Impacts of civil wars to Latin America countries

Historical fiction books about Latin America show that civil wars have a large impact on the life of teenagers or children.

Authors: Valentina Boechat, Guilherme Pianna, Julia Romero, and Adam Bourguignon.

Civil war in Latin America is one of the things that has most affected the local population. Civil war are violent conflicts between groups within a single country, for example the civil war in Cuba around 1961 when the government of United States was trying to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, but the attempt failed, this event has been called “Bay of Pigs Invasion”, have another example in Cuba but it was around1950’s there was poverty and crime all around because the economy were unstable, so the country was unsafe, them the military gets in power because they organize coup d’etat in the government, them this began the cuban revolution. Another one is the civil war in Guatemala around 1981 when the communists are been in the country and the soldiers kill everyone searching for then, so the government send the soldiers to destroy villages searching for guerillas and communists, resulting on many kills in the country, this event get so many dies that in the story this event is called ”La massacre de los erres”. Another civil war was from 1920 in Mexico, in this civil war the Mexican revolution happened, that was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico, this conflict has been called “The defining event of modern Mexican history”, this conflict received this name because the main objective was to try to transform the Mexican culture and government. The civil war affected a lot the life of the population in Latin America, people needed to emigrate to other countries, people turned brigadistas to help others to read and write, people get together with a guerilla to protect their village and friends, or sometimes people, begin depending on tourism . 

The book My Brigadista Year, by Katherine Paterson, is set in Cuba, 1961. Lora the main character lives in Havana, the capital of Cuba. The month is March and one day she sees a poster at her school of the government calling the students who can read and write to teach citizens who don’t know how. This movement start because after the Cuban revolution the literacy was low in that place, and it can cause poorer employment opportunities and outcomes and lower income. Lora, who is a brave and courageous girl wants to, despite her parents’ reluctance they accept, but the mother sets a condition: “Lora, do you truly promise me to come home if it proves too hard?” she says, and the girl agrees. Around 268,000 Cubans worked in this campaign.

In April 1961 the “Varadero Training Camp ” start, when Lora is traveling to the mountains to learn how she will teach the others. Lora went in a bus to Varadero Beach with all of the people who had been allowed from her school. When Lora arrived there was a warm April morning, and at the skyline, where the  sea met  the bright blue of the spring sky, the water was a dark almost purplish blue. Was hard for the girl to believe that that place that once had been a playground for the wealthy is now a place where ordinary youngsters will be training to turn brigadistas. On the Veadero camp Lora  met Marissa, a wise and kind teacher of the training camp, that advised Lora a lot, and the most important advise for Lora was “Be tall and smile”.

On April 15th a cloudy day in the same week that Lora arrived at the training camp a disastrous news came, three of Cuba airfields had been attacked by planes of the United States of America with insignia painted on them to make it seem they were part of Cuba air force. Lora can’t understand why a powerful country like the United States decided to fight with a little country if it’s compared with Cuba. And Marissa explained that it happened because they were afraid of  communism. According to the  John F. Kennedy site the United States’s goal was the overthrow of Fideal Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the U.S.A. But before that day was over Lora’s papi arrived to demand Lora to return  home. But the girl said that wouldn’t, because now she is part of the Conrado Benítez Brigade. And the papi reminds her of the promise she has made, that if it proves too hard she will come home. But Lora says “But it’s not bad at all here, and certainly not too hard. I am learning how to be a teacher. My country needs me.” Papi almost whispering says that they need her to be safe at home, and they lost her uncle Roberto for the revolution, so they can’t lose her. Lora was almost crying and she was trembling inside, but she remembered to stand up and tall to show him she is determined, the tip that Marissa had told her. Lora convinced him that she needed to stay there, but inside she was sad, because it was the first time she disobeyed her papi. But wasn’t just Lora that stayed there, the most part of the brigadistas also didn’t give up, and continued their long journey that have last around one year.

In 20th of April when the war is over, with the victory of Cuba. Days later Lora is going to meet her new family, the children she will teach , they are Rafael, Emilia and Isabel. On this day Lora started to be nervous because she is too young, don’t know how to speak as a person much less as a teacher and the people she would be living with seemed so timid around her. The first class was to teach them how to write their names. And further on, they went deeper into how to read, for example. 

The war finished but the place where Lora is living is also home to vicious bandidos who oppose the communist revolutionaries and will stop at nothing, even murder, to sabotage their plans. So it is dangerous. But Lora is a brave and courageous girl, so she doesn’t give up, she persists in what she wants, turn her country a place where all can have rights, and in this case the right of education, that until 1961 a lot of people didn’t have in Cuba. 

In November-December 1961 the work was done and Lora with her brigadistas friends were very happy and around  707,000 Cubans became literate  by December, and the brigadistas were the most responsible for that. The war and its consequences  change Lora’s life a lot, for a long time she didn’t see her parents and brothers, she faced a lot of difficulties with the communists on the mountains, her life was definitely different from how it was, she had a very important responsibilities in her life that changed all of her country to turn a better place. And as hard times it was she didn’t give up.

The book Caminar, by Skila Brown, the major character is Carlos and he lives on Guatemala, he was just a  “kid” afraid of everything ,but one day he says “it’s time to become a man” he want to become a man, help his village with works, protect his friends and family and battle, but him mother say no, she says its not the right time for this. The government send soldiers to destroy villages searching for communists and rebels guerillas, so Carlos’s mama asked him to run on the direction of forest if a trouble is close, so a trouble appears and he runs and hide, runs and hide, and to sleep, he climb in the trees and hide in the middle of the leeds. 

Many times he heard the soldiers on a patrol searching for him and the communists, he was so afraid that him body shakes when he heard a voice this happened too much in the war when the soldiers are on the forest. After a while hiding he hear voices and close him eyes and shrunk himself into the bushes, but he felt a cold thing in him back of head and think thats probably a gun ,him body shakes like crazy, there Carlos notice that he is not really prepared for war, many things pass out on his head, things like “If mama is waiting me to go back home?,if I die here?, what will happen with my friends and family.” But he hear a woman voice “is just a kid” the gun is taken of him head then he notice that there are a group of communists, then he start to walk with them showing that didn’t have a good side, both has different sides, then he starts know them and this change him opinion about the communists, there he know Paco, Miguel and Hector, Carlos is helpless there he only have a stick on him hand, and the communists has many war equipments and guns.

Later, they arrived on a place that they can sleep and camp, so Miguel makes fire and they start to bake a dead animal, Miguel asked Carlos where he is going and Carlos said he was going to patriarchal, him abuela village, After he said that Carlos asked where they come from, Paco answer they are in a mission to get volunteers to train in the camp, Carlos asked how many did they get, Miguel says that was nobody left to get, that has a massacre on a nearby village, a village that they was a few days before, so many of the people fled when they heard the news, Carlos heart start to beat faster than a train, him fingers was shaking he asked “a m-massacre”, paco shook him head and say that they are too late to save the people on the village and kill some soldiers, Carlos notice that they didn’t are scared about the soldiers, he say that they burn the houses, destroy the fields and kill the people, they say too and that only have a large pile of dead body, Carlos asked “where? where? please tell me where!” Miguel look seriously right to Carlos and only said ”Chopán”, and in the real event the destroyed village was plan de Sanchez.

 And this messed with him head Carlos never stay afraid like that, him personality changes completely, him face stay with no reaction and the rebels stay talking but Carlos are too traumatized that he can’t hear them, and he is only saying in him head ”kill soldiers, kill soldiers” and was thinking that it is impossible that this happen, and that him family is good, they run. Carlos a gentle guy that only wants to protect him family and friends now its a guy only with revenge in him heart, but he are trying to forget this and think the best because him family combines to sleep in the forest so he thinks they are alive, but him loved village, now are destroyed. The author uses dialogues to represent more the feelings of the characters, and the book pass one message that are “do not run of your problems” like face then do not stay scared and battle, only with this you can get what you want, in the book we follow a character that was in the war, but in the end of the book shows in the future, the character with him daughter seeing the die people on the names memory rock.

The book Breaking Through, by Francisco Jimenez a Mexican-American writer, talks about the life of a boy called Francisco and his family that, because of the Mexican Revolution, needed to run away from Mexico in 1920, and go to the United States illegally this mean that they needed to be very careful to not be found by the government. For Francisco’s family this worked for some years, but one day when Francisco was in the school the government finally found out that he and his family were in the country illegally, and this meant that they were forced to return to Mexico as soon as possible. After they came back to Mexico, Francisco’s family started to look for ways to go to the United States, now legally. After some days they finally found a way to get the necessary documents, but they needed a little help from a  friend that lives in the United States, whose name was Tito. Despite being a very cold person that doesn’t demonstrate a lot of their feelings, Francisco admires him a lot, for some reason. 

 Now that Francisco and his family are back in United States, Francisco, Roberto ( Francisco’s brother), and his dad are working for Tito in a crop production. Francisco is only 16 years old and he still needs to go to school, but because of his work he will need to miss two to three months it year to help his father in the work. Francisco hates this idea, because in Mexico he didn’t have school to go, when he came to United States and his parents said to him that he would be able to go to a school, he get very happy and anxious, and when he went to the school for the first time in United States he loved, even with all his difficulties because he didn’t know nothing of English, he was very happy to finally have a school to study. One thing that make Francisco loves more the school then most of the kids is the fact of his dream be becoming a teacher when he grows up, the only problem is that he don’t have a lot of support from his parents, for example all the time that Francisco talks about his dream with his dad, his dad do actually the opposite of encouraging him, he always say to  Francisco ” Be a teacher is a profession for rich people only.”, even though with all this negativity Francisco continues with his dream of being a teacher. Now you may be thinking that Francisco’s dad is horrible person, actually he is not, he use to be a very happy person that care about the others, but because of some problems that happened in the crop production, he is getting tired of his work, he is getting stressed, and now he is taking it out all the things he is feeling in Francisco and in the rest of the family. 

Another problem that Francisco is facing now is that in the school he suffers a lot of bullying because he was not doing very well in most of the subjects because he didn’t know english a lot, and he is also suffering bullying  because he is poor. With all this problems in Francisco’s live you might be thinking that he is sad, maybe angry, or even thinking that the life is unfair, but he is not actually he is happy because he know that have kids that in Mexico for example, that doesn’t  have access to school, and he know that because some years ago he was in the same situation, and I think that this is the lesson from my book always be Thankful for your life, for your family, for your friends and every thing that makes your life better. 

According to the site global voices, it is possible to see how the life of immigrants is difficult, many of them just like Francisco needed to live hiding from the govermnent without having access to the basic rights. A real example of this is a woman called Rosa María that came from Mexico to the USA. Her dream was to someday be able to bring her family to the USA too, but until today Rosa María was not able to have access to the necessary documents, she only had access to her documents. Now Rosa María is working hard to have enough money to visit her children. In the year of 2017 some research points that 65% of the people without registration are Mexican, in the USA, this happened because just like Francisco they are there illegally. Probably some things got a little better through the years but, until many families are facing many problems in this process of emigration.          

The book The Wild Book, by Margarita Engle, is written about the beginning of the Cuban Revolution in the 1950’s and portrays the difficult historical period in Cuba. Accordingly to the book and some research I made was poverty and crime all around  because the economy was unstable, so it was unsafe. Then the military gets in power because they organize a coup d’etat in the government. This began the Cuban revolution and people were suffering because they were beginning to depend on the tourism of American people that go there because of freedom. But there were seasons where Americans didn’t travel so the population suffered without money.

In the  countryside in Cuba 41.7% in 1961 people didn’t know how to read or write and this includes Fefa the major character.

 One of the main causes that lead people to illiteracy is lack of motivation. Lack of structure on the part of schools, science laboratories, library, sports courts, cafeteria, extracurricular disciplines such as basketball and tennis also generate this lack of motivation and much more. A good number of children do not have the encouragement they should have from parents who often do not graduate from school or do not follow the child’s development. The lack of books at home, the lack of stimulation of the importance of reading, difficult living conditions such as poverty, learning difficulties such as dyslexia, which Fefa the major character has (dyslexia).

Literacy often gives experience of poorer or lower income employment opportunities and outcomes. As a result, they ‘often’ face welfare dependency, low self-esteem and higher levels of crime. Furthermore, people with low literacy level have a limited ability to make important and faced decisions in everyday life, for example they struggle with tasks such as filling in questions and data, understanding government policies, reading medications or how to prefer nutrition labels and much more.

Literacy is the lack of knowledge of reading and writing.most of the time in underdeveloped countries because there are many factors that make people dont be interested in education.

What happened in Cuba.In 1961, the National Literacy Campaign began, which covered the entire country of Cuba and reached remote areas, especially rural ones. Data from the website of the Embassy of Cuba in Brazil indicate that, in 1958, 23.6% of the Cuban population was illiterate. In the countryside, the illiteracy rate was 41.7%. In December 1961, at the end of the first year of the campaign, the illiteracy rate in the country had dropped to 3.9%. After the eradication of illiteracy, a process of gradual universalization of education began.

However, in many countries it is already quite different, such as India, which leads the ranking with a tide of 287 million illiterates.

Today, unlike in the past, Cuba has the lowest illiteracy rate in the world, reaching 0.2 percent of the population, which today corresponds to around 22,000 people.

Everyone by law has the right to be literate. Without literacy, people lose many advantages, access, simple or everyday things that everyone should have, people who do not have this cannot fill in a simple form, they also lose advantages such as creating a good vocabulary, helping with expression and writing words correctly. This alone shows how it is a habit that exercises your mental capacities. In addition, it also encourages thinking about different subjects, absorbing new opinions, we can reflect, organize ideas and transmit them more clearly, which is essential at work and in personal life, it is also a form of self-knowledge through exploration, understanding and expression of our ways of thinking and feeling, literacy is very important for intellectual development, because through reading and writing, human beings are always able to learn much more from what they are taught.

 Now with all this information it’s understood how the Latin-American population was affected by civil wars. 

For example in the book My Brigadista Year, by Katherine Paterson, that is set in Cuba, 1961. The main character, Lora, because of the civil war and the low of literacy in her country she joined a group of brigadistas to teach the citizens who don’t know how to read and write. These new stage change her life a lot. Now she travels around her country without her parents, grandma, and brothers, to teach people that she doesn’t know who is. But Lora did all of these because she is a brave girl, who wants to change the world for the better. 

Another example is the book Breaking Through, by Francisco Jimenez, that the main character Francisco  and his family, that because of the civil war, he needed to immigrate to United States illegally, and live for some years hiding from the government, and even when he get the documents to stay at United states legally, he needed to face many problems like for example needing to work with 14 until 16 years in a crop production to help there family, suffering prejudice for being Latin-American, and for being poor, and the most unexpectable thing of the book is that even with all those problems Francisco continues being thankful for his life, because he knows that if he were in Mexico, probably his life would be worst, so he prefers to be thankful for what he have.

Also an example is in the The Wild Book, by Margarita Engle, that portraits about the story of a girl who don’t know how to read or write in the beginning of cuban revolution, where was poverty all around, crime and illiteracy but after, this get better and the levels of crime in Cuba get down and Cuba have the most low rate of illiteracy in the world, just with that we can see how cuba get better trough Fefa’s time (cuban revolution) until today.

 Another example is the book Caminar. The Guatemala population suffer with the power of Efrain rios month, in real life they have a lot of lost, like persons, plantation and villages, and in the book Carlos lost him village and friends, recently, indigenous enter in justice to sued the ex-dictator, he was imprisoned 50 years for genocide and 30 years for mistreatment society while he was in power. He recently died on 2018 April 1, even though the Guatemalan population lost many and many things, this is a big win for them.