Instructions:Please choose a documentary of your choice to develop an analysis of for your discussion post this week. Please write three paragraphs that explore three major themes of that documentary. Each paragraph should be a minimum of 5-7 sentences in length. Please see the Reading/Viewing  Questions to help guide you to questions and themes that you may want to be on the lookout for as you view these materials this week.

Reading/Viewing Questions

Black and Cuba: A group of American Yale University students who are part of an African Studies reading group head to Cuba. 1) Why does this group of students head out to Cuba? What do they hope to find?2) Starting at around the 27 minute mark, we hear from Dr. Castañeda Fuentes about Cuba’s history. What is the history of indigenous groups and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves? What happens to these groups?3) What kind of racial hierarchy does the plantation system set up?4) The documentary talks about the difference between what America call the Spanish-American War and what Cuba calls The US intervention on Cuba’s War of Independence. How do the different names speak to the different political perspectives in viewing this war? What are the ramifications for countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines?5) We get different key words and their definitions in the film, including these terms: Colonialism, Imperialism, Corruption. How does the film define these words?6) What happens during the Cuban Revolution?7) What is the embargo against Cuba and what are its effects and consequences?8) What does the film say about political prisoners?9) The film ends by talking about human rights. What would be included as part of those human rights? 500 Years: Life in Resistance: This documentary starts by covering the 2013 trial of former dictator General Rios Montt, an accused perpetrator of genocide, and ends with the popular social movement and uprising that unseated President Otto Perez Molina in 2015. As it moves along, it refers to the 500 years of oppression sparked by colonialism and the many ways that the majority indigenous Mayan peoples have been resilient and have fought back and resisted in Guatemala. The director of the film states: “I’ve stayed committed to Guatemala, a country of beauty and pathos, of courage and fear, where a majority indigenous Mayan population has survived the Spanish conquest and resisted assimilation for 500 years.” (https://www.newday.com/film/500-years (Links to an external site.)) 1) The film starts with Montt’s trial and contains historical flashbacks and references to the genocide that he is being placed on trial for. Why do you think the film starts with this trial? Do we associate justice with the law and trials? Is the main avenue through which to achieve justice?2) What is the historical background of the trial?3) The film is, in some ways, told through the perspective of Dr. Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, a Mayan PhD, who is an active social anthropologist, author and influential newspaper columnist. “She’s a public intellectual whose ideas became key to the building of a national non-violent movement that sought to unify the divided indigenous and non-indigenous people of Guatemala, and expose systemic corruption of the political and business elite.” (https://www.newday.com/film/500-years (Links to an external site.)) How does her perspective, and the perspective of other organizers, help us to understand the plight and resilience of the Mayan peoples?4) The film shows how some people believe that a genocide has occurred, while other do not. Why do you think there is such a wide divergence around this understanding of Guatemala’s history? Does the film help to explain this?5) The film also explores the aftermath of the trial, including attempts to defend the land against the government’s move for profits in the forms of establishing mines, agro-business, etc. that devastate the land. How do the people assert their rights and their efforts to protect and defend the land?6) At the end, the film shows how indigenous and non-indigenous groups come together in mass organizing and protests to successfully oust the sitting president, Otto Perez Molina, in 2015. Why do they do this? What are the reasons for ousting him?  1) How did the Haitian Revolution change the world? (3 minute video)https://www.choices.edu/video/haitian-revolution-change-the-world/ (Links to an external site.)  2) How did the Haitian Revolution shape the question of freedom in the modern world? (3 minute video)https://www.choices.edu/video/haitian-revolution-and-freedom/ (Links to an external site.)