Book Born In Blood: In the opening pages of chapter 5, “Postcolonial Blues”, John Chasteen asserts:

Liberal dreams of prosperous, progressive new countries soon dissolved in disappointment and economic failure. Hopes for true democracy were crushed by old habits of conservative hierarchy. Recurring patterns of political violence and corruption alienated most people from the governments that supposedly represented them. Politics became, above all, a quest for personal benefit in office. In sum, the first postcolonial generation (1825-1850) saw Latin America going nowhere fast.

Consider carefully Chasteens’s pessimistic interpretation of post-independent Latin America. Think specifically about the four themes of liberalism identified in the passage:

1- Economic failure.
2- The persistence of conservative, anti-democratic social habits.
3- The significance of violence in denying the people a sense of connection with representative governments.
4- The emergence of corrupt and self-serving political elites.

Develop an argument that weighs the strengths and weaknesses of Chasteen’s argument about the failure of liberalism during the first generation of postcolonial Latin America. Justify your argument with the concepts, events, people and primary sources covered in lectures, discussions, and the assigned readings. You must cite at least three primary sources from Latin American Voices in your paper.