Modern Latin America
Fall 2005
History 439 / 539
T,Th 11 – 12:15
College of Natural Resources 10
Dale Torston Graden
Admin 305 A
Office Hour: Monday 8 - 9 a.m. or by appointment
Telephone : 885-8956
Email: Graden@uidaho.edu
www.class.uidaho.edu/Graden
Teaching assistant: John Gehring
The purpose of this course is to offer an overview of Latin
America's histories and cultures from the 19th to the early 21st century.
Emphasis is placed on United States relations with Latin America and the ties
between literature and history.
It is imperative that you attend the class meetings, and that you do the
readings. Please come to our meeting prepared to discuss the readings. The
quality of the discourse in the classroom depends upon your preparation and
commitment. Do not hesitate to ask questions at any time. Please, feel free to
challenge my interpretations of history and culture or share your own insights.
My days are enhanced significantly when I learn about new ideas and your
perspectives. My goal is for this to be a challenging and interesting course.
I reserve the right to determine a grade based on attendance and participation.
If you miss more than four meetings, your final grade will drop by a grade. If
you cannot attend a class for health or other reasons, best to send a message
via email to let me know or leave a note in my mailbox in the department of
History. I pay close attention to attendance. I emphasize to you that your
involvement makes a class of this nature a worthwhile endeavor for everyone.
There will be one required book critique of E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of
Progress: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century due in class on Tuesday 6
September (late papers not accepted) and a second book critique of your choice
during the semester. If you prefer to read a book that is not part of the class
syllabus, please let me know before you read it so that we agree on your choice.
There will also be a final exam which you will write during the final exam
period. I will give you the question at our last class meeting on Thursday, 8
December. Then you will write your essay on Wednesday 14 December without notes
or books with you.
The two book critiques will be 3-4 typewritten pages. Each paper is worth thirty
(30) points, the final exam is worth thirty (30) points and your participation
is worth ten (10) points.
If you are taking this class for graduate credit, I request that you write an extra paper of five to ten (5-10) pages on a topic of your choice. This paper will be worth forty (40) points, and the final grade of graduate students will be based on 140 points.
The two book critiques are not “book reports.” Rather, the
critique is an essay based on your interpretation of the important theme(s) of
the book. I want to learn from your ideas and observations and critical
analysis, and not receive an overview of the ideas of the author. According to
the law of effective writing, the paper should begin with an introduction, and
the last sentence of the introductory paragraph should inform the reader (me) of
the central theme or focus of the critique. Then construct coherent paragraphs
that analyze in a logical manner the topic. Finally, finish with a conclusion. A
suggested length is three type-written pages, double-spaced.
Please, write the paper a few days before the due date, so that you can return
to it and review it thoroughly at least once before you hand it to me. This will
enable you to make corrections and refinements. I have read hundreds of such
essays, and know when someone has scribbled down a bunch of ideas the night
before and when the assignment has been approached seriously. Writing a
reflection essay is important. You have dared to ask why? Because the
majority of students graduate from universities and colleges across the land
unable to write coherently on a specific topic or reading.
I hope that you find the readings challenging and
stimulating. In other words, I hope that the books inspire you to take pen
(computer, typewriter) in hand to write down your ideas. The discussion offers a
great opportunity for you to share with the class your perspectives. I am
convinced that we all have much to gain by engaging in dialogue with each other,
no matter if you agree or disagree with the viewpoint of other persons. Many
former students have let me know that they learned much from discussions and
considered writing opportunities an important part of their university
education. If you have any concerns about your writing skills, I encourage you
to take advantage of the great opportunities that are available to you at the UI
writing center.
A helpful and concise description of how to write a book critique can be found
at
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/writecenter/web/critique.html
An example of a great introductory paragraph is from Peter W. Galbraith, "Last
Chance for Iraq," The New York Review of Books, 6 October 2005
introductory paragraph
Readings (all books available at the UI Bookstore)
Duncan Green, Faces of Latin America
E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress: Latin America in the Nineteenth
Century
Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution
Gioconda Belli, The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
Andrew Revkin, The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico
Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest
Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker
Carlos Fuentes, The Crystal Frontier
Week One
Reading: begin E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress
T 23 August : Introduction
Th 25 August : Indigenous Americas, indentured servitude, Afro-Latin America,
Bartolome de las Casas (1484-1566), comparative abolitions, freedom, a
second wave of indenture, immigration to the Americas from late 19th century
Class notes:
Population
decline based on David Stannard, American
Holocaust
Class notes: Emancipation Timeline 1770s to 1888
Week Two Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
Reading: recommended is Duncan Green, Faces of Latin America
T 30 August : Colonial Latin America: Colonialism, Post-colonialism, liberalism, neo-liberalism
View a segment from Part four entitled "The Price of Freedom," from the
documentary and book "The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World"
Th 1 September : Exports, imports, British investments and
"modernization"
Class notes:
1 September:
Overview of Colonial Latin America and post-colonialism
Week Three Bankers, Generals and Dictators in the Early Twentieth Century
T 6 September : First required book critique is due on Burns, The Poverty of Progress
and discussion of the book
Th 8 September : Caudillos and dictators; the new empire,
1860s to 1930
Class notes:
8 September: The New Empire
Class notes:
8
September: Responses to the New Empire
Week Four FDR and the Good Neighbor Policy
Reading: Thomas Paterson, Contesting Castro
T 13 September : Good neighbors, World War II, McCarthyism, anti-communism;
Guatemala in 1954
Segment from documentary "America's Century" (Guatemala and Cuba)
Class notes:
13
September: The Rise and Fall of the Good Neighbor Policy 1933-1954
Th 15 September : 1898 and its legacies; Fidel and Che; 1959 in La Habana
View segment of "Hemingway in Cuba"
Class notes: 15 September:
Guatemala's Revolution 1944-1954
Che Guevara
and the Cuban Revolution
Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution
Women in Socialist
Cuba
Week Five Cuba's
Revolution
Recommended Reading: Bill McKibben, "The Cuba Diet: What Will You Be Eating When
the Revolution Comes?", Harper's Magazine, April 2005
http://db.lib.uidaho.edu/ereserve/show_course.php3?pointer=790
T 20 September : Documentary : "90 Miles"
Th 22 September : Film : "Los Balseros"
Week Six Cuba's Revolution
T 27 September : Guest visit and discussion with Adrian Hernandez
Th 29 September : Second optional critique on Paterson,
Contesting Castro is due and discussion
View segment on Cuba produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Week Seven Augusto Cesar
Sandino
Segment of 60 Minutes "Elian"
Reading: Gioconda Belli, The Country Under My Skin
T 4 October : Sandino and the US marines
Class notes 4 October:
Sandino in Nicaragua in the 1920s and 1930s
Th 6 October : 1979 in Managua, Sandinista government
1979-1989; post-revolutionary Nicaragua
Segment of documentary "War on Nicaragua"
Class notes 6 October:
Nicaragua and the US 1900 to 2005
Week Eight Nicaragua's Revolution
T 11 October : Professor Yvonne Berliner, Fulbright Scholar from Chile, to speak on her research on oral histories of women in Chile
Th 13 October : segments from the documentaries "Bread and Dignity" and "Times of a Sign: A Folk History of the Iran-Contra Scandal"
Week Nine Reflections on Nicaragua's Revolution
T 18 October : Third optional critique is due on Belli,
The Country Under My Skin and discussion
segment from documentary : "Miracles are not Enough"
Same day T 18 October: Dale Graden presentation "Mural Messages from Venezuela:
El Presidente Hugo Chavez Frias y La Revolucion Bolivariana" in Commons
Whitewater Room at 12:30
Wednesday 19 October, 7 pm, CNR Room 10
Professor Osvaldo Muniz, Universidad de la Serena, Chile
"TNCs, Global Cites, and Migration: A Latin American Perspective"
Th 20 October : Guest presentation by Pamela Fitzpatrick and Paul Dix on the
Sandinista Revolution (1961-79) and the Contra-war that followed (1980-90)
Same day Th 20 October : 12:30 pm Public Presentation by Fitzpatrick and Dix : "Living with the Consequences of U.S. Policy: A Nicaragua Photo/Testimony Project" CNR Room 10
Week Ten The Amazon Basin
Reading: Andrew Revkin, The Burning Season
T 25 October : View documentary "Contact: the Yanomami Indians"
Th 27 October : View documentary "The Fires of the Amazon"
Week Eleven The Death of Chico Mendes
T 1 November : Rubber Tappers as environmentalists; sustainable development in the Amazon
Th 3 November : Fourth optional critique is due on Revkin, The Burning Season, and discussion
Week Twelve Literature as History I
Reading: Danticat, The Dew Breaker
T 8 November : Haiti's revolution 1791-1804 and its legacies
View the film "The Serpent and the Rainbow"
Haitian Revolution and legacies
Th 10 November : Papa Doc, Baby Doc Duvalier, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide and the Haitian Diaspora
Week Thirteen Literature as History II
T 15 November : Haiti's diaspora
Th 17 November : Fifth optional critique is due on Danticat, The Dew Breaker, and discussion
Thanksgiving Break
Week Fifteen Mexico in the 20th and 21st centuries
Reading: Fuentes, The Crystal Frontier
T 29 November : The Revolution 1910-20; the muralist movement;
Mexico-US relations in the 20th century
Modern Mexico
Th 1 December : Mexamerica, border issues, maquilas
Mexico's maquiladoras
Week Sixteen The Crystal Frontier
T 6 December : Interview with Carlos Fuentes
Th 8 December : Sixth optional critique is due on Fuentes, The Crystal Frontier, and discussion; Conclusions; final exam question is handed out
Final Examination: Wednesday 14 December 10 am to noon
FINAL EXAM TAKE HOME
QUESTION
Some recommended books
US and Latin America
Van Gosse, Where the Boys are: Cuba, Cold War America and the Making of a New
Left
Stephen G. Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of
Anticommunism
Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts
Communist Revolution in Latin America
Susan Martin, ed., Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States,
Vietnam and Cuba, 1965-1975
E. Bradford Burns, Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History
Eduardo Galeano, trans. Mark Fried, Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass
World
Cedric Belfrage, The American Inquisition, 1945-1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy
Era"
George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America,
1800-2000
Cuba
Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the
Cuban Revolution
Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution
Carlos Franqui, Family Portrait with Fidel
Julie Marie Bunck, Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in
Cuba
Lois M. Smith and Alfred Padula, Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba
Jorge Castañeda, Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara
Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
Medea Benjamin, Cuba, Talking About Revolution: Conversations with Juan Antonio
Blanco
Ann Louise Bardach, Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana
Dominican Republic
Bruce J. Calder, The Impact of Intervention: The Dominican Republic during the
U.S. Occupation of 1916-1924
Bernard Diederich, Trujillo: The Death of a Dictator
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Feast of the Goat, translated by Edith Grossman
Manuel Vasquez Montalban, Galindez
Julia Alvarez, In the Name of Salome'
Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies
Nicaragua
Omar Cabezas, Fire from the Mountain: The Making of a Sandinista
Robert Edgar Conrad, editor and translator, Sandino: The Testimony of a
Nicaraguan Patriot, 1921-1934
Margaret Randall, Risking a Somersault in the Air: Conversations with Nicaraguan
Writers
Thomas Walker, ed., Reagan Versus the Sandinistas: The Undeclared War on
Nicaragua
E. Bradford Burns, At War in Nicaragua: The Reagan Doctrine and the Politics of
Nostalgia
John Brentlinger, The Best of What We Are: Reflections on the Nicaraguan
Revolution
Ernesto Cardenal, Cosmic Canticle
Stephen Kinzer, Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua
Claribel Alegria and Darwin Flakoll, Death of Somoza: The First Person Story of
the Guerrillas Who Assassinated the Nicaraguan Dictator
Thomas W. Walker, Nicaragua without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural
Adjustment in the 1990s
Joan Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in
Sandinista Nicaragua
Matilde Zimmermann, Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution
Guatemala
Jean-Marie Simon, Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny
Eduardo Galeano, trans. Cedric Belfrage, Guatemala: Occupied Country
Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American
Coup in Guatemala
Richard H. Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention
Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope: The Guatemala Revolution and the United States,
1944-1954
Hal Cohen, "The Unmaking of Rigoberta Menchu," in David E. Lorey and William E.
Beezley, eds., Genocide, Collective Violence and Popular Memory: The Politics of
Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, 53-64
Arturo Arias, ed., The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy
El Salvador
Thomas P. Anderson, Matanza
José Ignacio López Vigil, Rebel Radio: The Story of El Salvador’s Radio
Venceremos
Mario Lungo Uclés, El Salvador in the Eighties: Counterinsurgency and Revolution
Roque Dalton, Miguel Marmol
James R. Brockman, Romero: A Life
Mark Danner, The Massacre at El Mazote: A Parable of Cold War
Central America
Philip Berryman, Stubborn Hope: Religion, Politics and Revolution
John H. Coatsworth, Central America and the United States
Thomas W. Walker and Ariel Armony, Repression, Resistance and Democratic
Transition in Central America
Brazil
Robert Edgar Conrad, Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black
Slavery in Brazil
João José Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia,
trans. Arthur Brakel
Hendrik Kraay, Culture and Politics in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Afro-Bahia
Ruth Landes, City of Women
Amelia Simpson, Xuxa: The Mega-Marketing of Gender, Race, and Modernity
Abdias do Nascimento, Brazil: Mixture or Massacre; Essays on the Genocide of a
Black People
Kim D. Butler, Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won: Afro-Brazilians in Post-Abolition
São Paulo and Salvador
Phyllis Galembo, Divine Inspiration: From Benin to Bahia
Dale Graden, Abolition and Freedom in Brazil: Bahia, 1835-1900 (forthcoming 2006)
Overview of Mexico
William H. Beezley and Colin M. MacLachlan,
El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico
Ramón Eduardo Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedies: A History of the Mexican
People
Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power; A History of Modern Mexico,
1810-1996
Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, The Oxford History of Mexico
Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, Susan M. Deeds, The Course of
Mexican History, sixth edition
Independence in Mexico 1810-1825
Hugh Hamill, The Hidalgo Revolt
Jay Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions
and Underdevelopment
Christian I. Archer, ed., The Wars of Independence in Spanish America
Carlos Fuentes, The Campaign
Gabriel Garcia Marques, The General in His Labyrinth
Mexico’s Revolution 1910-1920
Ramón Eduardo Ruíz, The Great Rebellion:
Mexico 1905-1924
John Mason Hart, Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the
Mexican Revolution
John Mason Hart, Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the
Civil War
John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution
Michael Gonzales, The Mexican Revolution
Adofo Gilly, The Mexican Revolution
Paul Garner, Porfirio Díaz: Profiles in Power
Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz
The Muralists
Bertram D. Wolfe, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera
Antony W. Lee, Painting on the Left: Diego Rivera, Radical Politics and
San Francisco’s Public Murals
Linda Bank Downs, Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals
Desmond Rochfort, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros
Patrick Marnham and Elise Goodman, Dreaming with his Eyes Open: A Life of
Diego Rivera
Susan Platt, Art and Politics in the 1930s: Modernism, Marxism,
Americanism; A History of Cultural Activism During the Depression Years
Laurance P. Hurlburt, The Mexican Muralists in the United States
Zapatistas, 1994 to present
Tom Hayden, ed., The Zapatista Reader
George A. Collier and Elizabeth Lowerty Quaratiello, Basta! Land and the
Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas
John Womack, Jr., Rebellion in Chiapas: An Historical Reader
Neil Harvey, The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy
Subcommandante Marcos et.al., Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings
Border and Mexamerica
Lucy R. Lippard et.al., Distant
Relations: Chicano, Irish, Mexican Art and Critical Writings
John Mason Hart, ed., Border Crossings: Mexican and Mexican-American
Workers
Oscar J. Martínez, ed., US-Mexico Borderlands: Historical and
Contemporary Perspectives
David G. Gutiérrez, ed., Between Two Worlds: Mexican Immigrants in the
United States
Richard W. Etulain, ed., César Chávez: A Brief Biography with Documents
Rodolfo Acuña, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
Zaragosa Vargas, ed., Major Problems in Mexican American History
Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez, Brown: The Last Discovery of America
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo
T.C. Boyle, The Tortilla Curtain
Bobby Byrd and Susannah Mississippi Byrd, eds., The Late Great Mexican
Border: Reports from a Disappearing Line
Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands: La Frontiera
Coco Fusco, The Bodies That Were Not Ours
Lucy R. Lippard et.al., Distant Relations: Chicano, Irish, Mexican Art
and Critical Writing
A few recommended films
Amazon
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
The Emerald Forest
The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story
The Fires of the Amazon
Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice
Trinkets and Beads
Brasil
Pixote
Behind the Sun
Central Station
City of God
Four Days in September
Death and the Maiden
Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business
Caribbean
Burn
Sugar Cane Alley
Strawberry and Chocolate
Memories of Underdevelopment
Mexico
Traffic
Milagro Beanfield War
Lone Star
Frida
Kahlo
Like Water for Chocolate
Zapatista
Central America
Salvador
Romero
El Norte
Frontline: War on Nicaragua