No real great Latin American heros anymore

[Dr.Pepper]

How do you respond to something I came across today:

"As one moves into the second half of the twentieth century, the giants of the past seem to become increasingly replaced by midgets. Towering figures like Bolívar, Hidalgo, Rosas, Batlle, and Zapata appeared able to affect the course of history, for better or for worse, while in the last fifty years, both civilian and military leaders have become faceless bureaucrats and technicians. Vargas, Cárdenas, and Perón are the last three leaders who personally influenced the flow of history; subsequent leaders have allowed the flow to dominate them.”

[Ander]

You do realise you are posting this on a website that used to be called Che-Lives, right? How can you possibly forget about such people as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro (back in the day), the Sandinistas and Omar Torrijos? Even today we can see a hero in the shape of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is toiling to better the position of his country's poor and trying to establish some sort of socialist state.

This quote is complete crap and was almost certainly made by a right-winger. If this person truly believes that Getulio Vargas and Juan Perón were heroes, when in reality they were basically fascists in their respective countries (Brasil and Argentina), then I think it's safe to say that we can completely disregard this quote. I have no idea who Cárdenas is though.

Even famous figures like Bolivar, while undeniably revolutionaries of some kind, were ultimately reactionary. Bolivar was a power-hungry dictator and staunch liberal. I'm unsure of which Rosas this person is talking about, but if they are who I think they are, then they were incredibly reactionary. Zapata, on the other hand, was basically an anarchist.

Yep, feel free to throw this one out.

[black magick hustla]

Originally posted by [email protected] 04, 2007 11:52 pm
How do you respond to something I came across today:

"As one moves into the second half of the twentieth century, the giants of the past seem to become increasingly replaced by midgets. Towering figures like Bolívar, Hidalgo, Rosas, Batlle, and Zapata appeared able to affect the course of history, for better or for worse, while in the last fifty years, both civilian and military leaders have become faceless bureaucrats and technicians. Vargas, Cárdenas, and Perón are the last three leaders who personally influenced the flow of history; subsequent leaders have allowed the flow to dominate them.”
Thats a shitty quote.

Half of them died before making it into poiwer.

[Cassius Clay is back]

I'm sure there are plenty of 'hero's' it's just it's so damn hard to get media coverage nowdays.

Anyway you dont have to be a famous geurrilla leader blowing up Apache helicopters or leading a mass walkout of all McDonalds/Coca Cola staff across the America's to be doing something worthy of being a 'hero'.