Lina Del Castillo

The two major aims of this course are: 1) introduce students to the deeply intertwined history of US-Latin America Relations and 2) prepare each student for a potential experience in Latin America (or with Latino communities in the United States) through study abroad, research, and/or community engagement. The history of US actions towards Latin America has encompassed everything from a sentimental desire to “help the less fortunate” in developing countries through aid, to direct and indirect military intervention when the internal circumstances of a particular country have been perceived to threaten US interests. Latin American states have, in turn, attempted to establish confraternal solidarity among statesmen in the early 19th century against European incursions, to confronting and/or cooperating with an emerging imperial power to the north.  This course will allow students to deepen their knowledge of this history by exploring the historical development of the inextricably intertwined and long-standing relationships between the US and Latin America from the late 18th century until the present. Readings and lectures will allow students to consider and debate the political, economic, cultural, racial, and scientific dimensions of these relationships. These discussions are intended to allow students to consider the implications of “cultural citizenship,” a political identity that extends beyond the boundaries of the nation-state. One of the inalienable “rights” that comes with this kind of citizenship includes the right to apply  -- and the right to go beyond -- the knowledge gained through readings, lectures, and discussions by identifying a particular issue concerning US-Latin American relations that they would like to explore further through a research, community engagement or study abroad experience.

Required Readings:

Peter Smith, Talons of he Eagle: Latin America, The United States, and the World (Oxford University Press, 2013) Fourth edition.

Brian DeLay, War of a Thousand Desserts: Indian Raids and the US-Mexican War (Lamar Series in Western History) (Yale, 2008)

Steven Palmer, Launching Global Health: The Caribbean Odyssey of the Rockefeller Foundation (U Michigan Press, 2010)

Course Reader available at Jenn’s Copies 220 Guadalupe St.

Assignments:

Participation & answers to weekly discussion questions                                  20%

Short 3-5 page Position Papers:                                   3 worth 20% each = 60% total.

Annotated Bibliography & Final oral presentation                                          5%

Final Paper (10-15 pages):                                                                               15%

This course offers graduate students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the spatial dimensions of nation-state formation in Latin America. It builds on the idea that “space” has never been a neutral abstraction or a homogenous and disinterested stage upon which human dramas are set. Rather, it considers that spaces, and representations of them, are constitutive elements of society, the consequences of interactions and interrelations between people and their material world. Places are related in important ways to “space” since places are also outcomes of interactions and interrelations, but instead of “abstract” space, places are generally held to be culturally significant, memorable places imbued with meaning for the lived experience of individuals and communities. The course grounds these ideas in the spaces and places that emerged from processes of territorial nation-state formation in Latin America. The readings and discussions of this course will underscore that, in order to best understand these processes, the dichotomy drawn between “spaces” and “places” must be bridged. Some of the major themes the course will draw attention to include: the spatial dimensions of constitutions and citizenship; war-making and state-building (and dismantling); memory and history in the creation of nation-states; cartographic visions of the nation; resource use, labor-exploitation and enclave economies; spaces of urbanization and modernity; ethnicity, race, gender and place; the movement of bodies and germs through spaces and places; overlapping territorialities, borderlands, and criminality.

Over the course of the semester, all students will write short (1-2 page) weekly response papers to assigned readings. Typically, these readings will consist of one book and an article, or a collection of articles on a particular “spatial” theme. In addition, each student will select three weeks for which they will present their evaluation of a supplementary secondary reading of their choosing. These supplementary readings, selected by students (and pre-approved by the professor), should examine the role of space and place as it relates to each student’s particular research interests. By the end of the semester, students will have laid a firm foundation for their final paper, one that evaluates how scholars have approached the “spatial dimensions” of their specific research question.

This course explores the history of Latin America from the eve of the wars of independence of the early nineteenth century to the present. Major issues to be covered include the breakdown of Spanish and Portuguese Empires, the struggle to form independent nation-states, the re-integration of the region into the world economy, the emergence of national politics and mass culture, Cold War cycles of revolution and counterrevolution, the promise of democracy in the region, and implications of immigration from the region to the United States. In addition to highlighting the political history of the past two centuries, the course readings and lectures will examine the importance of ethnicity, class, nationality, and gender in understanding the changing characteristics of Latin American societies. A combination of primary sources and scholarly works will shed light on the historical development of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, among other countries. 

Over the semester, students will consider the following broad questions: How have different ideas of progress and modernization been applied over time in Latin America and what impacts have they had in practice? What factors explain the contradiction between Latin America’s incredibly rich resources and its extreme levels of social inequality, among the highest in the world? Why have hierarchical social orders proved so durable in Latin America? What have been the motors of reform, revolution, and counter-revolution in the region? What are the factors that have created “Latin America” as a particular kind of place in the world, and in our imaginations, and what alternate criteria might be used to think about the meaning of “Latin America”? 

Through weekly discussions, essays, group work, presentations, and examinations, students will hone their talents for historical interpretation, including their critical thinking and writing skills. In addition, the course provides tools for understanding present-day problems in the Americas from a broader historical perspective.

This course will allow students to deepen their knowledge of the history of US-Latin American relations from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first.  Readings and lectures will allow students to consider and debate the political, economic, cultural, racial, and scientific dimensions of these relationships.  These discussions will allow students to begin to think of themselves as cultural citizens of the Americas more broadly. Ultimately, this course encourages students to use what they learn as background for a potential experience in the region through study abroad, community engagement, or internship.

The history of U.S. actions towards Latin America has ranged from a sentimental desire to “help the less fortunate” in developing countries through aid, to more violent forms of intervention when the internal circumstances of a particular country are perceived to threaten U.S. interests.  Responses from Latin American countries have ranged from attempts to establish confraternal solidarity among statesmen in the early nineteenth century, to confronting, cooperating, and/or seeking greater economic integration with an emerging imperial power to the north.  This course will allow students to deepen their knowledge of this history by exploring the inextricably intertwined and long-standing relationships that developed between the United States and Latin America from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first.  Readings and lectures will allow students to consider and debate the political, economic, cultural, racial, and scientific dimensions of these relationships.  These discussions will allow students to begin to think of themselves as cultural citizens of the Americas more broadly. Ultimately, students are encouraged to use what they learn in this class as background for a potential experience in the region through study abroad, community engagement, or an internship.