Global Connections and Transformations
From women explorers to travelling theater troupe actors, from Protestant missionaries to Spanish chocolatiers, the people who made these original documents offer telling snapshots of the fast-paced changes that came with Latin America’s late 19th century global connections. Taken together, these personal letters, photographs, author portraits, and trading cards reveal how improvements in communications technology, trans-Atlantic political upheavals, and changing gender roles impacted daily life in Latin America. These changes, in turn, reflect broader global transformations. We hope that through our various primary sources students can further understand the people, events, and movements of this era.
This portrait of the Spanish Baroness Emiliana Serrano de Wilson is an illustration from her novel, Las Perlas del Corazon. Written in Quito, Ecuador in 1880, Las Perlas is one of the many accounts of her journeys throughout Latin America. Fueled by her passion for travel and her love of learning, she travelled to Latin America many times throughout her life, documenting the geography, history, and most importantly, the people she encountered. From these accounts, readers grasp the distinct cultural idiosyncrasies of the different cultures of Latin America through the eyes of a woman. Because de Wilson focuses so in depth on her personal interactions, her novels provide a unique perspective on the lives of women in Latin America.
The trading cards depict the Cuban War of Independence from 1895 to 1898. Chocolates E. Juncosa, a Spanish chocolate company, produced the detailed and colorful cards. The historical actors included Spanish generals, Cuban revolutionary leaders, and “Yankee” soldiers all in conflict. The cards themselves were created and distributed throughout Barcelona to the Spanish citizens. This document illustrates the colonial Spanish view of the war, showing savage Cubans and victorious Spaniards. However, true history revealed victorious Cubans and humiliated, defeated Spanish. This online exhibit puts primary sources, like the cards, in conversation with one another through a “human history” lens. Common themes include independence, movements, state-building, rebels, instability, and violence.
Almon Greenman wrote this letter in the midst of conflict while working in the town of Celaya, Mexico as a Protestant missionary in 1884. He describes the backlash he faced from local government and townspeople after having survived a stoning perpetrated by the citizens of Celaya. The letter conveys how, during the nineteenth century, Mexicans passionately and violently defended Catholicism against any perceived threat of a change, especially one towards Protestantism. Nineteenth-century Catholicism is largely defined by upheaval and change, yet the influence of the Catholic Church remained pervasive in Mexican society. Rather than succumbing to American Protestantism, Catholicism adapted itself and remained relevant in Latin American during the nineteenth century and beyond.
When Miguel Lavalle had this photograph of himself taken in 1890, he decided to sport a decorative uniform that prominently highlighted the symbol of Freemasonry. He was part of the Villalongin Theater Company that traveled freely across the US/Mexico border from northern Mexico to San Antonio and back during the late 19th century. Members from this theater troupe were able to travel freely between the border and possessed strong political and philanthropic views, representing a strong presence of Freemasonry and support of charity along the way. This constant movement and interconnection of ideas represents a shared cultural, political, and social network across not just local, but national borders.