Latin American History: 19th and 20th Century

Monday and Wednesday 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Room 405

Office Hours: Mondays 1-2 PM

Instruction: Dr. Samuel Finesurrey

Email: [email protected]

Course Description

This course explores crucial issues in the history of Latin America, from the Independence period through the present. This course will expose the class to a range of people, movements, ideologies, and events, which will allow students to critically examine the causes and outcomes of revolution and counterrevolution in Latin America, 1800-Present. Intimately tied to this history, the class will critically examine the role of the United States in Latin America, both as imperial actor and a destination for refugees fleeing instability catalyzed by both foreign and domestic factors.

By the end of the semester, students should be able to articulate motivations of various actors in major events studied in the course. They should be able to trace historic patterns across the region, while also identifying seminal moments that altered the trajectory of peoples, nations, regions, and/or the global community. By the end of this course undergraduates should grasp the ways geopolitical strategies, nationalist movements, and transnational struggles have radically altered both past and present realities for the people of Latin America. Finally, students should be able to evaluate the various lenses of Latin American history and demonstrate their own ability to analyze the region over the past two-hundred years.

The nation you will trace in this course did not develop in isolation. Its history — of colonization, rebellion, revolution, and migration — is inseparable from the forces we study together every week: empire, racial hierarchy, economic exploitation, and the struggle for justice. And that history did not stay south of the border. It traveled north, carried by the people who built communities right here in New York City. The Tracing a Latin American Nation project asks you to follow that history into the streets of our city — not as tourists, but as historians. By researching your nation, visiting its NYC community, and documenting what you find, you will practice the core skills of this course: tracing change over time, analyzing power, and asking whose stories have been left out. Every lecture, reading, and quiz is preparation for that work.

Prerequisites/CoRequisites

No prerequisites for this course

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and apply the key historical concepts of change-over-time, cause-and-effect, agency, historical empathy, and continuity and discontinuity, and recognize how these concepts are employed in the historical method.
• Analyze and interpret primary sources with attention to audience, authorship and context.
• Recognize some of the ways in which historians have conflicting interpretations of the past.
• Recognize how and why Latin American revolutions and counterrevolutions have been taught differently to different generations and communities.
• Identify and discuss the importance of struggles for economic, political, and social justice in Latin America.
• Analyze the relationship between U.S. Empire and immigration from Latin America.
• Produce a paper with a clear thesis and appropriate citations based on strong evidence drawn from historical sources.

Suggested Course Materials

All texts are either open access or digitally available through CUNY One Search.

Secondary Sources

“A Brief History of the U.S. Interferences in the Caribbean Basin” Telesur (2019)

Buchenau, Jürgen “The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1946” Latin American History (2015)

Burnett, John “A Chapter in U.S. History Often Ignored: The Flight of Runaway Slaves to Mexico” NPR (2021)

Burns, E. Bradford “The True Verdict on Allende” The Nation (2009)

Danticat, Edwidge “The Long Legacy of Occupation in Haiti” The New Yorker (2015)

Day, Meredith Revolution and Independence in Latin America: The Liberators (New York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group, 2015)

ISBN: 9781680480313

Deans-Smith, Susan “Casta Paintings” Not Even Past (2011)

Eddins, Crystal Nicole “Runaways, Repertoires, and Repression: Marronnage and the Haitian Revolution, 1766-1791” Vol 25, No 1, Journal of Haitian Studies (2019)

Estas, Roberta, “Las Castas – Spanish Racial Classifications” Native Heritage Project (2013)

Finesurrey, Samuel “Case Studies in the History of U.S. Empire and Society” OER Commons (2022)

_________, “Contesting Circuits of Empire: Afro-Caribbean Migrant Labor in Cuba, 1899-1958” Academic Works(2020)

Hirst, Stephen K., and Heather Jasper “The Indigenous Rebellion That Inspired Peru’s Independence” BBC (2021)

Lantigua-Williams, Juleyka “40 Years Later, U.S. Invasion Still Haunts Dominican Republic” The Progressive Magazine (2005)
Lopez, German “How the War on Drugs Perpetuates Violence in Latin America” VOX (2014)

Lynch, John Latin America Between Colony and Nation (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan 2003)

ISBN: 9781349418565

McPherson, Alan A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016)

ISBN: 9781118953990

McSherry, J. Patrice “Operation Condor and Transnational State Violence Against Exiles” Vol 36, No 2 Journal of Global South Students (2019)

Miller, Bonnie From Liberation to Conquest: The Visual and Popular Cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898 (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011)

ISBN: 9781558499249

Murphy, John Ed. Gods and Goddesses of the Inca, Maya, and Aztec Civilization (New York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group, 2015)

ISBN: 9781622753970

Portillo Villeda, Suyapa “The Root Cause of Central American Migration is U.S. Imperialism” Jacobin (2021)

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, “How Mexican Immigration to the U.S. Has Evolved” Time (2015)

The Rise of Allende: An Interview with Marian Schlotterbeck, The Tribune (2020)

Primary Sources

Bartolomé de las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1584)

The Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804) 

Simón Bolívar, Letter from Jamaica (1815)

Mexico’s Plan de Iguala (1821)

Cuba’s Platt Amendment (1903)

Emiliano Zapata, Plan de Ayala (1911)

Suggested Course Assignments and Grading

A+	4.0	97-100%
A	4.0	93-96.9%
A-	3.7	90-92.9%
B+	3.3	87-89.9%
B	3.0	83-86.9%
B-	2.7	80-82.9%
C+	2.3	77-79.9%
C	2.0	73-76.9%
C-	1.7	70-72.9%
D+	1.3	67-69.9%
D (passing)	1.0	60-66.9%
F	0	0-59.9%
NC*	Not calculated	0-59.9%

Weekly Quizzes (25%): Every week there will be a quiz on the assigned materials and the previous week’s lecture. These are open note quizzes so you are expected to bring your notes on both the readings and from the previous week’s lecture. At times there will be map questions and timeline questions, but the vast majority of questions will be standard multiple choice questions. There will be 12 quizzes throughout the semester and 10 will count towards your final grade. They will almost always take place in the first 10-15 minutes of class. If you miss a quiz it will count as a dropped quiz and not hurt you, but you cannot make it up.

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Tracing a Latin American Nation (40%)

One of the most rewarding parts of this course is that you won’t just be studying Latin America from a distance — you’ll be finding it right here in New York City. Over the course of the semester, your group will become experts on one Latin American nation, tracing its history and then stepping into the living community that nation has built in our city.

Step 1 — Choose Your Nation — Due March 11 (ungraded): Select a nation from the list below that you want to become an expert on. Also select a backup and third choice in case of overlap with other groups. We’ll finalize selections together in class.

Step 2 — Historical Overview — Due April 15 (10%): As a group, research and write a one-page historical overview of your nation covering 4 of the following eras as a loose framework:

• Pre-Colonial History
• Colonial History
• Independence Movement
• Post-Colonial / Neocolonial Period
• 20th Century Conflicts and Revolutions
• Modern Era and U.S. Relations

Your overview should touch on major industries, key conflicts, important leaders, and the historical experiences of marginalized groups — including Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and women. You should draw on at least three secondary sources and include an annotated bibliography. We will use AI as a research aid in class, but your writing and sourcing must be your own.

Step 3 — NYC Community Visit — Takes Place April 22 (ungraded): As a group, visit the New York City neighborhood listed next to your nation above. Walk the neighborhood, take photos, and observe the ways your nation’s history, culture, and identity live on in the streets of New York City. This visit is the foundation for everything that follows. What tensions exist in the community? Gentrification? 

Step 4 — Historical & Cultural Reflection — May 13 (10%): After your group’s community visit, each student will individually write a one-page reflection that goes beyond describing what you saw and asks you to think historically. The central question to guide your writing is: In what ways does the history and culture of your nation bleed into this NYC community?

As you walk the neighborhood, look for evidence — in the food, the music, the languages, the businesses, the murals, the religious institutions — of the historical forces you’ve been studying all semester. Consider the following as you write:

• You will also look at the history of the ethinc enclave.
• What have relations historically been with other members of that community?
• Which groups did this ethnic enclave replace?

This reflection will be uploaded individually to your group’s Google Earth pin. You will be graded on the depth of your historical thinking, your ability to connect what you observed to course material, and the clarity of your writing.

Step 5 — Google Earth Pin — Due May 20 (5%): As individuals, you will create a Google Earth pin for your NYC community. Here is exactly how to do it:

• You will need to sign into any Google or Gmail account. If you don’t have one, you can create one for free at gmail.com. You do not have to use your real name or personal information.
• Go to the class Google Earth link provided by your instructor.
• Click the folder icon near the top-left of the screen. Name the folder with your nation and your group members’ names.
• Create your individual — not group — pin by clicking the “Placemark” icon near the top-left of the screen. Hover over the map, zoom in to your neighborhood, and click the exact location you want to mark.
• Title your pin with your nation’s name, the location you chose and the NYC neighborhood you visited (e.g., “Haiti — Flatbush, Brooklyn”).
• Every member of your group should use the same pin color, and all pins should be filed in the same folder.
• Paste your own one page historical and cultural description of the neighborhood. It should anwser — what does this neighborhood look, sound, and feel like? What evidence of your nation’s culture, history, and community life did you find there? This discriptions in your individual pin should go above the also pasted text of your group;s one-page historical overview of the nation under the pin description

Step 6 — Short Documentary Video — Due June 4 (20%): As a group, produce a short video about your nation’s NYC community. Your video should weave together footage and photos from your neighborhood visit with a brief narration connecting the community to the history you’ve studied in class. Upload the video to YouTube as unlisted, then paste the link into your Google Earth pin description.

Grading Summary: Historical Overview 10% / Historical & Cultural Reflection 10% / Google Earth Pin 5% / Video 20% = 40% total

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Final Exam (20%): The final exam will consist of short answers and a single essay.

Participation (15%): You are expected to attend, be present, and participate in class discussions.

Grade Breakdown:

• Tracing a Latin American Nation — 40%
• Weekly Quizzes — 25%
• Final Exam — 20%
• Participation — 15%
• Total — 100%

Course Schedule

DATE	WHAT’S HAPPENING
Wednesday March 4	Introduction to Course Map Quiz & Nation Selection
Monday March 9	Due: Assignment 1 — 1) Finesurrey, Conquistadors and Early Spanish Society in the Americas 2) Chasteen, Las Casas Reading 3) Crash Course: The Spanish Empire, Silver & Runaway Inflation (watch to 6:07) Lecture 1 — Colonial Life in Latin America & Casta Exercise Quiz 1 — Colonial Life & Casta Exercise
Wednesday March 11	Tracing a Nation: Finalize Nation Selection & Begin Research
Monday March 16	Due: Assignment 2 — 1) Crash Course: Atlantic Slave Trade  Lecture 2 — Slavery and Resistance in the Americas Quiz 2 — Slavery and Resistance
Wednesday March 18	Due Assignment 3 — 1) Chasteen, Colonial Rebellions Reading Lecture 3 — Bourbon Reforms, Native Rebellion, and the Tupác Amaru Revolt Quiz 3 — Bourbon Reforms, Native Rebellion, and the Tupác Amaru Revolt
Monday March 23	Due: Assignment 4 — 1) Crash Course: The Haitian Revolution 2) Harman, Haiti’s Black Jacobins 3) Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804)  Lecture 4 — The Haitian Revolution Quiz 4 — The Haitian Revolution
Wednesday March 25	Tracing a Nation: Plan Your NYC Community Visit
Monday March 30	Due: Assignment 5 — 1) Crash Course: Latin American Revolutions 2) Harman, Latin American Revolutions 3) Simón Bolívar, Letter from Jamaica (1815) 4) Mexico’s Plan de Iguala (1821) Lecture 5 — The Americanos and the Spanish American Wars of Independence — Last Class Before Spring Break Quiz 5 — The Americanos & Wars of Independence
Wednesday April 1 — Thursday April 9	Spring Break — No Class
Monday April 13	Due: Assignment 6 — 1) Chasteen, International Wars in Latin America 2) NPR: The Flight of Runaway Slaves to Mexico 3) Chasteen, Neocolonialism: Tracing an Export Economy  OPTIONAL: Crash Course: War and Nation Building in Latin America  Lecture 6 — Nation Building in LA Quiz 6 — Nation Building in LA
Wednesday April 15	Tracing a Nation: Writing Day — Historical Overview Due
Monday April 20	Due: Assignment 7 — 4) Zinn, The Spanish American War 5) Finesurrey, Contesting Circuits of Empire: Afro-Caribbean Migrant Labor in Cuba, 1899-1958 6) Cuba’s Platt Amendment (1903) Lecture 7 — Dollar Diplomacy & the White Man’s Burden Quiz 7 — Dollar Diplomacy & the White Man’s Burden
Tuesday April 21   Wednesday April 22	Tracing a Nation   NYC Community Visit — No Formal Class. Travel to Your Group’s Neighborhood.
Monday April 27	Due: Assignment 8 — Cardenas, The Promise of the Mexican Revolution Lecture 8 — The Mexican Revolution  Quiz 8 — The Mexican Revolution
Wednesday April 29	Tracing a Nation: Video Planning Day — come prepared with a draft outline of your video’s narration based on your individual site visits and your group’s historical overview.
Monday May 4	Due: Assignment 9 —  1) Case Studies in the History of U.S. Empire: Overthrowing Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz  Lecture 9 — Imperialism and Resistance in Central America Quiz 9 — Imperialism and Resistance in Central America
Wednesday May 6	Work on Tracing a Nation + One-on-Ones
Monday May 11	Due: Assignment 10 — 1) Harman, The Cuban Revolution 2) Vox: A Brief History of the U.S. and Cuba Lecture 10 — The Cuban Revolution Quiz 10 — The Cuban Revolution
Wednesday May 13	Tracing a Nation: Historical & Cultural Reflection Due
Monday May 18	Due: Assignment 11 — 1) The Nation: The True Verdict on Allende Lecture 11 — Allende and the Chilean Road to Socialism Quiz 11 — Allende & the Chilean Road
Wednesday May 20	One-on-Ones   Google Earth Pin Due
Monday May 26	No Class — Memorial Day
Wednesday May 28	No Class
Monday June 1	Due: Assignment 12 — 1) Felipe Mendoza, The Political Landscape of Latin America Lecture 12 — The Drug Wars, the New Left, and Modern Latin America
Wednesday June 3	Quiz 12 — The Drug Wars, the New Left & Modern Latin America Final Exam Review Video Due
Monday June 8	In Person Final Exam — 11:30-1:00, Room 405