Latin America: Regional Definitions, History, and Political Movements

According to Bosco (2020), what is the central argument about Latin America as a region?

It was imagined and constructed, not simply discovered on a map.

What are the three region types in Bosco (2020)?

Formal (shared trait), functional (organized around a node or flows), and vernacular/perceptual (people's mental images).

According to Bosco (2020), where does the term "Latin America" come from?

Popularized in the mid-19th century, tied to French interests under Napoleon III and adopted by Latin American intellectuals to distinguish themselves from the Anglo US.

What is the central argument of Jackiewicz and Bosco (2020)?

Latin America's geography is the product of 500 years of layered change driven by internal forces and outside powers.

What did the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) do, per Jackiewicz and Bosco (2020)?

Divided claims between Spain and Portugal, explaining why Brazil speaks Portuguese.

What happened after independence, per Jackiewicz and Bosco (2020)?

Creole elites kept unequal land and labor structures, and export economies tied to British then US capital created neocolonial dependence.

What is the subject of Jackson's The Insatiable Machine?

A global history of how capitalism spread and conquered the world (verify against the chapters).

Which chapters of Jackson's The Insatiable Machine are assigned?

Chapter 1 (pp. 27-64) and Chapter 3 (pp. 109-157).

How does Jackson's capitalism history connect to Latin America in this course?

Potosi silver and Atlantic plantations integrated the Americas into a world economy from the 1500s (verify Jackson's specifics).

How does Pizzigoni (Columbia ILAS podcast) describe the conquest?

As a long, negotiated process, not a single event in 1521.

How does Pizzigoni portray Indigenous peoples?

As active agents who formed alliances (e.g., Tlaxcalans with Cortes) and used Spanish legal institutions.

What sources does Pizzigoni use to tell the Indigenous side?

Indigenous-language sources such as Nahuatl documents.

What is Martinez's (2020) central argument?

Religious categories and ideas of blood purity shaped what later became racial hierarchy in the Iberian empires.

What is limpieza de sangre in Martinez (2020)?

"Purity of blood," which began in Spain targeting descendants of converted Jews and Muslims and was later applied to Indigenous, African, and mixed-ancestry people.

How does Martinez (2020) describe the casta system in practice?

Fluid, shaped by class, reputation, and local context.

Who was Eulalia Perez, and what job did she hold at Mission San Gabriel?

A frontier woman born in 1766 who was the housekeeper holding the keys (llavera).

Why is Eulalia Perez's memoir a valuable source?

It is a first-person account of mission life, gender roles, labor, and the shift from Spanish to Mexican to US rule.

What is a reliability concern about Eulalia Perez's memoir?

It was told decades later (1870s) to an outside collector.

What colonial split does Gates's PBS documentary highlight on Hispaniola?

Spanish east (Dominican Republic) and French west (Haiti).

How does Gates's PBS documentary describe Dominican identity?

Built partly in opposition to Haiti, preferring "Indio" over "Black," with antihaitianismo.

What was the 1937 Parsley Massacre in Gates's PBS documentary?

A massacre of Haitians under Dominican dictator Trujillo.

What is "vernacular Christianity" in Garrard (2020)?

Faith practiced by ordinary people outside official institutions (verify).

What religious trends does Garrard (2020) discuss?

Growth of Pentecostal and evangelical churches, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, decline of liberation theology, and folk saints.

What is Garrard's (2020) takeaway?

Latin America is shifting from nearly all-Catholic to more religiously plural, with religion tied to politics.

What do Gago and Gutierrez Aguilar (2018) describe?

Women-led movements defending land, water, and communities against extractive industries and violence (verify).

What does "the body as territory" mean in Gago and Gutierrez Aguilar (2018)?

The body is a site of defense, like land, linking feminism to anti-extractivism.

Which movements and critiques connect to Gago and Gutierrez Aguilar (2018)?

Ni Una Menos, Indigenous and peasant women's movements, and critiques of neoliberal capitalism.

What is Corrales's (2019) central argument?

LGBT rights expanded rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s, followed by organized backlash.

What examples of expansion does Corrales (2019) cite?

Same-sex marriage in Argentina (2010), Uruguay, Brazil (court ruling), Colombia, Mexico City, and gender identity laws.

Who drives the backlash in Corrales (2019)?

Evangelical and Catholic opposition, campaigns against "gender ideology," with high violence against trans women.

What is the focus of Fox (2022), Brazil on Fire, Ep. 3?

The connection between evangelical Christianity and Bolsonaro's politics.

What slogan does Fox (2022) highlight?

"Brazil above everything, God above everyone" (verify), capturing religion mixed with nationalism.

Which readings link with Fox (2022) Brazil on Fire?

Garrard (2020) on religious change and Corrales (2019) on backlash.

Why did Europe intervene in Mexico, per Wheatley (2024)?

Mexico suspended debt payments; France, Britain, and Spain intervened, and only Napoleon III's France stayed.

Who ruled Mexico and who resisted in Wheatley (2024)?

Maximilian of Habsburg was installed as emperor; Benito Juarez's republicans resisted, and Maximilian was executed in 1867.

Why does Wheatley (2024) matter for the course?

It links debt, foreign intervention, the Monroe Doctrine, and the origins of the term "Latin America."

What is Holden's (2004) general thesis in Armies Without Nations?

In Central America, armies and violence helped build states, often before real national unity existed (verify).

What topics does Holden (2004) likely cover in pp. 25-49?

Post-1821 instability, the Central American Federation's collapse, liberal-conservative rivalry, and caudillos (verify).

Which course theme does Holden (2004) support?

State formation through force and violence, with growing US influence.

What was the Porfiriato in Gonzales (2002)?

Diaz's rule (1876-1911): export growth, land concentration in few hands, and repression.

Who were the key leaders in Gonzales (2002)?

Madero (launched 1910), Zapata (Plan de Ayala, land), Villa, Huerta (coup), Carranza, and Obregon.

What do Articles 27 and 123 of the 1917 Constitution do in Gonzales (2002)?

Article 27: land and subsoil belong to the nation. Article 123: labor rights.

What did Cardenas do in Gonzales (2002)?

Land reform and the 1938 oil nationalization (after Calles, the Cristero War, and the 1929 ruling party).

What is the Monroe Doctrine in Fox (2024), Under the Shadow Ep. 1?

A 1823 US warning to Europe against intervention in the Americas, later used to justify US intervention, and tied to migration.

What happened in Guatemala in Fox (2024) Ep. 2?

United Fruit held huge land and influence; Arbenz's land reform (Decree 900) led to a CIA-backed coup in 1954.

What followed the 1954 coup in Fox (2024) Ep. 2?

Military rule and civil war (1960-96), mass violence against Maya communities, and out-migration.

What is ISI in Chasteen (2011)?

Import-substitution industrialization, protecting local industry; it created new urban classes but did not end inequality.

What does Chasteen (2011) say about the Cuban Revolution?

Castro took power in 1959, nationalized industries, redistributed land, allied with the USSR, and alarmed the US about revolution elsewhere.

What is Chasteen's (2011) major theme?

The tension between revolution and reform, democracy and authoritarianism, and national independence and foreign influence.