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Tag: Agrarianism

Graciliano Ramos

Published July 26, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Graciliano RAMOS (1892–1953) was a modernist writer and politician from the Brazilian northeast, one of the poorest regions in the country. He was a noted Communist and his writings feature fictional livelihoods to showcase social and political concerns. He expresses pessimism about generational suffering, illiteracy, misogyny, indigenous dehumanization, and exploitation as a fact of capitalism. Additionally, he had an impact on Brazil’s developing cinema culture.

São Bernardo and Vidas Secas are two of Ramos’s most famous works. Vidas Secas, translated as Barren Lives, is the most accessible to English readers. It details the tragic lives of a migrant family trekking through a drought in search of labor. Its central messages are that exploitation is inescapable for the lower class, suffering has a legacy, and illiteracy is disempowerment. For example, the father worries for his children’s upbringing but cannot help that they were born to labor under somebody else. Moreover, he is arrested when he does not understand the upper-class language of the charges against him. The last chapter leads into the first chapter to demonstrate the cyclical nature of helplessness.

FURTHER READING

Scott, Paulo. “Paulo Scott on Graciliano Ramos.” Asymptote Journal. Accessed July 26, 2022. https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/paulo-scott-on-graciliano-ramos/.

Ramos, Graciliano. Barren Lives: Vidas Secas. Translated by Ralph Edward Dimmick. University of Texas Press, 2011.

Ellison, Harlan. Brazil’s New Novel: Four Northeastern Masters – Jose Lins Do Rego, Jorge Amado, Graciliano, Rachel De Queiroz. Paris: Les Humanoïdes associés, 1979.

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The Mexican Revolution

Published May 1, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) was a working class uprising aimed at overthrowing the military dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz. It successfully ousted Díaz but led to further political strife when moderate liberal Francisco Madero replaced him. The culmination of economic tension surrounding workers’ rights and agrarian reform led to its incitement. The revolution was both a political and social upheaval, and produced competing ideologies.

Mexican Insurrectionists in Juarez, 1911

Among the ideologies to emerge from the Mexican Revolution were the Progressive Constitutionalist Party and the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM). The Constitutionalist Party was largely composed of the middle class whose beliefs aimed to be non-partisan, such as nationalization of land. Moderate liberal Madero identified as a Constitutionalist. As a result of his Constitutionalist policies, which were too radical for conservatives and too conservative for radicals, Madero’s presidency did not last long. As an opposition party, the PLM demanded more representation of workers in government as well as greater land reform. Furthermore, they criticized Madero’s relationship with the Catholic Church. In the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, these parties further polarized with the absence of a common enemy.

FURTHER READING

Ph.D, Chris Frazer. Competing Voices from the Mexican Revolution: Fighting Words. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2009.

Wasserman, Mark. The Mexican Revolution: A Brief History with Documents. (Bedford Cultural Editions Series) first edition, 2012.

Robert C. Overfelt, “Mexican Revolution,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed June 02, 2022, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mexican-revolution.

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