LACIS 260

Latin America: An Introduction

 

Professor Patrick Iber

Spring 2018

This course will give a broad overview of Latin American history from the pre-colonial era to the present day. Particular emphasis will be placed on the socioeconomic, cultural, and political structures and processes that shaped and continue to influence life in Latin America. Key issues such as colonialism, nationalism, democracy, and revolution will be examined critically in light of broad comparative themes in Latin American and world history. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach: using materials from multiple disciplines as well as primary documents, fiction, and film in order to provide insight into the complex and diverse history of the region. Among the topics to be explored in detail will be labor and slavery, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, and the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

 

This course meets as a group (or with dedicated online time) for 4 hours per week and carries the expectation that you will spend an average of 2 hours outside of class for every hour in the classroom. In other words, in addition to class time, plan to allot an average of 8 hours per week for reading, writing, preparing for discussions, and/or studying for quizzes and exams for this class.

 

The primary goals of this course are that students will be able to

• Describe the basic contours of Latin American history, culture, and society,
• Apply key concepts relevant to Latin American history such as imperialism, democracy, race, and inequality to comparative world history,
• Read for a dedicated purpose across different genres and forms of writing,
• Apply techniques from different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences to generate knowledge and interpret the world, and
• Communicate effectively through presentations, discussion, and written work.

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UW-Madison’s community of scholars in which everyone’s academic work and behavior are held to the highest academic integrity standards. Academic misconduct compromises the integrity of the university. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, and helping others commit these acts are examples of academic misconduct, which can result in disciplinary action. This includes but is not limited to failure on the assignment/course, disciplinary probation, or suspension. Substantial or repeated cases of misconduct will be forwarded to the Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards for additional review. For more information, refer to studentconduct.wiscweb.wisc.edu/academic-integrity/.

 

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

The University of Wisconsin-Madison supports the right of all enrolled students to a full and equal educational opportunity. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Wisconsin State Statute (36.12), and UW-Madison policy (Faculty Document 1071) require that students with disabilities be reasonably accommodated in instruction and campus life. Reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities is a shared faculty and student responsibility. Students are expected to inform faculty [me] of their need for instructional accommodations by the end of the third week of the semester, or as soon as possible after a disability has been incurred or recognized. I, will work either directly with you or in coordination with the McBurney Center to identify and provide reasonable instructional accommodations. Disability information, including instructional accommodations as part of a student’s educational record, is confidential and protected under FERPA. http://mcburney.wisc.edu/facstaffother/faculty/syllabus.php

 

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background – people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world. https://diversity.wisc.edu/

 

 

COURSE TEXTS

 

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire (4^th edition), New York: Norton, 2016.  ISBN # 0393911543, 2016, approximately $55.

 

Alma Guillermoprieto. Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America.  New York: Vintage, 2002, ISBN 0375725822, approximately $15.

 

Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs, New York: Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 0143105272, approximately $10.

 

Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, ISBN 0226893944, approximately $25.

 

GRADING INFORMATION

 

Your grade will be based on the following:

 

20% section. Active participation in class is essential; our learning will be richest as more of you become involved in the conversation and debate.  Therefore, all readings must be completed before you meet in section, and you should attend every week. You can miss one day without arranging an absence with us. Your TA will provide you with a section syllabus laying out responsibilities and expectations.

 

15%: Class attendance and participation. The class will use Top Hat response software to log attendance and check for understanding. Make sure to do the starred readings before class on Tuesday (typically it will be a chapter from Chasteen, but not always); you can expect to be asked about it. The remaining readings need to be done by class on Thursday.

 

10% country report: At the end of the semester, you will choose a country to report on. What is going on there at this time? What are its current political, economic, and cultural fault lines? What historical experiences have contributed to these divisions? Your research will be presented in class or section. With a clear division of labor, you may work on this project in groups.

 

30% midterms. There are two midterms scheduled during class, each is worth 15% of the total grade. The first midterm includes a map quiz.

 

25% final exam. The final exam is scheduled for May 7, at 2:45pm. The exam will cover material from section, lectures, and the readings.

 

Other than the main texts, PDFs of many readings will be available through Canvas. In cases where they are in databases, you should get them from there. Please don’t email us for these documents unless they not available in the location indicated.

 

Week 1: Introduction

 

Tuesday, January 23: Introduction to the course

Thursday, January 25: Life in the Americas before the “Americas”

 

Readings:

Chasteen, “Introduction,” 1-14

 

Charles Mann, “1491,” The Atlantic, March 2002, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/2445/

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) What defines Latin America? Does it even exist?

 

2) What was life like for those in the major indigenous empires? How did this differ from those who lived outside of the empires?

 

3) What impact did the encounter between Europe and the Americas have on the ecology of the Americas, including its people?

 

 

Week 2: Society and Culture of the First Peoples of the Americas

 

T, Jan 30: The Mexica and Inca Empires

 

R, Feb 1: Spain, Portugal, and the Encounter with Indigenous America

 

Readings:

* Chasteen, Chapter 1, “Encounter,” 17-53

 

Kolata, Alan. “In the Realm of the Four Quarters,” in Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., ed. America in 1492: The World of the Indian Peoples Before the Arrival of Columbus (Knopf, 1992), 215-247. [On Canvas]

 

Clendinnen, Inga, “The Cost of Courage in Aztec Society, Past and Present 107 (1985): 44-89. [JSTOR]

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) How did the major indigenous empires use and exercise power?

 

2) How did people on each “side” understand the encounter with new people?

 

 

 

 

Week 3: Making a Colonial Society

 

T, Feb 6: Forging the Colonial Order

R, Feb 8: Race and Class in the Colonial Americas

 

* Chasteen, Chapter 2, “Colonial Crucible,” 55-93

 

Bartolomé de las Casas, Short history of the Destruction of the Indies, 5-30. [Canvas]

 

Steve Stern, Peru’s Indian Peoples, Chapters 4-5, “The Political Economy of Colonialism” and “The Indians and Spanish Justice,” pp. 80-137 [Canvas]

 

Beatriz Melano Couch, “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: The First Woman Theologian in the Americas” [Canvas]

 

Poetry of Sor Juana: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sor-juana-inés-de-la-cruz

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) Why did Bartolomé de las Casas write his text?  How should that affect how we think about its reliability?

 

2) What were the purposes of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism? How did they function? How did people use what it created to defend their interests?

 

Week 4: Independence

 

T, Feb 13: Challenging the Colonial Order

R, Feb 15: Independence

 

* Chasteen, Chapter 3, “Independence,” 95-125

 

“Up from Slavery: Touissant L’Ouverture, 1743-1803” from Liberators of Latin America, 18-44 [Canvas]

 

Charles Walker, “‘When Fear Rather than Reason Dominates’: Priests Behind the Lines in the Tupac Amaru Rebellion,” in Michael Laffan and Max Weiss, eds., Fears Past (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 54-73. [Canvas]

 

Simón Bolívar, “Letter from Jamaica”: https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-2-the-colonial-foundations/primary-documents-with-accompanying-discussion-questions/document-2-simon-bolivar-letter-from-jamaica-september-6-1815/

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) What different experiences brought independence to the countries of Latin America?

2) What reasons did people have for fighting for independence?

 

 

Week 5: Labor, Slavery, and Race

 

T, Feb 20: African Legacies

R, Feb 22: Midterm #1

 

* Katia Mattoso, To be a Slave in Brazil, 125-149 [Canvas]

 

* Zephyr Frank, Dutra’s World, 96-121 [Canvas]

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) How are ideas about race different in Brazil and the United States?

 

2) How appropriate are the methods that have been used in the United States for addressing a history of discrimination on the basis of race for a place like Brazil?

 

 

 

Week 6: The Nineteenth Century

 

T, Feb 27: Ideologies of Development: Liberalism, Conservatism, and Positivism

R, Mar 1: Nineteenth-Century Globalization and Neocolonialism

 

* Chasteen, Chapter 4, “Postcolonial Blues,” 127-159

 

Chasteen 5 and 6, “Progress”, and “Neocolonialism,” 161-231

 

John Coatsworth, “Obstacles to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century Mexico,” American Historical Review 83, no. 1 (February 1978): 80-100. [JSTOR]

 

José Martí, “Our America” (1892), http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/marti/America.htm

 

Rubén Darío, “To Roosevelt” (1904), http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_2/dario.html

 

Questions to consider this week:

 

1) What are some of the traditional reasons given to explain Latin American underdevelopment?

 

2) What kind of evidence contradicts and supports those theories?

 

3) What is the relationship between new forms of nationalism and the neocolonialism?

 

Week 7: Mexico and Its Revolution

 

T, Mar 6: The Popular Revolution

R, Mar 8: The Institutional Revolution

 

* Gilbert Jopseh and Jurgen Buchenau, Mexico’s Once and Future Revolution, 37-54 [Canvas]

 

Azuela, The Underdogs [entire book]

 

Questions to consider this week:

 

1) What contending groups and visions contributed to the Mexican Revolution?  How does this diversity affect how we think about the “legacy” on the Revolution?

 

2) Why did ordinary people join the Revolution?

 

Week 8: Nationalism and Populism

 

T, Mar 13: The Populist Strategies: Getúlio Vargas and Juan Domingo Perón

R, Mar 15: Nationalism and the International System: Lázaro Cárdenas and Jacobo Arbenz

 

* Chasteen, “Nationalism,” 233-265

 

Bryan McCann, “Radio and Estado Novo,” in Hello, Hello Brazil, 19-40 [Canvas]

 

Selections from The Argentina Reader [Canvas]

Daniel James, “Perón and the People,” 269-295

Tomás Eloy Martínez, “Saint Evita,” 296-303

Victoria Ocampo, “Victorian Fathers,” 313-318

Julio Cortázar, “House Taken Over,” 328-332

 

Guillermoprieto, Looking for History, “Little Eva,” 3-17

 

1) What is populism?  How does it differ from other strategies for governing?

 

2) How was gender (including ideas of both masculinity and femininity) used as part of Perón’s populist strategy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9: Cuba and Its Revolution

 

T, Mar 20: The Achievements of the Revolution

R, Mar 22: The Costs of the Revolution

 

* Chasteen, “Revolutions,” 267-295

 

Selections from The Cuba Reader [Canvas]

How the Poor Got More, 344-353

Fish à la Grande Jardinière, Humberto Arenal, 354-362

The Literacy Campaign, Oscar Lewis et al., 389-394

 

Che Guevara, “Socialism and Man in Cuba,” https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm

 

Guillermoprieto, Looking for History, “The Harsh Angel,” 73-86, “Fidel in the Evening,” 126-152

 

Questions to consider this week:

1) What were the principal causes of the Cuban Revolution?

 

2) Were the sacrifices imposed on ordinary people necessary to achieve the gains of the Revolution?

 

 

March 24-April 1: SPRING BREAK

 

Week 10: The Rise of Reaction

 

T, Apr 3: Democratic Breakdowns: Brazil, Chile, and Argentina

R, Apr 5: Dictatorships in Power: Brazil, Chile, and Argentina

 

* Chasteen, Chapter 9, “Reaction,” 297-327

 

Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, pp. 1-172

 

Questions to consider this week:

 

1) How did Latin American dictatorships justify their actions? Who did they consider to be their enemies?

 

2) Why do ordinary people support dictatorships?

 

 

 

 

Week 11: Transitions to Democracy, Week I

 

T, Apr 10: Midterm #2

R, Apr 12: Resisting Dictatorship, with Film: No

 

 

 

Week 12: Transitions to Democracy, Week II

 

T, Apr 17: Legacies of Dictatorship

R, Apr 19: The “Perfect Dictatorship”: Mexico

 

* Chasteen, Chapter 10, “Neoliberlism and Beyond,” 329-356

 

Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe, pp. 173-246

 

Hebe de Bonafini and Matilde Sánchez “Madwomen in the Plaza de Mayo” [Canvas]

 

Guillermoprieto, Looking for History

The Bitter Education of Vargas Llosa, 155-177

The Only Way to Win, 224-238

The Peso, 275-285

Elections 2000, 286-303

 

Questions to consider this week:

 

1) Why do people who had supported dictatorships turn against them?

 

2) How did the process of achieving democracy differ in Brazil, Peru, and Mexico?

 

3) What is the relationship between neoliberal economics and political democracy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 13: The Recent Past

T, Apr 24: The Pink Tide

R, Apr 26: Problems of Security and Justice

 

Readings:

 

* Jorge G. Castañeda, “Latin America’s Left Turn,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2006, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61702/jorge-g-castaneda/latin-americas-left-turn

 

Jon Lee Anderson, “Slumlord,” New Yorker, 28 January 2013, pp. 40-51. [Canvas]

 

Greg Grandin, “On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez,” The Nation, 5 March 2013, http://www.thenation.com/article/173212/legacy-hugo-chavez

 

Guillermoprieto, Looking for History, “Our New War in Colombia,” 19-39

 

Ioan Grillo, “The Narco Killer’s Tale,” http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2097594-1,00.html

 

Questions to consider:

1) How do we explain the strength of the left in the first decade of the twenty-first century?  How is this left different from that of the twentieth century?

 

2) What problems were “pink tide” governments not able to solve? What problems did they create?

 

3) What factors have contributed to the rise of organized transnational crime in certain parts of Latin America?

 

 

Week 14: Latin America Today

 

T, May 1: The Tide Retreats?: Latin America Today / Country reports

R, May 3: Country Reports

 

In section this week: country reports

 

 

 

FINAL EXAM: Monday, May 7, 2:45pm.