Evil Mickey Mouse Invades Japan

I've been watching older Japanese films lately and received some recommendations on early Japanese animation to look into. Some of the propaganda is horrible, yes, but very interesting to compare and contrast with similar propaganda cartoons from the US, especially during World War II. Enjoy! 

Puerto Rico in 1940 and 1965

Watch these two videos from the US that depict Puerto Rico in 1940 and 1965, pivotal years in the economic and political transformation of the island (as well as the rise of the mainland Puerto Rican Diaspora). The videos consist of, essentially, propaganda for US rule and the economic policies ushered by Gov. Marin in the Operation Bootstrap. Thus, the rise of cheap factories and corporations offered tax holidays, the tourist economy, the modernization of plantation agriculture, and the necessity for Puerto Rico to function by exporting nearly half its population to the mainland are discussed here, even as the narrators declare the benefits of Puerto Rico's economic relationship with US corporations. We also hear in the 1965 the repetition of the myth of racial democracy in Puerto Rico, something any informed scholar of Afro-Latin America knows to be false and one of the insidious ways to check the growth of Afro-Puerto Rican mobilization or address racial inequalities. It would seem, as Bellegarde-Smith illustrates in Haiti: The Breached Citadel, that the Puerto Rican economic model can only work because of the special relationship with the US, and even with the touted benefits of the 'Puerto Rican model,' poverty, high dependency on welfare, unemployment, and continued migration are necessary to sustain Puerto Rico.

Merengue, Kompa, and Dictatorships in Hispaniola

Trujillo and Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) in a meeting. Two dictators, two countries, same island. Papa Doc came to power while the aging Trujillo was beginning to lose it, but the relations between the two governments would be an interesting history project. And while both were similar autocrats, Papa Doc seems to have been more of a kleptocrat and created a more terrifying force to intimidate the masses while Trujillo supported industrialization. Moreover, both promoted related genres of dance music, Trujillo nationalizing merengue while Papa Doc and his son promoted kompa, which was influenced by 1950s merengue. Looking at music alone during both of their horrid reigns would be an interesting project for how both used music to express a nationalistic identity that, naturally, could be manipulated and used to promote their power. Check out the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFYCfk2NMc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVgR6mtebvA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcCinJHPCL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSGjLTlDxtM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weFmRXJ3kOs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8phy586SGaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwNoVSVflec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC2nHA35Qys&index=19