Perspectives on Latin America

DESCRIPTION & APPROACH

Latin America is a complex region, filled with contrasts, failures and possibilities–and more than anything a heterogeneous population with deep-rooted traditions. Its many countries share common roots in the Portuguese and Spanish Empires created in the sixteenth century and their conquest of and domination over people of Indigenous adn African descent. But these countries have followed at times parallel and at times divergent paths since then. Cultural origins and language unite the region. National histories, nationalism and regionalism and heterogeneous local experiences separate it into parts. This course assumes that a historical studies need to form part of any multi-disciplinary examination of Latin American culture, politics, and society. It will cover about 24 distinct and relatively self-contained themes drawn from many different disciplines, some of which will be presented by other faculty in the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. Readings will be drawn mostly from anthology chapters or articles (not monographs) in order to assure a complete introduction to a specific theme or question. This course will not be based on lectures but on close, intensive discussion of materials including films, readings, web pages, etc.

 

GOALS

Students will come out of the course with a strong sense of the many research and policy agendas and should be able to pass to more advanced courses on the region with ease. Besides the timely completion of readings students will have to complete a series of research projects that will allow them to pursue their specific interests within our discussion of given questions.

 

REQUIREMENTS

Your participation in this class constitutes a contract between us. I expect a reasonable degree of enthusiasm and interest from you. You will have to complete all requirements in order to receive a grade in this course. I expect you to come to all class sessions and be on time. I expect all students to participate in debates and discussions, and to feel free to bring in any additional materials, sources, or questions to class meetings.

You will have to work very hard to complete the requirements for this course—between 5 and 10 hours a week outside of class time. The assigned readings are very reasonable, no more than 40 pages per class meeting. But you will have to juggle other ongoing projects during the semester. The benefit is that at the end, after the last day of classes, you will be done with all your work for this course (unless you have failed to hand in some work).

• Determination of Grade: 
  • (20% each) 3 short research and discussion papers (5-6 pages)
  • (15%) One in-depth advanced monograph review (5 pages, rough and final drafts due)
  • (20%) Class participation, attendance, and short assignments
  • (5%) LALS Program event attendance and participation (2)
  • In the calculation of the final grade of borderline cases, improvement and dynamic class participation will be decisive factors. I consider all students equally capable of successfully completing the requirements for this class with an above average grade, which does not mean you will receive a B for mediocre work.
• Participation:
  • Your participation in class activities, including attendance, will be an important component of your final grade. The short assignments that form part of the participation grade include short response papers. They should be about one page long and reflect some thinking, coherent questioning, analysis or reflections upon some aspect of that week’s readings.
• Research and Discussion Papers:
  • Students will carry out three distinct research and writing exercises during the semester. I will provide the broad themes and you will carry out independent research and write a brief report on your findings.
  • Students will pick one country and combine critically selected web-based sources with 2-3 scholarly articles and 1-2 journalistic articles.
  • Each project will involve student’s discussing one particular “micro-problem” within the parameters given by the theme for each project.
• Web Content:
  • Approximately every other week there will be some assigned web-based materials either from our campus intranet or from the web itself. Some of these materials will be presented in class but others will be for your own individual browsing. These materials are as essential to the course as any other assigned reading.
• Blackboard:
  • We will be using blackboard to submit written work and manage your grades.
• E-RES system:
  • We will use the E-RES system for many online reserve readings—make sure you are familiar with it. The password for this course is caliban.

You should check this web page at least once a week for revisions and the posting of assignments. Bring your readings to class when they are being discussed. Pick one country on which you want to focus your work and read up on weekly news.

 

BOOKS REQUIRED FOR THIS COURSE

The following books are available at the bookstore. Other readings not ordered by the bookstore will be made available on reserve.

• NACLA. Report on the Americas: The paradoxes of racial politics.
  • We will purchase two issues of this magazine. $4 each
• Susan Eva Eckstein & Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley, Eds., Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America. Routledge. 2002.
• Eduardo Galeano. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.Monthly Review Press.

 

COURSE ORGANIZATION AND SCHEDULE

Sep 4 (Th) What is Latin America – A Quantitative and Geographical look

• Alfonso González. “Physical Landscapes and Settlement Patterns.” in Jan Knippers Black, Latin America & Karl Schwerin. “The Indian Populations of Latin America.” in Jan Knippers Black, Latin America.
• Assignment for next Tuesday
• Please be prepared to fill out a blank map with the modern-day country boundaries of Latin American countries, with location and names of capitals.
• Please make sure you bring your readings and notes to class.
• We will be using the following resources during our first session:
  • Maps
    • Regions of Latin America
    • Ecosystems
    • Vegetation Map of South America
    • Modern South America
    • Modern South America
    • Modern Mexico, Caribbean and Central America
    • Ethnicity?
    • More maps
  • Development Statistics
  • ECLA’s Statistical Yearbook
  • HIV in Latin America-Powerpoint
  • World Bank Data and Statistics
  • Images: Slide Shows!
  • Political Database of the Americas
  • UNESCO Data
  • Latin America Art
  • Demographics of Indigenous People in LA
• LALS Research portals
  • Research Portal
  • Advanced Research Web Site
  • Internet Resources for Latin American Studies
  • Latin American Network Information Center

Sep 9 (Tu) What is Latin America-A Cultural and Historical Look

• Reading: Thomas Skidmore and Peter Smith. “Why Latin America?” & Daniel Levine, “Constructing Power and Culture in Latin America.”
• Reading: Introduction to Latin America.
  • Eres is having problems…find the reading here also via web server, not eres.
• Culture-History Maps—For in-class use, but look over one of them before class.
  • Native cultures of Mesoamerica
  • Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) 1524
  • Map of Mexico City, c1597
  • Map of New Spain 1682 with enlargement/selection capabilities
  • Spanish explorers of North America
  • Colonial-era maps
  • Colonial Era Maps and Codices—High Quality Scans
  • Atlantic Wind and Water Currents
  • Audiencias of the Viceroyalty of New Spain
  • Audiencias of the Viceroyalty of Peru

Sep 11 ( Th) Colonial Legacies: Indigenous Writing of the Americas (Prof. Cynthia Stone)

• Elizabeth Hill Boone, “Introduction,” Writing Without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica & the Andes (Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1994) (19 pages of text)
• If an ERES document does not open, just go to the ERES system directly with this link and select my name and course. The readings are listed by title and author.
• Film: Tlacuilo (Enrique Escalona, 57 min., 1988. México: Estudios Churubusco-Azteca)
  • Group showing of this film is scheduled for Wed. at 7PM at the MRC—watch on your own time otherwise—On reserve at the MRC (Stein Hall) under Prof. Stone’s name
  • Description: Película realizada con técnicas de animación que nos lleva al mundo de los Aztecas, enseñándonos la maravilla de la escritura Nahuatl—basada en dibujos y pinturas—, y a través de ella, la vida cotidiana de este pueblo.
• Please check out this website before class briefly: Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing
• Assignment for Next Tuesday Sept. 16:
  • Using the CIA World Fact Book (or other similar online resource)—Pick a Latin American or Caribbean country and become familiar with its profile. Identify it’s greatest problems and seek one additional web-based source (of substance) about one of them. Write some notes or a summary to bring to class.

Sep 16 (Tu) Missed Class

Sep 18 (Th) Colonial Legacies: Slavery of Africans and the Creation of Indians

• Film: The Last Supper (La Ultima Cena) (Cuba 1976) directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 110 mins. Scheduled showing or on resrve at the MRC.
  • Study Questions
  • Scheduled showings at the MRC: 9/15 Monday 8PM
• Be prepared for Quiz on film and short assignment:
  • Using the CIA World Fact Book (or other similar online resource)—Pick a Latin American or Caribbean country and become familiar with its profile. Identify its greatest problems and seek one additional web-based source (of substance) about one of them. Write some notes or a summary to bring to class.
• Reading – Select one of the following:
  • Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America, Chap. 13
  • Felix Matos. “Quien Trabajara? Domestic Workers, Urban Slaves, and the Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico. Las Americas. Chap. 6 .
  • “Cuban Slave’s Testimony” Slavery and Beyond, Chap. 2.
• Slavary Maps

Sep 23 (Tu) The Formation of the Nation-State

• Select one of the following:
  • Rubin. “Decentering the Regime: Culture and Regional Politics in Mexico”
  • Guardino. “Barbarism or the Rule of Law: Guerrero’s Peasants and National Politics ” (Mexico)
  • Negreto and Aguilera. “Rethinking the legacy of the Liberal State in Latin America: The cases of Argentina and Mexico”
  • Lauria Santiago. An Agrarian Republic. Chap. 6. (El Salvador)
  • Thomson. “Order Through Insurrection: The Rise of the District of Tetela during Mexico’s Liberal Revolution.” In Search of a New Order. (Mexico)
• For class time: Write a one page summary of either the main point of the article or what you found particularly interesting about it.
• Start Research Project due Oct. 7. The explanation of the projects is here.

Sep 25 (Th) Labor and popular struggles

• Cindy Forster “Reforging National Revolution: Campesino Labor Struggles in Guatemala,” in Lauria-Santiago and Chomsky, eds. Identity and Struggle at the Margins of the Nation State.

Sep 30 (Tu) The Military, Repression and Authoritarian States

• Select three of the 6 chapters:
• Loveman and Davis, eds. The Politics of Anti-Politics. Chaps. 21-26.

Oct 2 (Th) Revolutions, Revolts, and other Popular Mobilizations

• Film: Scars of Memory: El Salvador, 1932. Scheduled showing or on Reserve at MRC.
• Lauria-Santiago and Gould. “‘They steal our wage and call us thieves’…

Oct 7 (Tu) Truth Commissions, Human Rights and Justice

• First student research project due.
• From Madness to Hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador. In Section IV. Read these Subsections: Introduction, A, and any one numbered section of Subsections B, C, and D.
• Starting points for Research projects due this day:
  • Peru
  • Peru
  • El Salvador
  • Guatemala
  • Mexico
  • Additional documents

Oct 9 (Th) The US and Latin America before 1960

• Slater and Black—US Policy in Latin America
• Blasier: Hovering giant & Schlesinger: Bitter Fruit
• Make sure you read for class…no excuses…
• Start Research Projects due Mon Oct. 27—Description here

Oct 16 (Th) The Expansion, Crisis and Diversification of Export Economies, 1860-1960

• Thomas O’brien. The Century of US Capitalism in Latin America. Chap. 2.
• Steven Topik & Allan Wells. The Second Conquest of Latin America. One of chapters 2, 3, or 4 (print only the chapter you need by specifying the page numbers given by the adobe PDF viewer (at the bottom of the screen)).

Oct 21 (Tu) Neoliberalism, Globalization and Standards of Living

• Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America. Chaps. 4 and 5.

Oct 23 (Th) Country Case Study: The Argentine Economic Collapse and its effects

• Reading: Photocopied packet from press
• Oct 27 (Monday) Second Project due via blackboard dropbox or email attachment

Oct 28 (Tu) Left and neo-populist electoral politics

• Select one:
• Ellner. “The Radical Potential of Chavismo in Venezuela: The First Year and a Half in Power.” Latin American Perspectives. Vol. 28, No. 5, 2001
• “Crisis in Venezuela: The Remarkable Fall and Rise of Hugo Chavez.” NACLA: Report on the Americas. JUL/AUG 2002
• Select One
  • “From Allende to Lula: Assesing the Legacy” NACLA: Report on the Americas.JUL/AUG 2003
  • Pre-Victory Interview with Brazil’s President, Worker’s Party Lula
• Select one:
  • Gilbreth. “Democratization in Mexico: The Zapatista Uprising and Civil Society.” Latin American Perspectives. Vol. 28, no. 4 (2001)
  • Brce Kay. “FujiPopulism and the Liberal State in Peru, 1990-1995.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs.

Oct 30 (Th) Social Movements and Democratization (Prof. Maria Rodrigues)

• Katherine Kolchester. “Democratizing Pressures from Below.”
• Peter Winn. “Capital Sins”

Nov 4 (Tu) Indigenous people’s Identity and Movements

• Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America, Ch. 12.
• Select one:
  • Las Americas, Chap. 21 (Gould)
  • Las Americas, Chap. 7 (Edelman)

Nov 6 (Th) Women and Gender

• Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America, Chap. 8

Nov 11 (Tu) Violence and Urban Life (Prof. Daniel Goldstein)

• Teresa Caldeira. “Fortified enclaves: The new urban segregation.”
• Ana María Sanjuán. “Democracy, citizenship, and violence in Venezuela.”

Nov 13 (Th) Country Case Study: Cuba and its Revolution I

• Any of the articles I sent you or linked in ERES on Cuba
• http://intranet.holycross.edu/departments/history/alauria/revol/cuba.pps
• Map of Cuba
• Make your research projects on Cuba a bit longer: 6-8 pages

Nov 18 (Tu) Country Case Study: Cuba and its Revolution II

• Perez-Stable. The Cuban Revolution.

Nov 20 (Th) The Cuban Literature since the Revolution (Prof. Isabel Alvarez Borland)

• Readings—three short selections by Cuban and Cuban-American authors
• Third Project due Nov 24

Nov 25 (Tu) Country Case Study: Neo-colonialism in Puerto Rico

• Pedro Caban. Constructing a Colonial People. Chap. 3
• Film: Mi Puerto Rico

Dec 2 (Tu) US Power in Latin America of late

• Select one of the following:
  • Roberto Steiner. “Hooked on Drugs: Colombian-US Relations.” The United States and Latin America: The New Agenda.
  • Eduardo A. Gamarra. “The United States and Bolivia: Fighting the Drug War.” The United States and Latin America: The New Agenda.

Dec 4 (Th) Country Case Study: El Salvador during the 1990s

• Films: Romero or Salvador, Scheduled screening or on reserve at MRC.
• Reading: Photocopied materials

Dec 9 (Tu) Concluding Discussion

• Your monograph review (2-3 pages) is due on Monday, December 1
• A reflection (2 pages) on how Galeano’s Open Veins connects with our course readings and discussions is due Dec 10.