HIST 407/507

Spring 2008

Professor Carlos Aguirre

Office and Phone number: 369 McKenzie Hall, 346-5905
Office hours: Wed. 11-12 am; Thursday, 12-2 pm.
E-mail: caguirre@uoregon.edu
Web page: http://uoregon.edu/~caguirre/home.html

Latin America in the 1960s

Course Description

The 1960s in Latin America, as in most parts of the globe, was a period of intense political mobilization and conflict as well as dramatic cultural changes. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the spread of guerrilla movements, the emergence of new literary, artistic, and music trends, the forging of a youth counterculture, the development of student, women, indigenous and urban social movements, the rise of new intellectual and religious approaches to the burning social issues of the era, and –last but not least- the increasing visibility of the region in world politics, all of these framed and shaped a series of local, regional, and international developments that changed the contours of Latin American history. What characterized the 1960s most remarkably were the proliferation of utopian projects for social change and the spread of hopes and dreams for a new society. As historian Jay Winter has recently written “the one decade in the twentieth century marked most strikingly by utopian initiatives was the 1960s.” The outcomes were not always positive –military repression, US intervention, heightened social conflict, and violence also characterized these years- but the region changed dramatically during the 1960s and the changes that took place left important legacies and lessons that would resonate for decades.

This seminar will focus on the 1960s in Latin America and will explore some of the hopes and dreams of social and cultural liberation that crystallized in the region during that momentous era.

Readings

All reading materials will be available electronically through Blackboard (https://blackboard.uoregon.edu/).

Course Requirements

All students are expected to attend classes consistently. More than one unjustified absence will result in a grade penalty. Participation is a central component of this course, so students must read all the materials assigned and come to class prepared to discuss them. A 15-20 research paper on a topic related to this course is required. A preliminary bibliography and abstract will be due on week 3, and a draft of the paper will be due on Week 8.

Students will also be in charge of introducing the weekly readings and offering themes and questions for discussion. A weekly report about the readings will be due at the beginning of each session. This will consist of at least two pages of comments about the readings and a list of questions for discussion. No late reports will be accepted.

Grade breakdown

Attendance and participation: 10%

Weekly reports: 20%

Oral presentation: 10%

Paper abstract: 10%

Paper draft: 10%

Final research paper: 40%

Schedule of Topics and Readings

Week 1. Introduction: The 1960s in Latin American History

Week 2. The Cuban Revolution

Readings:

C. Wright Mills, Listen Yankee! (New York: Ballantine Books, 1961), pp. 7-12, 71-132.

Che Guevara, “Analysis of the Cuban Situation, its Present and its Future,” in Guerrilla Warfare (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), pp. 163-179.

Fidel Castro, “On the Triumph of the Revolution,” Fidel Castro Reader (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2007), pp. 107-136

Fidel Castro, “The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Proclamation of the Socialist Character of the Revolution,” Fidel Castro Reader (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2007), pp. 189-211.

Fidel Castro, “Words to Intellectuals,” Fidel Castro Reader (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2007), pp. 213-239.

Kate Quinn, “Cuban Historiography in the 1960s: Revisionists, Revolutionaries, and the Nationalist Past,” Bulletin of Latin American Research, 26, 3, 2007, pp. 378-398.

Week 3. Che Guevara and Guerrilla Movements

Presentation by Hiber Conteris, “The Revolutionary 60’s in Latin America: State Terrorism and Guerrilla Warfare” (30 Pacific Hall, 4 pm)

Readings:

Che Guevara, “Guerrilla Warfare: A Method,” in Guerrilla Warfare (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), pp. 182-198.

Matt Childs, “An Historical Critique of the Emergence and Evolution of Ernesto Che Guevara's Foco Theory,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 27, 3, 1995, pp. 593-624.

Brian Loveman and Thomas Davies, “Guerrilla Warfare. Revolutionary Theory and Revolutionary Movements in Latin America,” in Guerrilla Warfare (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), pp. 1-36.

Jorge Castañeda, “The Cuban Crucible,” in Utopia Unarmed. The Latin American Left after the Cold War (New York: Vintage, 1993), pp. 51-89.

María Esther Gillo, “Interview with a Tupamaro,” in The Tupamaro Guerrillas (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973), pp. 159-170.

Week 4: Latin American Internationalism

Readings:

Hal Brands, “Third World Politics in an Age of Global Turmoil: The Latin American Challenge to U.S. and Western Hegemony, 1965–1975,” Diplomatic History, 32, 1, 2008, pp. 105-138.

Che Guevara, “Message to the TriContinental,” in Guerrilla Warfare (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), pp. 199-213.

Piero Gleijeses, “The View from Havana: Lessons from Cuba’s African Journey, 1959-1976,” in Gilbert Joseph and Daniela Spenser, eds. In From the Cold. Latin America’s New Encounter with the Cold War (Duke University Press, 2008), pp. 112-133.

Cynthia Young, “Havana Up in Harlem: LeRoi Jones, Harold Cruse and the Making of a Cultural Revolution,” Science & Society, 65, 1, 2001, pp. 12-38.

Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations. A People’s History of the Third World (New York: The New Press, 2007), pp. 95-115.

Week 5. Liberation Theology

Readings:

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “The Task and Content of Liberation Theology,” in Christopher Rowland, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 21-40.

Phillip Berryman, Liberation Theology. The Essential Facts about the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America and Beyond (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), pp. 1-79.

Jon Sobrino, “The Church of the Poor: Resurrection of the True Church,” in The True Church of the Poor (Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications, 1985), pp. 84-124.

Medellín Conference Documents, “Justice, Peace, and Poverty”

Week 6: Women: Between Revolution and Feminism

Readings:

Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice (University Press of New England, 1991), pp. 145-186.

Nicola Murray, “Socialism and Feminism. Women and the Cuban Revolution,” Feminist Review, 1979, Nos. 2 and 3.

Linda Reif, “Women in Latin American Guerrilla Movements: A Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics, 18, 2, 1986, 147-169.

Margaret Power, Right-Wing Women in Chile. Feminine Power and the Struggle Against Allende (Penn State University Press, 2002), pp. 71-125.

Week 7. The Latin American literary boom

Readings:

José Donoso, The Boom in Spanish American Literature. A Personal History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), pp. 37-116.

Diana Sorensen, “The Anxious Brotherhood: Mastering Authorship and Masculinity,” A Turbulent Decade Remembered. Scenes from the Latin American Sixties (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), pp. 143-163.

Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, “Consuming Aesthetics: Seix Barral and José Donoso in the Field of Latin American Literary Production,” MLN, 115, 2000, pp. 323-339.

Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, “Publishing Matters. The Boom and its Players,” The Censorship Files. Latin American Writers and Franco’s Spain (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007), pp. 1-34.

John King, “The Boom of the Latin American Novel,” in Efrain Kristal, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 59-80.

Week 8. A Military Revolution in Peru?

Peter Klaren, Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 336-358.

George Philip, The Rise and Fall of the Peruvian Military Radicals 1968-1976 (Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, 1978), pp. 3-12, 77-167.

Linda J Seligmann, Between Reform and Revolution. Political Struggles in the Peruvian Andes, 1969-1991 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 56-103.

Abraham Lowenthal, “The Peruvian Experiment Reconsidered,” in Cynthia McClintock and Abraham F. Lowenthal, eds. The Peruvian Experiment Reconsidered (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 415-430.

Week 9. Music, Youth, and Counterculture

Eric Zolov, “La Onda: Mexico’s Counterculture and the Student Movement of 1968,” in Refried Elvis. The Rise of Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 93-131.

Robin Moore, “Transformations in Nueva Trova,” in Music and Revolution. Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba (University of California Press, 2006), pp. 135-169.

Christopher Dunn, “The Tropicalist Moment,” in Brutality Garden. Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), pp. 73-121.

Joan Jara, An Unfinished Song. The Life of Víctor Jara (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984), pp. 117-146.

Week 10. Wrap up session, discussion of paper drafts.

Final Papers Due: June 13, 2007, 5 p.m.