HIST 361-000: Lat America Since Independence (Spring 2010)

Content:  Latin America was born in the crucible of violent conquest, Catholic conversion, and the exploitation of resources and labor.  It is not surprising, then, that when we think of Latin America since Independence, class struggle, military dictatorship, Marxist revolution, and populist demagoguery come to mind.  But is this the whole story?  This course examines the making of modern Latin America by integrating two historical threads: 1) Latin America’s struggle with colonialism and neocolonialism, and 2) the forging of Latin America’s distinctive popular cultures from indigenous, African, and European elements.  This approach will allow us to ask how tamales became a symbol of Mexican national identity and how a road trip motivated an Argentine doctor to become a revolutionary.  Students will finish the course with a textured knowledge of the political economy and cultural fabric of a region so critical to the past, present, and future of our own nation.

Required Texts: John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America; John Charles Chasteen and Joseph S. Tulchin, Problems in Modern Latin American History; Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent; Ernesto Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey; Jeffrey Pilcher, Que Vivan los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity; Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number.

Recommended Texts: Peter Winn, Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean; E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

Grading: 4 short essays (40%); midterm exam (15%); final exam (25%); class participation (15%); map quiz (5%)