Open Veins of Latin America (tres)

1.) "Che Guevara said that underdevelopment was a dwarf with an enormous head and bloated stomach: its spindly legs and stubby arms do not fit with the rest of the body." (page 78). Galeano speaks about underdevelopment of Brazil due to the rubber trade in pages 87-91, the underdevelopment of Venezuela due to the caco trade in pages 91-94, the underdevelopment of El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Columbia due to the coffee trade in pages 97-99. Pick one of those sections and write an analogy like Che did that will describe how that industry affected the population. For example the coffee trade in Guatemala was like... Support your analogy with three examples from the text.

In 1910 Brazil had almost all of the world's rubber reserves. The price of rubber reached its peak and Brazil became wealthy with all the money they made, but he rubber workers were paid very little for all the difficult work they did. In 1913, Brizilian rubber took a hit. The price of rubber fell a forth of what it was worth three years previously. Six years later Brazil was supplying an eighth of the worlds rubber and after fifty year they were importing half of their rubber from abroad. The reason why Brazil took a hit on the rubber industry is because of a man named Henry Whickham. In 1873 he smuggled a leaf of a rubber tree and started selling and distributing them to buyers which then started their own industry of rubber, leaving Brazil more dependent on other countries.


2.) This chapter really focuses on how a country's dependence on a single crop deforms the economy. How does producing only one crop really distort trade relationships?

The country of Brazil is a great example of a country's dependence on a single crop. Rubber is what made Brazil their money and was the only thing the country relied on with their economy. When Brazil started to take the blow in 1913, the country started to decline because  there were other countries that were also ditributing rubber. Brazil really suffered because of that single crop. They came from being the top producers to the bottom where they ended up relying on other countries to export rubber to Brazil.


3.) On page 104 there is an extremely provocative quote for a brutal official of the Columbian war described in the preceding pages. When confronted after the war Galeano quotes him saying that he did not feel individually guilty for the atrocities he committed since the horror of the violence was merely the horror of the system. Respond.

It was just an excuse for what the Colombian official did. To me that is wrong. It's like someone deciding  to do drugs because it's okay and everyone else is doing it. Does that mean it's okay? ....I think not. Just because it's an excuse doesn't mean it is right. We all know what is right from wrong but we just choose to do things because of how ignorant we are as human beings. We all have choices in what we do and we know what is moral sense. By making excuses means you know it was wrong but the only way to convince others of your actions is to make excuses. To me it is like he knows it was wrong and is guilty deep inside but tries to make it sound okay because it was because of the war.