For a U.S. audience, to watch as the wet, pinkish-red jelly -- the brains of Isis Odem Murillo, the young man killed last Sunday by the U.S.-trained Honduran military -- spill onto those who carried the Christ-like victim was to watch another tragedy unfold in a far off land.
But for those of us familiar with countries in the region like Honduras and El Salvador, where in 1989 U.S.-trained troops literally shot out the brains of six Jesuit priests, their maid and her young daughter, we see reminders of the possible return of the terror that takes friends, family and colleagues.
Such traumatic memories inform the sense of the past in the Americas, the same past that President Barack Obama told his hemispheric audience that he wants to break with. We see this, for example, in repeated references to the "past" Obama made during his important speech before the Summit of the Americas meeting in April ("To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements." Or: "I didn't come here to debate the past -- I came here to deal with the future.")
Noticeably absent in the forward-looking Obama's messages to Latin America is one of the two words we all identify him and his presidency with: hope.
Whatever the reasons for this omission, Obama would do well to remember that, in the bloodied streets of Honduras, and throughout the Americas, there exists a powerful political tradition in which esperanza (Spanish for "hope") is often defined by overcoming the pro-military policies of the country that took as its own the name given to the entire continent -- "America."
Regardless of the outcome of negotiations to end the standoff in Honduras between the de facto military government and the only recognized leader of the country, President Manuel Zelaya, Obama must view the Honduran crisis as an opportunity to support and negotiate with the forces of esperanza on the continent.
He must do so if he is to overcome the past and move forward as he said in his summit speech: "We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership."
In the insurgent region of Central America, tiny Honduras is nothing less than ground zero for the first encounter in the hemisphere between the tradition of esperanza and Obama's still-untested notions of "hope."
Contrasted against Obama's still-being-formulated-as-we-speak notions of "hope" and "change" in the region, the movements flying the ancient banner of esperanza have delivered historic shifts across the Américas, as can be seen in the leaders elected in recent years, leaders with no less startling and inspiring stories as Obama's. Indigenous leaders such as Bolivia's Evo Morales; socialist single mothers, and former torture victims, like Chile's Michelle Bachelet; and former steelworkers like Brazil's "Lula" -- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In times of great crisis, times in which Obama has yet to consolidate a sense of "hope" about the U.S. system in terms of things like health care, banking and jobs, the U.S. president has little to offer Latin America in the way of an alternative to the strides toward universal health care as in Venezuela and Cuba, the nationalization oil and other wealth redistribution programs of Bolivia or the democratization efforts of the deposed Zelaya in Honduras.
Until "hope" has some heft besides military heft to back it up, "esperanza" of Latin America will reign supreme -- and be defended ferociously.
Once called "America's Backyard" by Obama's predecessors, America the continent has torn down the fences of what political scientists call the "unipolar" power of the United States in the region as the forces of esperanza usher in a new, more multipolar moment.
For example, many Latin Americans were not just united in calling for an end to Obama's continuation of the $42.5 million in economic and military aid for Honduras in 2009. (Obama's just-announced cuts in Honduran military aid can be viewed as either the victory of esperanza or the negotiation between esperanza and hope). Polls show that Latin Americans are also fairly unified with regard to their skepticism about U.S. motives in the hemisphere.
According to a widely quoted poll by the respected Latinobarometro Corp. in November, Latin Americans have a more favorable opinion of Spain, Japan and the European Union than they do of the United States -- an unprecedented development -- and two-thirds of all Latin Americans say they "don't believe that the change of leadership in that country (the U.S.) will change the attitude of that country towards the region (of Latin America)."
China, whose foreign aid is mostly non-military (U.S. foreign aid varies between about one-third to two-thirds mostly military aid, as in the case of Colombia), which makes it one of the most important providers of foreign assistance to the region, is tied with the U.S in popularity ratings (58 percent favorable rating) -- and trending upward.
He Li, a political scientist at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., the rising popularity of China reflects a resurgent Latin American sovereignty and independence of action. Writing in North American Congress on Latin America magazine, Li stated, "the Beijing consensus (in Latin America) represents an attractive alternative to its Washington counterpart, largely because Beijing respects the sovereignty of Latin American nations, not meddling in their affairs and certainly not dictating their policies."
Plus, when compared with the fact that Latin American families who live and work in the U.S. send $50 billion to their families at home -- exponentially more than what the U.S. government gives in aid -- the fountain of U.S.-led "hope" in the Américas appears to have dried up in Washington.
In the land of esperanza, Obama must recognize that talk of "hope" that is accompanied by continued military funding for governments like those of Honduras or Colombia rings as hollow. And are as increasingly vapid as the political slogans, such as "Si Se Puede" (Yes We Can), deployed by politicians and corporations pilfering beer, burgers and bad foreign policy.
Although the diplomatic dance between the Obama administration and Latin America has just begun, the initial steps in tiny Honduras may not be taken to the tune of "hope," but to that of esperanza.
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Roberto Lovato is a New York-based writer with New America Media.
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