Let me begin this week's blog by encouraging you to read the Afterword, pp. 157-163, which Vicuna wrote specifically for the 2011 edition of SABORAMI. Since most U.S. citizens know little about Chile or any other Latin American country, this Afterword will help provide context. Any additional online research you can do on the 1973 Military Coup in Chile will greatly enhance your understanding and appreciation of Vicuna's historic text.
The Afterword makes it clear that the body of SABORAMI was written before Pinochet became the Dictator of Chile. (For those who don’t know, Pinochet was one of the worst human rights violators of the 20th century.) The text brims with hope for a newly born Chile that embraces a uniquely Latin American form of Socialism deeply rooted in indigenous, Pre-Colombian culture. Most citizens of the U.S. are unfamiliar with this kind of political vision. It would be like contemporary Americans longing for a political system that aligned with the values and traditions of Native Americans.
Question #1
Especially since 9/11, we are accustomed to dismissing alternative political systems and positions critical of the U.S. as “anti-American.” We have a hard time imagining why anyone wouldn’t want to be like us, trained as we are from an early age to see ourselves as the best in the world. Yet on p. 34, Vicuna writes: “Latin America should never become like europe or the u.s.” Now, put your researcher’s cap on and answer as thoughtfully as you can to this question: Why doesn’t she want her country to be like the U.S.?
Question/Topic #2
Much of Vicuna’s artwork is temporary and ephemeral (see pictures posted on Flickr). The art in her book of poems, The Precarious, for example, were small frail structures made of natural materials. Many were site-specific, made outdoors with found(natural) objects such as stick and rock. Once made, they were left behind to crumble or blow away. The installation piece, Autumn, which is described on pp. 63-67, embodies this particular aesthetic.
The fact that Vicuna’s art that could not be bought and sold on the art market, but rather was time-based and performative, put her in the vanguard of the ‘60s-70’s international art scene. Like other artists of the time, her aesthetics extended to the political realm. Unlike her European and U.S. contemporaries, however, her political vision was uniquely Latin American and, unlike Kahlo and Rivera (with whom you might see parallels), uniquely Chilean. In other words, her art and political vision was specific to her time, place, and political circumstances. So, what is the relationship between the installation piece, “Autumn,” and Vicuna’s political vision?
Question/Topic #3
SABORAMI is not poetry-based research as defined by Leavy. Written before poetry was recognized as form of research, SABORAMI anticipated its development. In what ways would you say that it IS research? In what was is it NOT?
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I have to admit, this book is a tough one. I thought that since Vicuna is a poet and visual artist, it would fit nicely with the chapter in Leavy’s book on poetry as research. In fact it does fit, but to see this requires extra effort to learn and understand the political situation Vicuna was living in at the time.
Dr. Erler, would you mind talking a bit about the Mid-term Statement? I am unclear on the assignment.
ReplyDelete#1
ReplyDeleteAs you said in the prologue this week, we are indoctrinated from birth about our culture and our perceived place in the world. This is a human quality. Mothers tell their children about their ancestors' struggles and triumphs. How things were and how things should be are translated through this path. So it would be strange for Vicuña to long for her native country to be a copy of any other place.
Like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home." (The Wizard of Oz, 1936) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ6VT7ciR1o&sns=em
To me this is the very heart of the anti-colonist sentiment. There was a girl who joined our class in high school in our sophomore year. The majority of us had started school together in the first grade. She talked endlessly about how wonderful her old high school was; they had a pool at her old school; they did so many cool things at her old school. And the biggest sin of all, she told us how backward and 'in the sticks' we were. Needless to say, she was not voted most popular. She was never accepted as a part of our school and was the object of a great deal of harassment. If the numbers were reversed and the new girl was the majority and the indigenous girls were the minority, it would be just like colonialism.
#2
ReplyDeleteThe installation was about seeing things differently. "the 'new being' is one who has a new perception of time and knows it can't be wasted. the new being will work to accelerate revolution, to metamorphose her mind and relationships, because it doesn't make sense to suffer having such a short time to live." (Vicuña, page 67)
I think she wanted people to see her installation and change their way of seeing the entire world and realize there are more important things at hand in their country. Their way of life was on the verge of slipping away and the people had to wake up before it was too late.
#3
ReplyDeleteIt is research in that it is autoethnography. “Impressionistic autoethnography is an emergent method that is generally used in ethnographic research, thereby merging data about others and self.”
(Leavy, Kindle Location 616)
It is not all research in the presentation of the content. The found objects were more an aside, a performance piece. It was part of her process of creativity, but not really a part of her story. In my opinion, the making of the book, i.e., staining the paper with pig excrement, was the same sort of act as choosing the paper to print another book on and which font to use for the text. All of which is necessary for the communication but not a part of the story.
#1
ReplyDeleteThere is the clear aspect that Vicuna wanted Chile to exist as a socialist society. She paints Fidel Castro meeting Allende. She also has a painting of Marx and Lenin, both of which were against the idea of capitalism at a time when the US was highly anti-socialist. I can see that as being part of what fueled her beliefs against becoming like Europe and the US. But there is certainly more when we consider her mentioning of the indigenous population. From the Afterword, I got the impression that she considered the indigenous culture of Chile to, in some sense, hold the answer to the ideal state of democracy. She links the idea of being a revolutionary not as being against a country but as being actively participating as part of the country.
I must deviate by mentioning how parts of her ideas in the afterword resembles John Dewey’s concept of the ideal democracy. For Dewey, Democracy was not a political model but a communal existence. He believed it was possible to teach children how to become engaged with and critical of society. Similar to Vicuna, Dewey insisted that it was not about being anti-anything it was about wanting to be conscious of better ways of co-existing with each other. Dewey wanted to believe people could develop the critical faculties to go beyond blindly accepting the ways things are.
This goes back to Vicuna. By the 1970s, it had been roughly fifty years since Dewey expressed these ideas in Democracy and Education with little real influence over the American political landscape. We do, for the most part, blindly accept the society we exist in in order to save our energy to strive towards preconceived ideas of personal success. Vicuna, I can only speculate, had been witness to the American capitalism and individualism—it seems obvious with the following; “Invent your task, do it! All together to destroy reactionary ideas, bourgeoisie ideologies, individualism, solemnity, all white, European, capitalist, ways of existence” (Vicuna, p.24).
I think she believed the euro-centric approach to democracy was in total opposition to the participatory approach she recognized in the indigenous culture of Chile. I think she was hyper-conscious of the effects Capitalism was having on societies devoted to it. And it seems she simply did not want to see the same thing happen to Chile.
Francesco, I agree with you. During my research I was distraught. It seems as though our US government didn’t want anyone else to be “happy”. As if we wanted to control happiness across the world. Other countries could not be content unless the US government approved. If we didn’t, we would go in and overthrown their democracy to our satisfaction. I cannot help think this because Vicuna states, “As industries are nationalized, I am nationalized. The struggle must be waged in cultural fronts. To consolidate the revolution we must create a cultural movement and change people’s realities. We no longer need more changes in individual consciousness, but a change in social consciousness. A new vision or reality must replace the old one.” (Vicuna p. 23-24)
DeleteUpon Deweys expansion, it would be interesting to know what Vicuna thinks humanism means to her. This book clearly identifies her hopes, fears, facts and opinions of her world, Chile.
Delete#2
ReplyDeleteFor my interpretation, it comes down to her last sentence: “joy could make people aware of the need to fight for joy. the urgency of the present is the urgency for revolution” (Vicuna, p 67).
First, once again I think the word revolution comes to us with a number of charged connotations. For our contemporary discussion, I believe it is best to recontextualize Vicuna’s idea of revolutionary person as one who is actively concerned and willing to participate. Nowadays, we read into the word revolutionary with negative connotations, ie, trouble-maker. But this is not the concept she intends to convey in using the word.
With this in mind, Vicuna’s Autumn is an attempt to connect the idea of living in the present with an appreciation for the fragility of life and the intrinsic need to live for joy, but not just mindless joy, the kind of joy that comes with engaging your world with the intentions of making it a better place in the now. She hoped people would experience Autumn and realize it was outside of their conventional ideas of what art was. In accepting this, she was optimistic that people would accept the idea that anything can be art in the right context and this realization might inspire more members of the general public to get involved and feel more empowered to express themselves creatively. She thought people could, “feel part of greater energies moving in space” (Vicuna, p.66).
When taken as a whole, these ideas come together and hint towards Vicuna’s ideals of a participatory democracy. Even in her write up about preparing the Autumn piece, she emphasizes the collective aspect that went into the development of the work by consistently mentioning a variety of others in her life that helped her either collect the leaves or helped her exhibit the leaves. It might have been her art piece, but she makes it clear that it was not just her work of art.
#3
ReplyDeleteIt is and is not research for different aspects of the same reason. There is a linear narrative in the work allowing for the reader to gain access to an ongoing process; the creative output of an artist during an emotionally draining period of time. It offers us the ability to witness the progression of political events through such an indirect mode as interpretative, creative expression. This, to me makes it valuable as research but also highly limited. Which leads to the question; how valuable can something like this be for gaining some sense of the larger picture when it depends so heavily on a single person’s political stance.
Yes, I think it is hard to deny the acts of violence that Pinochet orchestrated. But, establishing opinions based on accessing only one perspective does not qualify that opinion as well-rounded and does not ground any further discussion with rigorous, empirical evidence.
So yes, SABORAMI could be seen as research, I think it would be more representative of the events if there were hundreds of SAMORAMI, each from individuals creatively expressing the emotional impact of having to go through that period. And it would be especially valuable to have these types of diaries from people on both sides of the coup.
Right, Francesco. Such diaries do exist, of course, but only became available after the fact. Vicuna's work would count as research if she had included interviews or even excerpts of interviews with people she was working with at the time. It is okay to represent only one facet of a situation, as one facet is all a researcher can realistically achieve in one study. Limiting the scope of the study is an important part of research, as depth rather than breadth is the goal.
DeleteJenise & Francesco, good work relating the first half of SABORAMI to your knowledge base and expanding upon what you already knew. I was happy to see the connection made between Dewey and Vicuna. John Dewey's Art as Experience, first published in 1934, reflects the widespread interest in socialist democracy as a viable political alternative in the U.S. at that time. Socialism was much better understood in the '30s because people were reading the texts of Marx & Engels, Trotsky and Lenin. The Cold War tactics of the '50s almost completely wiped out the the U.S. socialist movement, followed by revelations from Stalinist Russia in the '60s, which thoroughly demoralized the underground. Since then, Americans have become increasingly uninformed about political/economic systems other than free market capitalism, and misconceptions have increased exponentially under the influence of cable news talking heads.
ReplyDeleteYou need to understand that I grew up in the birthplace of the United Auto Workers (UAW formed in 1935 in Detroit), a place rich in labor history and proud of its accomplishments (the end of child labor, the establishment of a minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, the weekend, the lunch break, worker's comp, health benefits & etc.). This form of socialism, however, is quite different from the political vision that informs much of Latin American grassroots politics. North Americans have never looked to the governance structures of the Iroquois, Pueblo or Cherokee as a viable political option. While much of Latin America strongly identifies with indigenous traditions, the US has always looked to western Europe.
I'm not sure I agree with Jenise that the artwork in SABORAMI was an afterthought. The artworks and objects between pp. 15-33 relate quite clearly to the text - see the image on p. 32, for example. I also find correlations between the text and the Brown Book, with its images of Allende, Spanish colonials and pre-Colombian art. I don't know what the pig signifies in pre-Colombian or contemporary Mapuche cultures, so I can't determine the significance of pig excrement. It could be sacred or sacrosanct, depending on cultural context. I look forward to hearing what others think of the relationship between text and imagery.
Dr. Erler, I think you are correct. This was a difficult reading for me on several levels. I believe that I did not give her approach the consideration that I should have. My first impression was that she is a contemporary of Yoko Ono. I grew up loving the Beatles and that association took me on a critical path. Yes, juvenal, I know.
DeleteThe other difficultly was the reproductions of the art work in my copy of the book. The images are dark, muddy and the text was hyphenated poorly. I am sorry, but coming from a graphic design background, those things resonate with me.
So I looked over the reading again after seeing your comment. She did think about the images she included in her book. So my comment about being an after thought was not appropriate. It was an expression of my level of discomfort. I think Vicuna would be glad she took me outside my comfort zone. They just weren't presented in a way that I found appealing. Which isn't a bad thing. It has forced me to look beyond my own personal style and design requirements and look into the feeling and walk in her shoes.
Dr. Erler...Do you think the significance of the pig excrements has anything to do with The Bay of Pigs Invasion? Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow governemnet from Fidel Castro in 1961.
Delete#1--Vicuna has witnessed the intrusion of American forces into her country to sway and even take out socialist leadership. A succession of U.S. presidents, from JFK to Richard Nixon believed that the alliance of Allende and Fidel Castro would cause Chile to become a communist state, joining the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. The USSR had given financial support to Chile at the request of Allende for many years.
ReplyDeleteDuring Nixon's presidency, U.S. officials tried to halt Allende's election by financing political parties supporting the opposition candidate, Jorge Allessandri, and strikes in the mining and transportation sectors. Recent documents declassified under the Clinton administration’s Chile Declassification Project show that the United States government and the CIA sought the overthrow of Allende in 1970 immediately before he took office. On a personal level for Vicuna: the economic sector was severely depressed in Chile because of American sanctions and interference, which affected everyone in the country.
In 1938 when Allende began his electoral campaign in the Popular Front, the motto was: “Bread, a Roof, and Work!” His legacy during his term as Minister of Health was to bring about needed social reforms including safety laws to protect workers in the factories, higher pensions for widows, maternity care, and free lunch for schoolchildren. Although he was a Marxist, Allende, publicly condemned the invasion of Hungary by the USSR in 1956 and also the take over of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He did later recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1971, making Chile the first government in continental America to do so.
The Allende movement also sought to bring fine arts to the Chilean population by funding art shows, concerts, and plays. Allende’s party now granted the right to vote to eighteen year olds, indigenous peoples, and the illiterate; thus, socialist egalitarianism now challenged traditional hierarchical structures using the arts as a platform for expression. For an artist like Vicuna, this aspect must have been compelling. Allende’s supporters, the “Allendistas”, travelled the countryside and barrios to perform volunteer work. It must have been a heady time, full of hope, and new possibilities.
I wonder how happy Americans would be if another country came in today to control their elections, leadership, and day-to-day life? It is said that Nixon was so anti-Allende that he gave the CIA director, Richard Helms, orders to do whatever was necessary ”to get rid of him.”
Allende reportedly committed suicide after the military coup. Some Chileans feel that he was assassinated.
Allendes body was exhumed in 2011. A scientific autopsy was done to prove that he did in fact commit suicide using an AK47, given to him by Fidel Castro.
Delete#2--Vicuna’s artwork is purposefully ephemeral. I felt that her quote, “that people who are aware of their own death are more likely to become revolutionaries.” (Vicuna, p. 67) The transitory nature of her sculptures, made of leaves, natural objects, and the flotsam and jetsam of everyday urban life illustrate her concept of fragility and joy as the impetus for making radical change. Later in the same page, she states, “the ‘new being’ is one who has a new perception of time and knows that it can’t be wasted. the new being will work to accelerate revolution, to metamorphose her mind and relationships, because it doesn’t make sense to suffer having such a short time to live. joy could make people aware of the need to fight for joy. the urgency of the present is the urgency for revolution.”
ReplyDeleteVicuna would have found a soul mate in one of our highly regarded patriots: Thomas Jefferson, who said, “ Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” and also, “Every generation needs a new revolution.”
In a letter to his friend, James Madison, in January 27, 1787, Jefferson states, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”
#3--I agree with Jenise in that Saborami is impresssionistic autoethnography in that it is like a “self interview”, showing her singular viewpoint. Her voice may also speak for others who felt the way she did. I agree with Francesco that I would love to see other view points from that time. Is Vicuna still involved in art-making? How old was she at the time? Was she part of the idealistic, altruistic “Allendista” movement? I am going to endeavor to discover these things!
ReplyDeleteVicuna does not want her country to be like the US because it runs rip shod over an individuals rights, it’s main value is not its people but the almighty dollar, and getting those profits at any cost. The people (its own people and those of other countries) are seen as merely other resources- trees, water, land, fishes, seas, air, etc-- to be exploited for the benefit of the few- the money-ied corporatists. Who in their right mind would chose this? What meaning does this bring to life? The “I will get mine, (so) you get yours” mentality has stripped us of our “community” It has ground away our connectedness and the richness of meaning in our day-to-day lives. We exist as if we are on a treadmill, doing the daily grind of just trying not to go ‘under’ that we don’t realize, ‘under’ already has us in its grasp and there seems no way out.
ReplyDeleteThat was for question 1...
DeleteQuestion 2
ReplyDeleteI saw “Autumn” and Vicuna’s political vision in alignment as the concept of fragility and Joy. Fragility, because leaves are fragile, and exist briefly, for a distinct time and then they are gone, and if the tree is gone, they won’t be back. A singular leaf is an individual, but a lot of leaves is a collection or symbol of a large community that could be dealt with, and their vastness projected a power that the large community could effect. If leaves were people, they could have some power… Piling them up inside a room, some in deep high piles, others in shallow areas, can harken to the land or landscape itself, as well as man’s manipulation of it. Joy, because everyone knows leaves, leaves in and of themselves are not dangerous or threatening, and a room full of them could produce memories from childhood, of playing in and with them. Also the title, “Autumn,” could be inspiring and hopeful as part of the cycle of time, a cycle of change, before sleep (winter) and rebirth (spring). But Vicuna mentioned joy, that she wanted people to think of joy when they saw the room, for the room to bring joy.
Yet, leaves are often seen as a nuisance, to be raked up and burned rather than to leave to nature to become mulch and fertile soil in the future. Leaves are lovely, I use them in my work in metals.
Question #3
ReplyDeleteI feel it is research based- autoethnography, and perhaps other works by other artists of that time might make it more research applicable. But it is truly lovely, the words with the images in her book. Vicuna’s, The Precarious, were wonderful and touched me, connected with me in a place that ‘knows’ with out words.
Visual art expresses the un-expressible, someone said. The image and the form combine to create a visual language… the concept, the idea are valid in their own right, as art, but I wonder- how much are words a bleed of meaning? as translation may not be full or could be slanted… I often feel that for visual art, pieces with words limit their audience to only those who can read that language or even read at all. Just wondering….
Suzanna, thanks for researching the topic and filling out the political context of the times. Vicuna was in her early 20s when SABORAMI was first published. It collects about 3 years of work and yes, I believe that she was an Allendista. Vicuna is still very much alive and well today. I met her a few years ago at a poetry festival in Minneapolis. Her artwork is highly regarded internationally, especially by feminists who believe her work embodies a woman-centered aesthetic. Certainly it is informed by her knowledge of traditional knitting and weaving forms, as practiced for centuries by Indigenous Americans. Much of her work has a womanist theme, as in recent body of work, El Quipo Menstrual. I will post an image from her 2006 street performance of the same name, performed in front of the government palace in a plea not to sell Chile's greatest fresh water resource, its glaciers. Here as in other work, Vicuna plays on metaphorical resonances (embedded deeply in language and culture) between woven fabrics, women's bodies, and the earth.
ReplyDeleteAs with Francesco's evocation of Dewey, I am happy that you named another great American, Thomas Jefferson, whose ideas were/are so formative to our national identity. I'm sure all would agree that we've fallen far short of the ideals the Founding Parents :) established in their words and actions. When we review the ideas of the greatest Americans, Vicuna's ideas don't seem so radical.
Allison, thank you for a very perceptive take on the Autumn installation. I didn't see it myself, but once I read your interpretation I knew you were spot on. Great reading of the deeper layers of symbolism!
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DeleteSorry, Suzanne. Can't believe I called you Suzanna. It was a typo.
DeleteActually, I love Suzanna, it is Hebrew for Lily!
DeleteJenise, it's all about growth & improvement. You are growing and improving, as are we all, and so I am proud of you. We start in the place where we are - we can't really help it, right? Like the fact that I'm from Detroit. I wasn't aware of all this entailed until I moved to Texas. Texas helped me appreciate the regional differences, which are not at all small. It's a big country with many, many micro-histories. It's an even bigger continent!
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the essence of the female figure Vicuna uses in her work. It represents Life. Socialism in Latinamerica would give birth to a culture in which……there would be much more dancing, much music, much friendship. Socialism in Chile could give birth to a joyful way of living!” (p. 34) I see Vicunas symbolism belonging to the people of Chile. You wouldn’t understand it unless you lived it. “Her work deeply embedded in the cultural life of Chile, extended into her exile after the coup and continues to this day. It emerges from a sense of political/ spiritual necessity.” (About the Author, Sabor a mi) I appreciate Allison’s insight to Vicunas symbolism. It seems as though Vicunas representational usage of feathers and vertically erect sticks signify American Indians and the geographical shape of Chile. Vicuna encompasses and “ties” her pieces, maybe to coincide “to American Indians “ in the universe everything is a circle.” (p. 14)
#1
ReplyDeleteShe does not want her country to be like the U.S. is that she thought the democracy of the U.S. is more like capitalism. Vicuna points out in Smborami in P.161 and states that American style is “disguised collusion of business and government. In this way of democracy people do not participate and that what was the political situation by the time. The liberalism of American style democracy and free market for most socialist is just a disguise of exploitation. Vicuna doesn’t want this happen to her country.
Question #3
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say I would never have learned ANY of what Chile and the people went though If it were not for Vicunas writing and vision.
“Like the natural world, the social world is governed by rules that result in patterns, and thus causal relationships between variables can be identified, hypotheses tested and proven, and causal relationships explained. Moreover, social reality is predictable and potentially controllable.” (Method Meets Art, Leavy p. 5)
Vicunas work can be seen as a positivist epistemology, she displays several diverse writings and contemporary art that align with the nature of her belief and knowledge.
Vicunas narrative analysis extracts the various lived experiences from which she encountered and in the life of herself and of Chile’s social democracy. “Narrative inquiry is increasingly employed as a methodological approach to trauma studies. Trauma studies constitute an expansive and interdisciplinary field and may involve work on the procee of trauma and recovery.” (Method Meets Art, Leavy p. 29)
Vicunas vision leaves her audience curious down to the eyelet of her needle, we are left to investigate the “truth” her symbolism leaves.
#2
ReplyDeleteIn Vicuna’s statement, her work Autumn was all about joy. She thought joy is the most important for a human being’s life. In P.66, she wrote:
“working on my autumn piece i experienced joy.
working on my joy I experienced autumn.”
She thought in human being’s average 70 year’s life, joy is the most important. She argued in the end of p.67: “joy could make people aware of the need to fight for joy. the urgency of the present is the urgency for revolution.” This is the relationship between her Autumn and her political vision. The joy will fill energy to revolution.
#3
ReplyDeleteSaborami is a research because it is a self-narrative data. This book profoundly shows a citizen’s love for her country. It is a data about a woman, as well as a citizen’s narrative about her emotions, thoughts, and reflections about her country or say, about her as an “I” and the collective “I” of citizens as a country.
It is not because it not fit the standards of academia writing. Also, the alternative way of writing directions is also not a research style of writing. Also, there is no chapter arrangement in this book. These are the reasons that I thought if it was not a research.
Liz, you know I doubt any of us knew much about Chile before reading this book. A few years ago, I read a book called The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by the Uruguayan poet/novelist/historian Edwardo Galeano. Reading that book was a life-altering experience. I COULDN'T BELIEVE how little I knew about Latin America - how little I had encountered at any point in 20 years of formal schooling on the history of the Americas. It was jaw-dropping, pitiful, shameful how little I had learned up to that point. After that book, I started reading other books...more and more...which eventually led to my choice of a dissertation topic (The Beehive Collective) at the doctoral level. I took an elective in Latin American & Caribbean Theater during my first year of doc studies. It changed everything. So my point is - you're not alone in wondering how or why you missed the memo on this incredibly rich (and disturbing) aspect of American history (American because technically we're all Americans of the northern, central & southern varieties, and Americanness is itself a wild blend of Indigenous, Afro-Euro-Asian culture).
ReplyDeleteAllison is really quite accurate in saying that the people, land, water, animals and minerals of Latin America have always been viewed by the global north as one big exploitable resource. The same is true of Africa. This is why self-sufficiency in any Latin American country has been undermined and/or actively destroyed by the northern powers (who often act in concert). The US is still doing this in Colombia. Many people who know the details of the Colombian situation feel the Drug War is a cover operation for oil exploration and exploitation by large multinationals based in Europe and the US. Whether one believes this or not depends on political position.
I'm not sure about whether Vicuna can be called a positivist, although I can see how you arrived at that conclusion. Positivism in the strict sense is more about 2+2=4, never 5 or 6 under any circumstances, no matter what the context. And while Vicuna is quite sure in her belief that Allende = good and U.S.-style capitalism = bad, I'm not sure if this is really positivism. In my view, her work is a little too passionate and experimental to be positivist (in the strict sense), only because positivism tends to be very male, dry and almost synonymous with Western European rationalism. Indigenous cultures have always been regarded as irrational and primitive by comparison, to the point that Europeans didn't regard them as human when the first contact was made, and for centuries after. I believe that in some cultures, it might be entirely possible that 2+2= X (any number), whereas in our culture, children are taught that the answer is ALWAYS 4.
Well, all this is quite long-winded. I apologize! And A-Ta, I did not forget you! I realize that you did the mid-term first, so no worries. You may respond to Vicuna's book in this week's blog.
Excellent work, all, rising to the challenge of Vicuna's book. Please read the second half this week and integrate it into your response to the Mid-Term Challenge. Thanks!
Also, I added pictures & text to our Flickr album that you may find helpful in learning more about Cecilia Vicuna. Just click on the link and sign in using your Yahoo, Gmail or Facebook account info.
ReplyDeleteA final comment about SABORAMI as a poetic research document... First-hand accounts from inside volatile political situations may not, in themselves, constitute research, but they play an important role in other research studies. In many cases, these "bearing witness" accounts are the closest thing a researcher has to direct access (as in the classic slave narratives). One must consider that witnesses do not always survive (re: Walter Benjamin). Also, bear in mind that first-hand accounts of any form of torture, terrorism, war and/or traumatic violence are inherently intensely personal (as in the Diary of Anne Frank). Survivors rarely find it possible to present a fair and balanced view of their ordeal. Therefore, these documents are extremely valuable to researchers, but are not usually regarded as research in themselves.
ReplyDeletePinochet spent his final years dodging the International Criminal Court and orders for his extradition and arrest by dozens of countries. In 2001, reports were released acknowledging that scores of political opponents and leftists were dropped from airplanes into the ocean. Pinochet denied ever ordering anyone's death and blamed the massacre on regional subordinates. However, General Joaquin Lagos (a major figure in Pinochet's military regime) said Pinochet was fully informed of the mass killing carried out by his troops. 'They took their eyes out of their sockets with daggers, breaking their jaws and breaking their legs," said Gen. Lagos (Cooper, 2001), 'They shot them in segments, first the legs, then the sexual organs, then the heart with submachine guns...there was not even a final mercy shot.'
ReplyDeleteCooper, M. (2001, 23 February). Chile and the end of Pinochet. The Nation Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2012 http://www.globalissues.org/article/493/icc-the-pinochet-case
Here's an interesting fact. The CIA Director at the time of the Chilean coup was Richard Helms. It was done at the behest of President Nixon. When the Church Committee uncovered the covert operation, Helms was tried and convicted of lying to Congress about the CIA's involvement in Allende's overthrow. He remains the only CIA Director in American history to be sentenced to two years in federal prison.
ReplyDeleteAfter his fall from power, Pinochet sought asylum in the United States but was denied. Only the U.K. and Spain were willing to harbor him; he died in the U.K. after being declared "unfit for trial."
#1
ReplyDeleteShe does not want her country to be like the U.S. is that she thought the democracy of the U.S. is more like capitalism. Vicuna points out in Smborami in P.161 and states that American style is “disguised collusion of business and government.” In this kind of democracy, people are not participants but just puppets. The government in this situation is not thinking about people but how to make money. The liberalism of American style democracy and free market for most socialist is just a disguise of exploitation. The liberalists’ free market sounds like everyone are equal and the competition will make progressive for the nation. In fact, it’s the liberalism that belongs to elites on the top of the social hierarchy.
Vicuna doesn’t want this happen to her country. What she wants is a nation that everyone can participate. In page 161 of Samorami, she mentioned about the time period at she like: “For three years that Allende governed, Chile was a magnet. People came from all over the world to be part of the experiment. A new form of participatory democracy was taking shape.”(p.161) By the time Allende governed Chile, her country was flourish, hopes were fulfilled everywhere in Chile. That could be the ideal way of governing of government of Vicuna. Unlike American democracy, Her democratic vision is no soloist and leaders, every participant play in pairs.
#2
In Vicuna’s statement, her work Autumn was all about joy. She thought joy is the most important for a human being’s life. In P.66, she wrote:
“working on my autumn piece i experienced joy.
working on my joy I experienced autumn.”
She thought in human being’s average 70 year’s life, joy is the most important. She thought that JOY is one of the most important things for a life. For Vicuna, human beings are living for looking for joy. She argued in the end of p.67: “joy could make people aware of the need to fight for joy. the urgency of the present is the urgency for revolution.”
This is the relationship between her Autumn and her political vision. The joy will fill energy to revolution. If people were looking for joy, then they are looking for revolution. Autumn for Vicuna was a work for joy and she wish people can feel the joy in her work. Once people are looking for joy, like she looking for joy in Autumn, they will looking for their happiness future. That’s the power of JOY for the human beings.
#3
Saborami is a research because it is a self-narrative data. This book profoundly shows a citizen’s love for her country. It is a data about a woman, as well as a citizen’s narrative about her emotions, thoughts, and reflections about her country or say, about her as an “I” and the collective “I” of citizens as a country. Therefore, I will coin the method as an enthnobigraphcial method.
It is not because it not fit the standards of academia writing. Also, the alternative way of writing directions is also not a research style of writing. Also, there is no chapter arrangement in this book. These are the reasons that I thought if it was not a research.