Decolonization and the Fear of Re-colonization

Many of these articles try to formulate a tactic for unraveling colonialism. Rubén Darío in "To Roosevelt" denounces the Americans for their imperialist motives over Latin America. He makes it a point that Americans use violence to dominate and to dictate the path in which progress must take in Latin America. Rubén fights this imperialism by enumerating the greats of Latin America, suggesting that progress can come from places other than the United States. He also mentions that Latin America has yet to have finished decolonizing after independence from Spain when already they have the states breathing down their necks. He writes, "You are the United States, / future invader of our naive land / with its Indian blood, an America / that still prays to Christ and still speaks Spanish". José Vasconcelos tackles the race problem very differently. For Vasconcelos, rising above the imperial impact of colonization means rising above the race problem. His solution is to create the fifth race, the cosmic race (a mixed, interracial race in which the best qualities of every race create a superior being) by following three laws. He suggests that Latin America can be great, no, they can be the new imperial power if those who have abandoned their lower appetites (of material, physicality), elevated their interests to that of the higher appetites of intellect and politics (of the mind), then those fit will indulge naturally in procreation dictated by taste. Those who are to low and ugly will naturally be weeded out of the process since this framework is one based on aesthetic and not race. Vasconcelos attempts to rid Latin America of the race problem by creating an equally problematic issue based on aesthetics! He still uses the science he distastes in its use for race, condones eugenics, and believes in the manufacturing of a superior race.

Emiliano Zapata "The Plan of Ayala" and José Carlos Mariátegui in "The Problem of the Indian" take a different approach to decolonization. Their focus is driven by internal conflicts of colonization instead of the fear of an imperial Other. Zapata is angry in his piece because the promises of the 1910 revolution have not been met. He accuses Madero of manipulation of the rural class to gain popularity and rise to power and breaking his promises and turning his back on the principles of the revolution. Zapata finds his actions unacceptable because they enslave the campesina population and reduce them to a state of poverty and displacement a the hands of modernity. Their support of Madero was given that he could overturn the damages of Díaz in his three decade reign over Mexico. His regime lead to the colonization of campesina land through privatization pushing the people out and into more impoverished areas. Mariátegui in many ways follows along this discussion by calling out every scholar and politician that has attempted to construct the Indian problem as purely a social and political problem. He makes clear that the Indian problem is an economic one that is deeply embedded in land tenure. The displacement of the people and the laws of the leadership have made Indian life impossible. It excludes them from legal and political participation and constructs their social disadvantages. All in all, these articles are in their own way a call for decolonization in order to better the state of Latin America.