A visit to the El Museao del Barrio was an exciting experience that connected classwork experience with a practical sense of the social, political, and economic lives of the Latinos from antiquity to the present generations. Indeed, the interaction with the museums exhibitions offered a viable reinforcement to the theories and lessons that we had previous covered in class. This museum is one of a kind that exhibits varied patterns and rich Latino lifestyle. Therefore, there are various accords of connection that transpired as a result of interacting with the events showcased in the museum’s viewing and exhibit catalogues, and I must attest that these incidences had a perfect connectivity with the classwork. This essay will examine elements of similarity, ranging from social, political, globalization, and cultural issues between the museum’s programs with the lessons taught during the classwork.
The first cultural element that conforms between the course material and the event about the museum relates to the culture and cultural development of the Latinos. The events leading to the development of the Latinos was as a result of racial integration between people of different social and cultural backgrounds. This followed clamor by different races to have freedom, thus they conformed to one pattern of social affiliation. Besides, the course material delved into core reasons behind cultural conformity, and one of them is as a result of shared social plight and grievances. It’s because of the myriads of social underpinnings that were experienced by the perceived inferior races that they engaged their opponents in revolts, and counter-clashing which led to their freedom, and establishment of one unifying social cultural group. This is what precipitated to the development of the Latinos as a sub-culture in America.
The events at the El Museao del Barrio Museum illustrates a clear historical background of the Native Americans , and how the resettlement of various communities shaped up the occupation if this region. This event was culturally rich to the cultural origin and predispositions that transpired during this period. As a matter of fact, a visit to this museum began with the narrative to the historical background of the region, and how Latinos; as commonly referred to existence. Besides, attending this event was a greater revelation to the historical background of this region, and how it began in 1800’s.
Principally, the El Museao was a home to the Native American farmers; other groups who conspicuously occupied this region were the Irish immigrants and the Germans. However, this region kept experiencing cultural dynamic with various groups settling and later living it to other settlements. For example, this region had been dominated by the Italians after the World War II. However, the arrival of the Puerto Rican immigrants from Italy led to the transformation of the region to El Barrio. This region is today dominated by the Latinos, who were from Mexico, Haiti, and Central America among other states. This rich historical background was an awakening to realizing cultural heritage of the Latin America, and how this region contributed to cultural conformity.
Another critical element that depicts from this event relates to the migration of citizens. Indeed, the Puerto Rican citizens who migrated into United States, a story which is similar to the migrant farm workers in United States learnt in class. Because of the Spanish American war which took place in 1898, there was massive alienation of Puerto Rican students and merchants who took part in the revolution. Most of the revolutionists fled to New York, where they settled and found jobs in factories hence were able to finance their independence movement. However, twentieth century saw the increase in number of Puerto Rica emigrants into the United States. The rapid increase in the number of immigrants was as a result of the illusion that there was better living conditions and employment opportunities in the United States, unlike in their home country.
The visit to El Museo del Barrio depicts the role that colonial rule played on the culture, development and reproductive politics. This is illustrated by the modification of the Puerto Rican education, money, legal, economic and cultural systems to conform to those of the United States. They used their currency, adopted their education system and changed their dressing styles to match those of the United States. Despite the modification in their way of doing things, the country made important steps in terms of development. Better roads were constructed, health and sanitation greatly improved, hence leading to a decline in mortality rate. Nevertheless, poverty in Puerto Rica was still a major setback to development. As a result, many Puerto Rican residents were transported to United States to work in the industries. Despite the colonial administration being in charge of Puerto Rica, they contributed immensely to the political evolution in Puerto Rica. The country demonstrated reproductive politics in the early nineties when they elected their first governor.
Globalization and identity was also exhibited during the visit to El Museo del Barrio. The pictures in El Museo del Barrio represented different culture groups. American people are in most cases dressed formally. On the other hand, the Puerto Ricans in most cases are adorned in informal clothing which is a major distinctive feature to the Americans. However, the Puerto Ricans love their identity and they are proud of their origin despite being in a foreign country. As a result, they founded a community museum called El Museo del Barrio to preserve their origin and culture. The museum will help their children to know more about their history and preserve their identity.
How the Plata Quemada relates to my course Work
The visit to El Museo del Barrio played several roles as it was closely related to my classwork. First, the film was written in Spanish even though its geographical set up was in Argentina. From the language, I got to have a feeling that Spain played some role in the cultural development of Argentina. Nonetheless, I came to realize that the film was closely related to our classwork in several ways, not only in the element of language and the social development of Argentina as a country. The themes of the film had much relevance to what was learnt in class. The use of Spanish language in writing the film basically reveals that Spain was the colonial masters of Argentina and to an extension the entire Latin America. Therefore, they had significance role in both social, economic and political set ups of the country.
This film just like my classwork, I got to learn several things about the lives of the Native Americans or rather the Latinos as they are commonly known. The film portrays the Latinos as people who believe in themselves just the same way I learnt in my classwork. Their kind of love for oneself is strong; they only believed on their own social and cultural paradigms of life. This is an aspect that is demonstrated by the friendship between Leonardo Sbaraglia, a very petty thief and Eduardo Noriega, who was a known as a drifter. Funnily enough, the two men met in a bathroom in a subway station of Bueno Aires, from then, they literary became inseparable. They became partners in crime, in fact, people referred to them as “the criminal twins.” Their loyalty to each other is seen in their daily criminal endeavors as they proved to be working extra smart to complement each other and enhance their criminal motives. This aspect is particularly proven when the two men decided to attack an armored car; however, they joined another group to make themselves stronger and more effective during the ordeal. Instead of going for other racial groups, they just looked for their fellow Latinos. They had uncompromised love for themselves, even though at time they were not meant for the good reasons a fact that my classwork also revealed.
The setting of the film is in the Latin America, specifically Argentina. The year is 1965; a year that marked several changes among the Native Americans. From my classwork, I also learnt that during the same year, there were a lot of changes to the native Latinos. The native Latinos were under threat of being assimilated by other social groups. However, they stuck to their original cultures by trying to avoid any cultural contact with the settlers. A good example of the foreigners who settled in Argentina is the Spanish, even though they were shaken to a point of adopting Spanish language, they did so but never forgot their own cultures. From my classwork, I learnt that the Latinos were under threat from the foreign cultures, a period in which there were several changes in economic and political set ups. Colonization is an aspect that is widely addressed by both the film and my classwork, apparently, the colonial masters wanted the native Latinos to abandon their normal way of life and adopt theirs, which they thought was much superior, something that the Latinos were really opposed to.
Both the film and my classwork reveal the Latinos as unrelenting. Their struggles were continuous as they believed in consistency. This is an aspect that is seen in the struggle to retain their cultural identities. Furthermore, it is demonstrated as the gang members were struggling to find their way out when they were surrounded in the apartments. The three really struggled to get their way out but it comes difficult as all the possibilities were closed by the policemen who surrounded their apartment. They continued to fight on even though all of them succumbed to the hail of bullets after a gun battle ensued between them with the policemen. Before their death and having not seen a way out, they decided to burn all the money they had stolen. The thriller revealed several things to me, which are closely related to my classwork. Nonetheless, I got to learn that Spain had colonized several countries in Latin America just like Argentina. The term “Plata Quemada,” is a Spanish word that simply means burnt money. The subject relates to a topic we discussed in classwork, that is, a colonial legacy of race. Besides the Yanqui invasion also relates to colonialism, that is, the Mexican-American war. Colonialism is a topic that is touched in the thriller.
Through the thriller, I was able to learn more about the country profile of Argentina. From the film, it’s in order for one to make an assumption that Argentina is a country that is marred by bank robberies and battles between the police and gangsters. These are aspects that are conspicuously seen in the film. To date, these are some of the things that are still evident in several countries in Latin America, Argentina is inclusive. Furthermore, the first topic of our classwork was on why a part of a World can be so unique. Indeed, the film reveals that Argentina is a unique country, its unique in terms of composition and language. Spanish is a language that is spoken in Argentina.
The film offered real life examples pertaining to our class discussions. From the film we can get to have historical connections as far as the country of Argentina is concerned. Yet still, the story reveals more about Latin America and its underlying cultures that distinguishes it from the rest of America and the World. As it is known, Latin America is more affiliated to European cultures than the rest of America. In fact, Spanish is a major language in Latin America, through this; we get to have some historical information about Argentina and the rest of Latin America. These are just but a few notable examples.
