I picked up a few snatches of conversations about dark skin and tanning, and things like that. There were a few comments that could have been racist but I was not really paying attention to them. All of the sudden one of my friends, who was one of the few people who could pass for white, leaned over to me, thrust his forearm out, and gestured for me to do the same. So I did, thinking nothing of it, besides possibly a little friendly competition to see who was more tan, like my friends and I do all the time, at home. I was much darker than he, so I was confident that I would win, and I could poke fun at him for a few minutes. So with confidence I rolled up my sleeve and put my forearm on the slightly sticky picnic table next to my friend’s.  Immediately it was apparent I was darker, so I did some mental translation, and said, “I’m darker than you” in Spanish. Then to my astonishment, my friend said ‘gano’ or “I won,” I didn’t get it at first, I though I misunderstood at first. Then my friend said something to the effect of, I am lighter, I won.
      At first I thought I misheard, or didn’t understand what he was saying, then my exchange came up and wanted to compare arms, so I put mine out, and he put his out. He had a lot of indigenous blood in him, so he is always much darker than I. When we compared arms, I was lighter, and therefore won. This was very strange to me, the idea that being the least tan was the most desirable.
      I was on a student exchange program to Colombia to learn Spanish. At the time we were at that particular soccer field I had been in the country for about two or three weeks. I had heard a few racist comments, but had not really paid attention to them, just because everyone says certain things in a group of friends that they either don’t mean, or they wouldn’t say in any other context. Gradually I started to realize how deeply rooted and also fundamentally different racism is in Colombia.
      In the United States we commonly see Latinos as one racial group, however in Latin America that view can be farther from the truth. I have been to Mexico several times, and am half-Mexican and part Native American myself. But the majority of time I spent in Latin America so far was on my student exchange to Colombia. There is very distinct and institutionalized racism throughout Latin America, and most of the racial hierarchies are the same in Colombia as in the rest of Latin America, but since I am most familiar with Colombia, I will speak only to Colombia. In Colombia there is a hierarchy that goes: White European, then light-skinned Latin with traceable roots to Europeans, then light-skinned Latin, then dark skinned Latin, then Native mixed with Latin, then Native, then people of African descent. This was the model that I learned in the specific part of Colombia I was in, however as Djik says on page 91, “These local, regional and social differences of participants, class, professional, education, political ideology, as well as the differences of interaction context, define an infinite variety of forms of racism [in Latin America].
      Here, in America, we have a one-drop rule where if one of your ancestors is not white, then you are of that other race. However in Latin America if you have any white blood, or any blood that is “above” your racial status then you can fit into that “better” status.  This comes from the system and history of dominance through racism that Europeans set up (Dijk  83). Also much of the racism is often excused with as well as adding to and mixing with classism because Indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent are usually the poorest in the country (Dijk 83). Racism is so widespread and so common that the ex-minister of education in the 1940’s gave a speech in which he said things like “crossing the indigenous race with superior races is the only way to pull them out of their cultural and physiological prostration” (Djik 150). Even though the speech was in the 40’s, this is the kind of sentiment that I was exposed to, and that was shared regularly.
      Racism is much less accepted in mainstream culture than it was in the 40’s however that does not mean that it is in anyway less than it was. Because racism is now hidden and denied, it actually makes it much harder to address  and find solutions for (Oboler 40). However, Colombia is one of the very few countries that have officially acknowledged that there is institutionalized racism against the Afro population, and has at least written some reports (Oboler 41). However, this still ignores the Indigenous population which is often treated the same as, or very similar to the Afro population.
      One of the most important ideas in Latin American identity in regards to race is the term, and idea, mestizaje. It comes from mestizo, basically mixed race. This is an extremely important concept for Latinos, because besides Indigenous peoples everyone in Latin America is a mestizo. In the twentieth century mestizo began to be described as the “truly representative class” and that “mestizaje and Latin Americanness are indissoluble terms” (Miller 3). The term mestizaje truly signifies race relations in Latin America, in all of its double meanings, double standards, and conundrums. Mestizaje was a term that was supposed to be anti-racist and anti-imperial, however when people started doing research into the word, it was found to be a tool of colonial domination. People argued that instead of helping get rid of racism it actually made the problem worse by having a stance of inclusion while practicing exclusion (Miller 4) .
      We were on a wooden palette covered in moss, a few days into a trip to the coast to live in a small, completely Black village. There were metal wheels attached to the bottom that rode on the train tracks. A dirt-bike had been cobbled onto the back so the front wheel was attached to the palette, and the back wheel was on the rail. One of the villagers rode the bike at a breakneck speed, propelling the palette forward at what felt like 60 miles per hour. I was crammed onto the front of the palette with my friend. There were 12 other people on the palette with us and we all held onto each other to keep from falling off. We were going over a bridge that was several hundred feet above a chasm, which I could look between my feet and see the alarming sight of what looked like broken palettes, when my friend and exchange student yelled something inaudible in my ear. I leaned over to him, and wobbling, grabbed his shirt, I leaned in and asked him what he said. He yelled back that we both, but especially I needed to be careful because of the 'negros'. This was because of my lighter skin, which made me both respected and disliked, as well as the fact that I was not fluent in Spanish.
    
      Dijk, Teun A. van. Racism and Discourse in Spain and Latin America. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2005. Book.
      Oboler, Suzanne and Dzidzienyo Anani. Neither Enemies nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos. Palgrave Macmillan. Book.
      Miller, Marilyn Grace. Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race: The Cult of Mestizaje in Latin America. Universituy of Texas Press. Book.

Reflection 3.2

My revisions went rather smoothly, the workshops helped a lot, especially in figuring out large issues that I had to work with. For example, adding more of an argument for my side. I had trouble finding a good source that was pro-euthanasia, because most of the books and articles I saw were about the history, and not an argument for it. However after much research I did end up finding a really good source that was arguing for even a more liberal policy regarding euthanasia. Other than that all of the rest of the revisions went smoothly, it was not difficult to combine paragraphs as many of them had similar points.

Rogerian Argument 3.2

Assisted Suicide; A Crime or A Comfortable End to Life

Euthanasia has its roots in Greek it comes from “eu” which means good, or well, and “thantos” which means death, and together they mean “good death” (Medterms). Euthanasia or elective suicide is a highly debated topic; there are many perspectives, from ambivalent to regarding it as a human right to seeing it as a final act of compassion to rejection to seeing it as a violation of the sanctity of human life. There are also many religious people who see it as a violation of God’s will (Foley 3).What both sides of the debate hold in common, despite the range of viewpoints and nuances, is their great respect of life. Both sides care deeply about the lives of the individuals in question. However many times one side calls into question whether the other side cares about the patients who want to be euthanized.

       Because this question strikes at the very basis of what it means to be alive, and what it means to die, the subject stirs very impassioned argument. The age-old question of what happens when we die comes into play, and many very strong, and ingrained emotions and opinions come into play. These questions are thrust into the forefront of everyone’s mind in this debate, not one side any more than another.

There are many arguments against elective suicide that are not purely religious, but are born out of a genuine concern for what the future would look like if euthanasia were to be both commonplace and acceptable nation-wide. One such argument is that if euthanizing becomes commonplace that there will be pressure on elderly people to be euthanized. Because there is such a youth-oriented culture, elderly people are looked at as dependants, and as members of a society that they cannot make any contributions to (Somerville 13). This places a pressure upon them to die quickly, and not be a burden on their families. If an elderly person lives well into very old age, their health care costs rise, there is a continual need for medical attention. Elderly people can cost more on any given procedure than a younger person, solely because of the rate at which they heal (Sommerville 18). Because of all these pressures, some people believe that if assisted suicide became both legal, and common, elderly people would start electing to be euthanized based on their not wanting to put an undue financial burden upon their family. Also people believe that the state, as well as private interests and insurance agencies, would put pressure on elderly people as a way to save costs on Medicare, as well as general healthcare costs.

      Many people also have a problem, or disagree with euthanasia because many terminally ill patients can be quite depressed. After all, being in pain all the time, and knowing that you have only a year to live at the maximum is not exactly an uplifting thought. Through this terrible experience, the thought, “is life worth living” gets introduced into a patient’s head. Harvey M Cochinov MD and PH.D, and Leonard Schwartz LL.B, LL.M, M.D, wrote Case Against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care, within one of the chapters, they address this issue, and say:
 After all, every patient whose death is imminent will at some point ponder the question, is life still meaningful and worth living? Depression can influence a patient’s answer. It is thus essential that those who care for terminally ill patients are aware of depression and its influence on one’s sense of meaning and the wish to go on living, even in the face of death (Foley 262).

      The problem that people have with this is that if someone is deeply depressed, then that will influence their decision, and it will not be fully rational and it would be an emotional decision.
      There is a grey area in assisted suicide, which is called “passive euthanasia.” This is where euthanasia is enacted by withholding treatment, such as withdrawing a feeding tube, which can be brought on by a second party or do-not-resuscitate orders, which are given by the patient. These have entered the public forum quite recently, and have stirred up much debate, and legislature itself.
      Because passive euthanasia is so extremely common, and because it is so close to assisted suicide, it says a lot about the industry and euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is also called “allowing to die” (Battin 48) it is so common that “85% of deaths in the United States that occurred in health-care institutions, including hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities, about 70% involved electively withholding some form of life-sustaining treatment” (Battin 48). Between 1987 and 1993 recommendations for withdrawing life-support have increased from 51% to 90% (Battin 49). This indicates a change of mentality from not accepting the practice to common usage of choosing the way we end life.


       In the United States, besides Oregon, assisted suicide is illegal; however passive euthanasia is very widely practiced, and is quite legal. There seems to be a blurry line between the two. For example, injecting escalating doses of morphine, which slows breathing, is accepted under passive euthanasia, solely because there is a double effect. The side effect is the thing that kills the patient, not the original intention of administering it as a painkiller. The main difference between the two ideas is “causing to die” and “allowing to die” besides the semantics, there is a very blurry line that is crossed with frequency.
      Craig Paterson PhD is a philosopher with an interest in bioethics, he wrote the book: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. He discusses people’s rights to be able to have access to assisted suicide. Patterson uses basic human rights that are universal to build his claims. He argues that if consent is given and it is to relieve pain and suffering then it is morally right to assist in suicide. He also talks about posthumous benefit, and detriment. He argues that if you are contributing something good, or would have a better existence if you went on living, than suicide would be wrong, because it is directly detrimental to the quality of life. However if you are, for example, terminally ill and all that continuing living would bring you is pain and suffering and you would benefit from not living, then assisted suicide is permissible.

      I believe that assisted suicide is no more than taking an active part in, and deciding the time and place you want to end your life. If patients have been screened for depression, have received counseling on the end of life, know the full ramifications of their actions, as much as humanly possible, and are not considering death as a way to save money, then who are we to tell them that they cannot choose when they die? Another piece of this is that patients who elect for suicide have to be terminally ill, without a possibility of living the rest of their days in relative comfort. Another very important piece is consent the patient has to knowingly give consent without any pressure from family or also, very importantly, from doctors and caregivers.

      After all the arguments are done, I don’t believe that we can fully understand what it must be like to be terminally ill and to know that the rest of your life will be spent in both pain and hospital beds. The desire to not spend the rest of your life in pain, with deteriorating organs, and the conscious decision that you want to die, but you have to keep living with the knowledge that able-bodied people decided that you cannot end your torment.

    
    

      Battin, M Pabst, Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die. Oxford University Press 2005, Book.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7365
      Somerville, Margret A. Death Talk: The case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide. McGill-Queen’s University Press 2001, Book.
      Foley M.D., Kathleen and Hendin M.D., Herbert. Case against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of Life Care. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, Book.
Paterson, Craig Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. Ashgate Publishing Group. 2008. Book

prewriting 4.2

We were on a wooden palette covered in moss. There were metal wheels attached to the bottom that rode on the train tracks. A dirt-bike had been cobbled onto the back so the front wheel was attached to the palette, and the back wheel was on the rail. One of the villagers rode the bike at a breakneck speed, propelling the palette forward at around 60 miles per hour. I was crammed onto the front of the palette with my friend. There were 12 other people on the palette with us and we all held onto each other to keep from falling off. We were going over a bridge that was several hundred feet above a chasm, which i could look between my feet and see the alarming sight of what looked like broken palettes, when my friend and  exchange student yelled something inaudible in my ear. I leaned over to him, and wobbling, grabbed his shirt, I leaned in and asked him what he said. He yelled back that we both, but especially I needed to be careful because of the 'negros'. I was lighter skinned then he, even though I am Mexican, however race relations are very strained in Colombia.

prewriting 4.0

Racism within Latin American Countries
especially within people who we as americans group together.

This is a very widely ignored topic, because we think people from a country, such as Colombia are all Colombians. But that cant be farther from the truth. Because of the nature of the formation of these countries there are people who are purely indigenous who are dark skinned; people of direct african descent on the coast, who are darker than anyone else in the country; people who are mostly spanish and are lighter skinned; and people who are a mix of the two, and are generally in the middle. Because of the white european hegemonic system there is an affinity for light-skinned people.
Even though people ave very proud of their heritage and countries, mothers can be frequently heard saying "oo you look so good, your all light, and not tan"(in spanish of course). All of the people with different shades of skin actively classify themselves as being in one group or another, generally the rule is the lighter skin you have, the better group you can be in.