Jones: Latin American Geographies

Jones: Latin American geographies

1. Discuss the imaginative geographies of travel writing and consumption as they relate to Latin America. Give numerous examples.

A great deal of what we think we know about Latin America originates from travel writers from the nineteenth and early twentieth century travel accounts who gave preference to places and means onto landscapes according to the idealistic principles of the day.

Ex: Reginald Koettlitz’s paper spoke of how he (alone) took the opportunity to study the people, and natural history of northeastern Brazil and the lower Amazon. He gave a short account of the facts stating that he believe it would be of be useful information to someone.

Dominance over the landscape in the early nineteenth century set up the most important representation of Latin America. Latin American nature was physically over-powering and abundantly fertile. The term tropical became a synonym for this Eden-like landscape.

Ex: Robert Schomburgk discovered a huge water lily that he named after Queen Victoria

The Latin American people were represented as backward, lazy and temperamental.

Ex: Traveler Henry Bates described in 1848, the population of Belem as idle soldiers, slovenly dressed women and naked children.

Representations of Latin American landscapes, institutions and people were of a diverse and strange place, writers made their preferences plain. Comparisons were also made to the ideas, folklore, and political conditions in Latin America. Travel writers created stereotypes through these comparisons that illustrated that life was adverse to that of Europe.

Latin America has been linked to two principle commodities; bananas and coffee. Other commodities such as sugar, spices and chocolate have also been associated with the region. Consumption of these items by other countries is has grown dramatically as seen in your local grocery store. The globalization of agrofood is drawing Latin America into our daily...