Cultural blogpost: Indigenous Brazilians rally to demand land protections

Photo of protestors taken by Eraldo Peres (Associated Press).

The last five hundreds years of history has seen in the American continents a large disregard for the rights and privileges of native peoples by colonial governments. Their very ways of life have been altered significantly to the point they will never be able to go back to the way things were prior to colonization.

In April 25th of this year an estimated 3,000 indigenous people from all across Brazil marched on the capital of Brasiliia to protest around thirty three large infrastructure and economic projects on native lands that are proposals in the Federal Congress. These projects includes dams, mining, logging, and agriculture.

They are also protesting dramatic cuts to the agency in charge of native relations (FUNAI). Their third major point of protest has been violence towards natives. A year ago it was reported dozens of members of the Gamela tribe were hospitalized after a brutal attack by local ranches. A truth commission has been set up by the federal government to investigate the deaths of around 8,000 native Americans between the years of 1946-1988. It has been reported that the number of homicides of indigenous persons is the highest since 2003 at this time.

Brazil has two hundred federally recognized tribes which have 900,000 people. The main organization leading these protests is Brazil’s Indigenous Ministry Council (CIMI). These issues surrounding ingenious Brazilians have also gained international attention recently and in the past. Greenpeace did a journalistic investigation of logging encroachment on indigenous land. The UN Environmental Office has condemed violence against Brazilian natives. Two weeks ago a member of the Karipuna tribe spoke on the floor of the UN General Assembly denouncing the treatment of natives by Brazil’s government and nationals and calling it a “Genocide”.
Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/indigenous-brazilians-rally-demand-land-rights-protection-180425203118095.html

I.S. Symposium

Dylan Pederson:

The first I.S. presentation I went to was Dylan Pederson’s: One God, One Race, One Tongue: A Study of Racial Inequality in Colombia. His presentation was a study of forced displacement in Colombia due to military intervention created by the Colombian and U.S. government. He discussed many aspects of the issues, from personal interviews to inter/national policies and groups both helping and harming the citizens. I believe that his information was well-founded as he not only included the destruction from the Colombian government but also the U.S. government. However, I think his presentation style made the information seem uneasy. He paused in wrong place and seemed to put more focus on what seemed to not be the focus of his argument. I do believe that he portrayed the issues of the oppressed group well.

 

Marina Dias Lucena Adams:

The second Latin American I.S. presentation I attended was Marina’s presentation on the Movimento Feminino pela Anistia during the military coup of 1964. Her argument was that while the group was a very powerful political group made up of woman, it cannot be defined as a feminist organization. She defended this by showing the very traditional gender roles enforced by the group and the fact that feminist groups that began after the end of this movement did not claim the group. Marina showed a very balanced view of the group; without insulting the group and acknowledging their work as beneficial to the country, she also stated her opposing view of the group.

IS Symposium

For Symposium I went to two very cohesive presentations.

Danica Genners:  Danica’s project examined how attitudes have shifted towards those in the  LGBTQ+  in Latin America have shifted after the election of LGBTQ+ politicians. Her poster was very clear to follow, using a good mix of statistical figures and words. Given the information one would need for the project, I think it was a good choice to show lean towards more statistics rather than pictures for the poster. I think Danica portrayed Latin America fairly, and I really enjoyed being able to listen to what she had to say on the subject

Sarah Vonck:

Sarah’s project explored how the government’s lack of implementing an environmental policy has negatively affected the indigenous community in Ecuador. Her poster was well balanced, showing an equal amount of text, figures, and pictures that were well distributed throughout the poster. The scope of her project seemed pretty big when she first started explaining it but was very thorough and concise. I didn’t have a lot of time to ask her questions at the end, but as she was leading me through her project her tone remained pretty neutral about her findings.

IS Symposium

For IS Symposium, I presented my own research on Latin America and also was able to discuss with Sarah Vonck about her research on indigenous rights in Ecuador. For my research, I studied the effect that LGBTQIA+ legislators has on the public’s approval on same-sex marriage ratings. I looked at 11 different countries and found that just the election and presence of an LBGTQIA+ legislator within a county does have a positive and significant effect on how an individual will rate their approval of same-sex marriage. Also, overall in the region (among the countries I studied) there is a trend of increased approval towards same-sex marriage, but there is still a long way to go towards high approval. Sadly for my study I was unable to look at Brazil.

Sarah Vonck researched the newest constitution in Ecuador and how its failed implementation has impacted the indigenous populations within the Yasuni national park. She is a GIS and Spanish major so she really was able to cover both history, politics, and economics within her project.

IS Symposium

I went to one presentation and a poster. First one was Sydney Irias’s. She talked about how economic, age and educational factors affect one’s adoption culture. She found that having higher educational degrees and income leads to a positive impact in adopting in Honduras. As a person who lived in Honduras for three years, I figured she would talk about religious factor in Honduras. In fact, she did. Honduras, also countries in Latin America, is known for their Catholicity. Looking at the virtues of Catholics, the adoption rate for Catholics was higher than the non-Catholics, since more access was granted for Catholics.

Also I went to Nancy Grazon’s presentation. In her presentation, the main topic was immigrants. She mentioned how the children who have immigrated have hope and desire for their better future, mostly told by their parents. I found it very interesting since it resonated with my Spanish class. In my Spanish class, we watched a movie called “Almost a Woman”. It talked about a child called Esmeralda, an immigrant from Puerto Rico. She had high hopes for her future due to her mother. Her mother had high hopes for the future for Esmeralda since she had more opportunities. It surely had negative impacts on her, putting too much pressure and stress, but positive impacts led her to a success, being able to graduate from a public arts school. The student mentioned negative impacts and positive impacts of the parents’ influence and they were reasonable.

IS symposium was great, providing people with new and interesting ideas.

IS Symposium

I went to a poster by Sidney Irias, whose project compared adoption attitudes between the United States and Honduras. The researcher focused on certain factors that influenced positive or negative adoption attitudes, such as age and income, and whether they had the same impact in both cultures. Sidney found that higher formal education, being a woman, and having a higher income all led to positive attitudes toward adoption in both conties. However, I found it interesting that Sidney focused on religion only in Honduras, portraying Latin America as more as a Catholic region than the United States. As a child of Peruvian parents, I thought this was a smart move since Catholicism is heavily practiced by the majority of Latin America. She found that Catholics in Honduras had more access to adoption than non-Catholics.

I also went to the poster of Diana Bickmore, whose poster focused on the impact of climate change on the coffee industry in Columbia and Honduras. Diana found that the Colombian Coffee Grower’s Federation and the Honduran Coffee Institute both were successful to some extent in combating coffee growing issues arising from climate change. Diana portrayed Colombia as more organized due to their unified governing body and prominent national coffee brand than Honduras, suggesting that Colombian coffee industry will adjust better to climate change than Honduras.

IS Symposium

I one of the presentations I attended on Friday was given by Sarah Comstock who studied glass frogs in Costa Rica and how the male frogs provide care to the eggs based on environmental factors. Sarah emphasized what her results were and what they mean. She found that for the most part the dads rarely abandon their eggs. One example she said is that if temperature is high enough the frogs will call more and then they will need to find food making them abandon the eggs. Latin America was portrayed as a place where biology can be studied to the high biodiversity.

Mackenzie Kellar also went to Costa Rica to study glass frogs. She studied if there is a difference in the frog’s egg survival between primary and secondary forests. Primary forests or old growth forests have been standing for over 500 years where secondary forests are in the process of regrowing after the old growth has been removed. WIth the amount of deforestation that occurs it is important to know weather organisms can survive in secondary forests. Mackenzie emphasized that there was no significant difference in egg survival between the primary and secondary forests meaning that they should both perceived with the same importance. Latin America was portrayed as a place that has the highest amount of biodiversity in the world and the importance of its preservation.

Three Most Important Things Learned This Semester

After taking the Modern Brazil class, I first learned that various minority groups played an integral role in constructing Brazil. For almost every single topic we discussed in class, three key words—race, class, and gender—frequently appeared as prominent issues in contextualizing Brazilian history. This historical aspect turns out to be the case for other countries histories as well. However, for Brazil especially, the issues of race, class, and gender are essential components in addressing and defining Brazilian identities. From my understanding, the idea of transculturation and traces of colonization intensified and amplified the issue of race, class, and gender in Brazil. Moreover, looking over how Brazil’s transformation process was based on race, class, and gender, it was interesting to see how Brazilians have formed their identities through the shaping of these issues. I believe, however, that Brazil still struggles from negotiating and settling these issues, but this class reminded its students that Brazil is on the progress of becoming a powerful nation-state in the near future.

Secondly, I learned that Brazil is a well-established nation-state with an abundance of resources, deep historical roots, and a rich, diverse culture. Before taking this class, I knew that Brazil carried insurmountable economic power and resources. It wasn’t surprising to discover Brazil’s status as a world economic power from our first reading assignment. However, I did not know about the rich history and culture behind this success and that minorities played an important role in the development of Brazil. Moreover, it was interesting to explore the intricate dynamics of Brazilian politics as well as the history. In relation to social construction, the country suffers from a large gap between the rich and poor, socioeconomic hierarchies, and racial discrimination. From the dictatorship to the recent presidential election, the political culture reflects how Brazil continues to show political oppositions between the Right and Left-Wing associations. Overall, I learned that Brazil contains the historical, political, and social aspects of a modern nation state.

Lastly, for popular representation, there were various components to consider in fully understanding the story behind this concept. It was interesting to observe how Brazilian cultures such as Capoeira, Samba, and Soccer have evolved alongside with these categories (race, class, and gender). Before taking the class, I often saw Brazilian figures in video games (Overwatch and Tekken) portrayed as male with dark skin tones, dreadlocks, and distinct features such as musical instruments (Lucio from Overwatch) and fighting techniques (Eddie Gordo from Tekken). However, after taking the class and partaking in the readings, discussions, and presentations, these Brazilian figures are historically significant because they, who although are presumed to be identified as Afro-Brazilians, are representing Brazil despite the persistent racial hierarchy across Brazilian societies. Moreover, these figures as portrayed by the United States and Japan, suggested how other countries perceive Brazil. In contrast, Brazil still primarily favors white Brazilians to represent the country.

IS Symposium

Today during IS Symposium I enjoyed presentations from Diana Bickmore and Nancy Grazon on their IS Posters, which were both terrific!  It was clear that both of them were passionate about their topics and had put much work into their IS’s.

Diana’s IS, titled “More Coffee Please?: The Present and Future of the Coffee Industry in Columbia and Honduras in Light of Oppressive Climate Change”, emphasized the issue of the struggling coffee industry in Columbia and Honduras due to Climate change.  She talked about how because coffee beans are such a large part of Columbia’s economy that it is a very serious issue for the country.

Nancy’s IS was titled “The Opportunity to Succeed: An Analysis of First-Generation, Latin College Students Aspirations, Family Expectations, and definitions of Success”.  Though her topic didn’t involve people currently living in Latin America, it did include immigrants from Latin America and their cultural struggles in America.  It mainly focused on the benefits and struggles of first-generation Latin America college student due to pressure applied by themselves and their families.

 

IS Symposium

[Sarah Vonck]

Sarah’s central argument for her Senior Independent Studies was examining how the lack of implementation of the Rights of Nature, as defined in the newly drafted Ecuadorian constitution, has caused backlash from the indigenous community in the country, and how this backlash has led to further mistreatment of the indigenous community at the hands of the Ecuadorian government (thesis provided by the author). She portrays Latin America (in her case, Ecuador) through capturing Ecuador’s polarized nature that draws a clear distinction between social minority groups such as indigenous group to the established state with abundant resources and power, and further addresses the political inequality between these two groups.

[Dylan Pederson]

Dylan’s focus was the study of racial inequality in Colombia. Several features included human rights catastrophe, para-militarism, and Afro-Colombian collective conditions. He portrays Latin America (in his case, Colombia) as forced displacement and tumultuous place with armed conflicts, presence of Leftist guerrillas and Right-Wing paramilitaries, and drug traffickers.