My Reaction to Grace's blog 3

I love your blogs because they are interesting and relate to things that I like. Plus they have videos so that is a plus for sure. I just read your blog and immediately thought of when Prof. Serrata said that a gaucho could know where a blade of grass was from by chewing it, which made me laugh in class. so when I read the name of the video: Sherlock Holmes doesn't need a map I thought you related it very well to the gauchos and the different kinds of gauchos. I agree too that Sherlock Holmes would make a good cowboy, based on skills and his social standing.

Blog number 3

This week I thought it would be a good idea to talk about something that I still don't understand from Stark's part of the class. That is, I still do not understand why Chile cared that Peru and Bolivia united. Lucas asked in class, but I did not understand Stark's reference to Indiana and Ohio, and I don't think that Mitch's example about Toledo and the upper peninsula relates to the issue. To me the issue is that Chile was jealous that a struggling nation was trying to help itself by joining up with another nation. The Toledo issue is that Ohio wanted Toledo from Michigan, which directly affected Michigan, so that doesn't really apply here. Meanwhile, the Indiana example just doesn't seem like it would matter to me. It simply appears to me to be one nation being upset that another nation is trying to save itself and bring itself out of debt. Why is Chile set on holding down Peru?

My Reaction to Emily's Blog number 2: Lost

I really like the analogy that you used Emily, and i think that you hit on the time period very well with the characters. I agree that their following blindly is very similar to the elites of Latin America at the time following the European systems without questioning whether they will work for them or not. I also like that you made an interesting connection to an outside show, and a reference that a lot of people can understand even if you have not seen the show simply on a little description of the show. It makes answering other people's blogs more fun when they connect them to interesting and fun topics.

Blog number 2

Hello everyone, as I am sure was expected, I'm going to use this blog to talk quickly about my reference to the Jungle Book in class. At first I thought it was a somewhat limited reference, but now that I have looked over it, and watched it another three or four times I see a lot of things that make the analogy as very good to me. First off, it is sung by King Loui, who expresses his desire as an elite to expand to something more than a monkey, or a savage. This matches up with the Latin American elites of the time also wanting to evolve, and become more like Europeans. The fire that King Loui searches for stands for the progress that Latin American elites are also looking for. Finally, King Loui spends some of the song chasing around a lower class monkey and thumping him with a leaf, which in turn stands for the elite's pushing aside of the lower classes to better himself. King Loui expresses his desire to walk among men, to progress, and his willingness to push aside those below him, much like the elites of Latin America were while building their nations in the 1800's.

Blog #1: Introduction

Hello everyone, this is Matt Sinclair. I am a biology major but currently do not know what to do with a biology major. I really enjoy our class on Latin America, and chose to take it as my sequence for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have been to Latin America, and to Tulum and absolutely loved being there. That experience alone was enough to make me want to learn more about there people, such as how they built these structures, how they lived, and where they went. This of course adds to the fact that I have never visited Asia or Europe or some of the other options we had, so Latin America seemed to be the more interesting topic to me. Second of all, was my three years of Spanish in high school, which I did well in and for the most part enjoyed. I especially liked the days where we would focus on culture, and so learning more about the modern culture of Latin America seemed like an easy choice in that regard. Lastly, I chose Latin America due to its closeness to myself. I have always felt that it would make more sense to learn the ways of the countries who neighbor us, not so much the ones across an ocean. Overall, between Asian, European, American, and Latin American civilization, I choose the one that, in my opinion, was most relevant to me, and most interesting, but still had this feel of newness to it of something I had never studied in depth before. I am happy with my decision and glad to be in class with all of you.