Download How to Read Modern Latin America

HOW TO READ
MODERN LATIN AMERICA
LATI 50
INTRODUCTION TO LATIN AMERICA
… and learn to love it!
CASE STUDIES
 Mexico: The Taming of a Revolution
 Cuba: Key Colony, Socialist State
 The Andes: Soldiers, Oligarchs, and Indians
 Colombia: Civility and Violence
 Venezuela: The Perils of Prosperity
 Argentina: Progress, Stalemate, Discord
 Chile: Repression and Democracy
 Brazil: The Awakening Giant
SYNTHESES
 Strategies for Economic Development
 Dynamics of Political Transformation
 Culture and Society
 Latin America in the World Arena, 1800s-1980s
 Latin America in the World Arena, 1990s-Present
ANALYTICAL THEMES
 economic transformations induce social changes which,
in turn, lead to political consequences
 shifting alliances among social class groups give shape
to patterns of political conflict over time
 a country’s place in the international division of labor
defines the shape of available paths to economic growth
 differences in economic processes have produced
different forms of social structure and patterns of social
change
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
 Upper Class:
 Urban (industrialists, bankers)
 Rural (landowners)
 Middle Class:
 Urban (merchants, lawyers, etc.)
 Rural (small farmers)
 Popular/Lower Class:
 Urban (workers)
 Rural (peasants, campesinos)
 National Institutions:
 State (including military)
 Church
 External Sector:
 Economic (investors, merchants)
 Political (foreign governments)
KEY QUESTIONS
 What social sectors/classes are present? Are any
absent?
 Are there alliances between social groups? Or
conflicts of interest?
 Which groups hold economic and/or political power?
Through what mechanisms?
CHRONOLOGY OF CHANGE
 Liberal Era (1880s-1920s)
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Export-import development
Oligarchs and strong men
 Import-Substitution Industrialization (1930s-1970s)


Industrialization
Populism and dictatorship
 Socialist Alternative (1950s-1980s)


Revolutionary movements
State-controlled economies
 Neoliberalism (1980s-present)



Pro-market policies
Democracy (of sorts)
Radical protest and “new left”
COMPARING POLITICS
 Mexico: Revolution of 1910 + dominant-party system
 Central America: plantation society, U.S. influence, dictatorship and
protest
 Cuba: plantation society, socialist revolution, resistance to United
States
 Question A: Compare Mexican and Cuban revolutions
 Question B: Trace colonial legacies in Mexico and Cuba
 Question C: How much revolutionary ferment outside of Cuba?
THE MLA WEBSITE
 Address: http://library.brown.edu/modernlatinamerica
 Overall structure
 Documents 37 and 39