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Year 1 Capstone

Assessment

Sofia Eleonora Rayneri

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What have you learned in your study of the history and

politics of the Americas during your first year of studies?

Throughout the year, I was frequently drawn to the lessons centered around gender and race.

Most of the time, these were discussed in a context of inequality and struggle for political visibility.

Therefore, I have decided to take these two topics and explore what I have learnt about them in

relation to the themes of power and nationalism as I believe that they are important causes and

consequences of gender and race relations.

I realized that politics is intrinsically linked to power. When asked to define the term, I wrote

that politics is when society comes together to decide who should have power and how much of it, in

order to best provide for a society and its goals. B. Guy Peters defined it as ‘the relations of power

and influence between states and their societies, and in particular to that complex set of processes

whereby governments come to choose between a variety of collective goals for society and seek to

implement them.’1 Because power is ever-present in politics, it influences nearly all aspects of it.

This year, I discovered that race is key in constructing social hierarchies in the Americas,

hence, distributing power in society. A famous example are the South American Casta Paintings

(Figure 1), which were used to describe racial mixing. In a quasi scientific way it broke down the

results of miscegenation: the Mestizo was the offspring of a Spanish and an Indian, the Castizo of a

Spanish and a Mestizo, and so on. However, there is more to them than what meets the eye; they also

served as a way of organizing power in society.2 Therefore, in many of these communities we see

race being a clear marker of one’s status in society.

1 B. Guy Peters, ‘Politics is About Governing’, in Adrian Leftwich (ed.), What Is Politics?: The Activity and Its Study (Cambridge, 2004), 25. 2 Julie Wilson Frick et al., ‘Casta painting in the Spanish Americas,’ in Smarthistory, 17 January 2018,

https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/.

https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/

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Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, has been described by some as a

“racial democracy”. However, upon closer inspection this appears untrue. Since slavery was not

abolished through violent conflict, it did not disrupt social hierarchies, thus, leaving the original ones

intact. Anthony W. Marx argued that by maintaining an image of inclusion while still keeping African

Americans at the bottom of the hierarchy, Brazil managed to decrease the prospect of conflict. The

absence of discriminatory laws meant that it was much harder for African Americans to mobilize and

address the inequality.3

Race Matters by Cornel West is extremely pertinent to the topic. In it, he states: ‘Democracy

matters in race matters because class and gender matter in American society and black life. Thus, 4’

institutions play a key role in perpetuating racism because of the power they have to ingrain it in

society.

What stands out when focusing on race in 20th century Americas is the inequality in treatment

and policies. The US’ responses to the Great Depression deeply disadvantaged African Americans.

Namely, the Agricultural Adjustment Act saw many landless farmers, of which a high percentage

black, being dispossessed so that landowners would not have to share the benefits of the program.5

The Social Security Act also privileged primarily white men as aid was excluded to many important

categories such as domestic and agricultural workers, which had a high percentage of blacks and

females.6

Studying the Chaco War it was clear that indigenous soldiers were treated more poorly than

their white counterparts. When studying the medical crisis of the war, Ann Zulawski stated that ‘racial

and class hierarchies were reproduced in the army and were reflected in inequality in medical

3 Anthony W. Marx, Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of South Africa, the United States, and Brazil

(New York, 1998), 160-176. 4 Cornel West, Race Matters (Boston, MA, 2001), viii. 5 Alan Brinkley, ‘The New Deal Experiments ’in William H. Chafe (ed.), The Achievement of American Liberalism: The New Deal and Its Legacies (New York, 2003), 14. 6 ivi., 8.

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treatment. without time more resists could natives that belief the exploited officers Furthermore, 7’

water which, combined with the pre-existing water shortage, caused many to die from dehydration.8

However, in the 1950s, one country that seemed to elevate the status of dark skinned people

was Argentina. Even though racial issues were not explicitly addressed, they featured in some of the

images and the iconography divulged by the Perón government. Most of the subjects were still of

white phenotype but there was some representation of black and native people. In Figure 2, it is

noticeable that one of the two hands shaking represented on the coat of arms is of darker skin.

Ezequiel Adamovsky concluded that it was probably a symbol of unity and inclusion, ‘pointing to

something that Peronist authorities still had trouble saying verbally or setting down in writing.’9 In

Perón’s Argentina, the visibility of dark skinned people in printed media was increased to represent

the authentic Argentine nation.

Based on my studies, I believe that Racism and Nationalism are strongly linked. In Imagined

Communities, Anderson wrote that Nations can inspire both positive feelings and negative ones.

Racism is certainly one of the latter.10 He stated: ‘A word like “slant”, for example, abbreviated from

“slant-eyed”, does not simply express an ordinary political enmity. It erases nation-ness by reducing

the adversary in his biological physiognomy.’11 Interestingly, he also stated that Racism exists within

national boundaries,12 which I have found to be very true in my study of the Americas. In The

Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, Frederick Douglass detached himself from the American

Nation by saying that ‘to the American slave’, the 4th of July is ‘a day that reveals to him, more than

7 Ann Zulawski, Unequal Cures: Public Health and Political Change in Bolivia, 1900–1950 (Durham, NC,

2007), 53. 8 ivi., 60-6. 9 Ezequiel Adamovsky, ‘Race and class through the visual culture of Peronism’, in Paulina Alberto and

Eduardo Elena (eds.), Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina (Cambridge, 2016), 174. 10 Benedict R. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

(London; New York, NY, 2006), 141-2. 11 ivi., 148. 12 ivi., 150.

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all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.’13 African

Americans could not be considered part of the Nation because they were still enslaved and

discriminated against. By detaching himself from independence day - one of the greatest symbols of

Nationalism - he separates himself and African Americans from the American Nation.

So what is the American Nation then? A “Nation of Immigrants”? Maria Lauret disagrees.

Although this term has been used to exhaustion, Lauret argues that it originates from immigrant

shame and racist exclusion. In fact, the government tried to “Americanize” immigrants, not welcome

their diversity. And of course, this assimilation required that the US’ racial hierarchy had to be

assimilated as well.14

Audrey Smedley argued that race preceded all other aspects of one’s identity. 15 In an

interview, Stacy Abrams - the first African American woman to have won a major party nomination

for governor - was asked how she felt about the role that race and identity played in those elections.

Abrams replied: ‘I believe in identity politics’; race and gender are key in informing one’s experience,

‘my identity matters because of what it tells me about my politics.’ Notably, she said that the media

was too superficial: they concentrated on her race and gender rather than looking at how these would

inform her policies.16

While academia frequently considers race to be a social construct,17 the idea that gender is is

still more controversial. Both concepts are defined in terms of oppositions: black and white, woman

and man. I believe that this could stem from the competitiveness of Nationalism. George Orwell

13 Frederick Douglass, ‘The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro’, Speech, Rochester, NY, 5 July 1852, History is a Weapon, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html. 14 Maria Lauret, ‘Americanization Now and Then: The “Nation of Immigrants” in the Early Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’, Journal of American Studies, l, no. 2 (2016), 423-26. 15 Audrey Smedley, ‘Race and the Construction of Human Identity’, American Anthropologist, c, no. 3

(1998), 695. 16 Stacy Abrams, 25 October 2019, ‘Where does power lie in America?’, Podcast Audio, The Economist

Asks, https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2019/10/25/where-does-power-lie-in-america. 17 For example, Henry Goldschmidt, ‘Introduction’, in Henry Goldschmidt and Elizabeth McAlister (eds.),

Race, Nation, and Religion in the Americas (New York, NY, 2004), 3-31.

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.htmlhttps://www.economist.com/podcasts/2019/10/25/where-does-power-lie-in-america

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argued that nationalists persuade themselves that their side is the best and unconsciously suppress

known facts that would disprove the greatness of their nation.18 Therefore, nationalists are in constant

competition with other nations. The idea of whiteness derives from the presence of a nation of black

people considered inferior. Similarly, native Americans were often described as wild and animalistic

so that the status of Europeans could be lifted - they appeared more civilized and modest in

comparison.19 Likewise, gender identity is socially constructed - it involves a distinction between two

sexes. Genders are formed though differentiation, they require ‘the suppression of ambiguities and

opposite elements in order to assure (and create the illusion of) coherence’: masculinity derives from

the repression of aspects considered feminine and vice versa.20

Joan W. Scott described gender as a social organization and hierarchy between the sexes,

therefore, given the patriarchal nature of the American society, women inevitably end up at the

bottom. I understood that in politics and some regimes, gender determines the relationship between

ruler and ruled. Scott stated that ‘Gender is one of the recurrent references by which political power

has been conceived, legitimated, and criticized. sexual the on Townsend Brandi by article The 21’

abuses endured by three Chilean women under the dictatorship of Pinochet, exemplified the regime’s

violence and control over women. One of these women was Alicia, who was electrocuted while

embracing her pregnant friend, a devious way to manipulate notions of motherhood and friendship.

Alicia also had an illegal abortion; through it she was symbolically reclaiming her autonomy as well

as using it to defy and criticize the dictatorship. All three women used their bodies to communicate

18 George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism (London, 2018), 4. 19 For example, Kelly L. Watson, ‘Sex and Cannibalism: The Politics of Carnal Relations between Europeans

and American “Anthropophagites” in the Caribbean and Mexico.’ In Herrmann, Rachel B. (ed.), To Feast on Us as Their Prey: Cannibalism and the Early Modern Atlantic, (Fayetteville, NC, 2019), 59-80. 20 Joan W. Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, The American Historical Review, xci,

no. 5 (1986), 1057. 21 ivi., 1072.

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the state’s violence.22 The use of sexual violence and tight control on women’s bodies are tools used

to establish the ruler’s power.

Studying the Americas has revealed that in many countries women occupy a subordinate role

to men. In the example of Argentina under Perón, masculinity was central in the construction of

political leadership. Even though his wife Eva was considered the “spiritual leader of the nation” and

played an important role in 1947 in enfranchising women, she was always second to her husband and

frequently stressed traditional hierarchies.23 When announcing the extension of voting rights, she

underlined the domestic role of women, considered the ‘essential foundation of the household’.24

Peronist propaganda was also heavily centered around masculinity. The famous allies of Perón, the

workers, were always shown as male through the famous image of the Descamisado (Figure 3).25

The fact that Descamisado was always used in its masculine form, further highlighted the importance

of men in building the nation, rather than women. When looking at Argentine visual propaganda,

women were mostly seen as dependent on the male breadwinner. Both Figure 4 and Figure 5 show

women arm in arm with their husband, metaphorically revealing their dependence on the male

counterpart, who is physically and metaphorically sustaining her. The man is also always placed in

the center, displaying his importance and power compared to his wife.26

The same relationship can be found in the Cuban revolution. The main narratives were so

centered on ‘a handful of men’27 bringing the revolution to life, that they failed to give credit to all

22 Brandi Townsend, ‘The Body and State Violence, from the Harrowing to the Mundane: Chilean Women's Oral Histories of the Augusto Pinochet Dictatorship (1973–1990)’, Journal of Women's History, xxxi, no. 2 (2019), 34-40. 23 Natalia Milanesio, ‘A Man Like You: Juan Domingo Perón and the Politics of Attraction in Mid-

Twentieth-Century Argentina’, Gender & History, xxvi, no.1 (2014), 98-9. 24 Benjamin Keen, Robert Buffington, and Lila M. Caimari (eds.), Keen’s Latin American Civilization:

History and Society, 1492 to the Present, 9th edn. (Boulder, CO, 2009), 412. 25 Iliana Cepero, ‘Photographic Propaganda under Peronism, 1946–55: Selections from the Archivo General

De La Nación Argentina’, History of Photography, xl, no. 2 (2016), 200. 26 ivi., 212. 27 Fidel Castro, ‘Fidel Castro Speaks at Moncada Ceremony’, Speech, Guantanamo, Cuba, 27 July 1973,

Lanic, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1995/19950726.html.

http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1995/19950726.html

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the women who helped it gain momentum in the cities. In reality, the protests and sabotages organized

by women movements such as FCMM and MOU were very successful in terms of political

mobilization.28 Furthermore, women’s participation was mostly used to exalt male leadership.29 K.

Lynn Stoner stressed this point frequently, stating that ‘female soldiers were seen by an entire nation

as a beloved symbol of loyalty, militancy, and sacrifice to a male leader and a nation … Fidel Castro

honored and recognized them symbolically, but without surrendering power, autonomy, or authority

to them. restricted instead but society equal an to teequa not did actions women’s of praise The 30’

women to subordinate roles and gave power to the patriarchal state.

In my study of the history and politics of the Americas I have begun to understand the social

and political structures that rule the different American societies. Gender and race are particularly

important in this context because of the direct and indirect role they play.

During the course of this first year I have begun to understand the important role played by

gender and race in the formation of socio-political structures in the Americas. I have found that as

fundamental to one’s identity, they have both fostered the emergence of hierarchies and inequalities

that are still present. Of note is their relationship to nationalism. Its harsh demarcation of national

boundaries instigates divisions in society in a similar way that gender and race do.

28 Michelle Chase, ‘Women's Organizations and the Politics of Gender in Cuba's Urban Insurrection (1952–

1958)’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, xxix, no. 4, (2010), 456. 29 K. Lynn Stoner, ‘Militant Heroines and the Consecration of the Patriarchal State: The Glorification of

Loyalty, Combat, and National Suicide in the Making of Cuban National Identity’, Cuban Studies, xxxiv, no.

1 (2003), 71. 30 ivi., 87.

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Appendix

Figure 1

Set of sixteen Casta paintings by Francisco Clapera. Source: Julie Wilson Frick et al., ‘Casta

painting in the Spanish Americas,’ in Smarthistory, 17 January 2018,

https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/.

https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/

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Figure 2

Perón speaking at the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, below him the Peroniost Coat of arms, 9

August 1955. Source: Ezequiel Adamovsky, ‘Race and class through the visual culture of

Peronism’, in Paulina Alberto and Eduardo Elena (eds.), Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina

(Cambridge, 2016), 172.

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Figure 3

Shirtless Peron with Argentine worker. Source: Caras y Caretas,

September 1953, 81.

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Figure 4

Graph showing an increase in mortgage bank loans. Source: Mundo Peronista

3, 15 Aug. 1951, 2.

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Figure 5

Traditional Argentine Family. Source: La Nación Argentina, Justa, Libre, Sobrerana, 3rd edn,

(Buenos Aires, 1950), 799.

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Bibliography

Secondary Sources

Alberto, Paulina and Eduardo Elena (eds.), Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina (Cambridge,

2016).

Anderson, Benedict R., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of

Nationalism (London; New York, NY, 2006).

Cepero, Iliana, ‘Photographic Propaganda under Peronism, 1946–55: Selections from the Archivo

General De La Nación Argentina’, History of Photography, xl, no. 2 (2016): 193-214.

Chafe, William H. (ed.), The Achievement of American Liberalism: The New Deal and Its Legacies

(New York, 2003).

Chase, Michelle, ‘Women’s Organizations and the Politics of Gender in Cuba's Urban Insurrection

(1952–1958)’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, xxix, no. 4, (2010): 440-458.

Goldschmidt, Henry and Elizabeth McAlister (eds.), Race, Nation, and Religion in the Americas

(New York, NY, 2004).

Herrmann, Rachel B. (ed.), To Feast on Us as Their Prey: Cannibalism and the Early Modern

Atlantic, (Fayetteville, NC, 2019).

Lauret, Maria, ‘Americanization Now and Then: The “Nation of Immigrants” in the Early

Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’, Journal of American Studies, l, no. 2 (2016): 419-447.

Marx, Anthony W., Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of South Africa, the United States,

and Brazil (New York, 1998).

Milanesio, Natalia, ‘A Man Like You: Juan Domingo Perón and the Politics of Attraction in Mid-

Twentieth-Century Argentina’, Gender & History, xxvi, no.1 (2014): 84-104.

Orwell, George, Notes on Nationalism (London, 2018).

Peters, B. Guy, ‘Politics is About Governing’, in Adrian Leftwich (ed.), What Is Politics?: The

Activity and Its Study (Cambridge, 2004).

15

Scott, Joan W., ’Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, The American Historical

Review, xci, no. 5 (1986): 1053–75.

Smedley, Audrey, ‘Race and the Construction of Human Identity’, American Anthropologist, c, no.

3 (1998): 690–702.

Stoner, K. Lynn, ‘Militant Heroines and the Consecration of the Patriarchal State: The Glorification

of Loyalty, Combat, and National Suicide in the Making of Cuban National Identity’, Cuban

Studies, xxxiv, no. 1 (2003): 71-96.

Townsend, Brandi, ‘The Body and State Violence, from the Harrowing to the Mundane: Chilean

Women's Oral Histories of the Augusto Pinochet Dictatorship (1973–1990)’, Journal of

Women's History, xxxi, no. 2 (2019): 33-56.

Wilson Frick, Julie, et al., ‘Casta painting in the Spanish Americas,’ in Smarthistory, 17 January

2018, https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-

c-1775/.

Zulawski, Ann, Unequal Cures: Public Health and Political Change in Bolivia, 1900–1950

(Durham, NC, 2007).

Primary Sources

Abrams, Stacy, 25 October 2019, ‘Where does power lie in America?’, Podcast Audio, The

Economist Asks, https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2019/10/25/where-does-power-lie-in-

america.

Caras y Caretas, September 1953.

Castro, Fidel, ‘Fidel Castro Speaks at Moncada Ceremony’, Speech, Guantanamo, Cuba, 27 July

1973, Lanic, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1995/19950726.html.

Douglass, Frederick, ’The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro’, Speech, Rochester, NY, 5 July

1852, History is a Weapon, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html.

https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/francisco-clapera-set-sixteen-casta-paintings-c-1775/https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2019/10/25/where-does-power-lie-in-americahttps://www.economist.com/podcasts/2019/10/25/where-does-power-lie-in-americahttp://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1995/19950726.htmlhttp://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html

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Foster, Thomas A. (ed.), Documenting Intimate Matters: Primary Sources for a History of Sexuality

in America (Chicago, IL, 2012).

Keen, Benjamin, Robert Buffington, and Lila M. Caimari (eds.), Keen’s Latin American

Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present, 9th edn. (Boulder, CO, 2009).

La Nación Argentina, Justa, Libre, Sobrerana, 3rd edn, (Buenos Aires, 1950).

Mundo Peronista 3, 15 Aug. 1951.

West, Cornel, Race Matters (Boston, MA, 2001).