Short Essay

Alan Tort
Professor Duncan
INTL ST 177D
US INTRVNTN:LAT AM
27 April 2015

ABSTRACT: For this report, the works of Thomas O’ Brien and Alan McPherson are critically analyzed, compared, and contrasted.
In a section called the ‘The Golden Age’ of Thomas O’ Brien’s book The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America, the author seeks to establish a profound message to the reader of the mesmerizing growth of U.S. Capitalism in the Latin American states during the early 20th century. This particular section dwells on how the United States relationship with the Latin American states was directly influenced by the United States’ rise to a prime, modern industrial society. This status fueled U.S. consumer capitalism to seed into the foreign regions, to help craft a modern capitalist machine in Latin America. While the U.S. dominated the region’s international trade, the giant American corporations were sticking their hands into almost every key sector available, such as agriculture, mining, petroleum, and utilities. U.S. Multinational corporations were flocking, “…to the Southern Hemisphere to exploit natural resources, expand markets, and protect their control of important new technologies” (O’ Brien 56). In addition to the U.S., the elites of the region were generally pleased with the financial growth attributed to increased production of exports, as well as the naturally occurring benefits of capitalism, such as more efficient work methods, improved housing, and education. Of course, these benefits were ultimately limited in magnitude to the Latin Americans due to the idea that the U.S. reformers generally thought of them a socially and biologically inferior people. Now, in Alan McPherson’s article “Personal Occupations: Women’s Responses to U.S. Military Occupations in Latin America,” the author concludes that the dilemma between feminism and nationalism is an ongoing issue in Latin America, and that even historians have barely scratched the surface of understanding the origins of resistance dawning in this male-driven military occupied society. The author presents an array of examples to shine light on this prospect, such as the idea that the U.S. military occupation of Latin America might have stunted, or otherwise delayed the growth of women’s movements towards a higher social status, or whether “…the founding of women’s organizations soon after the departure of the marines (Dominican Republic, 1930) (Haiti, 1934) would have occurred earlier had there been no occupation (McPherson 598). On the contrary, the author also presents evidence that the mistreatment and unfair taxation of marketers via the marines caused some women to take action; one woman is described as always carrying a revolver under her dress. Comparing the two, I assert that O’ Brien does a better job at capturing the Golden Age of U.S. expansionism in fantastic detail, and relaying it to the reader through his simple and coherent message of the both pleasant and harsh effects of U.S. capitalism on Latin America, and how these effects would ultimately brew conflicts when the economic boom would come to a screeching halt in the early 1930’s. While McPherson’s article certainly is insightful and original, he simply does not have enough historical evidence to support his argument further, that is, the subject of feminism in Latin America in the first half of the 20th century was very poorly documented or even investigated due to the idea of females being inferior to males, which only pushes the author to ask more questions, and fabricate what-if scenarios that simply cannot be accurately answered until further evidence is uncovered. McPherson does present some interesting ideas however, that the underlying stance of these Latin American women was an ambivalent one, and that “their assertion for survival with sanity, dignity, and perhaps a bit more power and wealth was, in itself, a political statement” (598). Overall, I very much enjoyed both of the readings, but O’ Brien’s article does a better job at articulating the main point, whereas McPherson leaves the reader with an un-satiated thirst for knowledge.