President Roosevelt was once known to be a president that cared about preserving the history and story of people. One thing that has always been present in our society and history fearlessness of the person in off has been the connections other societies and cultures have had on ours. It is evident when you walk around our city, you can go from USA to Europe to Asia in minutes. Some say it is because of how close things are but one can extrapolate that is due to the affect our societies have had on each other. If you speak to people on the street you will hear lots of tales and stories about what they remember from other societies. President Roosevelt once said “in any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing,” teaching that culture is an important thing that you should know about.
I went to the natural history museum in Manhattan, New York to learn more about Mexico and Central America. Mexico and Central America make up the vast majority of the Latin countries with customs but what we don't know are the artifacts. Mexico is a country that covers about two millennia. It started out at 13,000 people but has grown dramatically. Mexico is known for its large population of Spanish and Native American speakers. The country refuses to give credit to Europe because of the conquest. Alot of what is spoke about is the westernized culture of Mexico. During the Spanish rule of Mexico most or more than half of the indigenous population were wiped out or killed. Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1810. Mexico for centuries has fought against wars, drugs, government and all the politics, it was freedom to the most possible peace filled country but one thing that continues to plague them is the drug cartels.
Precolonial period had alot to do with the Native American population. Alot of what I saw at the museum had to do with art and how the natives communicated. There was alot of Aztec artifacts, one being the emblem they are known for. In the exhibit you also saw the way they cooked and dressed and honestly it was not so far from what we use today. You saw half clothed women with scrubs as the clothing, you also saw the weapons they used such as spears. In their ways of life the people of the Andean region mirror the diversity of landscapes from desert coasts to snow capped mountains. The ancient Andean civilization began and created a system of combining and coordinating their varied resources and cultures to create a civilization of great wealth. The Native Americans created systems of curing illnesses and sicknesses from herbal sources to what some would today consider voodoo. The Natives used raddled so they could perform rituals on the sick. The Natives would take the raddled and place it below the forearms so that if it raddled it would show and indicate the connections to spirits. Alot of what displayed has to do with pottery, figurines, jewelry and monuments.
In closing I learned alot about pre-modernization and colonial peoples. It is extremely interesting how out of everything there are those small successes and failures. In the museum I thought it was interesting to see how things worked out with interaction and learning how these people were able to work with each other and they had no form of technology to help them out so it begs to ask why cant we as a society do the same with everything we have but then again the question has to do with common sense which is not so common anymore. 
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