First-Year Seminar: Conquest Cultures: Colonialism, Violence, and Memory in Latin America

3 units

What was the Spanish Conquest? How have projects of colonization, acculturation, and religious conversion been pursued in Latin America since? Beginning with the military campaigns of Spanish conquistadores in the sixteenth century and ending with literary reinterpretations of the Spanish Conquest by Latin American writers, we explore the perpetuation of violence in the service of empire, Christianity, and nation-state formation through primary documents, films, art, literature, and scholarly work. The goal is to go beyond Columbus, Cortés, Pizarro, and other famous explorers to understand the range of actors who have played a role as interpreters, military allies, and chroniclers, with special emphasis on women and people of native American and African descent. This seminar is intended as a critical introduction to some of the major problems in Latin American history for students with limited prior knowledge of the region.