There were a lot of revolutions around the 18th-19th century that changed the world we live in today. A certain revolution that took place was in Gran Colombia and was led by a Venezuelan that helped Latin American independence movements succeed named Simón Bolívar. The revolution went from 1776 to 1830 and was very complicated. At the start, a junta from Bolívar's conspiracy took control of Spain and controlled it for a while. Spain then takes over control of Venezuela. Bolívar then won some battles against Spain and entered Caracas but lost the battle there. Bolívar attempted many battles in different places in Latin America, but lost and ended up back in Venezuela training a new army to attack Caracas with. Having a very low chance at success due to his small army and low chance at passing the rivers and dangerous mountains, it was a big surprise when the Spanish army surrendered to the unexpected Venezuelan army. Soon, the Republica de Colombia which covers the entire region of modern Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Bolívar then wins back Caracas and the Republica de Colombia becomes a reality as a free republic. Bolívar remained the ruler until 1830 and both Ecuador and Venezuela eventually secede from Gran Colombia. Race and identity, though not obvious, is very prominent in this revolution. For starters, Bolívar is leading this revolution to get Gran Colombia away from Spain because they are from South Africa and see themselves as different people than the Spaniards. This is their way of showing their different identity and becoming their own people, led by themselves not the Spaniards. Also, not only did Gran Colombia want Spain out of the picture, but some of the countries in Gran Colombia such as Ecuador and Venezuela wanted to separate from Gran Colombia because they saw themselves as different from each other. The revolution of Gran Colombia inspired different countries to see their identity and race, and start realizing that it is very important for everyone to have an equal chance at governing and ruling.
A very popular topic that is probably known by everyone in the world by now is Ferguson event. An article titled, “Anxious Ferguson Waits For Grand Jury Decision,” by Daniel Wallis talks about the event and the public’s reaction to the court decision process. To sum it up, it says that an 18 year old African American boy named Michael Brown was shot by white officer Darren Wilson, even though Brown was unarmed and did not commit any crime to get shot. Some people believe that Wilson shot him because he was a different race than himself. While others believe that Wilson shot him in self defense. As people were waiting for the verdict, Brown’s family could already predict the outcome but asked for people to pray for him anyways. There were a lot of angry protesters due to the jury’s request for more time when deciding the verdict that got arrested for their wild protest. It was pretty chaotic before the decision was declared though most everyone knew that Wilson would not be punished for the murder. Race is very prominent in this story because it is shown through the different sides people take and through the different beliefs people have about what actually happened. Race is a big issue in our society today, and causes a lot of problems due to the amount of prejudice people that still remain in our world. I believe this article does a very good job describing every body's opinions and how unfair the court can be sometimes because odds are, it was not self defense. Having different races go against each other in situations like these is not good for our society and can only lead to bigger problems. Citation:
Wallis, Daniel, and Ellen Wulfhorst. "Anxious Ferguson Waits for Grand Jury's Decision." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 23 Nov. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
