- Industrialisation 

- Colonialism 

- Nature and a loss of nature

- Feminism 

 

- He was born in Colombia’s Banana Zone in 1927, a time of unbending public unrest, with the Banana Massacre occurring in 1928. 

 

- His works, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Times of Cholera, “popularised magical realism in literature”.

 

 

-  As readers, we witness the perils of neo-colonialism through the rise and fall of the town of Macondo, which is ultimately swept away due to years of heavy rain after the Banana Massacre, committed by a fictionalised version of the American United Fruit Company. (GGM 2014, Chapter 20)

 

- The anonymity of the fictional town of Macondo means that the novel can be read not only as a fictionalised version of the region’s struggle to emerge out of colonialism but of every post-colonial country's such struggle.

_{References:
García Márquez, G. and Rabassa, G., 2014. One hundred years of solitude. London [etc.]: Penguin Books}

 

In the novel, the Banana Company acts as a fictionalised version of the American company. It personifies the inhumanity and inequality of neo-colonialism.

 

GGM’s novel has familiarised the world with the massacre, a mighty feat, considering the government’s attempt to destroy all evidence of it taking place. 

 

A ‘powerful parable of imperialism’, the novel highlights one of the most significant inequalities suffered by neo-colonial societies: exploiting the land and natives for economic gain.

 

 

Issues with tourism (slums turning into tourist attractions);

 

Biblical references;

 

The working class and unemployed;

 

Territory.

 
This only further demonstrates the economic inequalities suffered in Latin America.

- Poet, editor and cultural entrepreneur

- He is involved in the promotion of poetry in Chile.

- In 2017 he received the Premio a la Trayectoria Poética of the Festival de Poesía La Chascona.

- Urban development

- Culture as savage

- Modernity

- Landscape

- Demolition

^{References
Jaime Pinos Fuentes, Díaz, A. and Estudio Navaja (2014). 80 Días. Chile: Alquimia Ediciones.}

In 2017, the richest 20% of the country’s population earned 8.9 times more than the poorest 20%.

 

It is personified as an active force that destroys the natural Andean landscape. 

 

The poem is a saddening representation of the effects of modernisation on the Andean landscape.

 

Modernisation, or urbanisation, is a destruction of culture and heritage. It erases Andean history. 

 

On top of the injustice of the erasure of native culture, the urbanisation highlights the inequalities suffered in Chilean society. 

 

According to the Borgan Project, the city of Santiago has high and low class parks.

^References

 

The protests emphasised the violence of the carabineros, who were recognised by the National Institute for Human Rights as committing more than 800 cases of excessive use of force and over 194 cases of sexual violence, with 4 cases of rape during these protests.

It is an extremely powerful song and has since been performed by womxn world-over in protest over violence against womxn. 

 

Due to the mention of sleep and the word niña, we are made to think of a lullaby, emphasising the girl’s youth and innocence.

Womxn are expected to be pure and youthful, even though this is often robbed from them by violadores. 

 

The angry tone of this contrasts the usual soft tone of a lullaby and emphasises the rage felt by womxn in the region at the fact that the police, who are supposed to protect them, are the ones hurting them.

Sadly, this has also been felt recently in the UK, with the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a member of the MET. 

 

Just because abortion is illegal, does not mean it is not happening. It does, however, mean that it’s happening unsafely.

 

Femicide is an immense issue in Latin America, another example of the inequality that Latin American womxn face in their day-to-day.

 

The debilitating misogynism is institutional, shown in police brutality and the lack of reproductive rights.

 

The two womxn set across the pampa, arriving at the land of the Iñchiñ people, a community in which polyamory and gender fluidity are celebrated and someone's sexuality needs no defining.

It is a society free of misogyny and homophobia, a stark contrast to Argentina and Latin America on the whole.

^{References
Cabezón Cámara, G., 2017. The Adventures Of China Iron. Translated by Mackintosh, F. and Macintyre, I., 1st ed.}

 

In Colombia, 15% of students had been victims of school violence because of their sexual orientation.

In Peru, around 17% of LGTBI students reported physical aggression in the previous year.

 

In Mexico, 75% of LGTBI students experienced verbal harassment and insults at school.

 

However, not all of Latin America is LGBTQ+ friendly, with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro boasting about being homophobic. 

 

The violence recorded against members of the queer community increased in Colombia, Mexico and Honduras between 2019 and 2020.

 

The history of the Catholic Church in Latin America is controversial, for valid reasons.

The year after it’s so-called discovery, by Italian Catholic, Christopher Columbus, Pope Alexander VI published a papal bull, dividing up the continent between Catholic Spain and Portugal, authorising them to take the Native population as its subjects.

In 1513, the Laws of Burgos were passed, demanding subservience from the Native population;

 

‘[…] you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world. But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can […]’

 

The evangelical mission was a justification for the murder of natives who did not convert to Catholicism. 

 

- gender based 

- sexuality based

- economic

- special

- racial inequalities (ie being indigenous)

It is important, now more than ever, to be aware of these inequalities and work towards making Latin America a more equal region.

During the COVID pandemic in Latin America, these inequalities have been further emphasised. 

 

For example, the rich have been able to afford private health care and the poor haven’t, reflected in death rates in the region. 

- Kahlo and García Márquez showed the inequalities faced by the Latin people due to neo-colonialism: from the erasure of native culture to the Banana Massacre of 1928.

 

- Rocas and Pinos showed the economic inequalities suffered by many latinx in their respective poems.

 

- GCC highlighted the inequalities of living in a binary, heteronormative society by presenting the reader with a queer utopia

 

- Pope Francis advocates for indigenous populations in 2019, however it is not enough to absolve the Catholic Church of its past transgressions (to put it lightly) against native groups.

 

Three-quarters of Latin Americans are low or lower-middle income, and only 3 percent of Latin Americans are classified as high income. 

 

Thirty percent of the region lives beneath the poverty line, and one in five individuals lives in a slum. 

 

Sixty percent of Latin Americans are employed in the informal sector, many without access to employment benefits or guarantees. 

 

Although several countries in the region have lowered income inequality over the past few years, the richest decile of Latin Americans still owns 71 percent of the region’s wealth.”