Las Americas Unidas: The Great Catastrophe of U.S. Military Intervention in Latin America

Original Artwork:

Remix Artwork:

To view this artwork in pdf format click here.

During 1940-1946 president Franklin D.Roosevelt’s Office of Inter-American
Affairs(OIAA) made an effort to create fine art programs directed towards the promotion of the
Latin American and U.S American relationship. With the OIAA, the U.S government utilized
diverse propaganda strategies to secure a position of political and economical leadership in Latin
American territories to ensure strategic and interests in the region. In order to place themselves in
the foreign countries of the South they began to convince their audience that they were the
“Good neighbors” and later on when Latin American politics began to incline to the left, they
were the “Salvation” of such atrocities. Employees of OIAA and the private museums to which
the agency subcontracted its art programs found many ways to promote hemispheric unity.
However, the results of this art works are contradictory and generate a conflictive discourse with
the realities lived by the Latin Americans during the invasion of U.S military forces in their
political, economical and social structures. In this project, I focused on the artwork “Las
Americas Unidas Para La Victoria Y El Progreso Humano” painted by Ben Dale. In order to
recreate this artwork I decided to utilize the Procreate application to remix the art piece and make
evident the persistent efforts of the U.S military forces to manipulate Latin American military
services and depict the representational value this relation had on the desaparecidos and horrific
historical narratives.

The desaparecidos are individuals who opposed to the governments ideologies and were
disappeared, taken to government detentions and eventually tortured, raped, and killed in return
for answers or sometimes without any justification. These people were usually taken by
government soldiers and authority forces who abused their power. Until today, many of the
people who were taken haven’t appeared therefore they are nicknamed “los desaparecidos” or
“the disappeared.” Many activists blame the U.S army intervention for promoting Latin
American military forces to fight against communist parties. They trained soldiers, gave them
weapons and promised to protect and ensure they would bring peace and prosperity to the
country’s unstable politics.

My art is somewhat original because it was recreated through my own perspective of the
events that occurred and how it has influenced the relationship between the U.S and Latin
America. As Judith Butler mentions in her essay, the art of critique is to track the way in which
power and politics meet their breaking point. Through the idea of utilizing remixing techniques I
sought to recreate certain aspects of the drawing to criticize elements that I believe have broken
the point between power and politics in the relationship of the United States of America and
Latin America. The original drawing had both land and water represented to the sides to
demonstrate how prosperous Latin American territory could be. I choose to demonstrate that this
prosperity meant wealth for the United States of America but destruction for Latin American
soil. Instead of showing the land and water as pure I depicted deforestation, mining, and border
protection conflicts that have been impacting the lives of Latin Americans for the past century.
To further explore this idea I decided to recreate the continental figure demonstrating Latin
American land as a bag full of money. In addition to this, I had predetermined ideas of what
types of colors, textures, and artistic style I wanted to use to aid in the creation for this project. I
chose to use cold colors such as green and blue with a mixture of gray scale to emphasize on the
inhumane acts that have been occurring throughout the years.
Furthermore, I read the “Instruction of great catastrophe: Truth commissions, national
history, and state formation in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala” article to further understand the
forced armed conflict, the names of the desaparecidos, and the role the U.S. played in the
murdering of innocent individuals. I also spoke to my Intro to Latin American Studies Professor
Javier Puente to inform myself of which cities were attacked by military forces, but I factored in
my personal experience as well-for example, I am Guatemalan so I wanted to include
Guatemalan cities and certain details that gave emphasis to this culture like the indigenous man.
My artwork employs a critique narrative by recreating details from the previous artwork
that were not inclusive and representative of the historical narrative. The first artwork portrays
the relationship between the U.S and Latin America as peaceful. The usage of bright yellow
colors, the unity of the soldiers, the military coming out of a cloud as some sort of majesty, and
the woman and children staring at the American soldier as if he was a savior. The artwork I
created criticizes all of these elements by portraying the reality of Latin American living
conditions. The land is now being used for production. The air is contaminated by mining and
industries. The unity relationship that was once sold is now being condemned by a wall that
restricts the access of Latin Americans to the United States. The way in which I decided to utilize
cold colors and recreate the characters and symbols, criticize the artwork through a political,
social, and economical lens.
Our life is shaped through the various experiences and the context in which we live. Our
identity and the influence societal norms have in the construction of our view of the world, can
present an opportunity for an intervening discourse regarding a topic. My identity highly
influences my critical lenses, and by utilizing the knowledge I have acquired as a Latin American
to criticize art propaganda, I am enriching this area of subject with my perspectives. Bringing
identity into an analysis permits individuals to add an original and personal experience to the
overall idea of what is commonly known. For instance, when recreating the remix artwork for
this project, I am using terms that are already deeply studied and broadly viewed. However, I am
going to approach the academic meaning and theory through my personal experience with the
subject. My unique story would be able to create an original piece while remixing with previous
theories and studies done in the subject before.
Overall, my project reflects how remix can function as a form of critique. The experience
of searching for a work that was conflicting with my identity permitted me to delve deeper into
my beliefs and knowledge. I was able to recognize the categories that constrain my identity in a
predetermined society and was challenged to recreate those limiting factors to construct a more
inclusive work. After spending hours researching about the disappearances in Latin America and
by giving myself the right to question the relationship between truth and power I successfully
remixed the artwork “Las Americas Unidas Para La Victoria Y El Progreso Humano” through
my personal narrative and experiences.