Exploring Latin American Indigeneity: My Reflections Throughout LAST 303

  Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (second half) Throughout this week's sections of the reading, there were two recurring themes that although were applied to specific examples, I think really contributed to the overall message of the text that if the Amazon is destroyed, everything else will be too.  The first of which was making clear distinctions that white people are completely different from the Yanomami, and that the white people don't understand the forest and don't want to try to understand the forest. Kopenawa refers to white people's knowledge of his community and the Amazon as claims, and explicitly distinguishes at times that their words are false and outright lies, such as the perception of the Yanomami as warlike; he especially denounces this narrative, and says that if our elders had actually killed each other like white people say, then the war raids would've never ended and no-one would be here today. He also highlights the frustrating hypocr...

Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (first half) As a Land and Food Systems student, it was so interesting to read a text that focused on Latin American indigeneity within the global context of climate change. One of my favorite words from this first half was within the first couple pages after the foreword, when Albert said that this book is a combination of a story, autoethnography, and cosmoecological manifesto; I liked how Kopenawa/Albert always connected the history and foundations of the Yanomami community in Brazil with his powerful hook in the foreword with the falling sky, and that the destruction of the Amazon rain forst will lead to ecological collapse. The primary theme/message of this book (in my opinion) is something that has been the key takeaway of all of my courses/experiences/work surrounding food justice, food sovereignty, food security, and food literacy, which is that we must use indigenous ways of knowing and teachings to learn how to live better. One way that...

 Week 10: Our Word is Our Weapon (Part 2) Like we talked about last class, in this next section I was able to see more of Marcos' personality behind the mask, especially pertaining to his humor, being good with kids, and literary influences. All of his letters addressed to the national newspapers, and therefore the government, had sass, sarcasm, and wittiness throughout; I laughed a bit when he welcomed the threat of unemployment by the government, told the newspapers to "not be anxious", and said that God is grand because their camp reeked of shit and urine but the troops still didn't find them. I also liked how he concluded every chapter/section with "Vale, health to you" but followed with a genuinely sincere statement when addressing the section to the Zapatistas or outlining a Zapatista story, and then was able to use it in a semi-sarcastic way when addressing the newspapers, like "Vale. Health to you, and a flower for this tender fury, I think it d...

Week 9: Our Word is Our Weapon (Part 1) Our Word is Our Weapon by Subcomandente Marcos was a different reading that our texts thus far, in that it consists of a collection of writings, with some structured as speeches, others as essays, and even some as letters to a specific individual. I thought that by combining these different textual styles, Marcos clearly communicated the villainy of money and that the indigenous peoples are only demanding respect for the rights in both a lyrical and effective manner. As evident by the title, I thought that Marcos' focus on the word and labelling the Zapatista movement as "the war for the word" was a great representation of indigeneity and an effective term to narrate the battle of indigenous for reclamation of their rights, based on all of our conversations as well as our explorations of pre-colonial texts like the Popol Vuh, which emphasize the value of the spoken word/orality in indigenous cosmovision and therefore indigenous hist...

 Week 8: I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala After our discussion last week about the nature of the book and possible false information, I was very curious to read the second half. A large portion of the second half focused on Menchu and her upbringing and current views on womanhood and on being an indigenous  woman in Guatemala. The particular section that stood out to me  was Chapter XXX, which encompassed the lessons that Menchu's mother surrounding womanhood while she was growing up. Based on the introduction of the chapter, I thought that it would focus mainly on the differences and difficulties of being an indigenous woman versus a ladino woman, which it touched on briefly but mostly just looked down on ladino women for their makeup, dresses and ways of life because "it abuses the wonders God has given us". Then, Menchu explains all of the strict rules and customs that her mother implemented, such as specific indigenous herbs and plants for healing and...

  Week 7: I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala Menchu's novel was so interesting to read, both structure and content-wise. I've never read a book that was created from recorded interviews, and the oral element shone through in the syntax and also the narrative being in first person, which really drew me in to her story, perspective, and experiences as a reader. In comparison with the other texts that we've read so far in the course, this was the first one that followed the life events of one specific person, which not only taught me in-depth about being Indian and indigenous in Guatemala and the prejudice that comes with that, but also communicated that although this is one person's emotional struggle with racism, colonialism, and identity as Indian and indigenous, there are hundreds of thousands of others who have similar experiences who didn't get the opportunity to leave situations like in the fincas or share their stories. In short, for me personall...