HIS 8 – Survey of Latin American History
Professor: Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Ph.D.
gsotolaveaga@history.ucsb.edu
Office: HSSB 4234
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30-4:45
Teaching Assistants:
Kashia Arnold
Peggy Beedle
Francisco Beltran
Serge Ferrari
Laura Hooton
“You’d be surprised - they are all different countries.”
– attributed to Ronald Reagan, 1982
—President of the United States, 1981-1989
Course description:
Why study Latin America? As the above quote illustrates, past American leaders
regarded the region with, at best, disdain and sometimes with complete ignorance. These
attitudes have manifested themselves in how the American public understood, studied,
and chose to support invasions of the region through much of the twentieth century. In
this course students will understand contemporary Latin America by delving into how the
people of the region define themselves. The course will be an overview of the region’s
history from the time of first contact with cultures from the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean to the late twentieth century. For the twentieth century we will focus on case
studies of peasant, labor, women, and revolutionary movements to study those who have
often struggled to redefine what it means to be included as citizens with full rights in their
countries. By the end of the quarter students will be able to critically answer: how an
organization of bereaved mothers can help topple a government; why housewives join
revolutions or guerrilla movements; why priests take up arms; and how everyday citizens
strategize to survive during economic crises. Moreover students will be able to develop
critical thoughts about how Latin America’s past influences its present and future.
Course Requirements: This class is not an exercise in memorization. You must sharpen
your analytical skills and your ability to process a sizeable amount of information so that
you can formulate an opinion on various topics related to the course.
Required Texts:
- The Penguin History of Latin America
- Bitter Fruit
- Gaucho Space Readings – specific readings should be completed before class/section
time.
- Students will be expected to remain up-to date on current events in Latin America. A
surprise quiz may be given before Week 8. The quiz grade will be used to calculate your
participation grade.
Required Films:
“Even the Rain” – will be shown in class
“The Take: Occupy. Resist. Produce.” – documentary is available for free via Youtube.
Grading: Grades will be determined by a paper and project, a midterm, a final, and class
participation.
Section attendance is mandatory. Two section absences are a fail grade. If you fail
section you fail the class.
Class and Section Participation – 15%
Paper+ PaperProject – 30% - Due Week 8
Event – 5%
Film Analysis – 5%
Midterm – 25%
Final
- 20%
Participation: I welcome students’ comments, questions, and different points of view
during class time and office hours. I encourage you to develop your own view of the
world, this is a great class from which to continue to do that. Remember - a percentage of
your grade is based on class participation.
Paper: A short, 5-page paper will be required and it will accompany a project, with a
separate 1 page explanation (both total six pages). All papers will be typed, doublespaced, one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12 font. The project will represent a
reading, selection of readings, or a theme that has caught your attention in class. All
Paper-Projects are due at the beginning of class on the due date, those turned in at the end
of class are considered one day late. Your TAs cannot accept papers via e-mail, these will
be considered as not turned in. Late papers are penalized 10 points per late day.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is passing off someone’s work or ideas as your own. Examples of
plagiarism include cutting and pasting from a website, copying sentences from a book, or
retyping ideas from an article or blog without citing. As soon as you properly
acknowledge that the ideas, words, or images came from someone else you can carry on
developing your own thoughts. If you plagiarize a paper you will receive a failing grade
in the course and you will, with no exceptions, be referred to the administration and/or
Dean of your college. Students who plagiarize face potential expulsion.
Posting notes on-line:
All course materials (class lectures and discussions, handouts, examinations, web
materials) and the intellectual content of the course itself are protected by United States
Federal Copyright Law, the California Civil Code. The UC Policy 102.23 expressly
prohibits students (and all other persons) from recording lectures or discussions and from
distributing or selling lectures notes and all other course materials without the prior
written permission of the instructor (See http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/2710530/PACAOS100). Students are permitted to make notes solely for their own private educational use.
Exceptions to accommodate students with disabilities may be granted with appropriate
documentation. To be clear, in this class students are forbidden from completing
study guides and selling them to any person or organization. The previous text has
been approved by UC General Counsel.
Event: Every quarter the campus and surrounding community hosts speakers,
presentations, films, museum exhibits on or about Latin America. You must attend one
and write a one-page single spaced commentary and link it to what you have learned in
class. The MCC (Multi-Cultural Center) on campus is a great venue to see these events
for free. These event papers are due with your Paper-Project on Week 8.
Film Analysis: A film analysis is not a summary of the film but, rather, as the name
suggests, an explanation of themes or topics in the film. Film summaries will receive a
grade of zero.
Office Hours: I highly encourage you to make use of my and your TA’s office hours. If
you have specific questions pertaining to your section, please contact your TA first. If
you cannot make my office hours I will try to arrange another meeting time. Please
contact me at gsotolaveaga@history.ucsb.edu
Emails: I cannot answer all student e-mails immediately but will try to do so. I do not
check e-mails on Fridays or weekends so please take that into consideration when
expecting a response. It may be more practical for you to attend my office hours in
person. Should you have an emergency message, write so in the e-mail subject line but
be warned – use this privilege lightly. When sending an e-mail write in for example
“HIS8” in subject line.
Make-up exams: There will be no exam make-ups or rescheduling of exams. Unless
there is a documented act of the whims of nature, family tragedy, or a note from a
certified M.D., students must be present during exam times. I do not accept notes from
mothers, fathers, or significant others as proper excuses for a no-show to an exam or for a
late paper. If you foresee scheduling conflicts, please see me before they arise.
Suggested Texts: In particular for those students who have no previous class experience
with Latin America:
Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America
Galeano, Eduardo, Open Veins of Latin America
For a broader picture, see: Chasteen, John. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of
Latin America.
Note on Readings - An article may be added to weeks when the reading is “light.” The
professor will send an e-mail letting you know.
Week 1 – The Americas and Europe – the world of 1492
General overview. The Indies, voyages of discovery, Contact, the importance of the
Americas. These lectures will emphasize changes in the social, political, urban and rural
structure from the mid-fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
Monday –Conquest, colonization
How was Latin America structured? How did ideas from Spain and Portugal translate
into this different world?
Wednesday – …continued
Readings
1) Penguin Reader 1-38 and 39 -75
2) Excerpts from Popol Vuh, Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People
Primary Document: Hernán Cortés, Letters from Mexico to the King and Queen of Spain
Week 2 – Colonization
Readings:
1) Penguin Chapter 3 – “Spain in America”
2) Penguin Pgs116-147,
3) Excerpts from Memory of Fire: Genesis
4) Mark, C. and José Rigau- Pérez, “The World’s First Immunization Campaign: The
Spanish Smallpox Vaccine Expedition, 1803-1813” Bulletin of the History of Medicine
83:1 (spring 2009): 63-94.
Week 3 – Wars of Independence and Export Boom
Primary Document: Simon Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter and Federal Constitution of the
United States of Mexico.
Penguin, 195-235, 280-300,
Week 4 – Export Boom cont., Latin America enters the 20th Century
1) “Coffee” chapter excerpt from The Second Conquest of Latin America: Coffee,
Henequen, and Oil during the Export Boom, 1850-1930. pgs. 37 - 75
2) “People, Plants and Pathogens: The Eco-Social Dynamics of Export Banana
Production in Honduras, 1875-1950”
Penguin, 313-341
Week 5 – Mexico – From Promise to Collapse to Promise Today
Readings:
- Jeffrey M. Pilcher “Tamales or Timbales: Cuisine and the Formation of Mexican National
Identity, 1821-1911,”
-“Empire and Origins of 20th C. Migration from Mexico”
-Alexandra Stern, “Buildings, Boundaries, and Blood: Medicalization and Nation-Building
on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1910-1930”
- Thomas Friedman, “How Mexico Got Back in the Game” NY Times. February 23, 2013
- Penguin, 436-458
- Bitter Fruit –Introduction, Foreward, pg 7 – 27
Week 6 – MIDTERM
Bitter Fruit - 28-141 to begin to think about Guatemala
Week 7 - Nicaragua and Guatemala
Monday - What is Liberation Theology? What is the role of women in Liberation
Theology? What role did the Church play in Central American revolutions? Why does
the military become a governing option?
Readings
- “From Reagan to Bush: The Transition in US Policy towards Central America”
- “Leticia: A Nicaraguan woman’s struggle,” Beezley, William and Judith Ewell, ed. The
Human Tradition in Modern Latin America.
Key Terms – Sandino, Sandinistas, Somozas, Alliance for Progress, Contras, Daniel
Ortega
Guatemala: Guatemalan Revolution and Persecution of the Maya. How is race a social
construct? Give specific examples pertaining to the Latin American experience. What is
internal colonialism and what did it mean for the Indigenous populations of the
Americas?
Readings –
- Persistent Maya Resistance and Cultural Retention in Yucatán, 51- 68 The Indian in
Latin American History
-The Maintenance of Mayan Distinctiveness, 215 -227 in The Indian in Latin American
History
- Primary Document: Communiqués from Jennifer Harbury
- Excerpt from Rigoberta Menchú
- Penguin 353-364
Bitter Fruit – 142-225, afterward
Key Terms – Rigoberta Menchú, guardias blancas, Arévalo, land reform, Arbenz,
Castillo Armas, United Fruit Company
Week 8 – Argentina and PAPER DUE - Wednesday
Monday - How do citizens contend with the loss of democracy and the rise of
authoritarian regimes?
Please see “The Take” on Youtube.com this week
Readings –
- “Little Eva” 2-17
- Selections from Jo Fisher’s “Mother’s of the Disappeared”
- “Tango, gender and tuberculosis”
Penguin – 459 - 484
Key Terms – Evita, mothers of the disappeared, Dirty War, Junta, Kissinger, World Cup
Week 9 – Cuba and Peru
- Excerpts from Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara’s Last Mission, pgs. 23-73
- Primary Document: Excerpts from Fidel Castro “History Will Absolve Me”
- Primary Document: Excerpts from Ernest “Ché” Guevara’s “Guerrilla Warfare”
Week 10 – Peru cont. and Brazil
Monday - Peru - Terror as a tool for social reform. Who were the Shining Path, what
were their goals and why did they fail?
Readings:
- Dispatches, 154-175
- Reader, Excerpts from the Peru Reader
Key Terms – Shining Path, Fujimori, Abimael Guzmán, soup kitchens
Brazil - Urbanization, favelas, Getulio Vargas, capoeira, carnival, samba, hosts of the
world
Penguin – 485-510
Additional article TBA
Final: Please check Final Exam schedule