Latin American Culture and Identity

Description
This course aims to know some aspects of the Latin American Culture related to essential ideas. Among them, and based on bibliography according to the subject, we will try to solve the ?Latin American issue? as a historical process. We will analyze some aspects such as origin of the term, historiographic conceptions, historical processes of cultural exchange that the continent has experienced, foreign perceptions about the subject and its historical interpretations, among others.

Aims
To know some aspects about the historiographic debate related to the Latin American issue.
1. To be able to identify some of the most important historical problems in the formation of the Latin American culture (native civilizations, conquest, cultural mixture processes, contributions and problems, etc.).
2. To understand and manage the main concepts and characteristics of American culture, known as a heterogenic reality. It is pretended that students will be able to distinguish the essential from the supplementary about the discussed subject. For this, students will study what historiography, related to America, has developed in this field.
3. To establish the importance of cultural and artistic links among the different American areas and the outside world.
4. To understand which are the main interpretations of Latin American Culture in Europe and the United States of America. Discussion and debate will be essential for this aspect.

Methodology
Seminar type classes. The professor will expose subjects and will deepen bibliographic aspects and historical interpretation. Discussion about texts and debates will follow. Participation of students will be essential.

Evaluation
Evaluation will depend on reading tests, written essays and participation in debates as well as in discussions.
- 3 reading tests, each one representing 10%
- 2 essays, each one representing 25%
- Debates and participation, remaining 20%

Contents
1. Culture and civilization. European point of view and American reality.
2. Cultural mixture. Different realities.
3. Religious syncretism or the forming of a different Christian society.
4. Formation of local realities or the origin of local homelands.
5. Maintenance of native identities in some particular sceneries in America.
6. Slavery and Afro American contribution in culture and identity.
7. Independence of Latin American countries and strengthening of national identities.
8. Foreign immigration. New members of cultural mixture.
9. Culture and identity in Latin America. Between crisis and search.

Schedule of Topics.
1. Program presentation / general aspects.
2/3 Latin America: Concepts and ideas related to the historical problem / debate.
4. Geographical segmentations / America? Latin America? Indoamerica? Historical issues related to the problem.
5. Chapter 1, ?The idea of Latin America?, Mignolo, Walter / debate.
6. America in history / beginning of the historical construction / Discovery or Encounter between civilizations? Debate.
7. American civilizations before de arrival of the european civilization/ general aspects.
8. The construction of the New World / America as a european invention.
9.10 Documentary ?South of the Border?.
11. Conquest and Colony / general aproximations, geographical aspects
12/13 Conquest methods / european conception, native american civilizations reactions.
14. Political structures: cities, haciendas, plantations / historical projections.
15. First reading test / Cambridge History of Latin America.
16. Racial mixture process, first aproximations / debate, ideas.
17/18 Social, racial and cultural latin american segmentetions. Latin American society. Examples.
19/20 Movie ?The Mission? / Debate considering the importance of christian religion to the conformation of the new latin american society.
21. Second reading test / Cambridge History of Latin America, articles.
22. Economical development in Latin America. Historical background and most important elements.
23/24 Independence movements. Historical projections into the Latin American contemporary reality.
25/26 Geographical, political and cultural problems related to the Latin American contemporary situation.
27/28 Contemporary issues / debates, discussions.
29. Latin American press analysis.
30. Summary.
31/32 Final paper oral presentations /debates .

Evaluation
Evaluation will depend on reading tests, written essays and participation in debates as well as in discussions.
- 2 reading tests, each one representing, 20%, total 40%
- 1 oral presentation, 15%
- Debates and participation, 10%
- Final paper 25%

Bibliography
· Arciniegas, Germán, El continente de siete colores, Editorial Taurus, Méjico D.F., 2004 (1965).
· Fitzgibbon, Russel H -o- Fernández, Julio A., Latin America: political culture and development. (2a. ed.), Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1981.
· Birlan, Antonio, G, Cultura y civilización, Editorial Americalee, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1954.
· Gruzinski, Serge, La colonización de lo imaginario. Sociedades indígenas y occidentalización en el México español. Siglos XVI-XVIII, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México D.F., 2007 (1988).
· Gruzinski, Serge; Bernand, Carmen, Historia del Nuevo Mundo. Tomos I, II, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005 (1991).
· Horowitz, Irving Louis -o- Castro, Josué de -o- Gerassi, John, Latin American radicalism: a documentary report on left and nationalist movements, Vintage Books, New York, 1969.
· Lynch, Jhon, América Latina, entre colonia y nación, Editorial Crítica, Barcelona, España, 2001.
· Lynch, Jhon, Administración colonial española 1782-1810: el sistema de intendencias en el Virreinato del Río de la Plata, Editorial Eudeba, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1967.
· Lynch, Jhon, Caudillos Hispanoamérica, Editorial Mapfre, Madrid, España, 1993.
· Lipschutz, Alejandro, Problema racial en la conquista de América, y el mestizaje, Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile, 1967.
· Lucena Salmoral, Manuel, Breve historia de Latinoamérica. De la independencia de Haití 1804 a los caminos de la socialdemocracia, Editorial Cátedra, Madrid, 2007.
· Martí, José, Nuestra América, Editorial Ariel, Barcelona, España, 1970.
· Morner, Magnus, Race mixture in the history of Latin America, Little, Brown and Company. Boston, Massachussets, 1967.
· Mellafe Rojas, Rolando, Esclavitud en Hispanoamérica, Editorial Eudeba, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1962.
· Morner, Magnus, Mezcla de razas en la historia de América Latina. Serie Biblioteca América Latina, Editorial Paidós, 1962.
· Mignolo, Walter, The idea of Latin America, Blackwell Publishing, Massachussets, 2005.
· Rojas, Mix, Miguel, América imaginaria, Editorial Lumen, Barcelona, España, 1992.
· Rojas, Mix, Miguel, Cien nombres de América: eso que descubrió Colón, Editado por la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, 1991.
· Romero, José Luís, Latinoamérica: Las ciudades y las ideas, Siglo XXI Editores, 2001.
· O´Gorman, Edmundo, La invención de América, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México D.F., 2006 (1958).
· Vann Woodward, C, Comparative approach to american history, Voice of America. Washington, D.C., 1968.
· White, Leslie A, Ciencia de la cultura: un estudio sobre el hombre y la civilización, Editorial Paidós, Buenos Aires, 1964.
· Zorrilla Concha, Enrique, Gestación de Latinoamérica: la posesión del mundo americano por los ibéricos, Editorial Universitaria, 1982.