Social Revolution in Latin America
History 440/540

Dale Graden Spring 2002
MWF 12:30-1:20 Admin 307

Dale’s office is in Admin 305 A; telephone: 885-8956
Office hour: Monday 3:30-4:30 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 revolutionary movements and outcomes in Central America and the Caribbean in the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on United States relations with these regions. Through readings, discussion, lectures and films, we shall study some of the personalities and historical forces that have made revolutions, in the words of the diplomatic historian Walter LaFeber, “inevitable.”

It is imperative that you attend the class meetings, and that you do the readings. When it is noted discussion, please come prepared to discuss. 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 one of the great learning experiences in your journey through life.

I reserve the right to determine a grade based on attendance and participation. If you miss more than six class meetings during the semester, 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 three (3) short papers of three to four (3-4) typed pages required. Everyone is required to write on Paterson, Contesting Castro; this critique is due in class on Friday, February 1. The other two other papers are chosen from the six other choices noted on the syllabus. If there is another book that you would prefer to read, please let me know of your interest. Each paper is worth twenty (20) points, the take home final exam is worth thirty (30) points, and your participation is worth ten (10) points.

The three critiques of 3-4 pages are assigned to help you to learn how to write effectively and to ensure that you come to the specific discussion meeting prepared to talk about your ideas and interpretations. These essays should address some theme(s) which you consider relevant from the assigned reading. The short paper is not a “book report.” Rather, it is a critique of the book that you have read. I want to read about your ideas and observations and critical analysis, and not an overview of what the author has written. Show me that you have read and thought about the book. 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, 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 these short papers, and know when someone has scribbled down a bunch of ideas the night before and when the assignment has been approached seriously. I believe that these short papers are important. And you have asked why? Because the majority of students graduate from universities and colleges across the land unable to write 3-4 coherent pages on a specific topic or reading. I hope that you find the readings challenging and stimulating. In other words, I hope that the books I have chosen make you feel like you want 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 ideas, 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 considered these writing opportunities an important part of their university education. Late papers will not be accepted. You are welcome to write as many papers as you like, and such initiatives will be considered in my final evaluation of your participation in this course. Also, I encourage you to take advantage of the great opportunities that are available to you at the UI writing center.

If you are taking this course for graduate credit, please write two book critiques and a third longer paper of five to ten pages on a topic of your choice. If you need help in choosing a topic, please feel free to contact me. I also request that all graduate students write the take home final exam.

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:

Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution 
Matilde Zimmermann, Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution 
Forrest D. Colburn, My Car in Managua 
Joan Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua 
Arturo Arias, After the Bombs
Jennifer K. Harbury, Searching for Everado: A Story of Love, War and the CIA in Guatemala 
Medea Benjamin, Cuba; Talking About Revolution: Conversations with Juan Antonio Blanco 

Week one Many Americas; Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

Reading: begin Paterson, Contesting Castro 

Jan 14 Introduction
16 The Poverty of Progress
18 film: “I am Cuba” (segments)

Week two Cuba

Reading: Paterson, Contesting Castro

Jan 21 No class, MLK Day
23 The Spanish Cuban American War of 1895-98; early 20th century Cuba
25 film: “America's Century: Imperial Masquerade” (segments)

Week three Cuba’s Revolution

Reading: conclude, Paterson, Contesting Castro

Jan 28 Batista, Fidel and Che in the 1950s
30 The Cuban Revolution and domestic politics in the US; film "Memories 
of Underdevelopment" (segments)
Feb 1 discussion of Contesting Castro and required first short paper due

Week four Nicaragua and the Rise of the Sandinistas

Reading: Zimmermann, Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution

Feb 4 Augusto C. Sandino
6 The origins of the Sandinista movement
8 film “Bread and Dignity” (30m)

Week five Nicaragua

Reading: conclude Zimmermann, Sandinista

Feb 11 short segment from Canadian television on the Nicarguan Revolution
13 The failure of 20th century revolutions to develop a feminist agenda
15 film “An End to Silence” (55m)

Week six Nicaragua

Reading: Colburn, My Car in Managua

Feb 18, no class, Presidents Day
20 discussion of Zimmermann's Sandinista and optional paper number two is due
22 Guest lecture by Professor Gilda Luango-Morales of the Universidad Nacional
Andres Bello in Santiago de Chile

Week seven Nicaragua

Reading: Colburn, My Car in Managua

Feb 25 film “Frontline: War on Nicaragua” (58m)
27 discussion of film
March 1 discussion of Colburn, My Car in Managua and optional paper number three
is due

Week eight Nicaragua

Reading: Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder

March 4 Poetry and foreigners in Nicaragua during the Revolution
6 film "Deadly Embrace: Nicaragua, the World Bank and the IMF" (from World Link
Television, approx 30m)
8 Guest lecture by Professora Eugenia Castellanos de Ponciano of the University of 
San Carlos of Guatemala, School of Social and Political Science: "Dialogue and the Peace Process in the 1990s in Guatemala"

Week nine Nicaragua

Reading: Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder

March 11 Nicaragua in the 1990s
13 discussion of Kruckewitt, The Death of Ben Linder and optional short paper number four is due
15 no class

spring break: read Arias, After the Bombs

Week ten Literature and Revolution

Reading: Arias, After the Bombs

March 25 Guatemala: 1954 and its Legacies
27 film “Rigoberta Menchú: Broken Silence” (21m) and testimonial literature
29 discussion of Arias, After the Bombs and optional short paper number five is due

Week eleven US and Guatemala

Reading: begin Harbury, Searching for Everado 

April 1 “Todos Santos: The Survivors” (58m)
3 Mayan perspectives
5 interview with Jennifer Harbury

Week twelve Guatemala

Reading: conclude Harbury, Searching for Everado 

April 8 The search for answers
10 March 2002, Jennifer Harbury speaks before the US Supreme Court
12 discussion of Harbury, Searching for Everado and optional short paper 
number six is due

Week thirteen El Salvador 

Reading: Recommended is Claribel Alegria and Darwin J. Flakoll, Ashes of Izalco; 
and Dale T. Graden and James W. Martin, "Oliver Stone's Salvador: Revolution
for the Unacquainted," Film and History 28: 3-4 (1998), 18-27, both on reserve

April 15 The death of Archbishop Oscar Romero
17 film “Fire in the Mind”, Part Nine of The Americas (28m)
19 1979-81: Violence and Revolution in El Salvador

Week fourteen Cuba in the 1960s

Reading: Blanco and Benjamin, Cuba: Talking About Revolution

April 22 Segments from Oliver Stone's film "Salvador"
24 Film "Dateline-1962 Cuba" (23m)
26 Film documentary on modern Cuba for Canadian television (approx 23m)

Week fifteen Cuba, 1959 to 2002

Reading: conclude Blanco and Benjamin, Cuba: Talking About Revolution 

April 29 Health, Womens rights and race in post-revolutionary Cuba
May 1 film “Greener Grass: Cuba, baseball and the US”
May 3 discussion of Cuba: Talking About Revolution and short paper number 
seven is due

Week sixteen Democratic Transitions

May 6 Guerrillas become politicians; conclusions; I hand out take home exam question
8 no class
10 no class

Final Exam: Monday, May 13, 1-3 pm. Please come to the classroom prepared to write your response to the take home exam 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
Alma Guillermoprieto, The Heart that Bleeds: Latin American Now

Cuba

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

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
David Kunzle, The Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979-1992

Guatemala

Jean-Marie Simon, Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny
Eduardo Galeano, Guatemala: Occupied Country, translated by Cedric Belfrage
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
Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu, edited and introduced by Elisabeth Burgos-DeBray, translated by Ann Wright
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 Menchu 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
Maria Teresa Tula, Hear My Testimony: Human Rights Activist of El Salvador, edited and translated by Lynn Stephen
E. Bradford Burns, "The Modernization of Underdevelopment: El Salvador, 1858-1931," The Journal of Developing Areas 18 (April 1984), 293-316

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
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Tom Barry, Roots of Rebellion: Land and Hunger in Central America