European Colonialism In The Film Pelo Malo - 1709 Words

We often villainize the countries of Latin America, making them out as lands filled with violent, less civilized, poor people. Those who are uneducated about Latin America and the culture may apply the things they know about one culture in Latin America or the Caribbean to other countries in the area. We don’t realize that some of the stereotypes are directly influenced by the legacies left by European colonialism. Scholars studying colonialism have determined five colonial legacies that are seen in many post-colonial countries. These colonial legacies are authoritarian government, power of the Roman Catholic Church, a social hierarchy, economic dependency, and the large landed estate. In the film Pelo Malo, Junior, a young boy from a†¦show more content†¦Wright. They were followed by the Natives and Africans. Both were subject to work under the Spanish, but African slaves seemingly received harsher treatment. Natives were expected to provide labor, but this was not t o the same degree as the Africans who’s fate lie in the hands of their masters. (Wright, 22-24). This order clearly places people of color below those of European, which is the major part of the hierarchy that has persisted into the modern era. Though some Latin American societies have attempted to end this legacy, by egalitarianism in Cuba (Wright, 225) or the creation of the first black republic in Haiti, many other areas had persisting threads of the legacy weaved into their peoples’ everyday lives. In Pelo Malo, the scene in the school shows an example of a society breaking away from the social hierarchy. During colonial times, only men who were Spaniards or Creoles could obtain an education. Women or people in a lower class were unable to be educated formally (Wright, 23). However, the film shows the school to be filed with both girls and boys, from a variety of social classes it seems. There were children who looked like they could have been of full Spanish desc ent sitting next to people like Junior who were of mixed race. Having this integration helps break the expectation of a hierarchy in the children’s minds, which may lead to even less use of the hierarchal social order. The integration shows a separation from the