New Analytical Tools:
Raising Questions about Old Ideas
By Crystal Eastman
Professor Weinstein
Hist319D
10/20/00
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All scholars constantly seek to hone their analytical tools in order to get closer to
an answer that verges on truth. Historians are continually re-conceptualizing the
methodology with which they study the past. This re-conceptualization of methodology
gives rise to new paradigms that provide theoretical frameworks for how we analyze and
think about the past. In the case of U.S.-Latin American relations, paradigms in need of
revision include the dependency and imperialist master narratives, which portray the U.S.
as the omnipotent hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere. These bipolar
paradigms depicting the U.S. power and Latin America weakness are being called into
question by many scholars of U.S.-Latin American relations.
In the book Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.Latin American Relations, the contributors introduce new concepts that challenge the old
theories while offering new methodologies for analyzing U.S.-Latin American relations.
In the following article I will discuss how Gilbert M. Joseph and Ricardo Salvatore argue
against the old methodologies and describe what sort of alternative interpretation they
offer instead. I then historicize their theories by using the case studies provided in Close
Encounters. I will also critique the authors on how convincing these new approaches are.
A new spin on old theories
In his article "Close Encounters: Toward a New Cultural History of U.S.-Latin
American Relations," Joseph outlines a new approach for analyzing the neocolonial U.S.
presence in Latin America. He makes his case by first critiquing the various other
paradigms that have sought to characterize U.S.-Latin American relations. He says that
all the theories of the 1960s and 1970s are flawed because they presuppose the U.S. to be
the monolithic dominant power manipulating Latin America: modernization theory
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assumes the U.S. to be the disseminator of all things developmental; imperialist theories
presume that the U.S. "center" imposes on the Latin American "periphery" its "distinct"
political, military, and economic institutions; and dependency and world-systems theories
assume that the structure of the U.S. center keeps the periphery dependent on it, thereby
inhibiting it from ever becoming fully developed.1 In short, all the theories maintain the
concept of a one-sided U.S. penetration of Latin America.
While not abandoning these political-economic models,2 Joseph suggests
scrutinizing the cultures of the foreign-local contact zones for better insight into the
distribution of power. "Popular and elite (or local and foreign) cultures are produced in
relation to each other through a dialectic of engagement that takes place in contexts of
unequal power and entails reciprocal borrowings, expropriations, and transformations,”
Joseph explains.3 In other words, power may be in the eye of the culture. The new
theoretical paradigm looks at the dynamic interaction and intersection of culture and
power. When historicizing this theory, it becomes clear that the previous theories that
usually dichotomize relations into exploiters and victims or dominators and resisters
begin to break down.
Several of the articles in the book speak directly to this analytical paradigm, but I
will discuss "Love in the Tropics: Marriage, Divorce, and the Construction of Benevolent
Colonialism in Puerto Rico, 1898-1910" by Eileen Findlay. When the U.S. got involved
with Puerto Rico in 1898, officials wanted to remodel Puerto Rican society into a system
that resembled the United States, as U.S. officials considered the U.S. socioeconomic and
political system respectable and stable. Through legalizing divorce and encouraging
1
2
Joseph, 11.
Joseph, 14.
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marriage, officials thought they could mold Puerto Ricans’ way of life into one that more
closely resembled that of the U.S. Far from encouraging more women to marry, the
ability to divorce inspired a social response of many women flocking to the courts and
demanding divorces from deadbeat husbands. This is what Steve Stern would call
"reverse colonization;" a phenomena whereby the colonized use the colonizers’
institutions in ways that suit the needs of the colonized and not the colonizers.4 Indeed,
women's use of the divorce laws was twofold: it not only unleashed a silent backlash
against the U.S. goals, but also against the Puerto Rican men—women used the courts to
voice desires of better gender-relations. Looking closely at how the U.S. impositions on
Latin American society really played out in this contact zone reveals in this case that
women did not fall prey to the U.S. imperial designs, but rather utilized its institutions to
their own advantage. This metanarrative is the kind of complex power struggle that
needs to be looked at in U.S.-Latin American relations in order to supplement and further
our understanding—theories that assume the U.S. to be the sole arbiter of power
preclude this narrative, which is why Joseph’s theory is useful to the study of Latin
American history.
Deconstructing the U.S. interest in Latin America
In his article "The Enterprise of Knowledge: Representational Machines of
Informal Empire," Ricardo Salvatore offers another theoretical approach to the question
of how historians may analyze the United States presence in Latin America. Salvatore
suggests that U.S. interests in Latin America were shaped by what he calls the "enterprise
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4
Joseph, 8.
Stern, 53.
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of knowledge," which was "imaginary for legitimizing the expansionist project."5 In
other words, pursuing South America in the name of expertise validated and united all
U.S. interests. Everything was done under the cloak of this discourse.
Salvatore goes on to explain the complex way in which "South America" was
constructed by different professionals and "interpretive communities" via representational
machines such as health organizations, newspapers, books and travel agencies.6 In doing
so, he unveils the varied U.S. interests in the region that fell under the "enterprise of
knowledge." Health officials, journalists, businessman, artists, travelers, labor organizers,
and other such interest groups all traveled to South America in pursuit of information.
When these people returned they presented their idea of South America through
representational machines. Hence "South America" became a construction in North
Americans' minds, invented by the interest groups and professionals who wanted to
create an image of South America in the public's mind in order to further their own
interests. This is an exciting way of deconstructing the "U.S." because it breaks down the
monolithic idea of the U.S. into smaller interest groups, showing that all of the U.S. was
not involved in Latin America.
While Salvatore is not arguing against the dependency or imperialist theories, his
approach nonetheless has implications for them. He suggests that these theories, with
their focus on politics and economics, have overlooked the other ways that the U.S. has
intervened in Latin America.7 Furthermore, his "enterprise of knowledge" slant on U.S.
interests suggests that the U.S. interests were shaped first by a quest for knowledge,
rather than primarily by political or economic interests.
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6
Salvatore, 69.
Salvatore, 72.
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Deborah Poole's article, "Landscape and the Imperial Subject: U.S. Images of the
Andes, 1859-1930," provides a suitable case study for Salvatore's "enterprise of
knowledge." Church's The Heart of the Andes (1859), Squier's Desaguadero (1868), and
Bingham's The Land beyond the Ranges (1912) were all created out of curiosity for the
unknown and a desire to show the North American masses images of the mysterious
Peruvian Andes. Furthermore, these images helped the public attach a visual picture to a
distant place and this image in many ways justified imperial interests in South America.
The uncivilized landscape portrayed by the paintings depicted a land ripe for penetration.
Throughout her article, Poole mentions that there was a void in North Americans' visual
consciousness and therefore these depictions (or representational machines)
complimented and inevitably shaped the scientific studies, travelers' guides, and moral
missions in Latin America. This example of how artists were motivated to explore and
depict Latin America is emblematic of what Salvatore is pointing to in his article. The
U.S. empire was a variegated enterprise, comprised of a kaleidoscope of interests in the
name of knowledge and beyond the realm of the economic and diplomatic.
Critique and conclusion
In this essay I have discussed how Joseph and Salvatore question assumptions
made in dependency and imperialism theories and add to the canon of methodology new
ways of looking at U.S.-Latin American relations. Both Joseph and Salvatore offer
compelling and convincing new slants on the old dependency and imperialist theories. I
think it is important that each of these scholars is not attempting to cast away the old
paradigms—they are instead trying to nuance, complicate, supplement, and call into
question some of the assumptions made about U.S.-Latin American relations. My main
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Salvatore, 70.
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critique would be a lack of development in terms of just how much these two theories
explain, as the question of exactly how the old paradigms and the new ones fit together
remains to be answered. What is the broader pattern of power in U.S.-Latin American
relations? Perhaps some sort of complicated quantitative analysis is necessary.
In addition, I have also sought to historicize their theories by using the case
studies provided in Close Encounters. Master narrative and broader patterns of power
aside, these new approaches also need to be critiqued in terms of the metanarratives of
U.S.-Latin American encounters. In short, theories and interpretive approaches need to
be constantly and heavily re-examined.
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Works Cited
Joseph, Gilbert M. "Close Encounters: Toward a New Cultural History of U.S.-Latin
America." Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-.
Latin American Relations. Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. LeGrand, and Ricardo
D. Salvatore. Editors. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.
Salvatore, Ricardo D. "The Enterprise of Knowledge: Representational Machines of
Informal Empire." Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of
U.S.-Latin American Relations. Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. LeGrand, and
Ricardo D. Salvatore. Editors. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.