Week 6 - Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics

It was interesting to learn about how societies, culture, and views transformed in the new republics in Latin America. I had always thought that equality and freedom rights would have followed quickly after independence. In the contrary, I came to see that the Caste system still played a major role in society. It was also surprising to learn that European theorists used unproven forms of science to support their racism! Theorists used sciences like eugenics, phrenology, and craniometry to undermine the "lesser" races and to promote whiteness as a scientific virtue. Eugenics was used to convince people that "improving" the gene pool of society was essential to advance as a race and civilization. Both phrenology and craniometry played hand-in-hand in determining that the shape and size of one's skull or brain determined one's ability. It was thought that the brain was completely compartmentalized and that each different part of the brain had one function. Thus, if you used one ability the most, that part of the brain would grow and vice versa. This helped determine that African descents and the Irish were inferior to other races with properly shaped and sized skulls.

This made me think about modern day Latin America and how racism is still largely present in society. I was in Peru last Christmas and I was surprised to find more racism there than in North America. It is very troubling to see that racism is so deeply rooted in the ideology of society. You can totally feel the presence of the idea that one is more sophisticated or "privileged" the "whiter" one is. It is also very evident that anything European is popular and everyone strives to be "whiter".

It was also surprising to learn that many indigenous people did not support independence and supported crown rule. This was due to certain rights they were granted just as long as they were loyal to the crown. The reading definitely made it clear how hard it was to determine what citizenship was and how one would go on to integrate it into society after the liberation of the republics. Differences in language, education, and cultures played a major role in limiting these abilities and the path for equality in these new countries. The text showed me that slavery became one of the most controversial topics in the Americas and that it played a major role in the formation of these new societies and most interestingly affecting each republic in different ways.