The Companion to Latin American Studies

Jones: Latin American geographies1. Discuss the imaginative geographies of travel writing and consumption as they relate to Latin America. Give numerous examples.

Arias: Politics and Society

2. During the colonial period in Latin America, the foundations of future chaotic political upheavals were created. Discuss these. (Hints: Catholic Church, peninsular bureaucrats, criollos, mestizos, indigenous, Counter-Reformation)

3. After independence, early 1800's, what was the political and social situation in Latin America? Why weren't democracies created? What was the role of US and European companies?

4, Explain the role of the US in Cuba, Haiti, DR, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama in the 20th century.

5. List and discuss the guerilla movements in the second half of the 20th century and the role of the US. (Central America and Colombia)

Restrepo: Cultures of colonialism

6. The views of Bartolome' de las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda on the treatment of the Indians by the Spanish were very different. How?

7. What were the three post-conquest native intellectual "traditions" and what did they leave behind in terms of writings, stories, etc.?

Noble: Latin American Visual Cultures

8. Discuss the film Una familia de tantas and its context in Mexico's move to modernization (pp.163-164).

Sklodowska: Latin American Literature

9. Give the writings of the following authors and write a sentence describing their works. Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Jorge Isaacs, Estaban Echeverria, Nicolas Guillen, Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Carolina Maria de Jesus.

10. Explain the following genre in Latin American literature: Testimonio, Boom, Modernismo, costumbrismo.

Bermudez: Popular Culture11. Describe the historical context of the tango, merengue, bolero, and salsa dance forms. Give the history of and the political and social context in which these dance forms evolved in the countries of Latin America.

12. Discuss the phenomenon of the...