Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America by John Charles Chasteen. 

3/5 rating. 340 pages.

Book #38 of 2020. Read June 15, 2020.

This book tells “a concise history of Latin America” from the time of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya before Columbus up to today.

John does a good job of weaving in the disparate histories of the 18 Latin American countries (Mexico southward through South America, minus Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana). There is so much history here that is not common knowledge and would add to people’s understanding of everything from religion, to race, to imperialism and hegemony.

There is some talk first about the people of these lands before Iberian conquest which sheds light on some of the reasons for the Spanish and Portuguese’s easy takeover of these lands.

After this, John discusses the power of Britain, Spain, and Portugal, and their colonial and imperialist measures taken in Latin America. These eventually led to the move for successful independence by each country.

What happened after independence might have been even more interesting as the hegemony instituted by the US and others is interesting to see in full light.

Overall, this book was interesting, but I got this in college as a textbook (though much more on the end of readable than most). This is a refreshing take of Latin America not solely focused from a US perspective which makes it possible to look at the history in a way many Americans have not done before. If you are interested in Latin American history, you should check this out.

Quotes:

“Latin America was the main destination of the millions of people enslaved and taken out of Africa between 1500 and 1850. Whereas the United States received about 523,000 enslaved immigrants, Cuba alone got more. All Spanish America absorbed around 1.5 million slaves, and Brazil by itself at least 3.5 million.”

“At the turn of the twenty-first century, Europeans no longer ride on the backs of indigenous porters or in sedan chairs carried by African slaves. But everywhere, wealthier people still have lighter skin and poorer people still have darker skin – a sweeping but sadly accurate generalization that does have exceptions, and lots of them, but only of the kind that prove the rule. The conclusion is inescapable: The descendants of the Spanish, the Portuguese, and later European immigrants to Latin America still hold power, and the people who descend from slaves and subjugated indigenous people still work for them.”

“[Slave traders] bought whoever was for sale, willy-nilly, with a special preference for healthy men, and then packed them into the holds of slave ships where 15 to 20 percent on average would die on the voyage. Probably more than a million people died in the passage across the Atlantic along.”

“To save democracy from the Marxists, the generals destroyed it themselves in a series of preemptive strikes.”

“The CIA now adopted a ‘firm and continuing policy’ as one agency directive quite explicitly put it, ‘that [Chile’s elected President] Allende be overthrown in a coup.’”

“In a conflictive world or large uncertainties, the transformations created by rapid immigration are sure to produce fearful reactions; and, just as surely, political opportunists of various stripes will exploit those fears. The result is not pretty. It involves calls for a forbidding wall of gargantuan length to keep the migrants out. It involves laws mandating the systematic deportation of those who are already here. At worst, it involves scapegoating the migrants (as if they were personally responsible for the global economic realities that drive their migration) and attempting to limit the health care and education available to them and their children.”

IG Link.