A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees by Clare Dudman

The Patagonia region of Argentina is nearly desolate, even today.  Extremes of weather, especially of wind, and the fierce dry cold make it virtually uninhabitable.  Yet this is the location of a new colony of people, who left North Wales in 1850, and made to believe they could settle it and live in a peaceful, religious community.  Poverty, violence, and debt made these people eager to leave and start over, and a charismatic leader, Edwyn Lloyd, assures all of them that this new world waits for them with abundant wealth.

"so much has been stolen from us-our land, our language, our culture!  But soon we shall endure no more.  Soon you will see our promised land....Cattle!  Trees.  A splendid river.  And grass- oh you should see it-mile upon mile of the most verdant pasture....A place where God's law shows us the way!"

Many make the long journey by boat, and several die on board from illness and lack of food.  Where they end up is far from verdant and lovely.  The hard and unforgiving landscape immediately places the settlers in danger, and discord breaks out between them  Additionally, Edwyn finds the going so rough that he disappears as well (although he returns later).  Reports of violent local Indians scare the Welsh visitors, and they are abandoned to nothing, with no communication or supplies.

Death is frequent, as are squabbles over power and leadership.  This story focuses mostly on men in distress.  While the women care for the children and domestic matters, the men try to figure out how to create this new society.  By virtue of this, the men are actually the most interesting of the characters.

First is Silas, who lost one child on the journey and another upon arrival.  He remains in the background during the fights over control.  He's strong and opinionated, but his strength is in observing the nature of the other men.  It is Silas who manages to create a relationship with an aging Indian who approaches them.  His brother-in-law, Jacob, however, is far less wise.  He craves attention and desperately wants to lead, despite his lack of experience and disinterest in realism.  He's so blinded by his religious belief that they are destined to make this society work, that he feels no need to participate in actually doing the work.  He's a weak and pathetic man.  Selwyn, a Welsh man who spent time in Wisconsin, is more realistic and cynical towards the situation.  He and Silas appear almost as an alliance in order to keep the others calm and avoid violence, since many of the newcomers think they can take on the Indians themselves.  The themes of power, respect, and racial superiority are explored in a fast paced and unpredictable narrative.

I enjoyed this book, especially the descriptions of the flora and fauna of Patagonia.  I actually Googled some of the locations just to visualize the scenery.  I think the men were well defined and their actions were realistic.  However, the women in the story seemed more stereotypical;  some were actually panicky and delicate and hysterical.  The imbalance isn't total: there are some strong women.  They just aren't as fleshed out as the men.  What was frustrating in the reading was the singular belief in the superiority of their race over the indigenous peoples, a reality that is as likely as it is unfortunate.

However, in all, this is an excellent story with a premise and delivery unlike anything I've recently read.

Special thanks to Simon Hicks of Seren Books of London for this review copy.

It goes on sale today in the United States.

New World of Indigenous Resistance, Noam Chomsky

When is multiculturalism a bad thing? Could the answer have anything to do with literature? The new book, New World of Indigenous Resistance, examines this concept in a way that not only fascinates but educates.

The book focuses on South America’s regions, and has a series of essays discussing issues that face an area largely unknown by those in the U.S. Usually we only hear of earthquakes or small regional clashes that mean nothing to us, but there’s far more to explore. Author and historian Noam Chomsky discusses the essays featured as well as including his own thoughts on the complexities of the region. The South American continent is not simply a mass of Latino culture, but a huge collection of tribes and peoples. What happens there ultimately affects the rest of the world, and outside influences have been hugely detrimental to both the people and the land.

The primary problem faced is one of global corporations and governments arriving to extract resources, reestablish political boundaries, and ultimately combine the people into one more manageable mass. One essay, “Resistance and Cultural Work in Times of War,” by Elsie Rockwell in Mexico discusses the nature of multiculturalism and how it doesn’t benefit the native people at all. For example, international funding promotes a “intercultural” education that lumps all indigenous people into one category, then attempts to teach them in one, streamlined manner. This ignores their personal heritage and virtually eliminates it from the curriculum. Then, in an effort to offer variety under the guise of multiculturalism, they split the students into gifted, ‘special ed’ and ‘migrant’ groups. It is odd that the ‘migrant’ students are actually lifetime residents of the same community where the school is located. Where exactly have they migrated from? Rockwell’s primary assertion against this method is “the current economic order globalizes barbarism: it fabricates poverty, destroys nature, and militarizes other regions.” The one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t respect the distinct differences between the indigenous people, and thus their voice in art, music, and literature is also lost.

Another essay, “Beyond Education”, by Gustavo Esteva in Mexico, examines the attitude of tolerance and its hidden agenda. He discusses how the US prides itself on being a melting pot of cultures, but this melting pot mentality actually just attempts to “to dissolve, each one of the multiple immigrant cultures.” He asserts that the term “salad bowl” would be a more accurate and positive term, one that respects the individual heritage and culture behind native people and promotes such diversity. Thus, the literature and poetry of other places can continue to thrive instead of dying out. As the US gets involved in South America for mining and energy projects, they often use their influence and funds to promote a similar mentality. The problem is, this homogenization of culture also makes it far easier to exploit and manipulate the people within, and the authors of the essays are addressing such concerns.

Chomsky discusses this further in his interview, featured at the end of the book, where he explains that “the demeaning of others translates into subordination internal to the community. So war is the extreme case. You demean and demonize the enemy to the point where you want to destroy him, but you also accept that you are totally controlled at home. You subordinate yourself to your own state to try and destroy the enemy state, while they are subordinating themselves to their state.” This attitude gives great power to a few large nations and the smaller die out. He applies this to literature when he states that “the main themes of the great antiwar novels after the First World War was the idiocy of essentially the same people in the trenches on both sides slaughtering each other, each committed to a power system that was oppressing them.” Thus he concludes that rather than embracing oneness, a healthy respect for the individuals of other places, along with their culture and history, is good for everyone and provides a wealth of experience that enriches what we see and read. 

Special thanks to Stacey of City Lights Books for the Review Copy.

Non-Verbal Communication

Roughly 60% of communication is non-verbal?  How can that be?  Katey from Argentina at one of my favorite blogs posted this interesting link:

http://www.theargentimes.com/culture/art/speechless-can-actions-speak-louder-than-words-/

Her original post is at http://seashellsandsunflowers.blogspot.com/2010/03/argentine-hand-gestures.html#comment-form. 

The great discovery on this blog is a website where you can find a collection of gestures used around the world, created by the author of Speechless: A Dictionary of Argentine Gestures, Guido Indij.
The site is located at http://en.gestiarium.org/.  There's a button in the upper right corner to select a language if you can't figure it out.