Modern Latin America
History 439/539
Summer 2002: 17 June to 10 July

Dale Graden
M,T,W,Th 10:30-1:20 ALB 203

Dale’s office is in Admin 305 A; telephone: 885-8956
Office hour: Monday 9-10, or by appointment
Email: Graden@uidaho.edu
Online: www.its.uidaho.edu/Graden/
This syllabus is available online

The purpose of this course is to offer an overview of Latin American history and culture 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. The course will include three required books, parts of a fourth required book (Burns / Charlip), films, and lots of discussion. 

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, please leave a note in my mailbox in the department of history (Admin 315) or send a message via email to let me know. 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 final essay required, due on Tuesday 9 July. The paper is worth ninety (90) points and your participation is worth ten (10) points.

The final essay should address some theme(s) which you consider relevant from the assigned readings. The essay is not a “book report.” Rather, it is a reflection essay based on our readings and discussions. I want to learn from your ideas and observations and critical analysis, and not receive an overview of the ideas of various authors. 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.

Please, write the paper a few days before the due date (like on the weekend of 4-7 July or before), 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 asked 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, pencil, charcoal) in hand to write down your ideas. The discussion offers a great opportunity for you to share with the class your perspectives, impressions, sentiments, worldview, etc. I am convinced that we all have much to gain by engaging in a reasoned and critical 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. Late papers will not be accepted (as I am departing on the 11 July). 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.

I would like to note that several major newspapers and other websites of interest for this course can be viewed at my website. Newspapers like The New York Times provide useful domestic and international coverage of stories related to our course. I encourage you to read at least one newspaper (and others!) every day.

The following books are available at the UI bookstore and are on reserve at the library:

Required Readings

E. Bradford Burns and Julie A. Charlip, Latin America: A Concise Interpretative History 7th edition
Eduardo Galeano, Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World, with engravings by José Guadalupe Posada and translated by Mark Fried
Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America
Margaret Randall, ed., Risking a Somersault in the Air: Conversations with Nicaraguan Writers

Recommended Reading also available at the UI Bookstore

Joan Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American Sandinista in Nicaragua

Week One: Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Reading: Burns, A Concise Interpretative History, 169-254; recommended is to read the whole book.

Week Two: Latin America and the United States: The Twilight of the Tyrants, Counterinsurgency and the Alliance for Progress

Reading: Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World, all; recommended is Burns, A Concise Interpretative History, 255-312; and Joan Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder

Week Three: Intellectuals and Revolution

Reading: Margaret Randall, ed., Risking a Somersault in the Air, all

Week Four: Democracy and Neo-Liberalism

Reading: Galeano, Upside Down, all.

Some recommended books (most available at the UI Library)

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

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

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

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