Regardless of US involvement, perhaps the majority of Latin American countries through the mid 20 th century had conservative dictators that fought off socialist/communist movements. Chile’s case is not unique, happened similarly in Guatemala (to represent fruit interests, United Fruit Company).

Why? To make sure that land and business (especially mining) interests were represented by the country’s leadership. The United States government was partly responsible in that they led the coup (define a coup). Political trends: What is a dictatorship ? The picture below is of Agusto Pinochet, a dictator who replaced a democratically elected Chilean leader (Allende).

- Early encounters: All shared similar encounters with Europeans.

So, some shared and some differing characteristics: Can we write a unified history? What does this question imply about most written histories of Latin America? Why might we want a unified history? What sort of risks is Chasten taking by writing a unified history? Would everyone agree that one history can be written? (Hint: think of Howard Zinn) Traits of countries, indigenous groups span across boarders.

Borders that we see on left map are arbitrary, created much after colonialism.

Chasten’s intro presents shared and differing characteristics of LA Shared: Young (average age in teens) Catholic urban Spanish/Portuguese languages Diverse: Literacy geography and population (Paraguay could fit into capital of Sao Paulo, Brazil) Life expectancy Diversity Chasten discusses what is shared and what is different to lead into the following question (next slide).

Born in the fire america