Week 1: Revision
Some Themes and Problems in
Latin American History
Three “themes and problems” in Latin
American history
• All three run through the whole course, although they
manifest themselves differently in different parts of Latin
America
• They also get addressed/ solved differently in different
countries at different times.
• The themes are: land; labour; and race
• just three of many possible themes
Theme 1: Land
• Is there any such thing as “Latin America”?
• more of a CULTURAL definition than a geographic one.
• Term itself only came into existence in the mid-nineteenth century: before
then, “Latin America” didn’t exist
• “Latin” America first really used during the US-Mexico wars of 1836-1854
• Then used 1862-7 to justify the brief French invasion of Mexico
• From about 1900, “Latin” distinguishes the Spanish (or Portuguese)
speaking part of the region from the “Anglo” part to the north.
• So actually, it isn’t geography, or land, which defines what “Latin”
America is.
• Nonetheless, across the region, the problem of LAND has helped define
politics, society, economics.
Land and colonial history
• Spanish and the Portuguese colonise through private enterprise and Crown
initiative: settlers want LAND, although they put it to slightly different purposes
…
• Spanish: focus on MINING; live in TOWNS
• CITIES become cultural and political centres of Hispanic world • Angel Rama’s influential 1984 book discusses idea of the “ciudad letrada” or
“lettered city”
• But, Spanish also develop rural institution: hacienda - landed estates manned by
servile labourers
• Portuguese focus more on land in its own right; donatary captaincies, huge
swathes of semi-privately-owned land;
• The fazenda is central to Brazilian society well into the C20
A comparative perspective
•Brazil: 1850 Lei de Terras (land law): makes
land hard to acquire for small purchasers
•US: 1862 Homestead Act: deliberately
makes land available to small farmers/
families.
Land reform in the twentieth century
• Lat Am enters the C20 with huge LAND CONCENTRATION in the hands of
a very few.
• Land helps inspires MEXICAN REVOLUTION of 1910. Peasant struggles help
put land reform on for Mexican Constitution of 1917, enacted most
significantly by Lazaro Cardenas in the 1930s
• Mexican Constitution: echoed elsewhere the region. E.g. revolutions/
land reform in Bolivia and in Nicaragua; moderate reforms in Peru, Chile,
Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colombia
• Fidel Castro’s 1953 “History will Absolve Me” “political manifesto”
addresses the problem of land; most radical land reform is CUBA after
1959.
Land and politics
• Link between land and rapid urbanisation - flight from the
land, e.g. Argentina, most people can’t make a living on the
land
• Land as social problem: addressed by peasant movements,
especially Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)
• According to the MST, in 1998, 1% of owners in Brazil
owned 46% of the land.
Theme 2: Labour
• Spanish: sought labour to extract mining wealth: Zacatecas in
Mexico, Potosí in today’s Bolivia
• Spanish colonial laws forbid enslavement of indigenous; debates
about rights and wrongs of encomienda; but virtual slavery continued
for workers
• Brazil indigenous then African slavery. Latin America imported over
50% of all African slaves brought to the Americas; 40% go to Brazil.
• Slavery abolished everywhere by 1880s
• But, problem of labour rights left for the C20 to solve
Labour and politics in the twentieth century
• Mexican Constitution (1917) pioneers social guarantees for
workers e.g. length of working day, child labour
• Tendency for state to take responsibility for social / labour
reform echoed elsewhere in region
• demands of working class shape politics in mid-C20:
populism and corporatism
• Juan Perón in Argentina, or Getulio Vargas in Brazil, or even
Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, harness workers’ demands in
own interest
Theme 3: Race and cultural identity
• Supposedly, meeting of 3 peoples (Indians, Iberians, Africans)
• But: Indians not Indians: Americas are new continent, not “Indies”;
hundreds of ethnic groups and over 57M people
• “Iberians” very diverse: recent reconquest from the Moors;
hundreds of years of co-existence of different peoples and faiths.
• Late C19: millions of other Europeans arrive (Germans, Italians…)
especially in Argentina/ Brazil
• More Africans than Europeans before C19: also from very diverse
backgrounds
“Race” in colonial times
• Initial aim of racial separateness ; gives way to “messier”
daily reality of RACE MIXTURE – mestizaje or mestiçagem
• “Race” always about social status, not just skin colour
• C18: new social and cultural categories created; Bourbon
Reforms revise rules for inter-racial marriage
• Indigenous are significant political force : rebellions e.g.
Tupac Amaru uprising in Peru in 1780, influence on C19
independence wars
The twentieth century
• New national imaginings and representations of race sought
• Revolutionary Mexico: idea of raza cósmica, e.g. in murals,
literature, education (influence of José de Vasconcelos)
• Peru: indigenismo helps found new political party (APRA –
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, 1924).
• Brazil: new notion of “racial democracy”, associated with
sociologist Gilberto Freyre
• Academic, literary imaginings do little for actual indigenous
people.
Evo Morales: Latin America’s first indigenous
president (2006 to present)
Other Latin American “themes and problems”?
• Nationbuilding and democracy;
• economic “dependence” and economic nationalism;
• Latin American revolutionary histories;
• the military;
• Lat Am’s relationship with the United States.
Revision tips
• Check PAST PAPERS on library website (search under
American Studies)
• Only CAS students do the exam
• 2 questions in 2 hours; out of a choice of ten
• Use module website, lecture notes, seminar notes and
discussion questions notes as a guide
• Prepare 4 topics covered on the course, from different
angles
• Prepare another 1 or 2 just in case
Exam answers
• Answer the question!
• clear introduction and conclusion; clear argument running through
• Focus on the argument itself, rather than the exceptions/ counterexamples
• No need for quotations from historians or footnotes
• For each topic you prepare, memorise dates, “facts” or figures,
numerical examples – help back up arguments and makes answers
more specific
• Prepare some examples from more than one Latin American country
And finally…
• Do a past paper in exam conditions
• Plan your answers carefully before writing
• Write clearly!
Good luck!