Latin American Revolutions (Poli376)
Offered alternating springs
Writing Centered
Prerequisite: Any LAS or Latin America-focused course; Poli218 or Poli214; any 300-level Politics course; or consent
How does our understanding of yesterday’s revolutions shape our engagement with politics today? Latin America emerged as a revolutionary vanguard in the mid-twentieth century, when a motley crew of Marxists and other activists came together to demand equality in labor and land. By the end of the twentieth century, the region found itself defined by the twin problems of "dirty wars" and "lost decade(s)." Many countries became laboratories for truth commissions that sought to name those responsible for violent acts. In this class, we will examine the meanings and legacies of revolution and reconciliation. To do this, we will seek to understand debates over nationalism and imperialism; the importance of race, class and gender in political change; and the role of violence, memory, and forgetting in state formations.
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Independence & Revolution, Part I When is insurrection revolutionary? What's the difference between a subversive and a patriot? We'll start by asking these questions through the lens of Latin America and the Caribbean. We'll get an overview of major political thinkers in the region, as well as make a broad sweep of independence and nationalist movements in Haiti, Mexico and Cuba. |
Independence & Revolution, Part II Looking back on major revolutionary movements in the twentieth century, the biggest internal debate on the Left was whether to focus on class inequalities, or acknowledge differential identities (such as ethnicity and gender). At the time, most people understood Leftist movements as presenting a united front, only to suffer differentiated repressions. What role does identity play in social justice struggles? |
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The Politics of Literacy in the Cold War Through the life of Paulo Freire, we'll examine how the Cold War shaped political possibilities for the Latin American Left. |
Truth & Reconciliation To close the course, we'll look at legacies of revolution and repression. How can killers and survivors live as neighbors? What meaning do democracy and the rule of law have in post-war contexts? Most importantly, what might yesterday’s revolutions signal for tomorrow’s political activism? |
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