Our America

José Martí

In his text Our America, José Martí writes on Latin America and the relationship with its colonizers. He is clearly against colonization and the “exotic” man (colonizer), as he saw them of different nature and unlike natural men who were “good”. He describes colonizers as condescending with no reason to be so at all with natives. 

He describes  latin americans who seeked to be like their colonizers as traitors its people shpuld get rid of and as weak, comparing them to seven month old babies.  They are the opposite of what he thinks should be pursued, cosmopolitanism, and instead are close minded and think only of what closely surrounds them.

As a pro cosmopolitanism he insists on thinking bigger and appreciating all the different cultures but emphasizes on the importance of having countries run by its people who understand and know the country, its people, its resources, etc. Instead of having a government copied off a country they long to be. 

“La unidad del Espíritu”. He believed Latin America should be proud, stand tall and unite, not in government or states but in spirit and rise together. 

The context and discourse at this time is as important and relevant as José Martí was one of the independent movement initiators and later an inspiration for Cuba’s revolution.

I find this text very interesting because even though it was written more than 100 years ago ti still applies to what we live day to day. There will always be politicians and governors seeking their own good and not thinking about the country or the way it should be particularly run. There are always people trying to look or be European because somehow this way of thinking that they are superior or better is immersed in our society and has not gone away. 

Despite them being part of our history and us being a mixture of both, we are not Europeans and I couldn’t agree more with Martí. As latins we are all a mix of different races and cultures and it should be something to be accepted, embraced, be proud of and worked with rather than rejected.

Open Veins of Latin America

Before the conquest, natives did not have many of the inventions that conquerors brought with them such as iron, plow, glass, gun powder or the wheel. It is believed the unequal development of both sides can explain the ease with which native civilizations succumbed. Natives had never seen anything like it before. Horses were seen as mythical creatures, and conquerors as gods with their pale skin and sharp tools.

“El desnivel de desarrollo de ambos mundos explica en gran medida la relativa facilidad con que sucumbieron las civilizaciones nativas.” Pg.33

Diseases are also considered to be one of the conqueror’s most powerful weapons without them even realizing it: Native’s bodies and immune systems were not adapted to the kind of diseases conqueror's carried with them leaving natives dead or unable to fight back. 

“Las bacterias y los virus fueron los aliados más eficaces. Los europeos traían consigo, como plagas bíblicas, la viruela y el tétanos, varias enfermedades pulmonares, intestinales y venéreas, el tracoma, el tifus, la lepra, la fiebre amarilla, las caries que pudrían las bocas” Pg. 35

Conqueors also took advantage of issues and grudges held against the cultures: Hernan Cortes alliance with the Tlaxcalans to vanish the Aztecs. Pg. 34

It was an era of invention. Discoveries and inventions were made each year thanks to the enlightenment so the discovery of America was just one more to be added to the list of things they discovered and invented that always benefited them in their growth, economy or knowledge. It was not the first time nor the last time that they knew about something and took advantage and/or exploited resources or people.


For Galeano, it is a win-lose situation, where he explains that world powers have triumphed because we have lost. When conquerors came, they took all the wealth and valuable resources they could through force and conquest, brainwashing natives through religion and/or fear to submit and obey. Whereas, nowadays Latin America continues to serve the countries they used to through diplomacy and economy.

Pasaron los siglos y América Latina perfeccionó sus funciones. Éste ya no es el reino de las maravillas donde la realidad derrotaba a la fábula y la imaginación era humillada por los trofeos de la conquista, los yacimientos de oro y las montañas de plata. Pero la región sigue trabajando de sirvienta. Continúa existiendo al servicio de las necesidades ajenas, como fuente y reserva del petróleo y el hierro, el cobre y la carne, las frutas y el café, las materias primas y los alimentos con destino a los países ricos que ganan, consumiéndolos, mucho más de lo que América Latina gana produciéndolos. 

Cooking Lesson

1. Women know how to cook

"How long will it take to be done? Well, that shouldn't worry me too much because it has to be put on the grill at the last minute. It takes very little time, according to the cookbook. How long is little? Fifteen minutes? Ten? Five? Naturally the text doesn't specify. It presupposes an intuition which, according to my sex, I'm supposed to possess but I don't, a sense I was born without that would allow me to gauge the precise minute the meat is done." Pag. 4

2. Women satisfy men sexually

 But I, self-sacrificing little Mexican wife, born like a dove to the nest, smiled like Cuauhtemoc under torture on the rack when he said, "My bed is not made of roses," and fell silent. Face up, I bore not only my own weight but also his on top of me. The classic position for making love. And I moaned, from the tearing and the pleasure. The classic moan. Myths, myths. Pag. 3

3. Women do not talk other than to say yes 

"Si asumo la otra actitud, si soy el caso típico, la femineidad que solicita indulgencia para sus errores, la balanza se inclinara a favor de mi antagonista y yo participaré en la competencia con un hándicap que, aparentemente, me destina a la derrota y que, en el fondo, me garantiza el triunfo por la sinuosa vía que recorrieron mis antepasadas, las humildes, las que no abrían los labios sino para asentir, y lograron la obediencia ajena hasta al más irracional de sus caprichos. La receta, pues, es vieja y su eficacia está comprobada. Si todavía lo dudo me basta preguntar a la más próxima de mis vecinas. Ella confirmará mi certidumbre." Pag. 6

4. Women are incomplete without men

“So then, I accept, as we head toward the bar (my peeling shoulder feels like it's on fire) that it's true that in my contact or collision with him I've undergone a profound metamorphosis. I didn't know and now I know; I didn't fed and now I do feel; I wasn't and now I am. “ Pag. 4

From Discourse to Power

Foucoult views discourse as the production of knowledge through language. He argues that nothing would make sense or mean anything if what is being said or done does not belong to that discourse of that particular time and place. It is a representation of knowledge, everything being said and done regarding a topic. So, anyone who manipulates the discourse can rule how we behave and view the world, deciding what is socially acceptable and what’s not. When the one in power has the knowledge of the truth it can be changed and have everyone believing it is true, eventually making it become true.

Foucoult believed power, rather than being a straight line, was a flowing chan. There is not a single “ruler” and the ones he rules over but we have all been and are opressors and oppressed. Despite us having a certain role, what produces the knowledge according to Foucault was the discourse, not the subject executing the action or social practice and was also not necessary for there to be one to operate.

What is the relationship of discourse to power?

What new conception of power does Foucault give us?

Why does Foucault’s work impact the traditional conception of the subject?