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17.55

Introduction to Latin American Studies

3-0-9 units. HASS-S; CI-H · Undergraduate

Examines contemporary Latin American culture, politics, and history. Surveys geography, economic development, and race, religion, and gender in Latin America. Special emphasis on the Salvadoran civil war, human rights and military rule in Argentina and Chile, and migration from Central America and Mexico to the United States. Students analyze films, literature, visual art, journalism, historical documents, and social scientific research.

Fall 2006

Interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary Latin America, drawing on films, literature, popular press accounts, and scholarly research. Topics include economic development, ethnic and racial identity, religion, revolution, democracy, transitional justice, and the rule of law. Examples draw on a range of countries in the region, especially Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. Includes a heavy oral participation component, with regular breakout groups, formal class presentations on pressing social issues (such as criminal justice and land tenure), and a structured class debate.

Readings

  • Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Required
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Required
  • Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits . Translated by Magda Bogin. New York, NY: Everyman’s Library, 2005. ISBN: 9781400043187 (English).
    Required
  • Colburn, Forrest D. Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Required
  • Many weekly readings are accompanied by videos or films, which are an integral part of the course. Videos from the Americas series, produced in part by WGBH-Boston, are one hour each. Please note that the film The Battle of Chile is very long, so you should plan in advance.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Required
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994, ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Required
  • Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Translated by Magda Bogin. New York, NY: Everyman’s Library, 2005, ISBN: 9781400043187 (English).
    Required
  • Colburn, Forrest D. Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Required
  • Márquez, Gabriel García. “Big Mama’s Funeral (short story, 1962).” No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories . Translated by J. S. Bernstein. New York, NY: Harper Colophone, 1979, pp. 153-70. ISBN: 9780060907006.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “A View from the South,” and “Legacies of Empire.” Chapters 1 and 2 in Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 2-83. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Latin America as a Place,” “Urban Bias,” and “The Poor.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 9-24 and 82-88. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “Children of the Sun,” and “A Question of Color.” Chapters 7 and 8 in Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 234-303. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Begin reading: Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits. (Note names of the women.)
    Listed reading
  • Americas Television Series: Julia, Raul, narrator. “Mirrors of the Heart: Color, Class, and Identity.” Program 4_. Americas_. Produced by Judith Vecchione with WGBH (Boston). South Burlington, VT: Annenberg/CPB Collection, 1993, ISBN: 1559467487.
    Listed reading
  • R2 · Americas Video: Mirrors of the Heart: Color, Class, and Identity
    Listed reading
  • Klaren, Peter F. “Lost Promise: Explaining Latin American Underdevelopment.” In Promise of Development: Theories of Change in Latin America . Edited by Peter F. Klaren and Thomas J. Bossert. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986, pp. 3-33. ISBN: 9780813300078. [Skip part on “corporatism”]
    Listed reading
  • Frank, André Gunder. “The Development of Underdevelopment.” In Promise of Development: Theories of Change in Latin America. Edited by Peter F. Klaren and Thomas J. Bossert. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986, pp. 111-23. ISBN: 9780813300078.
    Listed reading
  • dos Santos, Teodoro. “The Structure of Dependence.” The American Economic Review 60, no. 2 (May 1970): 231-6.
    Listed reading
  • Haber, Steven. “Assessing the Obstacles to Industrialization: The Mexican Economy, 1830-1940.” Journal of Latin American Studies 24, no. 1 (February 1992): 1-32.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “The Business of Being in Business.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 45-54. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Continue reading House of the Spirits. (Be sure to read the story about the chinchillas.)
    Listed reading
  • Gereffi, Gary. “Drug Firms and Dependency in Mexico: The Case of the Steroid Hormone Industry.” International Organization 32 (1978): 237-86.
    Listed reading
  • Haber, Steven “Assessing the Obstacles to Industrialization: The Mexican Economy, 1830-1940.” Journal of Latin American Studies 24, no. 1 (February 1992): 1-32.
    Listed reading
  • R5 · The Battle for Chile (Part I)
    Listed reading
  • Finish reading The House of the Spirits .
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America . Edited by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989, pp. 194-216. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • Video: Guzmán, Patricio. The Battle of Chile (Part I). New York, NY: First Run / Icarus Films, 1978.
    Listed reading
  • L10 · Class Discussion of The House of the Spirits
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America . Edited by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989, pp. 216-226. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile . Berkeley, CA: University of California press, 1994, pp. 1-6, 56-77, 83-104, 113-159. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Listed reading
  • Documentary: Guzmán, Patricio. The Battle of Chile (Part II). New York, NY: First Run / Icarus Films, 1978.
    Listed reading
  • R6 · The Battle for Chile (Part II)
    Listed reading
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile . Berkeley, CA: University of California press, 1994, pp.163-267. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset, Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989, pp. 227-240. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • Drama: Bortnik, Aida, and Luis Puenzo. La Historia Oficial . Directed by Luis Puenzo. Argentina: Historias Cinematograficas, 1985.
    Listed reading
  • R7 · La Historia Oficial
    Listed reading
  • Hunter, Wendy. “Continuity or Change? Civil-Military Relations in Democratic Argentina, Chile, and Peru.” Political Science Quarterly 112, no. 3 (Autumn, 1997): 453-475.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Fragile Democracies.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 33-44. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Langguth, A. J. Hidden Terrors: The Truth about U.S. Police Operations in Latin America . New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1979, pp. 160-64. ISBN: 9780394738024.
    Listed reading
  • Huntington, Samuel. “The Torturer Problem,” and “The Praetorian Problem”. In The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993, pp. 211-51. ISBN: 9780806125169.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Stanley. “State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past.” Law and Social Inquiry 20, no. 1 (Winter, 1995): 7-50.
    Listed reading
  • Davis, Diane E. “Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico.” Latin American Politics and Society 48, no. 1 (2006): 55-86.
    Listed reading
  • Montiel, López, and Angel Gustavo. “The Military, Political Power, and Police Relations in Mexico City.” Latin American Perspectives 27, no. 2 (March 2000): 79-94.
    Listed reading
  • Magaloni, Beatriz, and Guillermo Zepeda. “Democratization, Judicial and Law Enforcement Institutions, and the Rule of Law in Mexico.” In Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico . Edited by Kevin J. Middlebrook. London, UK: Institute of Latin American Studies, LSE and La Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD, 2004, pp. 166-95. ISBN: 9781900039451.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Crime” in Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 73-80. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Varenik, Robert O. “ Exploring Roads to Police Reform: Six Recommendations .” Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico (May 15, 2003): 1-15. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Arroyo, Mario. “ Evaluando la ‘Estrategía Giuliani’: la Política de Cero Tolerancia en el Distrito Federal .” Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico , (May 15, 2003): 1-18. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Antonio Carrillo Maza, Marco. “ La Participación Ciudadana y el Enfoque Micro Social de la Seguridad Pública: El Caso de Baja California .” Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies . Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico (May 15, 2003): 1-16. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Chapter 3 in “Democratizing the Police Abroad: What to Do and How to Do It.” pp. 17-32 ( PDF ) ↗
    Listed reading
  • Reames, Benjamin. “ Police Forces in Mexico: A Profile .” Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico (May 15, 2003): 1-11. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Holston, James. “The Misrule of Law: Land and Usurpation in Brazil.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 33, no. 4 (October 1991): 695-725.
    Listed reading
  • de Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else . London, UK: Bantam Press, 2000. pp. 1-37, 208-218. ISBN: 0593046641.
    Listed reading
  • Drama: Carneiro, João Emanuel, and Marcos Bernstein. Central Station . Directed by Walter Salles. New York, NY: Sony Pictures Classics, 1998.
    Listed reading
  • R11 · Central Station
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “Latin America and the Caribbean at 2000: A New Millennium?” In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 498-521, 527-549. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Márquez, Gabriel García. “Big Mama’s Funeral (short story, 1962).” In No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories . Translated by J.S. Bernstein. New York, NY: Harper Colophone, 1979, pp.153-170. ISBN: 9780060907006.
    Listed reading
  • Peter Winn, Epilogue, “Latin America and the Caribbean at 2000: A New Millennium?” In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 601-608. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Conclusion.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 127-134. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
Fall 2005

Topics

  • Class Discussion of “Big Mama’s Funeral”
  • Theories of Development
  • Individual Presentations on Economic Development
  • The Latin American Debt Crisis, Structural Adjustment, and Market-oriented Reform
  • The Breakdown of Chilean Democracy
  • Bureaucratic-authoritarianism in Latin America
  • The Transition to Democracy in Chile and Elsewhere
  • Class Discussion: What is Democracy? Is Chile Democratic?
  • Class Debate: Prosecute and Punish or Forgive and Forget?
  • Class Debate (cont.)
  • The Rule of Law in Latin America: “Guilty until Proven Rich”
  • One-party Rule, Democratization, and Corruption in Mexico
  • Group Presentations on Fixing the Criminal Justice System in Mexico
  • Group Class Presentations: How should Land Disputes in Brazil be Resolved?

Readings

  • Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Listed reading
  • Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits . New York, NY: Everyman’s Library, 2005. ISBN: 9781400043187.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Márquez, Gabriel García. “Big Mama’s Funeral.” Short Story, 1962. In No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories . Translated by J. S. Bernstein. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1979, pp. 153-70. ISBN: 9780060907006.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “A View from the South,” Chapter 1, and “Legacies of Empire,” Chapter 2. In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean . 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 2-83. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Latin America as a Place,” “Urban Bias,” and “The Poor.” In Latin America at the End of Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 9-24, 82-88. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Americas video: Continent on the Move: Migration and Urbanization . Or presentation on basic data about the region.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “Children of the Sun,” Chapter 7, and “A Question of Color,” Chapter 8. In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 234-303. ISBN: 9780520201811.
    Listed reading
  • Begin reading Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits. (Note names of the women)
    Listed reading
  • Americas video: Mirrors of the Heart: Color, Class, and Identity .
    Listed reading
  • Klaren, Peter F. “Lost Promise: Explaining Latin American Underdevelopment.” In Promise of Development: Theories of Change in Latin America. Edited by Peter F. Klaren, and Thomas J. Bossert. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986, pp. 3-33. ISBN: 9780813300078. (Ignore discussion of “corporatism”)
    Listed reading
  • Frank, André Gunder. “The Development of Underdevelopment.” In Promise of Development: Theories of Change in Latin America. Edited by Peter F. Klaren, and Thomas J. Bossert. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986, pp. 111-23. ISBN: 9780813300078.
    Listed reading
  • Santos, Teodoro dos. “The Structure of Dependence.” The American Economic Review 60, no. 2 (May 1970): 231-6.
    Listed reading
  • Haber, Steven. “Assessing the Obstacles to Industrialization: The Mexican Economy, 1830-1940.” Journal of Latin American Studies 24, no. 1 (February 1992): 1-32.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “The Business of Being in Business.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 45-54. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Continue reading House of the Spirits. (Be sure to read the story about the “chinchillas.”)
    Listed reading
  • Gereffi, Gary. “Drug Firms and Dependency in Mexico: The Case of the Steroid Hormone Industry.” International Organization 32 (1978): 237-86.
    Listed reading
  • Class Discussion of The House of the Spirits
    Listed reading
  • Finish reading Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits .
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America . Edited by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989, pp. 194-216. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • The Battle for Chile (Part I).
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America. Edited by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998, pp. 216-226. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994, pp. 1-5, 56-77, 83-104, and 113-159. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Listed reading
  • The Battle for Chile (Part II).
    Listed reading
  • Valenzuela, Arturo. “Chile: Origins, Consolidation, and Breakdown of a Democratic Regime.” In Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America . Edited by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989, pp. 227-240. ISBN: 9781555870447.
    Listed reading
  • Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994, pp. 163-267. ISBN: 9780520080836.
    Listed reading
  • Karl, Terry, and Philippe C. Schmitter. “What Democracy is…and is Not.” Journal of Democracy 2, no. 3 (Summer 1991): 75-86.
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Fragile Democracies” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 33-44. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • La historia oficial .
    Listed reading
  • Huntington, Samuel P. “The Torturer Problem,” and “The Praetorian Problem.” In The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, pp. 211-51. ISBN: 9780806123462.
    Listed reading
  • Langguth, A. J. Hidden Terrors: The Truth about U.S. Police Operations in Latin America . New York, NY: Pantheon, 1993, pp. 160-64. ISBN: 9780806125169.
    Listed reading
  • Mendez, Juan E. “Accountability for past abuses.” Human Rights Quarterly 19, no. 2 (May 1997): 255-82.
    Listed reading
  • Babenco, Hector. Kiss of the Spider Woman . 1985 (Hollywood version of Manuel Puig’s classic novel). ↗
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Crime.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 73-80. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading
  • Magaloni, Beatriz, and Guillermo Zepeda. “Democratization, Judicial and Law Enforcement Institutions, and the Rule of Law in Mexico.” In Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico . Edited by Kevin J. Middlebrook. La Jolla, CA: Institute of Latin American Studies and Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies of the University of California at San Diego, 2004, pp. 166-95. ISBN: 9781900039451.
    Listed reading
  • Reames, Benjamin. “ Police Forces In Mexico: A Profile .” 2003. ↗
    Listed reading
  • “Democratizing the Police Abroad: What to Do and How to Do It.” Chapter 3. ( PDF ) ↗
    Listed reading
  • Soderbergh, Steven. Traffic . U.S.A. Films, 2000. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Soto, Hernando de. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else . London, UK: Bantam Press, 2000, pp. 1-37, and 208-218. ISBN: 9780465016143.
    Listed reading
  • Holston, James. “The Misrule of Law: Land and Usurpation in Brazil.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 33, no. 4 (October 1991): 695-725.
    Listed reading
  • Holston, James, and Teresa P. R. Caldeira. “Democracy, Law, and Violence: The Disjunctions of Brazilian Citizenship.” In Fault lines of democracy in post-transition Latin America . Edited by Felipe Aguero, and Jeffrey Stark. Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press/University of Miami; Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. ISBN: 9781574540468.
    Listed reading
  • Salles, Walter. Central Station . 1998. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Márquez, Gabriel García. “Big Mama’s Funeral.” Short Story, 1962. In No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories . Translated by J. S. Bernstein. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1979, pp.153-70. ISBN: 9780060907006.
    Listed reading
  • Winn, Peter. “Latin America and the Caribbean at 2000: A New Millennium?” In Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 601-608. ISBN: 9780520201811. (Epilogue)
    Listed reading
  • Colburn, Forrest D. “Conclusion.” In Latin America at the End of Politics . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 127-34. ISBN: 9780691091815.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Same subject as 21A.130[J] , 21G.084[J] , 21H.170[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S; CI-H

Sources