ed., The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940
Stepan, Nancy Leys, The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender & Nation
in Latin America
Martínez-Alier, Verena, Marriage, Class & Colour in
Yelvington, Kevin, Producing Power; Ethnicity, Gender & Class
in a Caribbean Workplace
Matto de Turner, Clorinda, Torn
from the Nest
Additional articles &
primary source documents as outline on the syllabus.
This course looks at how
different ideas about race and ethnicity have shaped Latin American
politics and societies from colonial times to the present. Themes
covered include: interactions of Iberian, American, African and Asian
peoples; official and unofficial management of multiethnic and multicultural
societies; scientific racism; and the relation between theories of
race and development of ideas about class, gender and nation.
Objectives: There are
two primary objectives for this course. The first is to focus students'
exploration of historical events, personalities and processes of Latin
American history through the frame work of race, class and gender:
how does a focus on social and economic analysis add depth to or challenge
the traditional narrative history. The second objective is to develop
students' abilities within the historical discipline by assignments
that focus on methods of historical research and analysis of primary
and secondary sources (reviews) as well as introduce the theoretical
and organizational principals of historical research (comparative
Structure and Requirements
Class will meet
twice a week, and will combine both lecture & discussion. The
literature on race, class and gender in Latin America and the Caribbean
is voluminous. This course does not pretend to provide complete coverage
of all issues and historiography. Instead, it presents principle ideas
and themes. Emphasis in the course is on critical reading of historical
texts and the ability to present brief, pertinent, thoughtful written
and spoken analyses of material covered. Students will have the opportunity
to pursue their own particular interests in the comparative essay.
All elements of the course
must be completed satisfactorily; failure to attend class or failure
to complete the written assignments satisfactorily may result in failure
of the course. Late work will not be accepted without advance approval
(and will be appropriately downgraded). College policies on integrity
are strictly enforced. Students submitting assignments by e-mail who
do not receive confirmation of receipt should assume that the work
has not been received.
All students will be expected to come to class, keep up with weekly
readings and participate in class and section discussions. Instructor
will look for faithful attendance, ability to comment on weekly readings,
thoughtful participation, and a desire to create a friendly, respectful
and articulate atmosphere in the classroom. Up to two absences will
not affect the participation grade. 5%: attendance, 15%: participation,
which may include in-class quizzes on an occasional basis.
2. Criticial Review
Once during the course of a semester students will hand in reaction
papers that critique a selection from weekly readings. The review
should be 2-3 typewritten, double-spaced pages (500-750 words). To
prepare for these papers, it is recommended that students consult
the Book Review section of historical journals (The American Historical
Review, Latin American Research Review, etc.) to see how scholars
critique each other's work. Sign-up for reviews will be the second
week of class.
3. Comparative Review
Each student will prepare a thoughtful 4-6 page (1000-1500 word) review
that compares a supplemental primary or secondary source with specific
readings on a theme of the course. The essay should analyze the historical
value or interest of the work in relation to works read in class.
Students should indicate which theme they will review by week 3 of
classes. Reviews are due the Tuesday following discussion of the subject.
4. Research Paper -
Each student will write one 10-12 page research essay, due May 5.
The essay will draw from class readings and additional sources (accepted
in consultation with the professor) and will be based on a minimum
of additional 4 articles or 2 books and one article. The essay assignment
is not expected to be a piece of research based on primary sources,
nor strictly a historiographic review. Instead, it allows students
to draw on the rich secondary literature available in order to explore
a specific historical case or problem of choice.
The essay may compare
one topic in different periods or places (i.e. miners in colonial
and contemporary Latin America; Indian women in colonial Mexico and
Peru; race in Brazil). Students may choose a primary or fictional
source and contrast it with scholarly treatment of a subject or may
focus on different approaches to a single topic. Students should choose
their topic by February 15 (in consultation with the professor.
Paper Grade will be based on:
MARCH 4: Annotated Bibliography & Thesis: 5%;
APRIL 8: Draft: 10%;
MAY 5: Final Draft: 20%; Oral Presentation of Paper: 5%.
1 & 2: Theories of Race, Class & Gender in the Latin American
January 21: Overview
January 23: What are Race and Ethnicity?
1) *Peter Wade, Race & Ethnicity in Latin America, Chapter 1
2) *Malcom Gladwell, "Black Like Them"
"Constructing" Class & Gender?
3) *Borah, Woodrow, "Race & Class in Mexico"
4) *Joan Scott "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis"
5) *Jean Franco, "Bodies in Contention"
6) *Karl Marx, "Wage Labour and Capital"
1: The Colonial Heritage
Weeks 2 &
3: Indian, African & Spaniard:
Male & Female, in Colonial Society
1) *Anonymous account, 17th-C. Lima
2) *Guaman Poma de Ayala. Corónica y Buen Gobierno (exc.)
3) Ann Zulawski, "Social
Differentiation, Gender, & Ethnicity: Urban Indian Women
in Colonial Bolivia, 1640-1725"
4) *Peter Bakewell,
"Life & Times of Antonio Quiroga, Beginning"
Professions, [19th c. ms. facsimile of the 1537-41 original].
Peter Force Collection,
Ms. Division, Library of Congress,
on-line Exhibit, 1492:
An Ongoing Voyages
and services provided as tribute, including a banner with Madonna
and Child. Huejotzingo Codex, on Amalt paper, 1531. Harkness
Collection. MS. Division, Library of Congress,
on-line Exhibit, 1492:
An Ongoing Voyages
February 4: Rural
1) *Excerpts, Frederika Bremer, The Homes of the New World
2) Ronda E. Rheddock, "Women
& Slavery-Caribbean: Feminist Perspective"
3) Kathleen Myers, A
Nun's Account: Family Life in Colonial Mexico
4) *José de Gálvez, Decree, 1766
February 6: Caste
The Multi-ethnic Plebe (Mestizaje)
1) Patricia Seed, Social
Dimensions of Race: Mexico City, 1753
2) *City Council of Caracas, Pardos in the Colony (1795)
*Burkholder & Johnson, Ch. 4, "Population &
*Marietta Morrissey, "A Theoretical Overview"
in Slave Women in the New World (1989).
Week 4: Race,
Class & Gender in Colonial Cuba
February 11: Martínez Alier, Marriage, Class &
Colour in Nineteenth-Century Cuba, 1-81
February 13: Martínez Alier, Marriage, Class
& Colour in Nineteenth-Century Cuba, 82-142
Miguel Cabrera [Mexican], From Spaniard
and Mulatto, Morisca, 1763
From Yasmín Ramírez,"New
World Orders" on Artnet
2: Post-Independence Transformations
Week 6: From
Slavery to Freedom to Citizenship:
February 25: Race, Class & Economic Citizenship: Brazil
1) *Carolyn Fick, "Emancipation in Haiti: From Plantation
Labour to Peasant Proprietorship"
2) George Reid Andrews, "Black
& White Workers in Sao Paõlo, Brazil, 1888-1928"
February 27 Gender & Political Citizenship: Southern
1) *Asunción Lavrin, "Labor & Feminism: Foundations
of Change," AND "Reform of the
Civil Codes: The Pursuit of Legal Equality"
August Riedel: Review of slaves and employees
at São João d'El-Rei Gold Mining Company, Morro
Velho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1860s
(Photo: Prof. N. Jacobsen,
Early Images of Latin America
3: The 20th Century: New Approaches
BIBLIOGRAPHY; RESEARCH TOPIC DUE MARCH 4)**
Marc Ferrez: Vendor "Types" of Rio de
Janeiro, ca. 1865-1880.
(Photos courtesy of Prof. N. Jacobsen, Early
Images of Latin America)
Week 7: Eugenics
& the 20th Century: Race, Class & Gender
Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics, pp.1-62
Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics, pp. 63-135
FILM: The Forgotten Village
Brazil: The Myth of Racial Democracy
1) *Emilia Viotti da Costa, "The Myth of Racial Democracy"
2) *Gilberto Freyre, The Masters & the Slaves (excerpts)
1) *John Burdick, Blessed Anastacia
2) *Peggy A. Lovell, "Women & Racial Inequality at
work in Brazil"
SPRING BREAK (March 18, 20)
Diego Rivera, Cortes
& La Malinche
Week 10: Race
Class & Gender: A Comparison
March 25: Tang Visit: Kara Walker
March 27: Review sources for and begin work on final papers.
Indigenous Issues: Mexico, Guatemala, South America
A Cosmic Race (Excerpt);
2) *R. Aida Hernández Castillo, "Zapatismo &
the Emergence of Indigenous Feminism"
3) Zapatistas: First
Declaration (1994); Fifth
couples: working class couple, Goias, Brazil ca. 1950; Guatemala,
(Photos courtesy of Prof. N. Jacobsen, Early
Images of Latin America)
1) I, Rigoberta Menchú (excerpts)
2) Smith, "Race-Class-Gender
Ideology in Guatemala: Modern and Anti-Modern Forms (723-725;
South America's Indigenous Populations on the Move
1) *Eve Kushner, "Japanese Peruvians: Reviled & Respected:
The Paradoxical Place of Peru's Nikkei",
2) *Soledad Ortega, "In Search of the Chilean Paradise:
Peruvians in Chile Forge a Community"
PAPER: DUE APRIL 8) **
Weeks 12/13: Masculinity & Mestizaje
Marisol de la Cadena, "Indigenous Mestizos, "Class, Masculinity
& Mestizaje: New Incas & Old Indians"
Miner's Funeral, Morococha, Peru, ca. 1928.
coolie laborer on sugar cane plantation, Chicamita, Peru, 1860s
Thomas Miller Klubock, "Working-Class Masculinity, Middle-Class
Morality, and Labor Politics in the Chilean Copper Mines"
13-15: Caribbean: Race, Class & Gender in a Neoliberal Age
April 17: Haiti
& the Dominican Republic: Negritude & Hispanidad
1) Silvio Torres-Saillant, "The
Tribulations of Blackness"
2) *Deborah Pacini Hernández, "The Merengue: Race,
Class, Tradition & Identity"
3) *Aimé Césaire, "Negritude"
*Eric Williams, *"Racism in the Caribbean"
*David Howard, "Dominican Republic Spurns Haitian Migrants
*Casandra Badillo, "Only My Hairdresser Knows for Sure:
Stories of Race, Hair & Gender"
April 22: Yelvington,
Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender & Class in a Caribbean
April 24: Yelvington, Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender &
Class in a Caribbean Workplace
Power: Ethnicity, Gender & Class in a Caribbean Workplace
May 5 (Evening): Presentation of Final Papers
arrest a woman protesting the celebration of 500 years of Brazil,
Coroa Vermelha (BA)
Indian observes battle of the shock-police in Coroa Vermelha.
These works are on reserve at
Scribner Library, and have been included for your information
only. If you are interested in pursuing how historians have
discussed race in the Americas, or general texts on Latin American
Texts-Race, Class & Ethnicity
Borah, Woodrow, “Race &
Class in Mexico,” Pacific Historical Review 23:4 (1954):331-342
Harris, Marvin, Patterns
of Race in the Americas (NY: Norton, 1974)
(Call No: F1419.A1
Mörner, Magnus, Race
& Class in Latin America (NY: Columbia U. Press, 1970)
(Call No: F1419.A1 C65 1965)
Benjamin Keen, A History
of Latin America, 5th Edition, 1996 (or 6th, 2000)
(Scribner has 1986, F1408.3 .K44 1986)
Peter Winn, Americas
(Call No. F1414 .W56 1999)
Stanley and Barbara Stein,
Colonial Heritage of Latin America (Call No. HC125
Leslie Bethell, ed., Colonial
Spanish America (Call No. F1410 .C1834)
Thomas Skidmore, Modern
Latin America (Call No. F1413 .S55 1984)
A Peruvian Culture in Time
von Humboldt, Problems & Progress in Mexico, ca 1800