Human Rights and Wrongs

I enjoyed reading Galeano’s Memory of Fire because it is unlike any historical narrative I have ever read. The way Galeano writes, by creating a vivid picture of each short account he is describing, makes these historic snippets that much more powerful and real. While each of the vignettes may not be one hundred percent historically accurate, by combining them all into one narrative the reader is able to see the big picture of what Galeano is trying portray—the incredibly violent and brutal history of Latin America.

Each story (for the most part—there were a couple of seemingly random inclusions of famous people) describes a scene in South American history, and most of these are riddled with violence, racism, exploitation, or some other form of human right abuse. The stories deal with a wide variety of atrocities, including extreme racism in Peru, the massacre of Granada, revenge of the Mayan army over the “whites”, exploitation of workers building railways, black slavery, Chinese slavery, corrupt dictators, coup d’états, and Native American exploitation. There is a recurrent theme, and mention, of a privileged few dominating the masses, usually in regards to the privatization of land that benefitted the small aristocratic class and caused hunger and starvation for the vast majority of the poor populations. Before reading these stories I had a very limited knowledge of Latin American history. Now however, I can say without a shred of doubt that the history of South America is probably one of the most brutal and violent in the world. I think its safe to say that human rights did not exist, for the majority of the population, except for those privileged few (white men? Isn’t it always the case) who managed to snag power for a brief moment in time.

The second reading, as I’m sure most will agree, was quite intense and extremely grotesque in some instances. Fifteen million Native Americans killed in 50 years---wow!! Not only is that horrifying but it is unimaginable, especially considering this happened in the mid 16^th century, when methods for mass murder, such as bombs and heavy machinery, had not even been invented yet. The magnitude of this--I think its fair to say—genocide is despicable and almost too terrible to comprehend.  The fact that the Spaniards were killing the indigenous people for no other reason but out of shear greed is even more sickening. What was most troubling to me was the innocence and naïveté of the Native Americans. Las Cajas gives example after example of the same cyclical Spanish massacre that seemed to occur in most of the “new world”. The Spaniards would arrive, and be treated with nothing but respect and welcoming from the Native Americans. The Spaniards would then proceed to start their mass killings, usually involving the assassination of one of the most important leaders or chiefs. Eventually the indigenous people would realize that the Spaniards were not to be trusted and would form a resistance movement. This however would prove to be to no avail because the advanced technology and weaponry of the Spanish left the Native Americans all but defenseless. And so entire populations—men, women, children, babies, the elderly—would be wiped out or sold into slavery.  Just despicable.

            After reading this week’s readings, I think labeling this week as “Wrongs in Latin America” is an adequate, if not too lenient, a title. I cannot recall one passage from either of these lengthy articles that would merit recognition as an adherence to a human right. The list of human “wrongs” however could fill many, many pages. The fact that human beings have been, are, and will be so cruel to one another is dishearteningly heartbreaking and eye opening at the same time. What is the point of crusading for human rights when people are so capable, and willing, to commit human wrongs?