Of special interest is the note at the end of the article, when in 1944 a new wave of optimism broke forth. Guatemala, though, remains poor today, and it will be interesting to see if the reason is that the political structure has remained unchanged, despite this new optimism that was emerging at the time. Puerto Rico - March 3

It is interesting to note the difference between the way that Puerto Rico has developed in relation to the other former Spanish colonies in Central America and the Caribbean. The United States had begun in the late 19th century to assert itself politically and economically in the region, but it was not until the Spanish-American war that Puerto Rico became part of the equation. Unlike other nations that have attained independence, Puerto Rico instead finds itself in a unique situation as a commonwealth.

The relationship between the U.S. And PR had improved, as colonial biases have begun to fade. There is yet, though, unwillingness on the part of the U.S. And Puerto Rico alike to grant the island more political power. The present situation seems untenable but yet no better solutions have appeared.

The article, however, does not fully address the issue. It spends a great deal of time dealing with the dull machinery of politics, yet the issue of Puerto Rico is directly related to the Puerto Rican culture. It affects the culture and is in turn affected by it. The ramifications for the islanders do not enter into the article, and this actually seems to reflect the current political reality. When Puerto Ricans go the polls on the issue of independence, do they not base their decisions on the impact such a vote would have on their day-to-day lives? I would have loved more insight on the non-political side of this discussion.

Cuba

At the heart of this article is the question of how an ethnicity is defined. It was interesting to note the Cuban scientist who claimed that all Cuban Indians had been exterminated...

Yet, clearly this was not the case. When we, of European descent, look back on colonial times we do tend to have a certain set of biases. In this case, the bias was that indigenous peoples are essentially frozen in time, that once they evolve they are no longer of their own distinct culture. Yet, that view is entirely unreasonable - all cultures evolve. Europeans in the new world have hardly remained static in terms of culture since arriving here.
The biases we have looking back have a damaging effect. We marginalize the indigenous culture by assuming that it does not have merit once it has begun to adapt. In Cuba, this culture only really exists in the remote Baracoa region. But there are some interesting parallels between the biases that drive the marginalization in a modern anthropologist and the marginalization of the indigenous peoples that gave the Spanish the justification to annihilate them. The contempt that the conquistadors had for the indigenous peoples is illustrated in the early parts of this reading, and we can see that this contempt carries through to modern days, such that the Ta'no culture could have disappeared without being recorded, simply based on one biased scientist in Havana.

The section on the Cuban economy was also of some interest. The difficulties in managing a command economy are illustrated, in particular by the absurdity of not having any soft drinks for weeks because caps could not be found. The invisible hand of the free market is maligned in Communist circles, not the least because in many poor countries people simply starve for lack of food. Yet, the logistics of running an entire country's economy are incredibly difficult. Decision-making does function better if more people are making those decisions - but that is the free market, not Communism. At what point would Communist Cuba need to move towards a free market to achieve economic efficiency while retaining the social safety net aspect of the command economy?