Primary Texts of Latin American Civilization

LACVC1020, Fall 2016

TR 6:10pm-8:00 pm, Hamilton Hall 306

Pablo Piccato, Department of History, Columbia University

Office hours: W 10:00am to noon; 324 Fayerweather, 212 854 3725

[email protected]

The purpose of this course is to read key texts from Latin America in their historical and intellectual context. The discussions will focus on selected sections from the texts but will also seek to understand their structure and the practical purposes they served. Exercises will combine close reading and, when possible, translations.

The course also seeks to establish a counterpoint to the list of canonical texts of Contemporary Civilization. The selections below are not intended to be compared directly to those in CC but to raise questions about the different contexts in which ideas are used, the critical exchanges and influences (within and beyond Latin America) that shaped ideas in the region, and the long-term intellectual, political and cultural pursuits that have defined Latin American history.

The active engagement of the students toward these texts will be the most important aspect of class work and assignments.

Requirements:

- Attendance and participation play a key role in the quality and success of the class, for a successful discussion is based on teamwork and commitment to sharing our ideas. Computer use is not allowed during class. You are entitled to 1 absence without notification, although I would appreciate an email letting me know that you cannot come. Each student will have to introduce one reading. There will be a few in-class, five-minutes exams on key concepts. (Participation will count for 20% of the final grade)

- Midterm (20% of the final grade)

- Paper. The extension should be between 2000 and 2500 words. Deductions apply if you hand in the essay late. (30% of the final grade)

- Final exam, including definitions and essay questions. (30%)

Schedule and readings:

Unless otherwise noted, all the readings are available in the Files and Resources section of Courseworks.

9/6		Introduction
		Unit I: Europe and the Americas before Contact
9/8	European view of the world before contact	The Voyage of Christopher Columbus: Columbus’ Own Journal of Discovery Newly Restored and Translated. Translated by John Cummins. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. (89-116, from 23 September to 6 November) The Libro de las profecías of Christopher Columbus. Translated by Delno C. West and August Kling. Gainesville: U of Florida Press, 1991. (pp. 101-111)
9/13	Conquest from the European point of view	Hernán Cortés, Letters from Mexico. Translated by Anthony Pagden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. (Second letter, pp. 47-159)
9/15	Conquest continued.	We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. Edited and translated by James Lockhart. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. (Book 12 of the Florentine Codex, pp. 48-255)
9/20	Indigenous view of the world before contact	The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. Translated by Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. (Chapters 1 to 9, 41-76)
		Unit II: Colonial Encounters and New Societies
9/22	Individuals between worlds	Hans Staden’s True History: An Account of Cannibal Captivity in Brazil. Edited by Neil L. Whitehead. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008, pp. 35-99, 129-137.
9/27	Women, Religion and Subjectivity	”Admonishment: The Letter of Sor Philothea de la Cruz” and “The Reply to Sor Philothea.” In Sor Juana Anthology. Translated by Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988, pp. 199-243.  Nancy E. van Deusen. The Souls of Purgatory: The Spiritual Diary of a Seventeenth-Century Afro-Peruvian Mystic, Ursula de Jesús. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. (Diary, p. 79-110).
		Unit III: Revolution and the Construction of Sovereignty
9/29	The colonial State	von Humbolt, Alexander, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (Abridged).  Edited by Mary Maples Dunn (New York: Alred A. Knopf, 1972), pp. 45-90, 145-183.
10/4	Representation and free trade	Mariano Moreno, Representación de los hacendados y otros escritos. Memoria Argentina. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1998. (Translation by Nicole T. Hughes)
10/6	Insurrection and discontent	”The Cause of the Revolutions (Lucas Alamán).” In Latin American Revolutions, pp. 321-27. Lucas Alamán, “The Siege of Guanajuato” and José María Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation.” In Gilbert Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 171-191.
10/11	Insurrection and discontent continued	Simón Bolívar, “Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island (Jamaica)”. English version in http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/jamaica-letter.html. ”Constitution of Haiti (1805).” Available on the CC website under CC Reader.
10/13	Slavery, abolition, and independence	The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001. Text available at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/baquaqua/baquaqua.html.
		Unit IV: Building the nation state, placing it in the world
10/18	Midterm
10/20	The law and the building of nations	Andrés Bello. Selected Writings of Andrés Bello. Library of Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. (Pages 124-137, 143-168, 175-194, 213-224, 229-260) [96 pp.]
10/25	Modernization, space, population	Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino. Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism: The First Complete English Translation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. (Chapters 1-7, pp. 9-128). You can read the book in Butler reserves or purchase it at Book Culture, 112^th St. between Amsterdam and Broadway.
10/27	Positivism and history	Sierra, Justo. The Political Evolution of the Mexican People. The Texas pan-American Seri. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964. Pp. 96-128, 149-171, 211-247, 298-368. (Spanish ed: 93-126, 147-170, 211-250, 307-399. [194 pp.]
11/1	Visions of US and Latin America	Martí, José. José Martí: Selected Writings. Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. (pp. 26-28, 32-40, 43-51, 130-139, 146-151, 157-164, 255-267, 270-285, 288-296, 304-312, 318-333, 337-349). Available at Reserves or Book Culture.
		Unit V: Mass Politics, Development, Identity
11/3	The Marxist critique	Mariátegui, José Carlos. Seven interpretive essays on Peruvian reality. Translated by Marjory Urquidi. Introd. by Jorge Basadre. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1971.  Essays 2, 3, 4. http://www.marxists.org/archive/mariateg/works/1928/index.htm
11/10	Populism	Juan Domingo Perón. Perón Expounds His Doctrine. Buenos Aires, 1948. (Pp. 31-104, 179-200, 233-243, 277-289); Eva Perón. In My Own Words: Evita. Translated from the Spanish by Laura Dail. New York: The New Press, 1996. (49-53, 55-57, 68-70, 73-74, 91-92)
11/15	National identity and culture	Octavio Paz. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico. New York: Grove Press, 1961. (Chapters: Pachuco, Day of the Dead, Sons of Malinche, From Independence to Revolution, The Mexican Intelligentsia). Available at Reserves or Book Culture.
11/17	Rethinking development	Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto. Dependency and Development in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. (Chapters 1-3, 5, 6)
		Unit VI: Revolution, Authoritarianism, Justice
11/22	Revolution and guerilla warfare	Ernesto Guevara, Guerrilla warfare. Wilmington, Del. : SR Books, 1997. Text from 1960 only. Available at Reserves or Book Culture.
11/29	Consciousness and education	Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. New York: Continuum, 2000. (Chapters 1, 3 and 4, 123 pp.) Available at Reserves or Book Culture.
12/1	Memory and justice	Argentina. Nunca Más (never Again). Report of Conadep (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons). n.d. http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio8519335. (Click on the following sections: Prologue by Ernesto Sabato, Authors' Note; Part I, The Repression: A. General introduction, B. Abduction: “Anonymous groups or gangs who forced their way into homes at night”; C. Torture; D. Secret Detention Centres (SDCs): “General considerations” and “Location of the Secret Detention Centres”; F. Death as a political weapon: extermination: “Mass executions by firing squad” and “The 'pit'on the Loma del Torito”; H. Agents and structures of repression; Part II. The Victims: “Introductory note” and “The disappeared by age group”; Part IV: “Creation and Organization of the National Comission on the Disappeared”; Part VI, Recomendations and Conclusions: “Recommendations” and ”Conclusions.”)
12/6	Testimonio and truth	Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. 2nd English-language. London ; New York: Verso, 2009. (Chapters 12-25, 127 pp.) Available at Reserves or Book Culture. Final paper due
TBA	Final exam

Academic integrity

Students are expected to do their own work on all tests and assignments for this class and act in accordance with the Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity (below) and Honor Code (http://www.college.columbia.edu/ccschonorcode) established by the students of Columbia College and the School of General Studies. Because any academic integrity violation undermines our intellectual community, students found to have cheated, plagiarized, or committed any other act of academic dishonesty can expect to fail the class or receive a zero for the work in question, and will be referred to the Dean’s Discipline process.

It is students’ responsibility to ensure their work maintains the standards expected and should you have any questions or concerns regarding your work, you can ask the instructor and refer to the Columbia University Undergraduate Guide to Academic Integrity.

Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity

The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity.

Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars’ work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited.

In practical terms, this means that, as students, you must be responsible for the full citations of others’ ideas in all of your research papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations; you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent.

Any breach of this intellectual responsibility is a breach of faith with the rest of our academic community. It undermines our shared intellectual culture, and it cannot be tolerated. Students failing to meet these responsibilities should anticipate being asked to leave Columbia.