LATIN AMERICA: STATE AND NATION SINCE INDEPENDENCE
Spring 2000
Steven Volk
MWF 9:00-9:50 AM (King 106)
How to reach me:
Office (Rice 309); Telephone: x8522
Email: steven.volk@oberlin.edu
WWW: http://www.oberlin.edu/~svolk
A chronological continuation of History 109 (Conquest and Colonization), History 110 looks at the construction of independent Latin American states in the nineteenth century and their emergence into (and conflict with) modernity in the twentieth. Above all, this class examines how independent states arise from colonial territories, how their leaders attempt to strengthen them, and how nations, national identities, and national communities are constructed within them. It also focuses on questions of democratic representation, and the struggles by many sectors for political, social, economic and cultural inclusion. Finally, we will explore a number of issues that are drawing the Americas (i.e. United States and Latin America) closer together.
COURSE FORMAT
The aim of this course is to provide a survey of Latin American history in the post-independence period. It is, obviously, impossible to cover more than 50 political entities (nations and colonies) that make up the modern Latin American and Caribbean region; nor can we even hope to examine all the 21 mainland countries. In general, we will concentrate our examination on Spanish America (with only modest coverage of Brazil), and on just a few countries. Lectures will often focus on specific events, incidents, problems, or perspectives which are meant to illustrate larger historical trends.
History 110 will follow a lecture/discussion format. I encourage you to participate actively in class by raising questions, points of discussion, or by reflecting in broader terms on how the history we are examining relates to current concerns or events. We will also attempt smaller-group discussions as much as possible.
The readings I have selected most often supplement, rather than repeat, the lectures. Indeed, I often base my lectures on one national experience and supplement them by assigning readings based on another. Not all readings will be discussed - which is not a signal that you shouldn't read them!
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING POLICY
All students are expected to attend class regularly and to keep up with the reading. (Why do you want to pay all this money to the College just to copy somebody's notes for a class you didn't attend?!?) I reserve the right to factor excessive absence from class into the final grade. (Ok, 9:00 AM is early -- for some. So set your alarms, tell your roomates to douse you with ice water, tank up on good Latin American coffee, and see what the world looks like for most people!)
There are three graded assignments:
- 3-5 page essay on an assigned topic (25% of final grade);
- Take-home mid-term paper on topics selected by the class (35% of final grade);
- In-class final exam (40% of final grade).
Your assignments are to be turned in on the day noted in the syllabus. Late papers turned in without a valid excuse - which you must discuss with me before the due date of the paper and which I will not grant without a justifiable reason - will be reduced by one grade-step for each class day that an assignment is late. For example, the paper due on Monday, February 28 but turned in on March 1 will get a "B-" instead of the "B" that it merited; if it is turned in on March 3, it will get a "C+", etc.
A NOTE ON THE READINGS
I do not teach from a textbook. If you are interested in textbooks that can provide a good overview of the entire period covered, you might consider David Bushnell & Neill Macaulay, The Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press), 1994; and Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press), 1997.
OTHER SOURCES OF NEWS AND INFORMATION ON LATIN AMERICA
I strongly urge you to get into the habit of reading about current events in Latin America in any newspaper with strong foreign reporting coverage. These would include: New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, etc. Their coverage is usually more complete (if not more perceptive) than that of newspapers that simply subscribe to the wire-services. Other good sources of contemporary news from Latin America include NACLA Report on the Americas, Latin American Perspectives, and the Latin American Newsletters from London.
You should also be aware of the Information Service on Latin America (ISLA), available in Mudd. ISLA is a compilation of nearly every article on Latin America (in hard copy format) from the major U.S. newspapers, as well as some European papers. The articles are organized by country and by date.
THE WEB AND ELECTRONIC SOURCES OF INFORMATION
As you probably know, there has been an explosion of materials on Latin America (and everywhere else) on the World Wide Web and in other electronic formats. For example, Oberlin now offers the valuable Lexis-Nexis Universe search service in a Web format via Ohio Link Research Databases. The Internet allows you to search literally millions of contemporary records, to listen to up-to-the-minute broadcasts from the BBC, to read the daily press in Chile or Mexico, to find out which Chilean officers graduated from the School of the Americas, or to download the latest communiques from the Zapatistas in Mexico. It is nothing short of essential that you become acquainted with the Web and the kinds of information it can provide. One easy way to search out information on Latin America on the Web is to go to my home page (http://www.oberlin.edu/~svolk). There you will find links to dozens of useful sites including many in the following categories:
· Sources and Resources on Latin America
· Centers for Latin American and Latino Studies in the United States Latin America and Europe
· Organizations Involved in Activist Work on Latin America
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR PURCHASE
Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits (New York: Bantam), 1986.
Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs. A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, trans. E. Mungía, Jr. (New York: New American Library), 1963.
William Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 1987.
Patricia Galvão, Industrial Park. A Proletarian Novel, Trans. Elizabeth and K. David Jackson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 1993 [1933].
Thomas Klubock, Contested Communities: Class, Gender and Politics in Chile's El Teniente, 1904-1951 (Durham: Duke University Press), 1999.
Jaime Rodríguez O., The Independence of Spanish America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1998.
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann and Ilan Stavans, eds. (Penguin Classics), 1998.
Note: All books and required readings are on reserve in the library. All the reserve reading from books that are not recommended for purchase are also on Electronic Reserve (ERes).
Feb. 7, 9, 11: Introduction and Independence
Reading:Jaime Rodríguez O., The Independence of Spanish America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), through Chapter 3 (p. 106).
David Cahill, "Taxonomy of a Colonial 'Riot': The Arequipa Disturbances of 1780" (pp. 298-315); Two "Casta" Paintings from 18th Century Mexico (p. 323 and 325); Portrait of Don Felipe Tupa Amaru (18th century) (p. 336); José María Morelos's "Sentiments of the Nation," Chilpancingo, Mexico (1813) (pp. 341-343), all from Kenneth Mills and William B. Taylor, eds, Colonial Spanish America. A Documentary History (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources), 1998.
"A Revolutionary's Look at Independent Spanish America," (Simon Bolivar's 'Jamaica Letter'), from Mark B. Rosenberg , A. Douglas Kincaid, and Kathleen Logan, eds, Americas. An Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 40-44.
"Bolivar's Politica Prescriptions" (Simon Bolivar, "The Congress of Angostura, 1819" and "The Constitution for Bolivia, 1826"), from Burns, Latin America. Conflict and Creation, pp. 52-59.
Feb. 14, 16, 18: The Aftermath of Independence in Latin America
Reading:Rodríguez, The Independence of Spanish America (remainder).
"Maria Graham. Life Among the Elite in Brazil and Chile [1824]," from June E. Hahner, Women through Women's Eyes. Latin American Women in Nineteenth-Century Travel Accounts (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998), pp. 1-20.
"Political Advice from a Father to His Son" [from Mentor Nicaraguense, 1842] and "The Brazilian Constitution of 1824: Contractual, Genetic, and Patriarchal," from E. Bradford Burns, ed., Latin America. Conflict and Creation. A Historical Reader (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), pp. 59-63 and 68-72.
"The Lions of Payará, José Antonio Paez [1869],"and "'I Met Vidal on His Way to the Palace,' José Rufino Echenique, from: John Charles Chasteen and Joseph S. Tulchin, Problems in Modern Latin American History. A Reader (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1994), pp. 42-45 and 45-48.
Feb. 21, 23, 25: Constructing the Nation: "Modernity" vs. "Tradition"
Reading:Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann and Ilan Stavans, eds. (Penguin Classics, 1998), Introduction through Ch. 12.
Feb. 28, March 1, 3: Alternative Constructions of the Nation: Questions of Gender, Ethnicity
NOTE: First Paper Due in Class, February 28
Electronic Reserve:"State, Society, and Agriculture" and "The Communities," from David McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 1760-1940 (Sanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), pp. 17-37 (top) and 130-157.
"Rosa Dominga Ocampos: A Matter of Honor in Paraguay" and "Juana Manuela Gorriti: Writer in Exile," pp. 114-127, from Judith Ewell and William H. Beezley, eds., The Human Tradition in Latin America. The Nineteenth Century (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1989), pp. 73-81 and 114-127.
March 6, 8, 10: The Market, Modernity, and 19th Century Spanish America
Electronic Reserve:Florencia Mallon, Defense of Community in Peru's Central Highlands. Peasant Struggle and Capitalist Transition, 1860-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 3-79.
David McCreery, "The Coffee Revolution," Rural Guatemala, pp. 161-194.
"The Export Economy. A Sugar Plantation in Cuba," and "Rising Coffee Exports and Falling Food Surpluses in Brazil, 1850-1860," from Burns, Latin America. Conflict and Creation, pp. 90-96.
March 13, 15, 17: Brazil: Slavery and Freedom in the 19th Century
Electronic Reserve:"Liberalism: Theory and Practice" and "Masters and Slaves: From Slave Labor to Free Labor," Emilia Viotti da Costa, The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 53-77 and 125-171.
"Part III: African Slavery in Brazil," by Mary Butler (includes: Olaudah Equiano, "This Accursed Trade;" Stanley Stein, "A Day on a Coffee Estate;" Mahommah G. Baquaqua, "Life Aboard Ship;" R.K. Kent, "The Negro Republic of Palmares;" Thomas Nelson, "The Contraband Trade;" and Joaquim Nabuco, "A Humane and Civilized Nation: Abolition" in Chasteen and Tulchin, eds., Problems in Modern Latin American History, pp. 69-96.
March 20, 22, 24: The Apogee of the Oligarchic State: Mexico during the Porfiriato
Reading:William Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 1987. Entire.
Fanny Chambers Gooch, "Keeping House in Northern Mexico," Hahner, Women Through Women's Eyes, pp. 131-155.
William H. Beezley, "Nicolás Zuñiga y Miranda," in Ewell and Beezley, eds., The Human Tradition in Latin America, pp. 204-214.
NOTE: Take-home Mid-term Examination due 4:30 PM, March 24
March 27 - 31: Spring Break
April 3, 5, 7: And the House Comes Tumbling Down: The Mexican Revolution
Reading:Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs. A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, trans. E. Mungía, Jr. (New York: New American Library), 1963. Entire.
"The Plan of San Luis Potosí," and "The Ayala Plan," in Rosenberg, Kincaid, and Logan, eds, Americas, pp. 305-307, 308-310.
Useful sources from the Internet:
The Mexican Revolution (photos and documents):
Emiliano Zapata
April 10, 12, 14: Expanding the Nation: Labor and Gender-the Rise of New Citizens in the 20th Century
Reading:Thomas Klubock, Contested Communities: Class, Gender and Politics in Chile's El Teniente, 1904-1951 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), Introduction and Part I.
April 17, 19, 21: Populism
Reading:Thomas Klubock, Contested Communities: Class, Gender and Politics in Chile's El Teniente, 1904-1951 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), Part II.
Juan and Eva Peron, 1950
April 24, 26, 28: Revolutionary Latin America: Cuba
Electronic Reserve:Background:Fidel Castro, "History Will Absolve Me," in Philip Brenner, William M. LeoGrande, Donna Rich and Daniel Siegel, eds., The Cuba Reader. The Making of a Revolutionary Society (New York: Grove Press, 1989), pp. 31 - 35.
"Program Manifesto of the 26th of July Movement (Nov. 1956)," The Cuba Reader, pp. 35-41.
Politics:Ernesto (Che) Guevara, "Cuba: Exception or Vanguard?," in Venceremos! The Speeches and Writings of Ernesto Che Guevara, ed. John Gerassi (New York: Macmillan, 1968), pp. 131-138.
William M. LeoGrande, "Party Development in Revolutionary Cuba," The Cuba Reader, pp. 156-172.
William M. LeoGrande, "Mass Political Participation in Socialist Cuba," The Cuba Reader, pp. 186-199.
The New Socialist Person:Che Guevara, "On Party Militancy," Venceremos!, pp. 240-249.
Che Guevara, "Man and Socialism in Cuba," The Cuba Reader, pp. 83-88.
Max Azicri, "Women's Development Through Revolutionary Mobilization," The Cuba Reader, pp. 457-471.
Lourdes Casal, "Race Relations in Contemporary Cuba," The Cuba Reader, pp. 471-486.
Economics, Development and Human Rights:Che Guevara, "On Growth and Imperialism," Venceremos!, pp. 153-181.
Claes Brundenius, "Development Strategies and Basic Human Needs," The Cuba Reader, pp. 108-123.
Che Guevara, "On Revolutionary Medicine," Venceremos!, pp. 112-119.
Robert N. Ubell, "Twenty-five Years of Cuban Health Care," The Cuba Reader, pp. 435-445.
Cuba in the late 1990's:"Inside Cuba," NACLA Report on the Americas, XXXII:5 (March/April 1999), pp. 16-45.
(Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos after the victory in 1959 -- the revolution, that is, not baseball!)
May 1, 3, 5: The Peaceful Road to Socialism, Chile
Reading:Thomas Klubock, Contested Communities: Class, Gender and Politics in Chile's El Teniente, 1904-1951 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), Chapters 8 and 9.
Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits (New York: Bantam), 1986. (Approx. half of book)
Salvador Allende, President of Chile (1970-73)
May 8, 10, 12: The Decade of the Dictators
Reading:Allende, House of the Spirits (remainder)
May 17: FINAL EXAMINATION (7:00 PM)