Racial Prejudice in the Past and Present

The essential question as we studied Latin American Revolutions was, "Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race?  How are the events of the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?"  The essential question is still very important to think about today because racial prejudices are still prevalent in society, and continue to shape peoples' opinions of one another, and societies as wholes.  We were able to see the impact of race firsthand in our studies of Latin American Revolutions when we saw the pie chart of different races which made up Latin American culture and society at the time.  It was made up of 50% Indian peoples, 23% Creoles (White Europeans born in the New World), 11% slaves, 8% Mulattoes and free blacks, 7% Mestizos, and 1% Peninsulares (White Europeans).  The amount in which they catagorized people by their race, and created names based on race shows just how horrifically dependent these societies were on race.  The Peninsulares were the minority, only making up 1% of the population, yet they belittled others and hurt them simplay based on their race, so that they would be able to stay on top and control the 99% of other people within that society.

Gran Colombia 

Timeline-

• April 19, 1810- a junta expels Spanish governor of the province of Venezuela and takes control 
• July, 1811- National Assembly in Caracas formally declares Venezuela's independence 
• July, 1812- Spanish authorities rally and recover a military initiative, regaining control of the entire province 
• 1813- Simón Bolívar returned to Venezuela and won 6 successive engagements against Spanish forces 
• August 6, 1813- entered Caracas and took dictoral control and power 
• July, 1814- Bolívar lost Caracas again, then headed to Bogotá and recaptures it from Spain temporarily 
• 1817- back in Venezuela, built an army on Orinoco River, deciding there that he will strike the capital city of New Granada
• 1819- Bolívar's small force of 2500 men crossed a succession of flooded tributaries of the Orinoco, followed by a mountain crossing where a significant number of his men died
• August 7, 1819- the Spanish army surrenders in an engagement at Boyocá
• December 17, 1819- the republic of Colombia is proclaimed, covering the region of modern Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela
• June 24, 1821- "The Liberator" wins a battle at Carabobo in Venezuela, giving him Caracas.  
• May 24, 1822- Bolívar's favorite general, Antonio José de Sucre, wins a battle at Pinchicha, Ecuador, bringing the patriots into Quito.  
• May, 1830- Bolívar resigns and later dies of tuberculosis
• September, 1830- Ecuador and Venezuela formally secede from Gran Colombia

Our group's timeline outlines the main events of the revolution in Gran Colombia.  When we did a jigsaw and shared out what we discovered with other groups, we found that our similarities with Brazil and Mexico were that there were wars and battles fought during all of the revolutions, and that all of the oppositions to the revolution were European powers at the time.  The difference was that the battles were fought in all different countries.  Race was an issue in all three revolutions.  In Gran Colombia it was an issue because the Spanish governor of Venezuela that was overthrown, and originally ruled Gran Colonbia may have brought Spanish ideas about racial inequality over to Venezuela with him, and people within the society were being treated differerently because of Spain's control, so they wanted to be independent to escape the unequal treatment by that government.  Race was an issue in Mexico because there were racist royals who took land from the Indians and Mestizos, who Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla fought against.  Finally, race was an issue in Brazil because workers in mines became angry because they were working a tireless job they didn't want to do simply, based on their skin color.

The issue of race is still very apparent in the world today.  Just recently, think about the Ferguson, Missouri case, in which supposedly, an unarmed Michael Brown was shot by white police officer, Darren Wilson, of the Ferguson Police Department, showing how racial prejudice is still occuring in our law enforcement today.  Trayvon Martin is another example of racial prejudice, where he was shot to death in Sanford, Florida by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, because Trayvon "looked suspicious", when in reality all he was carrying was juice and skittles from a local convenience store.  These two are only a few of the examples of how racial prejudice is still very apparent in our culture in the U.S. today, as well as worldwide.