Historian Alexander Alvina recently collaborated with WIRED for its "Tech Support" series, fielding questions from the internet to illuminate the vast and complex history of Latin America. The discussion offered a detailed look into the region's formative events, rich cultural tapestry, and its intricate, often contentious, relationship with the United States. Alvina began by highlighting the significant demographic presence of over 65 million Latinos in the U.S., establishing them as the nation's largest minority group and framing the historical interconnectedness that would be explored throughout the segment.
The WIRED conversation pinpointed five key events that shaped modern Latin America, starting with Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492. The timeline then moved to the Bourbon reforms of the 1700s, which inadvertently triggered mass uprisings across the Spanish colonies. Alvina identified the Haitian Revolution as a world-changing event, where an anti-slavery, anti-racist slave revolt established a modern Black state that inspired revolutionaries throughout the Americas. This revolutionary fervor contributed to the broader Latin American independence movements, which accelerated after Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Spain created a power vacuum in the early 1800s, leading most of the region to break from Spanish rule by the late 1820s. The next pivotal moment was the 1846 Mexican-American War, a conflict through which the U.S. annexed up to half of Mexico's territory and extended its dominion to the Pacific Ocean. Finally, the 1910 Mexican Revolution was presented as the 20th century's first great peasant-led social revolution, a movement whose ideas on economic nationalism even influenced Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.
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Alvina also demystified cultural phenomena and popular traditions. He explained that the mythical city of El Dorado, while not real, was a powerful fantasy that drove Spanish conquistadors to explore and extend imperial power deep into what is now the United States, centuries before English colonists arrived. This deep history is why the Spanish language has existed in the U.S. longer than the nation itself. Many traditions associated with the Day of the Dead were revealed to be recent inventions; the grand parade in Mexico City, for instance, was inspired by the 2015 James Bond film Spectre and only became an annual event in 2016. Similarly, Cinco de Mayo is a minor holiday in Mexico, mainly celebrated in Puebla to commemorate a victory over the French army in 1862. Its popularity in the U.S. grew as a way for Mexican Americans to affirm their identity and was later commodified by American companies to sell products like beer. The iconic American cowboy was traced back to the Spanish and Mexican vaqueros, whose livestock-handling traditions dated back centuries and were influenced by Islamic practices from the Iberian Peninsula.
Dispelling common misconceptions was a recurring theme. Alvina affirmed that Brazil is fundamentally part of Latin America, despite its unique history of speaking Portuguese and being the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. He also validated the historical accuracy of the phrase "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us," explaining how a vast portion of the current western U.S. was once Mexican territory before the U.S. invasion. The often-fraught relationship between the United States and Latin America was further examined through the history of Guantanamo Bay, which the U.S. acquired via a perpetual lease after intervening in Cuba's war for independence. Since the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban government has refused to cash the lease payment checks, viewing the U.S. presence as illegitimate. The enduring friction, Alvina explained, stems from Cuba's successful 1959 revolution, which overthrew a U.S.-backed dictator and has since represented a "big middle finger" to U.S. influence in the region.
The lives of iconic individuals were also brought into focus during the WIRED segment. Frida Kahlo's legendary status, Alvina argued, is rooted in her immense artistic talent and the raw honesty with which she conveyed her physical and emotional pain. Beyond her art, she was a fiercely committed Marxist and political activist, a radical identity symbolized by the hammer-and-sickle flag placed on her coffin that is often erased in mainstream discussions. The conversation also touched on Simón Bolívar, the "George Washington of Latin America," who liberated much of South America but died an embittered and authoritarian figure after his dream of a united "Gran Colombia" collapsed. The legacy of Che Guevara was traced from his travels that radicalized him to his pivotal role in the Cuban Revolution and his ultimate death in Bolivia while trying to export revolution throughout the global south. Through these diverse topics, the discussion painted a vivid picture of Latin America as an immensely diverse crossroads of the world, with a history that continues to shape contemporary global politics and culture.
