Personal Statement/Concept Stance:

      Hello! My name is Morgan Raddatz and I am a junior at Alverno College; which is an all-women’s college located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My major is Communication and I am triple minoring in Spanish Language and Cultures, English, and Creative Studies in Writing. I created this website as a final assessment project for a 300 leveled humanities class called "Latin American Civilizations".     

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       The concept I chose to focus on while creating this website was how the Chilean art form of the "Arpillera" was influenced by the General Pinochet Dictatorship and the forced disappearances/murders of the Chilean Desaparecidos (The Missing). Although these events occurred during the years of 1973-1990, they still have a huge influence in 21st Century Latin American Society. I was inspired to research this topic because in HUM 353 I read the novel The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

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       This novel touched upon several themes in Chilean society such as politics, family, and religion. I believe these are three very important themes of Latino society and they each intertwine with each other. Therefore, I wanted to replicate this format of key concepts into the creation of my final assessment website project. Overall, I enjoyed creating this final assessment website project because I got to use my knowledge from the previous Spanish Language and Culture classes I took and applied it towards  the new knowledge I learned during this semester in HUM 353: Latin American Civilizations.

 

Final Assessment Website Project Goals:    

1. To explore how world view is shaped by societal and cultural contexts

2. To present a contemporary topic/person/concept from Latin America in a meaningful way to further the class's understanding of that particular aspect of Latin American civilization and culture and to make clear my stance on the topic.

3. To demonstrate the course outcomes through an independent, creative, multimedia exhibition. 

 

HUM 353 Class Connections Reflection:

         By taking HUM 353, I can now identify several worldview concepts of Latin American society which have influenced the creation of the traditional Chilean art form called the "Arpillera”. The worldview concepts of dictatorship and militarism have each played a crucial key role in shaping many Latin American countries; especially during the 20th Century. This is because the role of foreign affairs influenced Latin American Culture. I chose to focus on this worldview and connect it onto how these concepts affected Chile.

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       This was due to reading a lot about Chile’s period of dictatorship in Chasteen’s Born in Blood and Fire and also in Allende’s House of the Spirits. What I learned from each of these two novels was how the forced disappearances of the Desaparecidos affected the traditional gender roles of the woman as well as the traditional family roles. This is due to the affect the dictatorship and militarism had on each of these two key social structures in Latin American culture. The worldviews of family and religion have also influenced Latinos since pre-colonial times, but during the 20th Century the traditional roles were changed. The use of the Chilean Arpillera bridges family, gender roles, and religion concepts together. This is because this artwork is a form of the worldview concept of transculturation; which takes concepts/messages from various cultures and blends them together.

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     For example, the Arpillera was influenced by this worldview because the women used the Pomeranian Mola designs from indigenous culture and combined them with the westernized style of patchwork. Many of these women combined their artwork with Catholic religious imagery which was a part of Latin American culture since post conquest times. This art form is also an example of how the Chilean dictatorship has made a large impact on the worldview concept of family pertaining to traditional gender roles. It has separated the traditional pre-conquest structure of machismo power by placing responsibility onto the women to provide for their families due to many men being taken away. The women in turn worked in a collectivist style to accomplish their new societal roles.

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     In addition, the use of military and dictatorship started a class war between individuals who felt they had to choose a governmental stance on Communism or Capitalism. This caused a gap between the poor supporters of communism versus the affluent supporters of capitalism. The western world's preference of individualism over collectivism has also affected the way of the Latin American family structure. This is due to many families having to provide for themselves during the Latin American country dictatorships; causing some families to be less collectivistic to get ahead in society. Learning about these various worldview connections in class furthered my knowledge on how family, gender roles, and politics are revered categories in Latin American culture.