Frank A. Guridy

This course explores Cuban/U.S. relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Our exploration of Cuban/U.S. relations prompts students to grapple with issues of empire and transnationalism, both as actual historical processes and as analytical tools that can be used to examine historic and contemporary phenomena. Drawing upon monographs, travel writings, primary documents, fiction, and audio/visual materials, students will examine the complex interactions between the island’s population and their U.S. American neighbors across all facets of society. A particular emphasis will be placed on the social and cultural engagements between Cuba and the United States before the Cuban Revolution in an effort to grasp the profound impact of the Cold War on the conceptualization of Cuban history and society in the post-1959 period. While this is a course primarily rooted in Cuban history, it does not attempt to provide a “national” survey of the island’s past. Instead, it invites students to think about writing post-national histories of Cuban/U.S. interaction, one that explores the multiple connections and alternative principles of affiliation that exist among Cubans and U.S. Americans.

Texts:

Achy Obejas, Memory Mambo

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations With Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading:

3 Tests at 25% each: 75% of final grade

Active Class Participation: 25%

This course examines the historical experiences of people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean (often called “Afro-Latin America”). The guiding questions of this course are: What is Afro-Latin America? Where is it? How can we write the histories of African descended peoples in the region we call “Latin America”? Can the histories of Africans and their descendants be contained within the confines of “nation”? Are there alternative frameworks (transnational and/or Diasporic) that can better enhance our understanding of these histories? While the course will begin in the slavery era, most of our attention will focus on the histories of Afro-Latin Americans after emancipation. Topics we will explore include: the particularities of slavery in the Americas, the Haitian Revolution and its impact on articulations of race and nation in the region, debates on “racial democracy,” the relationship between gender race, and empire, and recent attempts to write Afro-Latin American histories from “transnational” and “diaspora” perspectives. While historians have written most of the work we will read in this course, we will also engage the works of anthropologists and sociologists who have also been key contributors to this scholarship. Thus, the course has a three-fold objective:

1)   To deepen our understanding of the diverse histories of Africans and their descendants in the region.

2)   To continually probe the ongoing tension between national and transnational processes that is embedded in much of this scholarship.

3)   To explore alternative frameworks that might enhance our understanding of the histories of people of African descent in the region.

Texts:

Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

Lara Putnam, The Company they Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa Rica, 1870-1960

George Michael Hanchard, Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945-1988

Grading:

Active Class Participation                                         20%

Map Assignment                                                       25%

Short Essay                                                                15%

Final Paper                                                                40%

This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes. 

Course Description: This graduate readings course will grapple with the implications of the so-called “transnational turn” in American hemispheric studies. It takes up the challenge posed by recent work on transnationalism and globalization by training graduate students in the theories and methodologies of a field that is emerging from older models of international and comparative scholarship to more recent approaches that highlight the movement of peoples, commodities, and ideas across borders. Students will encounter an eclectic mix of transnational scholarship from fields including: African Diaspora Studies, Borderlands history, commodity chains studies, migration studies, among others. While the course will draw mostly from the discipline of history, it explicitly incorporates scholarship from other disciplines to encourage students to develop interdisciplinary approaches. The ultimate goal of the course is to prompt students to conceptualize the Americas as a broader American interconnected transborder space, rather than a hemisphere of different nation-states.

Grade Breakdown:

Active Class Participation  20%

Author Report  20%

Review Essay 20%

Final Paper  40%

Tentative Reading List:

Stephanie Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora

José David Saldívar, Trans-Americanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico)

Frank Andre Guridy, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African-Americas in a World of Empire and Jim Crow

Michael Hanchard, Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945-1988

John Soluri, Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States

Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950

Jorge Duany, Blurred Borders: Transnational Migration between the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States

Christopher Thomas Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods: Stadiums in the Cultural Landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires

Deborah A. Thomas, Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica

This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes. 

Course Objectives:

(1) Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Latin American history since the Wars for Independence.

(2) Expose students to the complex relationship between local level developments and transnational processes across time and space.

(3) Encourage students to interrogate nationalism as a historical phenomenon, rather than a transhistorical given that stands outside of history

Required Readings:

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire

José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica/The Cosmic Race

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading

The breakdown of your grade is as follows: 

First two tests at 25% each 50%

Final Exam 30%

Active Class participation 20%

This course explores Cuban/U.S. relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Our exploration of Cuban/U.S. relations prompts students to grapple with issues of empire and transnationalism, both as actual historical processes and as analytical tools that can be used to examine historic and contemporary phenomena. Drawing upon monographs, travel writings, primary documents, fiction, and audio/visual materials, students will examine the complex interactions between the island’s population and their U.S. American neighbors across all facets of society. A particular emphasis will be placed on the social and cultural engagements between Cuba and the United States before the Cuban Revolution in an effort to grasp the profound impact of the Cold War on the conceptualization of Cuban history and society in the post-1959 period. While this is a course primarily rooted in Cuban history, it does not attempt to provide a “national” survey of the island’s past. Instead, it invites students to think about writing post-national histories of Cuban/U.S. interaction, one that explores the multiple connections and alternative principles of affiliation that exist among Cubans and U.S. Americans.

Texts 

Achy Obejas, Memory Mambo

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations With Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading 

3 Tests at 25% each: 75% of final grade

Active Class Participation: 25%

This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes. 

Course Objectives:

(1) Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Latin American history since the Wars for Independence.

(2) Expose students to the complex relationship between local level developments and transnational processes across time and space.

(3) Encourage students to interrogate nationalism as a historical phenomenon, rather than a transhistorical given that stands outside of history

Required Readings:

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire

José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica/The Cosmic Race

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading

The breakdown of your grade is as follows: 

First two tests at 25% each 50%

Final Exam 30%

Active Class participation 20%

Course Description: This course examines the historical experiences of people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean (often called “Afro-Latin America”). The guiding questions of this course are: What is Afro-Latin America? Where is it? How can we write the histories of African descended peoples in the region we call “Latin America”? Can the histories of Africans and their descendants be contained within the confines of “nation”? Are there alternative frameworks (transnational and/or Diasporic) that can better enhance our understanding of these histories? While the course will begin in the slavery era, most of our attention will focus on the histories of Afro-Latin Americans after emancipation. Topics we will explore include: the particularities of slavery in the Americas, the Haitian Revolution and its impact on articulations of race and nation in the region, debates on “racial democracy,” the relationship between gender race, and empire, and recent attempts to write Afro-Latin American histories from “transnational” and “diaspora” perspectives. While historians have written most of the work we will read in this course, we will also engage the works of anthropologists and sociologists who have also been key contributors to this scholarship. Thus, the course has a three-fold objective:

1)   To deepen our understanding of the diverse histories of Africans and their descendants in the region.

2)   To continually probe the ongoing tension between national and transnational processes that is embedded in much of this scholarship.

3)   To explore alternative frameworks that might enhance our understanding of the histories of people of African descent in the region.

Grade Breakdown:

Active Class Participation                                         20%

Map Assignment                                                       25%

Short Essay                                                                15%

Final Paper                                                                40%

Required Texts:

Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

Lara Putnam, The Company they Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa Rica, 1870-1960

George Michael Hanchard, Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945-1988

Re-imagining Cuba, 1868-Present

Empire and Transnationalism

HIS 363K Unique #: 39445

AFR 374 Unique #: 35375
LAS 366 Unique #: 40165
Fall 2010
University of Texas at Austin

Course Instructor: Dr. Frank A. Guridy

Time and Place: MWF 11am-12pm, GAR 1.126

Course Description: Since the 1990s, we have seen a renewed interest in things “Cuban” in the United States. However, the continuing conflict between the Cuban and U.S. governments illustrates that the hostilities from the Cold War era remain. Despite this ongoing political impasse, interest in Cuban culture and society continues to increase in the United States, suggesting that it may now be feasible to imagine a post-Cold War relationship between the two nations. These trends suggest a need not only to rethink the contemporary Cuban/U.S. relationship, but also to re-examine the history of interaction between the two societies on all levels, from popular culture to the heights of state power.

This course explores Cuban/U.S. relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Our exploration of Cuban/U.S. relations prompts students to grapple with issues of empire and transnationalism, both as actual historical processes and as analytical tools that can be used to examine historic and contemporary phenomena. Drawing upon monographs, travel writings, primary documents, fiction, and audio/visual materials, students will examine the complex interactions between the island’s population and their U.S. American neighbors across all facets of society. A particular emphasis will be placed on the social and cultural engagements between Cuba and the United States before the Cuban Revolution in an effort to grasp the profound impact of the Cold War on the conceptualization of Cuban history and society in the post-1959 period. While this is a course primarily rooted in Cuban history, it does not attempt to provide a “national” survey of the island’s past. Instead, it invites students to think about writing post-national histories of Cuban/U.S. interaction, one that explores the multiple connections and alternative principles of affiliation that exist among Cubans and U.S. Americans.

Course Objectives:

(1)   Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments that have shaped Cuba’s relationship to the United States from the outbreak of the Cuban War for Independence to the present.

(2)   Encourage students to think about the writing of history beyond a nation-based perspective.

(3) Expose students to the “historian’s craft” by analyzing primary documents and making coherent arguments based on an interrogation of historical evidence.

Course requirements:

FIRST AND FOREMOST…you need to know from the beginning that this will be a challenging class. In other words, THIS IS NOT A BLOW-OFF COURSE. This is not meant to scare you, only to let you know that the most general expectation of the course is that you come prepared to work every class session. Often students organize their semester based on the degree of difficulty of their classes. I want to dissuade you from thinking that this will be one of your “easier” classes. That said, our journey through the history of Cuba’s relationship with the United States promises to be an exciting and rewarding experience, one that should lead you to feel that your work was worth your time. To be sure, your instructor will work as hard as you will to make this a rewarding semester.

ATTENDANCE AND CLASS PARTICIPATION: The success of this course requires your consistent presence in class.

For this reason you are expected to attend every session. Moreover, lateness will not be tolerated. Late arriving students disrupt class. Beginning the second week of class, an attendance sheet will be available for you to sign in the front of the classroom. If you do not sign your name on the sheet within five minutes of the beginning of class time, you will be considered absent. Leaving class early will also constitute an absence. After three (3) absences, you will be penalized a full letter grade for each additional absence thereafter. No exceptions.

Although the class is designed around some lecturing, it is also centered on discussion and group interaction. This means that prior to class do the readings, think critically about them, and be ready to discuss them. This advance preparation is essential to the success of this class. You will not be judged on whether or not your instructor or classmates agree with your ideas, but rather on how well you articulate them. This requires you to be open to new perspectives posed by the course and your fellow classmates, to reflect on them, and to come up with your own thoughts on the various topics we will explore this semester. Please consult the Course Schedule below on a regular basis to ensure you are prepared for each class session.

Your participation grade will also depend on your involvement in Blackboard discussions (http://courses.utexas.edu/. Every student must participate in Blackboard discussions at least five (5) times this semester. Each week I will set up a discussion forum around topics that arise in lecture and class discussions. Students will be expected to make a significant contribution to weekly discussion forums that are based on their engagement with lectures and course readings. Contributions rooted in broad-based assertions will not be considered a “significant contribution.” Class Participation is worth 25% of your final grade.

We will also use Blackboard to distribute assignments.

EXAMS: Each test will cover approximately one third of the course. You will have one in-class exam and two take home exams. The in-class exam will include a mixture of short identification and essay questions. Tests are not cumulative. Tests will cover weekly readings, lectures, as well as in-class discussion.

EXTRA CONSIDERATION OPPORTUNITIES: Students seeking to improve their grades may write short reviews of various lectures and events that are relevant to Cuban/U.S. Relations that might take place on campus throughout the semester. These assignments must be well-written and reflect your engagement with the issues/ideas raised by the event. Students must complete extra credit assignments within one week of the lecture/event. While I will identify “extra consideration” events throughout the semester, you can also suggest an “extra consideration” opportunity to me as well.

The breakdown of your grade is as follows:
3 Tests at 25% each                                                        75%
Active Class Participation                                                25%

Grades with be determined as follows:
93-100=A          
90-92=A-          
87-89=B+
83-86=B
80-82=B-
77-79=C+
73-76=C
70-72=C-
67-69=D+
63-66=D
60-62=D-
00-59=F

POLICY ON INCOMPLETES: Under no circumstances do I give incompletes. If you are finding that you are having difficulty keeping up with the work in class for whatever reason, please see me immediately.

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

            All students are expected to adhere to UT’s guidelines regarding plagiarism. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. Refer to the Student Judicial Services website for official University politics and procedures on scholastic dishonesty. Please see me if you have any further questions about plagiarism.

ACADEMIC ACCOMODATIONS STATEMENT: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY.

The following books are available at Monkey Wrench Books 110 E. North Loop, Phone: 512-407-6925 

Margaret Randall, To Change the World: My Years in Cuba  (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009)

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations With Cuba (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001).

Article readings available on Blackboard (see course schedule below).

Course Schedule

Wednesday, August 25, Introduction and Syllabus Overview

Beginnings (1776-1868)

Friday, August 27, Conceptualizing the Cuban/U.S. Relationship

Topics/concepts:

Different approaches to U.S.-Cuban relations: modernization, nationalist, and transnational perspectives.

Monday, August 30, Historicizing Nationalism, Theorizing Transnationalism

Topics/concepts:

Nationalism, Nation, Transnationalism, Globalization, Empire, Hegemony

Wednesday, September 1, Historicizing Nationalism, Theorizing Transnationalism (Cont.)

Discuss: (On Blackboard):

Louis A. Pérez, “Introduction,” in On Becoming Cuban pp. 5-15.

Laura Briggs and Gladys McCormick and J. T. Way. "Transnationalism: A Category of Analysis." American Quarterly 60.3 (2008): 625-648.

Friday, September 3, The Cuban Nationalist Perspective

FILM: “I am Cuba”

Monday, September 6, LABOR DAY NO CLASS

Wednesday, September 8, Cuban/U.S. relations under Spanish Rule

Topics/concepts: Spanish colonialism, the Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, Abolition, U.S. attempts to annex Cuba.

Friday, September 10, Slavery, Spanish Colonialism, and Annexationism (Cont.)

Cuba Libre and the Rise of U.S. Imperialism (1868-1902)

Monday, September 13, Slave Emancipation and the Struggle for Independence

Wednesday, September 15, Cuba Libre and the U.S. intervention

Topics/Concepts: Imperialism, the “Age of Empire,” the Cuban War for Independence, U.S. intervention and occupation (1898-1902), the Platt Amendment

Friday, September 17, Cuba Libre? (Cont.)

Discuss (both on Blackboard):

Ferrer, “Cuba 1898”

Guridy, "Forging Diaspora in the Midst of Empire"

Monday, September 20, IN-CLASS EXAM

Neocolonial Cuba and the U.S.-Caribbean World (1902-1952)

Wednesday, September 22, The Cuban Republic and the U.S. Caribbean Empire

Topics/Concepts: Neocolonialism, imperialism, client state, economic aspects of Cuban-U.S. interaction

Friday, September 24 and Monday, September 27, The Neocolonial Republic: Politics and Society

Topics/Concepts: Political and Social Aspects of Cuban-U.S. Relations, Massacre of 1912

Wednesday, September 29, The Republic in Perpetual Crisis

Topics/Concepts: The “Dance of the Millions” and the Crisis of the 1920s, the machadato, resurgent Cuban nationalism, the Revolution of 1933

Friday, October 1, Crisis (Cont.)

Discuss: Benjamin, “The Machadato and Cuban Nationalism, 1928-1932” (On Blackboard) and primary documents from 1933

Monday, October 4, The Revolution of 1933 and After

Wednesday, October 6, Historicizing Transnational Linkages

Topics/Concepts: Afro-diasporic linkages, cross-fertilization, transculturation

Friday, October 8, Diasporic Transculturation: Afro-Cuban Jazz

FILM: "Machito: A Latin-Jazz Legacy”

Monday, October 11, The Black Cultural Renaissance from Harlem to Havana

Topics/Concepts: U.S.-Caribbean World, Langston Hughes, Mario Bauzá, Afro-Cuban Jazz

Wednesday, October 13, More Than "Good Neighbors"

Discuss (On Blackboard):

Guridy, "Destination without Humiliation"

Revolution, Reaction, and Exile (1952-1991)

Friday, October 15, The Cold War and the Cuban Revolution

Topics/Concepts: Periodization of the Cuban Revolution, Cold War, Socialism, Communism

Monday, October 18, The Crisis of the 1950s

Discuss Pérez On Becoming Cuban, ch.7 (On Blackboard)

Wednesday, October 20, The Outbreak of the Revolution

TAKE HOME EXAM DUE

Friday, October 22, The Revolutionary Struggle

Topics/Concepts: 26^th of July Movement, Guerrilla Warfare, Underground Struggle

Monday, October 25, The Revolutionaries Takes Power

Topics/Concepts: Revolutionary Reforms, U.S. Reaction, Cuba-Soviet Alliance

Wednesday, October 27, The Revolution Takes Power (Cont.)

Discuss: Randall, To Change the World, pp. 1-124

Friday, October 29, The Consolidation of the Revolution

Topics/Concepts: The Creation of Cuban Exile Communities, Achievements and Failures of the Revolution

Monday, November 1, Consolidation (Cont.)

Documentary: “Fidel Castro” VIEWING TIME AND LOCATION TBA.

Wednesday, November 3, Building Socialism? Cuba During the 1970s (Cont.)

Discuss Randall, To Change the World, FINISH

The “Special Period” and the (Post)Cold War Era (1991-present)

Friday, November 5, Cuba and the United States During the “Special Period.”

Topics/Concepts: The “Special Period,” Impact of the Fall of the Soviet Union on Cuba, Dollarization, balseros, revival of tourism in the 1990s

Monday, November 8, The “Special Period,” (Cont.)

Wednesday, November 10, The Special Period (Cont.)

Discuss: C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba, pp.1-68

Friday, November 12, U.S. Policy Toward Cuba during the 1990s

Monday, November 15, Wither the Revolution?

Wednesday, November 17 Wither the Revolution? (Cont.)

Discuss: Ripley, Conversations with Cuba 68-156

Friday, November 19, Elian and After: Cuba and the United States in the 21^st Century

Topics/Concepts: The Elian Gonzalez saga, growing fascination with Cuba in the U.S., Buena Vista phenomenon, the “War on Terror” and Cuba

Monday, November 22, Cuba and the U.S. in a post-September 11^th World

Wednesday November 24 and Friday November 25, THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS

Monday, November 29, Where do We Go From Here?

Discuss: Ripley, Conversations with Cuba 156-END

Wednesday, December 1, Debate on U.S. Policy Toward Cuba

Friday, December 3, Last Class

TAKE HOME EXAM DUE, Wednesday, December 8

This course is a research seminar designed for graduate students undertaking advanced independent research in the history of the racialization in the Americas. It takes up the challenge posed by recent scholarship on race and transnationalism by training graduate students in the theories and methodologies of a field that is evolving from older models of comparative "race relations" scholarship to more recent approaches that explore how racial ideas and practices are shaped by cross-national processes. The ultimate goal of the course is to encourage students to conceptualize the making of racial ideas and practices within a broader American interconnected transborder space, rather than a hemisphere of different nation-states. Thus, the course intentionally seeks to blur the boundaries that we use to separate U.S. and Latin American/Caribbean history in order to challenge students to think about writing post-national or transnational studies of racialization in the Americas.

Grading

Active Class Participation         20%
Theoretical Essay                    20%
Paper proposal                       10%
Oral Presentation                   10%
Final Paper                            40%

Texts

Tentative Reading List:

Andrew Fisher, et.al. Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America.

Rebecca Scott, Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba After Slavery.

Marisol de la Cadena, Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1919-1991.

Micol Seigel, Uneven Encounters: Making Race and Nation in Brazil and the United States.

Frank Andre Guridy, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African-Americas in a World of Empire and Jim Crow.

Ginetta Candelario, Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops.

Article readings:

Forum in International Labor and Working Class History (2010) on Frank Tannenbaum.

Modern Latin America
HIS 346L Unique #: 39605
LAS 366 Unique #: 40595
AFR 374E Unique #: 35520
University of Texas at Austin

Course Instructor: Dr. Frank A. Guridy

Course Description: This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes.

Course Objectives:

(1)   Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Latin American history since the Wars for Independence.

(2)   Expose students to the complex relationship between local level developments and transnational processes across time and space.

(3)   Encourage students to interrogate nationalism as a historical phenomenon, rather than a transhistorical given that stands outside of history

Course requirements:

ATTENDANCE AND ACTIVE CLASS PARTICIPATION: The success of this course requires your consistent presence in class.

For this reason you are expected to attend every session. Moreover, lateness will not be tolerated. Late arriving students disrupt class. Beginning the second week of the semester, your teaching assistants will take roll sometime within the first five minutes of class session. If you are not present when roll is taken, you will be considered absent. Leaving class early will also constitute an absence. After three (3) absences, you will be penalized a full letter grade for each additional absence thereafter. No exceptions.

This class is designed around lecturing, AS WELL AS discussion and group interaction. This means that prior to class you must do the readings, think critically about them, and be ready to discuss them. This advance preparation is essential to the success of this class. You will not be judged on whether or not your instructor or classmates agree with your ideas, but rather on how well you articulate them. This requires you to be open to new perspectives posed by the course and your fellow classmates, to reflect on them, and to come up with your own thoughts on the various topics we will explore this semester. Class Participation is worth 20% of your final grade.

EXAMS: Each test will cover approximately one third of the course. Tests are not cumulative. Exams will cover weekly readings, lectures, as well as any in-class discussion. Each test will include a mixture of short identification and essay questions.

The breakdown of your grade is as follows:
First two tests at 25% each                                                  50%
Final Exam                                                                          30%
Active Class participation                                                      20%

EXTRA CONSIDERATION OPPORTUNITIES: Students seeking to improve their grades may write short reviews of various lectures and events that are relevant to Modern Latin American history that might take place on campus throughout the semester. These assignments must be well written and reflect your engagement with the issues/ideas raised by the event. Students must complete extra credit assignments within one week of the lecture/event. While I will identify “extra consideration” events throughout the semester, you can also suggest an “extra consideration” opportunity to me as well.

 
Grades with be determined as follows:
90-100=A            80-89=B            70-79=C            60-69=D            00-59=F

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

            All students are expected to adhere to UT’s guidelines regarding plagiarism. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. Refer to the Student Judicial Services website for official University politics and procedures on scholastic dishonesty. Please see me if you have any further questions about plagiarism.

ACADEMIC ACCOMODATIONS STATEMENT: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY.

POLICY ON INCOMPLETES: Under no circumstances do I give incompletes. If you are finding that you are having difficulty keeping up with the work in class for whatever reason, please see me immediately.

            Finally, some words about what you can expect of your instructor. As one who is concerned with the issues we are dealing with in this course, I am very invested in you finding this experience a satisfying one. For this reason, I have sought to provide you with the tools necessary to do well in this class, and more important, for you to walk away from this course thinking differently about the issues we will explore throughout the semester. You can expect from your instructor consistent feedback on your work and availability for any questions and concerns that you may have.

Required Books

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire
José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica/The Cosmic Race
C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba
Select Articles on E Reserve (See below)

Course Schedule

Tuesday, January 19, Introduction to the Course

Thursday, January 21, The Making of Latin America

Tuesday, January 26, Colonial Legacies

Thursday, January 28, Colonial Legacies (cont.)
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, Intro, Ch. 1-2

Tuesday, February 2, Independence and the Creation of New Nation-States

Thursday, February 4, The Creation of New Nations (Cont.)
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, chapter 3 AND Lynch, “Society According to Bolívar,” from Simon Bolívar: A Life (on E-Reserve)

Tuesday, February 9, “Civilization vs. Barbarism”: State-Formation, Caudillismo and the Liberal/Conservative Struggle

Thursday, February 11, “Civilization vs. Barbarism” (cont.)
Reading (On E-Reserve): Sanders, “‘Citizens of a Free People,’” AND Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, Chapter 4
Movie: “Camila” Time and Place TBA

Tuesday, February 16, Postcolonial Latin America (Cont.)

Thursday, February 18, EXAM

Tuesday, February 23, “Order and Progress”: Liberalism and the Emergence of a Neocolonial Order

Thursday, February 25, The Triumph of “Progress”? : Latin America During the Age of Empire
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, chapters 5 and 6

Tuesday, March 2, Remaking the Nation: The Mexican Revolution

Thursday, March 4, The Cultural Revolution in Mexico and Latin America

Tuesday, March 9, The Consolidation of the Revolution
Reading: Vasconcelos, The Cosmic Race/La Raza Cósmica, pp.3-40 and Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, pp. 217-225

Thursday, March 11, Mexico and Populism in Latin America
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, pp. 225-246

SPRING BREAK NO CLASSES WEEK OF MARCH 15-20

Tuesday, March 23, MIDTERM EXAM

Thursday, March 25, Remaking the Nation Again: Nationalism and “Racial Democracy” in Brazil

Tuesday, March 30, Gendering the Nation
Reading (On E Reserve): Besse, Restructuring Patriarchy (excerpts)
Video: “Bananas is My Business”

Thursday, April 1, “Patria o Muerte!”: The Cold War and the Cuban Revolution

Tuesday, April 6, The Cuban Revolution (Cont.)

Thursday, April 8, Cuba in the Special Period
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, chapter 8 and Ripley, pp.1-68

Tuesday, April 13, Wither the Revolution?: Cuba in the Special Period (Cont.)

Thursday, April 15, Cuba (Cont.)
Reading: Ripley, Conversations with Cuba, 68-END

Tuesday, April 20, The Dirty Wars in Latin America

Thursday, April 22, The Dirty Wars (Cont.)
Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, chapter 9

Tuesday, April 27, Neoliberalism and Its Discontents

Thursday April 39, Latin American Migration to the U.S.
Reading (On E-Reserve): Guarnizo and Díaz, “Transnational Migration: A View from Colombia,”
Silvana Paternostro “Northern Ladies,” from In the Land of God and Man

Tuesday, May 4, Migration (Cont.)

Thursday, May 6, Looking Backward/Looking Forward: Reflecting on the Future of the Americas
Reading: Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, chapter 10
FINAL EXAM TBA.

Prerequisite: Graduate standing, reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese, and consent of the graduate adviser.

May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.

This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes. 

Course Objectives:

(1) Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Latin American history since the Wars for Independence.

(2) Expose students to the complex relationship between local level developments and transnational processes across time and space.

(3) Encourage students to interrogate nationalism as a historical phenomenon, rather than a transhistorical given that stands outside of history

Required Readings:

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire

José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica/The Cosmic Race

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading

The breakdown of your grade is as follows: 

First two tests at 25% each 50%

Final Exam 30%

Active Class participation 20%

This course surveys the history of Latin America from the period of the Wars for Independence in the early nineteenth century until the present. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region as a whole, due to time constraints it will focus primarily on the histories of select countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia. Drawing upon primary documents, audio/visual materials, and works produced by historians, the class will explore the racial, class, and gender hierarchies that emerged out of the region’s colonial and precolonial past and their impact on the lives of Latin American people. We will explore the struggle to create “nations” and the emergence of a neocolonial order in the nineteenth century. We will also examine the ways that popular mobilization against neocolonial social hierarchies led to the refashioning of the “nation” throughout the twentieth century. The course will conclude with an examination of the ways Latin Americans are navigating the increasingly transnational world of the early twenty-first century. Thus, the arc of the class prompts students to think about the history of the Americas as a history of transnational processes. 

Course Objectives:

(1) Enable students to develop a working knowledge of the key social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Latin American history since the Wars for Independence.

(2) Expose students to the complex relationship between local level developments and transnational processes across time and space.

(3) Encourage students to interrogate nationalism as a historical phenomenon, rather than a transhistorical given that stands outside of history

Required Readings:

John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire

José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica/The Cosmic Race

C. Peter Ripley, Conversations with Cuba

Coursepack Readings

Grading

The breakdown of your grade is as follows: 

First two tests at 25% each 50%

Final Exam 30%

Active Class participation 20%

Prerequisite: Graduate standing, reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese, and consent of the graduate adviser.

May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.