HIST617: History of Latin America

Online Graduate Seminar – Fall 2022

Instructor: Marc Eagle Office: Cherry Hall 238 (inside Suite 234)
Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Email for appointment (via Zoom)
Phone: (270) 745-7026

Course Description
This reading-intensive online graduate course will sample a wide variety of targeted thematic readings related to
the history of Latin America from the conquest era to the present day; themes for this semester include the
conquest of Spanish and Portuguese America, colonial society, independence and its aftermath, nineteenth-
century problems, the Cold War, and the legacies of the past. The aim of this class is not to teach students about
all areas and time periods of Latin American history, but rather to teach them how to effectively learn about
Latin America. Students are not expected to have a background in Latin American history, but through regular
weekly discussion posts, short assignments, and written essays will closely examine arguments and trends in
recent scholarly writing and consider the ways in which the region and its peoples, cultures, and politics have
been analyzed. In doing so, they will practice critical reading and writing skills appropriate to the discipline of
History at the graduate level. Students will also carry out a guided research or teaching project over the semester
that will enable them to develop a deeper understanding of a specific area of focus within the broad sweep of
over 500 years of Latin American history.

Course Objectives
Since this course is a graduate reading seminar, we will concentrate on discussing and analyzing secondary
scholarship related to Latin America, rather than on primary material. By the end of the semester, students in
this course should be able to:
- Identify, discuss, and assess recent trends, and debates within selected topics related to Latin American history,
in order to prepare for graduate examinations, further research, or teaching.
- Evaluate arguments and assumptions in a wide range of scholarly literature related to Latin America from 1500
to the present day.
- Demonstrate graduate-level research skills on a project designed by student in consultation with instructor.
- Develop, practice, and refine graduate-level analytical and writing skills in online discussion, short abstracts
and essays, and a focused research project in preparation for teaching and research at the professional level.

Online Course – Faculty-Student Interactions

The U.S. Department of Education requires that distance education courses must include regular and substantive
interaction between students and faculty; for more information on what this entails, please visit WKU’s Regular
and Substantive Interaction in Online and Distance Learning webpage.
In this course, regular and substantive interaction will take place in the following ways:
• Group and individual email communications
• Weekly Blackboard discussion post assignments
• Regular feedback on submitted work
• Guidance throughout course of research project

Course Texts
There are no required books to purchase for this class, since all required reading materials will either be posted
on Blackboard or be available online through WKU’s library. However, students may need to purchase books
for their research project. All students should expect to read roughly 5-10 research articles, or the equivalent of a
scholarly book, each week in this class. See the projected reading schedule at the end of this syllabus for a sense
of what the weekly reading looks like (not including individual readings for the research or teaching project).

Course Expectations
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Even though this is an online graduate course, students should not expect that it will be less demanding than a
traditional face-to-face graduate course. Keeping up with the material is essential to doing well in this course,
which will require a considerable amount of reading and regular, active participation on the discussion forums
every week. Online courses generally require more self-discipline than face-to-face courses, since you will need
to take responsibility for structuring your time effectively and meeting all deadlines in the absence of physical
meetings.

With that in mind, students should expect to spend at the very least 10-15 hours per week on this course, and
more if you are a slow reader or writer. While the material in much of our reading may be unfamiliar to many of
you, this should not be a problem as long as you are willing to read carefully, and I will often supply necessary
contextual information to help you through it. However, be sure that you are prepared for a graduate-level
workload before beginning this course; if you fall behind for even one week it will be very difficult to catch up,
and this is probably the surest way to do badly in or even fail the course. Students who do not attend the course
within the first week will be automatically dropped. None of this is meant to intimidate you, but rather to
encourage you to be honest with yourself about the level of time management that is necessary to do well in this
course. If you do run into problems during the semester, be sure to talk to me as soon as possible, since I would
very much like to see everyone succeed.

Your workload for a typical week in this course will include reading around 5-10 articles or book chapters, and
sometimes other kinds of written material (not including the reading you will need to do for your individual
research or teaching project). At several times during the week, you will also make a number of thoughtful
discussion forum posts and respond to other students’ posts; it is best to think of these as short writing
assignments, since they will require substantial time and effort. Most weeks, you will also have reading abstracts
and map notes to complete. There will be a written midterm essay assignment, along with the research or
teaching project you will complete over the course of the semester; we will not have a separate final exam in this
class.

For this online class, you will need access to a computer with a reliable internet connection in order to use
Blackboard and view short videos, and to write and submit your assignments. You should also have a plan for
an alternate way to connect to the internet (e.g. a public library or coffee shop with wireless access) in case of
emergency; I strongly encourage you to keep backups of your work as well (for the discussion boards in
particular, it is a very good idea to compose your posts offline and then copy and paste them into Blackboard). If
you are unfamiliar with Blackboard, visit the Online Orientation for Online Learners at
http://www.wku.edu/online/orientation/index.php before the course begins. If you have technical questions or
problems, please let me know as soon as possible and I will do my best to help.

Note that email is the best way to get in touch with me, and you can generally expect a response within 24
hours. All email needs to be from your official WKU address (not Gmail, for example), which is also where I
will send regular emailed announcements (so be sure to check that email address regularly each week).

Grading
Grades will be based on the following criteria:
10%: Participation
30%: Weekly discussion posts and short assignments
15%: Reading abstracts
15%: Synthetic essay/midterm exam
30%: Research project

Coursework
Participation: Your participation grade for this course will reflect the quality of your posts and interactions with
others on the discussion board, as well as your overall level of engagement with the course material over the
course of the semester.
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Discussion posts: I will create a new discussion forum each week, for a total of 15 over the semester. Check the
guidelines on each week’s discussion forum, but in general students must make at least four posts during the
week, including two original posts and two responses to other students; you are strongly encouraged to go
beyond these minimum requirements. The weekly forum will open at 8:00 am (these are all in Central Time; let
me know if you are in a different time zone and need to make adjustments to deadlines, which I will happily do)
on Monday and close at 5:00 pm on Sunday. You need to make these posts both before and after Wednesday at
noon, and should not post more than twice per day, allowing at least an hour between your posts, in order to
make sure that you are regularly and thoughtfully interacting with the discussion board and each other during
the week and that all students have a chance to participate equally.

The discussion board is the central part of this class, and you should plan on scheduling regular times during the
week for reading and writing posts. As this is a graduate course, I expect graduate-level work on the discussion
board, meaning thoughtful posts that demonstrate you have read our material (and your fellow students’ posts)
carefully. Things to avoid include: simply restating the reading or your fellow students’ posts, giving your
feelings instead of thinking critically about our reading (try to avoid overusing “I”), making low-effort and
irrelevant comparisons instead of demonstrating an effort to understand the material on its own, relying on
generalizations instead of using specific references to parts of our sources, or waiting until the very last minute
to make most of your posts (ensuring that most other students will not read them). Instead, I want you to discuss
such things as the arguments made by the author, the kinds of sources being used, the major points made by the
author, the author’s stated relationship to earlier scholarship on the topic, important assumptions the author is
making, and what the author’s work contributes to our understanding of some aspect of Latin American history
(note that I will often provide more specific guidance on what to look for each week). As you do so, you should
make the source of the material you are discussing clear. For the discussion boards, the author’s name and page
numbers are usually sufficient. As the week progresses, we will typically shift toward increased discussion of
how our sources relate to each other and to sources from previous weeks. Your discussion grade will be based
on how well you follow these guidelines, as well as how well you interact with each other to show that you are
trying to understand the material and its context.

Map pins: Every week, I also want students to make a custom map pin on our shared Google Map (I will post a
video on how to do this), identifying and briefly describing a place in Latin America listed in our weekly
reading, whether it is a small town, a major city, or a country, to help you orient yourself in the region and think
about the places we are learning about. Each pin should be for a different place, so you will need to read
carefully and pay attention to which places other students have already marked (there should be *plenty* of
places to choose from in each week’s reading). This semester’s map is at:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1hjcwdXv8sVD0Aat8b6L7owZZ5mvwCD4&usp=sharing

We may also have other short, informal assignments during the semester; I will announce them on Blackboard.

Reading abstracts: At least 8 of the 15 weeks this semester, students will write a short (roughly 3-page)
analytical summary of the reading for that week following the guidelines posted on Blackboard, to demonstrate
your understanding of this reading. All students are required to write an abstract for weeks 2, 3, and 4 and then
can choose at least 5 other weeks over the rest of the semester, for a total of 8. I will count the best 8 abstracts,
so you may write more to raise this part of your grade.

Synthetic essay/midterm exam: During week 7, we will take a break from reading and you will instead have a
take-home exam, to demonstrate that you can make connections among the material we have covered in the
preceding weeks (which will also help make sure you are ready to do well on your research project).

Research project: Over the course of the semester, all students will create and carry out an individual research
project in consultation with me. Students can choose three main options: a primary-source based research
project, a detailed historiographical essay, or a teaching project, all of which will require an equal level of effort
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(although there is no specific page limit, it will be similar to that involved for a 12- to 15-page research paper).
Students will be able to choose a specific area of focus (which may be constrained by the availability of suitable
primary or secondary sources in English) and must meet several milestones during the course of the semester,
including a project abstract, a preliminary outline and bibliography, and a full rough draft; they will also reflect
on or present their project to the other students. The final project will be due at the end of the last week of
classes.

Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism

Academic dishonesty is completely unacceptable at the graduate level, and I take this issue very, very seriously.
Any instance of academic dishonesty (including failing to cite your sources, reusing previously graded work, or
copying all or part of an assignment from a book, article, online source, or classmate) will result in an immediate
failing grade for the entire course and a report to Judicial Affairs. Refer to “Academic Offenses” in WKU’s
online Student Handbook, at http://www.wku.edu/handbook/ for details on the university’s policy on academic
dishonesty. Please ask me if you have any questions at all on what constitutes academic dishonesty.

Generally speaking, you should try to avoid simply restating your sources, whether they are published works or
another student’s discussion post. Briefly quoting or paraphrasing is usually acceptable when necessary as long
as you provide a citation, but just repeating someone else’s words does not demonstrate understanding. It is
much better to refer briefly to an idea or argument in a source in your own words, and then explain your
thoughts in your own words; this will not only earn you a better grade but also allow you to practice and refine
skills necessary for doing history at the graduate level.

Other Policies
Missing deadlines will lower your grade on each assignment. My intent is to encourage professional behavior
rather than punish you arbitrarily, so if you end up needing a short extension, please contact me to let me know
as soon as possible. If you run into larger problems this semester that make it difficult to complete your work,
please do let me know – I don’t need to know the details of your private life, but I would very much like to see
all students do well in this class, and it is much more likely that we can make arrangements for you to complete
the coursework if you contact me as soon as possible rather than waiting until several weeks have gone by.

Any students with special needs should contact the Office for Student Disability Services in DSU 1074 (tel. 745-
5004/TDD 745-3030) as soon as possible after the start of the semester to request a letter of accommodation,
which I will be happy to honor. Once more, I genuinely want to see all students do well in this course, so if other
problems arise during the course of the semester, please let me know as soon as you can instead of waiting until
after you have missed coursework.

Students are always welcome to contact me (email is usually best) to arrange a Zoom meeting, especially if you
are having any difficulties in this class. I am also more than happy to look over a draft version of your written
assignments before they are due.

Weekly Work Overview

Total of 8 article abstracts due
Deadline for all weekly assignments is Sunday, 5:00 pm
Week Dates Work due
1 Aug 22-Aug 28 Discussion posts, map pin
2 Aug 29-Sep 4 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (required)
3 Sep 5-Sep 11 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (required)
Monday, Sep 5: Labor Day
4 Sep 12-Sep 18 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (required)
5 Sep 19-Sep 25 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (optional)
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- Research project abstract due

6 Sep 26-Oct 2 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (optional)
7 Oct 3-Oct 9 - Midterm exam
8 Oct 10-Oct 16 Discussion posts (weeks 8 & 9 forum), map pin, reading abstract (optional)
Thursday, Oct 13-Friday Oct 14: Fall Break
9 Oct 17-Oct 23 Discussion posts (weeks 8 & 9 forum), map pin, reading abstract (optional)
- Research project preliminary outline & bibliography due
10 Oct 24-Oct 30 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (optional)
11 Oct 31-Nov 6 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (optional)
12 Nov 7-Nov 13 Discussion posts, map pin, reading abstract (optional)
- Research project rough draft due
13 Nov 14-Nov 20 Discussion posts (weeks 13 & 14 forum), map pin, reading abstract (optional)
14 Nov 21-Nov 27 Discussion posts (weeks 13 & 14 forum), map pin, reading abstract (optional)
Wednesday, Nov 23-Friday, Nov 25: Thanksgiving
15 Nov 28-Dec 4 Discussion posts, reading abstract (optional)
Finals - Research project due by Sunday, Dec 4, 5:00 pm

Reading Schedule
NOTE: This reading schedule will very likely be updated as the semester progresses; I will notify you
when a new version of the schedule/syllabus is available on Blackboard.

Week 1: Race and Revolution in Cuba

1: Roberto Zurbano, "For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun," New York Times, March 23, 2013,
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/for-blacks-in-cuba-the-revolution-hasnt-
begun.html (4 pp.)
2: Roberto Zurbano, "The Country to Come: and My Black Cuba?" AfroCubaWeb, March 26, 2013,
https://www.afrocubaweb.com/and-my-black-cuba.html (5 pp.)
3: Esteban Morales, "The Cuban Revolution Began in 1959," Havana Times, April 2, 2013,
https://havanatimes.org/opinion/the-cuban-revolution-began-in-1959/ (5 pp.)
4: Randal C. Archibold, "Writer of Times Op-Ed on Racism in Cuba Loses Job," New York Times, April 5,
2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/world/americas/writer-of-times-op-ed-on-racism-in-cuba-
loses-job.html (3 pp.)
5: Alan West-Durán, "Zurbano and The New York Times: Lost and Found in Translation," AfroCubaWeb,
April 6, 2013, https://www.afrocubaweb.com/alan-west-zurbano-nyt.html (9 pp.)
6: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, "I Lost My Job Through the New York Times," Wall Street Journal, April 9,
2013, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324050304578411030629324960 (2 pp.)
7: Nelson P. Valdés, "Cuba, Blacks and the New York Times: The Zurbano Controversy," Afro-Hispanic
Review 33, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 183-186 (3 pp.)
8: Fernando Ravsberg, "Cuba's Pending Racial Debate," Afro-Hispanic Review 33, no. 1 (Spring 2014):
203-204 (2 pp.)
9: Mercedes Leguizamon, "Activist Roberto Zurbano Reflects On Neo-Racism In Latin America," WUFT,
April 14, 2017, https://www.wuft.org/news/2017/04/14/racism-in-latin-america/ (3 pp.)
10: Nicolás Guillén, "I Have," http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/GuillenE.htm (originally
written in 1964) (1 p.)
11: "Black Scholar Interviews-A Black Expatriate in Cuba," The Black Scholar 4, no. 5 (February 1973):
49-55 (1973) (7 pp.)
12: Introduction to Devyn Spence Benson, Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution (Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 1-29 (29 pp.)
13: Eloise Linger, "Toward a more inclusive history of the Cuban revolution of 1959," InternatIonal
Journal of Cuban Studies 12, no. 2 (Winter 2020): 300-328 (29 pp.)
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Week 2: Discussing the Conquest, Part 1

• William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1873) [orig. pub.
1843]: Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 3 (163-185) (22 pp.)
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/LEVIN/levch07.html
• Chapter 3 of David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 57-95 (38 pp.)
• Chapters 1 and 5 in Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2003), 1-26, 77-99 (48 pp.)
https://login.libsrv.wku.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000x
na&AN=120946&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_26
• "What the Textbooks Have To Say About the Conquest of Mexico: Some Suggestions for Questions to
Ask of the Evidence," American Historical Association, https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-
learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-
americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/for-students/what-the-textbooks-have-to-say-about-the-conquest-of-
mexico (6 pp.)

Week 3: Discussing the Conquest, Part 2

• Thomas J. Brinkerhoff, "Reexamining the Lore of the 'Archetypal Conquistador': Hernán Cortés and the
Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, 1519-1521," The History Teacher 49, no. 2 (February 2016):
169-187 (19 pp.)
• Kathleen Deagan, "Reconsidering Taíno Social Dynamics after Spanish Conquest: Gender and Class in
Culture Contact Studies," American Antiquity 69, no. 4 (October 2004): 597-626 (30 pp.)
• Francisco Garrido and Soledad González, "Adaptive Strategies during Times of Conflict and
Transformation: Copiapó Valley under the Spanish Conquest in the Sixteenth Century," Ethnohistory
67, no. 1 (January 2020): 127-148 (22 pp.)
• Veronica Rodriguez, "Chimalpahin’s Nahua Authority: Modifying a Spanish Account of the Conquest of
Mexico," Ethnohistory 68, no. 1 (January 2021): 103-123 (21 pp.)
• Sergio Romero, "Language, Catechisms, and Mesoamerican Lords in Highland Guatemala: Addressing
‘God’ after the Spanish Conquest," Ethnohistory 62, no. 3 (July 2015): 623-649 (27 pp.)
• Robert C. Schwaller, "Contested Conquests: African Maroons and the Incomplete Conquest of Hispaniola,
1519-1620," The Americas 75, no. 4 (October 2018): 609-638 (30 pp.)

Week 4: Characterizing Colonial Society

Required reading:
• James F. King, "The Case of Jose Ponciano de Ayarza: A Document on Gracias al Sacar," Hispanic
American Historical Review 31, no. 4 (1951): 640-647 (8 pp.)
• (translation for document in King article)
• Silvia Espelt-Bombín, "Notaries of Color in Colonial Panama: Limpieza de Sangre, Legislation, and
Imperial Practices in the Administration of the Spanish Empire," The Americas 71, no. 1 (July 2014):
37-69 (33 pp.)
• Norah L. A. Gharala, "'Not even blood mixture could make them unworthy': political loyalty and tribute in
Bourbon New Spain," Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 24, no. 2 (2018): 195-204 (11
pp.)
• Mariana L. R. Dantas, "Miners, Farmers, and Market People: Women of African Descent and the Colonial
Economy in Minas Gerais," African Economic History 43 (2015): 82-108 (27 pp.)

Choose at least 3:
• Sarah Albiez-Wieck, "Indigenous migrants negotiating belonging: Peticiones de cambio de fuero in
Cajamarca, Peru, 17th–18th centuries," Colonial Latin American Review 26, no. 4 (2017): 483-508
(26 pp.)
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• Norah Andrews, "Calidad, Genealogy, and Disputed Free-colored Tributary Status in New Spain," The
Americas 73, no. 2 (April 2016): 139-170 (32 pp.)
• Bruce A. Castleman, "Social Climbers in a Colonial Mexican City: Individual Mobility within the Sistema
de Castas in Orizaba, 1777-1791," Colonial Latin American Review 10, no. 2 (2001): 229-249 (21 pp.)
• Jorge E. Delgadillo Núñez, "The Workings of Calidad: Honor, Governance, and Social Hierarchies in the
Corporations of the Spanish Empire," The Americas 76, no. 2 (April 2019): 215-239 (25 pp.)
• Karen Y. Morrison, "Slave Mothers and White Fathers: Defining Family and Status in Late Colonial
Cuba," Slavery and Abolition 31, no. 1 (March 2010): 29-55 (27 pp.)
• Frank "Trey" Proctor III, "Amores perritos: Puppies, Laughter and Popular Catholicism in Bourbon
Mexico City," Journal of Latin American Studies 46, no. 1 (2014): 1-28 (28 pp.)
• Ana E. Schaposchnik, "The dungeons of the Lima Inquisition: corruption, survival, and secret codes in
colonial Peru," Colonial Latin American Review 29, no. 3 (2020): 398-413 (16 pp.)
• Tamara J. Walker, "‘Blanconas Sucias’ and ‘Putas Putonas’: White Women, Cross-Caste Conflict and the
Power of Words in Late-Colonial Lima, Peru," Gender & History 27, no. 1 (April 2015): 131-150 (20
pp.)

Week 5: The Eighteenth Century as a Time of Reform

• Amílcar E. Challú, "Grain Markets, Free Trade and the Bourbon Reforms: The Real Pragmática of 1765 in
New Spain," Colonial Latin American Review 22, no. 3 (2013): 400-421 (22 pp.)
• Edward Jones Corredera, "The Making of Pombal: Speculation, Diplomacy and the Iberian Enlightenment,
c.1714-1755," History 105, no. 365 (2020): 229-251 (23 pp.)
• Delfina Gomes, Garry D. Carnegie, and Lúcia Lima Rodrigues, "Accounting as a Technology of
Government in the Portuguese Empire: The Development, Application and Enforcement of
Accounting Rules During the Pombaline Era (1761–1777)," European Accounting Review 23, no. 1
(2014): 87-115 (30 pp.)
• Andrew Konove, "In search of a decent coin: the value of small change in Bourbon Spanish America,"
Colonial Latin American Review 30, no. 4 (2021): 589-610 (22 pp.)
• Eva Maria Mehl, "Mexican Recruits and Vagrants in Late Eighteenth-Century Philippines: Empire, Social
Order, and Bourbon Reforms in the Spanish Pacific World," Hispanic American Historical Review 94,
no. 4 (2014): 547-579 (33 pp.)
• Paul Ramírez, "'Like Herod's Massacre': Quarantines, Bourbon Reform, and Popular Protest in Oaxaca's
Smallpox Epidemic, 1796-1797," The Americas 69, no. 2 (October 2012): 203-235 (33 pp.)
• Barbara A. Sommer, "Cracking Down on the Cunhamenas: Renegade Amazonian Traders under
Pombaline Reform," Journal of Latin American Studies 38, no. 4 (2006): 767-791 (25 pp.)

Week 6: From Colonies to Independent Nations

• Philip Beidler, "Mambises in Whiteface: U.S. versus Cuban Depictions of Freedom Fighters in the War of
Independence against Spain," American Studies 52, no. 2 (2013): 89-101 (13 pp.)
• Peter Blanchard, "An Institution Defended: Slavery and the English Invasions of Buenos Aires in 1806–
1807," Slavery & Abolition 35, no. 2 (2014): 253-272 (21 pp.)
• David Cahill, "New Viceroyalty, New Nation, New Empire: A Transnational Imaginary for Peruvian
Independence," Hispanic American Historical Review 91, no. 2 (2011): 203-235 (33 pp.)
• John Lynch, "Bolívar and the Caudillos," Hispanic American Historical Review 63, no. 1 (1983) 3-35 (33
pp.)
• Yuko Miki, "Slave and Citizen in Black and Red: Reconsidering the Intersection of African and
Indigenous Slavery in Postcolonial Brazil," Slavery & Abolition 35, no. 1 (2014): 1-22 (23 pp.)
• Federica Morelli, "Race, Wars, and Citizenship: Free People of Color in the Spanish American
Independence," Journal of the History of Ideas 79, no. 1 (January 2018): 143-156 (14 pp.)
• Reuben Zahler, "Complaining Like a Liberal: Redefining Law, Justice, and Official Misconduct in
Venezuela, 1790-1850," The Americas 65, no. 3 (January 2009): 351-374 (24 pp.)

Week 7: Midterm Exam – no new reading

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Weeks 8 & 9: Latin America’s Long Nineteenth Century

Choose at least 9, covering a chronological span from the early 19th to the late 19th/early 20th century
• Leticia Arroyo Abad, "Failure to Launch: Cost of Living and Living Standards in Peru During the 19th
Century," Revista de Historia Económica 32, No. 1 (2014): 47-76 (30 pp.)
• Francie R. Chassen-López, "A Patron of Progress: Juana Catarina Romero, the Nineteenth-Century Cacica
of Tehuantepec," Hispanic American Historical Review 88, no. 3 (2008): 393-426 (34 pp.)
• Marie Francois, "Housekeeping, Development, and Culture in Porfirian Chihuahua and Sonora," Estudios
Mexicanos 27, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 281-324 (44 pp.)
• Ariel de la Fuente, "Facundo and Chacho in Songs and Stories: Oral Culture and the Representations of
Caudillos in the Nineteenth-Century Argentine Interior," Hispanic American Historical Review 80,
no. 3 (2000): 503-535 (33 pp.)
• Joseph A. Francis, "Globalisation, the Terms of Trade, and Argentina’s Expansion in the Long Nineteenth
Century," Journal of Latin American Studies 49, no. 4 (2017): 709-738 (31 pp.)
• Gustavo G. Garza Merodio, "Technological Innovation and the Expansion of Mexico City, 1870-1920,"
Journal of Latin American Geography 5, no. 2 (2006): 109-126 (18 pp.)
• Paul Gootenberg, "North-South: Trade Policy, Regionalism and Caudillismo in Post-Independence Peru,"
Journal of Latin American Studies 23, no. 2 (May 1991): 273-308 (36 pp.)
• Roger M. Haigh, "The Creation and Control of a Caudillo," Hispanic American Historical Review 44, no.
4 (1964): 481-490 (10 pp.)
• Kyle E. Harvey, “'Because That’s What His Consul Had Ordered': The Chilean Consulate as a Labor
Institution in Mendoza, Argentina (1859-1869)," Historia Crítica 80 (2021): 81-102 (22 pp.)
• Lyman L. Johnson and Zephyr Frank, "Cities and Wealth in the South Atlantic: Buenos Aires and Rio de
Janeiro before 1860," Comparative Studies in Society and History 48, no. 3 (July 2006): 634-668 (35
pp.)
• Erick D. Langer, "Bringing the Economic Back In: Andean Indians and the Construction of the Nation-
State in Nineteenth-Century Bolivia," Journal of Latin American Studies 41, no. 3 (August 2009):
527-551 (25 pp.)
• W. M. Mathew, Peru and the British Guano Market, 1840-1870," The Economic History Review 23, no. 1
(April 1970): 112-128 (17 pp.)
• Jeffrey D. Needell, "Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires: Public Space and Public Consciousness in Fin-De-
Siecle Latin America," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37, no. 3 (July 1995): 519-540 (22
pp.)
• José Ragas, "Internal Passports, Counterfeiting, and Subversive Practices in Early Postcolonial Peru,"
Journal of Social History 55, no. 1 (Fall 2021): 27-45 (19 pp.)
• David Rock, "State-Building and Political Systems in Nineteenth-Century Argentina and Uruguay," Past
& Present 167 (May 2000): 176-202 (27 pp.)
• C. Alexander G. de Secada, "Arms, Guano, and Shipping: The W. R. Grace Interests in Peru, 1865-1885,"
The Business History Review 59, no. 4 (Winter 1985): 597-621 (25 pp.)
• Richard Sicotte, Catalina Vizcarra, and Kirsten Wandschneider, "Military conquest and sovereign debt:
Chile, Peru and the London bond market, 1876-1890," Cliometrica 4 (2010): 293-319 (28 pp.)
• Lee Skinner, "Ambivalence and Representations of Women’s Work in Nineteenth-Century Spanish
American Writing, 1861-1896," Latin American Research Review 54, no. 3 (2019): 637-650 (15 pp.)
• Catalina Vizcarra, "Guano, Credible Commitments, and Sovereign Debt Repayment in Nineteenth-Century
Peru," The Journal of Economic History 69, no. 2 (June 2009): 358-387 (30 pp.)
• Eric R. Wolf and Edward C. Hansen, "Caudillo Politics: A Structural Analysis," Comparative Studies in
Society and History 9, no. 2 (January 1967): 168-179 (12 pp.)
• Ariel Yablon, "Disciplined Rebels: The Revolution of 1880 in Buenos Aires," Journal of Latin American
Studies 40, no. 3 (August 2008): 483-511 (29 pp.)
• Luis Felipe Zegarra, "Women and Credit in Peru During the Guano Era: Was There Gender
Discrimination in the Mortgage Credit Market of Peru?" Revista de Historia Económica 32, no. 1
(2014): 151-185 (35 pp.)
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• Eduardo Zimmermann, "Caudillos, democracy, and constitutionalism in mid nineteenth-century

Argentina," Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 26, no. 2 (2020): 189-203 (16 pp.)

Week 10: Guatemala during the Cold War

• Edward T. Brett, "The U.S. Catholic Press on Guatemala," Journal of Church and State 44, no. 1 (Winter
2002): 115-134 (21 pp.)
• Miles Culpepper, "The Exile of Juan José Arévalo and the Decline of Guatemala's Democratic Left, 1954-
63," The Americas 79, no. 1 (January 2022): 101-130 (30 pp.)
• Cindy Forster, "Violent and Violated Women: Justice and Gender in Rural Guatemala, 1936-1956,"
Journal of Women's History 11, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 55-77 (23 pp.)
• Max Paul Friedman and Roberto García Ferreira, "Making Peaceful Revolution Impossible: Kennedy,
Arévalo, the 1963 Coup in Guatemala, and the Alliance against Progress in Latin America's Cold
War," Journal of Cold War Studies 24, no. 1 (Winter 2022): 155-187 (33 pp.)
• Patricia Harms, “'God Doesn’t Like the Revolution': The Archbishop, the Market Women, and the
Economy of Gender in Guatemala, 1944-1954," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 32, no. 2
(2011): 111-139 (29 pp.)
• Aaron Coy Moulton, "Counterrevolutionary Friends: Caribbean Basin Dictators and Guatemalan Exiles
against the Guatemalan Revolution, 1945-50," The Americas 76, no. 1 (January 2019): 107-135 (29
pp.)
• Kirsten Weld, "The Other Door: Spain and the Guatemalan Counter-Revolution, 1944-54," Journal of
Latin American Studies 51 (2019): 307-331 (25 pp.)

Week 11: Twentieth-Century Revolutionary Movements

• Dietrich Ortega, "Looking Beyond Violent Militarized Masculinities-Guerrilla Gender Regimes in Latin
America," International Feminist Journal of Politics 14, no. 4 (December 2012), 489-507 (19 pp.)
• Mike Gonzalez, "Crazy Little Armies: Guerrilla Strategy in Latin America 1958-90," in Arms and the
People: Popular Movements and the Military from the Paris Commune to the Arab Spring, eds. Mike
Gonzalez and Houman Barekat (London: Pluto Press, 2013), 193-208 (16 pp.)
• Clara Guardado Torrez and Ellen Moodie, "La línea, los Indignados, and the Post-Postwar Generation in
El Salvador," The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 25, no. 4 (2020): 590-609
(20 pp.)
• Brian D'Haeseleer, "‘Drawing the line’ in El Salvador: Washington confronts insurgency in El Salvador,
1979-92," Cold War History 18, no. 2 (2018): 131-148 (18 pp.)
• Mateo Jarquín, "The Nicaraguan Question: Contadora and the Latin American Response to US
Intervention Against the Sandinistas,1982-86," The Americas 78, no. 4 (October 2021): 581-608 (28
pp.)
• Emily Snyder, “'Cuba, Nicaragua, Unidas Vencerán': Official Collaborations between the Sandinista and
Cuban Revolutions," The Americas 78, no. 4 (October 2021): 609-637 (29 pp.)

Week 12: The Problem of Corruption

• Antonio R. Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from
Latin America," Journal of Development Studies 47, no. 7 (July 2011): 959-976 (18 pp.)
• Joel Horowitz, "Corruption, Crime, and Punishment: Recent Scholarship on Latin America," Latin
American Research Review 40, no. 1 (2005): 268-277 (10 pp.) [Review Essay]
• Ernesto Londoño and Letícia Casado, "‘The Pendulum Has Swung Back’: Latin America’s Corruption
Fight Stalls," New York Times, December 28, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/world/americas/latin-america-corruption.html (4 pp.)
• Ben Miller and Fernanda Uriegas, "Latin America’s Biggest Corruption Cases: A Retrospective,"
Americas Quarterly, July 11, 2019, https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/latin-americas-biggest-
corruption-cases-a-retrospective/ (8 pp.)
 10

• Luis Enrique Pedauga, Lucien David Pedauga and Blanca L. Delgado-Márquez, "Relationships between
corruption, political orientation, and income inequality: evidence from Latin America," Applied
Economics 49, no. 17 (2017): 1689-1705 (17 pp.)
• Alfonso W. Quiroz, "Implicit Costs of Empire: Bureaucratic Corruption in Nineteenth-Century Cuba,"
Journal of Latin American Studies 35 (2003): 473-511 (39 pp.)
• Perry Stein, "FBI arrests former Puerto Rico governor on bribery charges," Washington Post, August 4,
2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/04/vzquez-garced-puerto-rico-
bribery/ (2 pp.)
• Barney Warf & Sheridan Stewart, "Latin American Corruption in Geographic Perspective," Journal of
Latin American Geography 15, no. 1 (March 2016): 133-155 (23 pp.)

Weeks 13 &14: The Legacies of the Past

Choose at least 8
• Renzo Aroni Sulca, "Choreography of a Massacre: Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival,"
trans Margot Olavarria, Latin American Perspectives 43, no. 6 (November 2016): 41-53 (13 pp.)
• Tanja Bastia and Matthias vom Hau, "Migration, Race and Nationhood in Argentina," Journal of Ethnic
and Migration Studies 40, no. 3 (2014): 475-492 (18 pp.)
• Jürgen Buchenau, "Small Numbers, Great Impact: Mexico and Its Immigrants, 1821-1973," Journal of
American Ethnic History 20, no. 3 (Spring 2001): 23-49 (27 pp.)
• David Carey, Jr., "Empowered through Labor and Buttressing Their Communities: Mayan Women and
Coastal Migration, 1875-1965," Hispanic American Historical Review 86, no. 3 (2006): 501-534 (34
pp.)
• Michela Coletta, "Imagined Races: From Environmental Determinism to Geographical Authenticity in
Twentieth-Century Argentina," Bulletin of Latin American Research 38, no. 2 (2019): 164-178 (16
pp.)
• James R. Curtis, "Praças, Place, and Public Life in Urban Brazil," Geographical Review 90, no. 4 (October
2000): 475-492 (18 pp.)
• Daniel J. Fernández Guevara, "Constructing Legitimacy in 'Stone' and 'Words' during Cuba's Second
Republic: Building and Contesting Fulgencio Batista's José Martí," History & Memory 31, no. 2
(Fall/Winter 2019): 117-154 (38 pp.)
• Jenny Guardado, "Office-Selling, Corruption, and Long-Term Development in Peru," American Political
Science Review 112, no. 4 (2018): 971-995 (25 pp.)
• Sara Koopman, "Mona, Mona, Mona! Tropicality and the Imaginative Geographies of Whiteness in
Colombia," Journal of Latin American Geography 20, no. 1 (April 2021): 49-78 (30 pp.)
• Michael Lowy and Eder Sader, "The Militarization of the State in Latin America," trans. Stephen Gorman,
Latin American Perspectives 12, no. 4 (Autumn 1985): 7-40 (1985) (34 pp.)
• Marc McLeod, "'We Cubans Are Obligated Like Cats to Have a Clean Face': Malaria, Quarantine, and
Race in Neocolonial Cuba, 1898-1940," The Americas 67, no. 1 (July 2010): 57-81 (25 pp.)
• Colby Ristow, "Sex, Money, and Murder on the Isthmus: Rumor, Disinformation, and the Politics of
Denunciation in Revolutionary Mexico," Journal of Social History 55, no. 1 (Fall 2021): 46-64 (19
pp.)
• Edward Telles and René Flores, "Not Just Color: Whiteness, Nation, and Status in Latin America,"
Hispanic American Historical Review 93, no. 3 (2013): 411-449 (39 pp.)

Week 15: Final Reflections

• Current events readings TBA

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