Explority Ethnicity As A Major Cause Of Violence In Latin America

8 Pages 2023 Words

look at the surface of causation but at the root or underlying reason for the violence that is happening today. A good example of this would be a young boy who has had a history of violence. This violence has come almost anytime the boy has been in an argument or has been confronted in a negative way by his peers. The boy has grew up fighting and from the surface it would be easy to say that the boy just cannot take confrontation. Now what I’m suggesting is we must take the time to understand the boys traits and his way of life so that we will by able to really understand why he responds the way he does when he is confronted. We might find that he has been taught that he can’t trust anyone, or that if someone hits you hit them back.
One of the major roots in the conflict in Guatemala is racism. My research shows that “ The roots of the struggle do indeed spring from the history of marginalization and racism to which the Mayan Indians have been subject…”4 For further clarification I will define two key words as the following:
Racism – Discrimination or prejudice based on race
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.5
Ethnic – Of or relating to a sizable group of people showing common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage6




With these definitions in mind it is not hard to see that racism is encompassed in the ethnic definition. Racism was a strong theme after Spanish intervention in Latin American, I found that “ For close to two hundred and ninety years Spain ruled Mexico. During this time Spain plundered Mexico for many of its resources. At the ...