Group items tagged

The article entitled "Guatemala's 'Femicide' Crisis" seeks to explain the implications of the unnecessary and brutal mass killings occurring amongst women in Guatemala mostly by male gangs. Because the killings have exceeded such an unusual extent, it has been deemed a "Femicide", otherwise known as a "Gendercide" or a genocide directed mainly against females. The ages of girls or women discussed in this article being raped, beaten, and murdered range from three year old toddlers to middle aged women. Not only do gangs of men perform these acts for no reason other to establish masculinity within their affinity groups. Moreover, the law enforcement agencies are so corrupt that it was said, "justice imposed by the state is non-existent" and "only two per cent of crimes against women are solved." This article seeks to establish the problem that is still going on even after the forty-year civil war while other chosen articles are determined to look for solutions.

In response to the murder of lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenburg Guatemalan authorities arrested seven men. The men apprehended all had ties to the military or police forces. Still, no one has stated the murderes' motives. Authorities have said however, that the president and his wife were in no way responsible. It is not clear whether these arrests are a political response by the government of President Colom or if there really does exist hard evidence that these men were responsible.

Homosexuality in Mexico is the main subject of this article. They go on to talk about masculinity and how that relates to being gay and whether it is accepted within society. The article also discusses HIV/AIDS and how it is connected to homosexuality and the various acts of men in Mexico.

This actually takes a different perspective of the meaning and purpose of "machismo". Here, it is described as being knowingly accepted by both Latino men and Latina women. It describes the exaggerated manliness that we often think of as "machismo" instead as male chauvinism. Here, the word "machismo" is described to be a counter action towards unmanly or "sissy" acts, (such as crying).

Mexico, the second most populous country in Latin America, has a critical need for contraception, but is unable to meet the demand due to social and economic factors. Access and education must be improved so that women may live in dignity—and equality with men.

Dalia Acosta's article addresses the gender equality issues throughout Latin America. Her interview of Julio César Gonzaléz presents an engaging, and possibly controversial, argument that women are not the only victims of Latin America's dominant and rigid patriarchal system and hierarchy: men also face an oppression, although different, due to the socially constructed concept of masculinity.

This article explains the issues of gender roles in Latin America. Julio César González, the Cuban General coordinator of the Ibero-American Masculinity Networkstates, "Until we scrutinise men's social roles and the concept of masculinity, we'll just be drawing circles around the women victims of the system." After completing 20 years of research in gender studies he tried to implement his findings in the real world, but faced resistance from people who only wanted to continue with the traditional stereotypes. Although the Cuban authorities have allowed women to be integrated into once all-male domains, there is still a long way for women to go to reach full equality.

This article promotes sexual & reproductive health in Nicaraguan men

This article focuses on how the idea of masculinity or "machismo" influences domestic violence. If a man does not fight back or show his strength then he is not considered a man in the Dominican Republic culture. This article also explores how difficult it is for women to get recognized in Latino culture due to its patriarchal society. Women have to work twice as hard to succeed than men do.

This articles talks about how many women living in Latin America are beginning to migrate to neigboring countries in order to find better jobs. The number of women migrants has rose and almost equaled that of migrant men of Latin America. The women are described as trying to create a new life, although many remain connected to their families back home.

Although our current emphasis in class is the study of masculinity, this website details the problems that women and children face in Latin America. This pertains to our class in that it is important to understand why and how men (and other women) hurt women and children perhaps because of the pressure they feel to be "macho."

This article discusses how the Machismo culture in Latin America is causing health problems and cutting life expectancies. Being macho means to attract lots of women and to never show any weakness. This need to be tough is causing problems for men.

The military's efforts to exercise power through terrorizing during the civil war in Guatemala (1960-1966), resurfaces today through the acts of gender-based violence, committed by gangs in Guatemala. This exemplifies how war and violence shapes society and how it has influenced gender equality. There is as much terror and torturing of women as there was during the war. However, now this reality is being reinforced by members of society-since such crimes go unnoticed/unpunished-, normalizing terror and fear in Guatemala.

This article talks about violence against women in Guatemala and how it is not only happening more these days, but the crimes are also seeming to get worse. It also talks about the difference between the murders of both men and women and possible reasons for why they were caused. Recently however, there have been marches in the streets and increased awareness domestically and internationally of the problems facing the country regarding violence.

The Mexican economy's dependence on the United States' economy is discussed in this article, along with a discussion of other financial sources of present-day Mexico. While Mexico's poverty is addressed in Fixing Men, one can see from reading this article that such poverty is by no means decreasing, but rather poverty rates are, in fact, increasing and will only continue to do so.

This aritcle discusses women in Latin American and how their education effects their fertility rate. Generally, poorer women who lack education have more children than richer women who had the chance of education. This is evidentally true for other cultures, but particularly for women in Latin America because men are very dominant and if a child is to be educated it is more likely to be the boy instead of a girl. The aritcle gives details about the essential need for women to have education, not only to break social bias against class, but also to promote development of countries and reducing fertility rates.

This article discusses Machismo and the Dominican Republic. The authors explore the cause of such a aggression and the idea that this male role is so deeply rooted in Latin American Society. Also, it questions the roles that women play in relationship to this "manly man" and how the men view the women. This exaggerated masculinity is deeply rooted in the Dominican society along with many other places in Latin America.

In the past, the United States has granted political asylum to gays and lesbians from Latin America who could prove that they faced discrimination and persecution in their own countries because of their sexual orientation. Many of the asylum seekers were Mexican men who were HIV positive and were able to get the medical treatment they needed in the US. However, now that Mexico has taken some steps towards being more accepting of homosexuality, political asylum for Mexicans is harder to get.

This is a movie that documents the life of two friends growing up poor in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The themes presented in this film are common throughout Latin America.

This is a movie that documents the life of two friends growing up poor in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The themes presented in this film are common throughout Latin America.

In an effort to tie the three bookmarked articles together, this piece also discusses relevant material to Nelson's "Reckoning" alongside the movie, "When the Mountains Tremble". This article too discuses the idea and reality of Femicide or the genocide against women in Guatemala that still occurs to date. While the other readings set up an outline of what acts occur against women and the lack of influence police powers have, this article flashes numbers at the reader as a shock value to paint a picture of the immense number of women who have experienced brutality. While the other articles have mentioned the extent to which corruption influences the lack of punishment, this author seeks punishment in a different way. While doing research in Guatemala, he took victims who have been harmed themselves or have lost close ones to the war to the mountains to confront the militia men as a form of satisfaction or justice since the impunity rate is 97% in Guatemala. He explained that the gratitude of victims explaining their feelings to murderers would be far more reaching than formal punishment from the criminal justice system ever could be.

This article talks about women's or young teenage girl's involvement in gangs in Guatemala. It discusses how these girls become initiated into these gangs and how they have to keep up membership. Also, it addresses why these girls join these gangs to begin with and why they cannot get out of them. Some studies show that nearly 40% of gang membership is made of females. This finding contradicts our normal idea of gangs being comprised of mostly men.