syllabus

History of Latin America
The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Spring 2013 Dr. Allyson M. Poska
Office: Monroe 226 Phone: 654-1478 Email: aposka@umw.edu
Office Hours: MWF 12-1pm TR 2-3pm

This course will examine a variety of social, economic, and political issues that have faced Latin America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In order to understand Latin American history from the perspective of those who lived it, we will rely on films, literary works, and first hand accounts by Latin Americans.

Course Objectives and Goals:
• Comprehension of historical processes
• Ability to write with clarity about the past
• Ability to read critically primary sources and modern authorities
This course counts in the History major and as an IA support course

This course counts as Human Experience and Society. As such, you will learn
• to explain human and social experiences and activities from multiple perspectives
• to draw appropriate conclusions based on evidence
• to transfer knowledge and skills learned to a novel situation.

This course counts as Global Inquiry. As such, you will learn
• to express an understanding of forces that foster global connections among places, persons, groups, and/or knowledge systems
• Students will be able to compare and contrast multiple perspectives or theories on global processes and systems
• Students will be able to reflect upon how global relations impact their own lives and the lives of others

Books available for purchase:
Mark Wasserman, Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico (New Mexico, 2000)
Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs (Penguin, 2008)
Margaret Regan, Death of Josseline (Beacon, 2010)
Aluísio Azevedo, The Slum (Oxford, 2000)
Alma Guillermoprieto, Dancing with Cuba (Random House, 2005)
Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre (Chicago, 2011)

Course Requirements:
During the second class period, EVERYONE will take a map quiz of Latin America. Each student MUST retake the quiz until he or she gets 90% correct. Class time will be devoted to this endeavor during the second class period. After that, each person will have to arrange to take the quiz on his or her own time. This quiz will be worth 5% of your grade. You must pass the map quiz with a 90% by the last day of class to receive credit for the quiz.

You will write two short papers, each worth 12.5% of your grade. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam, each worth 20% of your grade.

Class participation is an important aspect of this class and of your grade (20%). Class discussion will take place on predetermined days, clearly indicated on the syllabus. Your participation must indicate an attempt to understand the readings being discussed. Please respect the opinions of others. Remember that there is no single way to understand history and that the same incident has numerous interpretations.

Latin America news blog Assignment (10% of your grade)

http://hist362s10.umwblogs.org/

The blog that the class creates will help you become familiar with the issues facing Latin America today and understand the relationship between Latin America’s past and its present.
Each week you will read at least one article about Latin America or Latino culture in the US in a major US news source, either in print or on-line. You may also use other English language news sources, for instance, the BBC or English language newspapers in Latin American cities, but you may NOT use foreign news gathering agencies such as the Chinese Xinhua News Agency. Always be aware of the source of your news. You will then post a brief summary of that news article and relate it to the readings and class lectures. Article summaries alone are not acceptable. The post must be from that week’s news.

Each entry should include a full reference to the article, for example:
Jane Goodyear, “Power and Politics in Latin America,” The Washington Post, 6 July 1997, sec. C, p. 4.
or the link to on-line articles:

http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/27/octuplets.02

You may also post a thoughtful commentary on news posted by a classmate. In order to receive credit, your post must indicate that you read the news piece and considered it in relation to the class.
Guidelines for blog posts:
Inappropriate posts:
• Only express an opinion – “I agree” or “that’s not right”
• Are only a few words long
• Aim comments at an individual
Really good posts:
• Critique or expand upon information in the blog
• Are succinct, but thoughtful and scholarly
• Will provide links to evidence from other sources
Your contribution will be due by class time each TUESDAY. NO LATE CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED, even if the system is down!! You should send me a copy via email if you are concerned. Remember that all your work is subject to the Honor code.

LAPTOP and TABLET POLICY: Laptops and tablets may be used in the classroom for notetaking only. I reserve the right to prohibit laptop use at any time for any reason. Cellphones must be shut off and out of sight during class.

Students requiring special accommodations:
If you already receive services through the Office of Disability Services and require accommodations for this class, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your approved accommodation needs. Please bring your accommodation letter with you to the appointment. I will hold any information you share with me in the strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise. If you have not contacted the Office of Disability Services and need special accommodations, please contact them at 540-654-1266.

Grade scale
A 95-100 A- 90-94 B+ 87-89 B 84-86 B- 80-83 C+ 77-79 C 74-76 C- 70-73 D+ 67-69 D 63-66

Students with an average of 69 or lower will receive an unsatisfactory on mid-semester reports

Course Schedule
Week 1 Introduction
MAP QUIZ THURSDAY
READ: Start reading Wasserman Everyday Life, chapters 1-7

Week 2 19th century Structures
Nineteenth-Century Political/Economic Structures
Discuss: Wasserman, Everyday Life, chapters 1-7
READ: Wasserman Everyday Life, chapters 1-7

Week 3 Foreign Intervention: The Lessons of William Walker, Maximilian, and Carlotta
Nineteenth-Century Brazil/ Race and Slavery at the end of the century
READ: The Slum

Week 4 Discuss: The Slum
The War for Cuban Independence

Week 5
Discuss: Cuba Documents
The Rise of Caudillos
READ: Cuba documents on Canvas
PAPER #1 due on Thursday February 14

Week 6 The Mexican Revolution
Discuss: The Underdogs
Read: Wasserman, Everyday Life, chapters 8-10 and The Underdogs

Week 7 TUESDAY MIDTERM EXAM
The Long term effects of the Mexican Revolution

Week 8 Spring Break

Week 9 The Flourishing of Latin American Culture: Rivera/Kahlo
Argentina at mid-century: Peron and his legacy
READ: “Mexican Muralism: Its Influence in Latin America and the United States” chapter 2 of Shifra Goldman, Dimensions of the Americas. Art and Social Change in Latin America and the United States (On Canvas).

Week 10 The Argentine Dirty War
See “The Official Story”
READ: Start reading Dancing with Cuba

Week 11
Pinochet and Allende
Castro and the Cuban Revolution
READ: Dancing with Cuba

Week 12
Discuss: Dancing with Cuba
THURSDAY NO CLASS
READ: Dancing with Cuba

Week 13
Liberation Theology
The Wars in Central America
READ: Encyclical of Pope Paul VI On the Development of Peoples (MARCH 26, 1967) (on canvas)
See “Romero”
Start reading The Last Colonial Massacre
Paper #2 due Tuesday April 9

Week 14 The Wars in Central America
Discuss: The Last Colonial Massacre
READ: The Last Colonial Massacre

Week 15 Latino Immigration to the US/“Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary”
Discuss: Death of Josseline
READ: Death of Josseline
The text of Prop 187 is available on Canvas
Paper #3 due Thursday April 25

Paper Assignments
You will write two 5 page papers.
On Canvas under Files, you will find three sets of primary source documents.

The first set deals with the nineteenth century:
Flora Tristan “The Women of Lima” (1840s)
Mariano Otero, “Considerations Relating to the Political and Social Situation of the Mexican Republic in the Year 1847”
Debating the “Free Womb” Law in Brazil (1871)

The second set deals with the first half of the twentieth century:
Interview with Pedro Martínez and his wife Esperanza about life during the Mexican Revolution
Eva Perón’s Views on Women and Society in Argentina (1951)
Ernesto Che Guevara, “The Cuban Economy: Its Past, and Its Present Importance,” (1964)

The third set deals with the late twentieth century:
Testimonies from Nunca Más, the report from Argentina’s Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons)
A chapter from the autobiography of Rigobera Menchú, Noble Peace Prize Winner 1992
Recent anti-immigrant statutes from Georgia, Arizona, and Alabama

You will write a 5 page paper using one of the documents from two of the sets. You must do some additional secondary research for the paper (at least two secondary sources). You must use the primary source as the basis for your thesis and evidence. Talk to me in advance about your thesis and argument in order to avoid unnecessary frustration.

The first paper will be due Thursday February 14
The second paper will be due Tuesday April 9
The third paper will be due Thursday April 25

You must attach a signed and filled out copy of the Paper Checksheet to your first paper.
You must attach a signed and filled out copy of the Paper Checksheet and the Paper feedback sheet to your second paper.

We have created a webpage to help you with your research and writing for this and other history classes:

http://cas.umw.edu/historyamericanstudies/history-department-resources/

If you have additional questions about format or footnoting, see Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Be sure to proofread your papers before turning them in. This will avoid embarrassing errors. Below are examples of correct footnotes:

a first reference
1John Hope Franklin, George Washington Williams: A Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 54.

a second reference to the same material immediately following the first:
2 Ibid., 68.

a later reference to the same material:
7 Franklin, George Washington Williams, 186.

Footnotes/Endnotes are single-spaced within notes and double-spaced between notes.

Papers will be typed in 12 pt. font, double-spaced, and will have 1″ margins (please note that the default in WORD is 1.25¨). Be sure to spellcheck and grammar check your papers. Set the default on your grammar check to FORMAL. Computer breakdowns are NOT an excuse. Late papers (even one minute late), will be penalized one grade for each 24 hour period.

Check your paper to ensure that
1) You have a thesis, something to argue
2) The thesis is stated clearly
3) Each paragraph is asserts something that relates back to the thesis
4) This assertion is backed up by specific evidence
5) Each paragraph contains some of your own ideas
6) The conclusion reasserts the paper’s argument clearly and concisely